THE CHRISTIAN'S SABBATH
The Sabbath, as we know it from the New Testament, is NOT the keeping of a certain day. We have no command whatsoever to keep Saturday for a Sabbath, nor do we have any commandment to keep the first day of the week, which is Sunday, as a Sabbath.
Many people keeps days. Others make Sunday an idol, a worship day. Others make Saturday as the worship day. Both the Sunday worshipper and the Sabbath keeper are absolutely wrong, according to the Word of God.
Sabbath to a Christian is no longer the keeping of holy days, new moons or seasons. It means "eternal rest" to one's soul by the New Birth. We have to go by the Word of God, not by what the Adventists say, nor by what the Protestant says, nor by what the Catholic says.
SABBATH MEANS "REST"
Here is the truth of the Sabbath, which means "REST."
Hebrews 4:8, "For if Jesus had given them REST
(or rest day), then would He not afterward have spoken of another day. There
remaineth therefore a rest (Sabbath keeping) to the people of God. For he
that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from
his own works, as God did from His."
Reading the key phrase in the last part of the verse,
it says that "God
ceased from His own works." God gave Israel the seventh day
for their Sabbath, in commemoration of His own work wherein He created the
world and all that was therein, and then stopped creating. He ceased from
His labors. He rested. Now it was fine to give a Sabbath
rest to a people who were all in one place at one time, so they could all
keep a certain day. Today half the world is in light while the other half
is in darkness, so it wouldn't work at all. But that is just an argument
from the natural.
Let's see what the Bible teaches us about this Sabbath REST. Hebrews 4:10 states, "For he that is entered into his rest he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his." This entering in is not only entering in, but remaining in, the rest. It is an`eternal rest' of which the seventh day is but a type, to the Christian. Jesus said that He will give eternal life to those that will believe in him (John 5:24).
How we receive this rest, or continuing Sabbath, is at the invitation of Jesus. He said in Matthew 11:28,29~
"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;... and ye shall find rest (or keeping of the
Sabbath, not a day, but eternal life, Sabbath) unto your souls."
Now,
exactly what is that rest that Jesus will give?
Isaiah 28:8-12 says~
"For all tables are full of vomit
and
filthiness, so that there is no place clean. Whom shall He teach knowledge?
and whom shall He make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from
the milk, and drawn from the breasts. For precept must be upon precept,
precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and
there a little: For with stammering lips and another tongue will He speak
to this people. To whom He said, This is the REST (Sabbath) wherewith ye
may cause the weary to REST (or keeping of His Sabbath);
and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear."
We've`entered into' and do `remain in' our rest, which Israel could not do, having only a shadow of the true substance which we enjoy. Why go back to a shadow when we have reality now?
No matter how long you have been laboring under your load of sin,
whether it is ten years, thirty years or fifty years, or longer, come with
your tired weary life and you will find His REST (the true Sabbath). Jesus
will give you rest.
Take note that`Seventh' means completion. But`Eighth' is the`first' day
of the week. Jesus' resurrection was in the first day of the week, giving us eternal
life and eternal Sabbath rest, no on the seventh. Thus we see why God could not give us any
one certain day of the week as a Sabbath (rest), but as a condition of rest to our souls.
SABBATH IS THE "BAPTISM OF THE
HOLY SPIRIT" IN YOUR SOUL
Here it is prophesied right here in Isaiah 28:11-12~
"This is the REST (Sabbath) wherewith ye may cause the weary to REST (or keeping of His Sabbath); and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear."
And this Scriptures came to pass about 700 years later on the day of Pentecost when they were all filled with the Holy Ghost exactly as it was said they would be. This is the true Sabbath that was promised.
Thus, when they were filled with the Holy Ghost they ceased from their worldly works, their worldly doings, their evil ways. The Holy Ghost took charge of their lives. They entered into rest.
There is your rest. That is your Sabbath. It is not a day, nor a
year, but the eternity of being filled and blessed in the Holy Spirit. It
is you ceasing, and God doing. It is God in you willing and doing of His
good pleasure. Amen!
Oh, that people might come unto Him and find that rest. There is a cry in all hearts for that rest but the majority don't know the answer. So they try to still the cry by a religious process of keeping certain days or accepting denominational creeds and dogmas. But failing in that, many try drinking, carousing, and every physical excess, thinking that by worldly pleasures there can be some satisfaction. But in such there is no rest. They smoke and take pills to quiet their nerves. But there is no rest in earthly potions. They need Jesus. They need the heavenly remedy, the rest of the Spirit.
Jesus said that
true worship was in Spirit and in truth, John 4:24.
When one turns to the Lord and is filled with the Holy Ghost,
he ceases from all such things. He has a rest in his soul. He really begins
to live, and love God and worship Him.
SABBATH WAS "MAGNIFIED"
The Law of the Old testament was only a shadow of
things that was to come in the New Testament.
The Old Testament says, "Thou shalt not commit adultery". The New Testaement saith "Whosoever looketh upon a woman with lust has already committed "adultery" with her in his heart". Magnified!
The Old Testament states, "Thou shalt not kill". The New Testament states, "He that hateth his brother without a cause is already guilty of killing or murdering his brother." Magnified!
Notice that the New Testament magnified the meaning God's Laws.
And so is the same concerning the Sabbath.
The Old Testament saith, "Keep holy the Sabbath Day". The New Testament saith, "Come unto Me all of you who labour and are heavily-laden, and I will give you Sabbath (rest). For I am the Lord of the Sabbath."
If Jesus Himself never hesitated to heal the sick on
the Sabbath Day and was condemned by the Pharisees for doing such, it just follows that Jesus was not anymore concerned about making holy that certain literal observance of a Sabbath day.
Jesus was pointing us to the "New Birth" as the real true Sabbath or "rest" to your soul. Didn't Jesus say to Nicodemus, "Except a man be born of water and of Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven." This "New Birth" or the state of "being born again" is now the real Sabbath to the Christian believers of today!
BEING BORN-AGAIN IS OUR "REST"
Here
in the succeeding verses,
we find God solemnly warning us to fear, lest we fail to enter into that Sabbath
(REST) of God just like the children of Israel who provoked God and perished in the wilderness.
HEBREWS
3:7-19, 4:1-11~
Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden
not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation
in the wilderness: when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works
forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They
do alway err in [their] heart; and they have not known my ways. So I sware
in my wrath, They shall not enter into My REST.
Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief,
in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it
is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness
of sin.
For we are made partakers of Christ,
if we hold the beginning of our confidence
stedfast unto the end; While it is said, To day if ye will hear
his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.
For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out
of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was he grieved forty years? [was it] not
with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? And to
whom sware he that they should not enter into his REST,
but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because
of unbelief.
Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left [us]
of entering
into his REST, any of you should seem to come short of it. For
unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached
did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard [it].
For we which have believed do enter into REST, as he said,
As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my REST:
although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
For he spake in a certain place of the seventh [day] on this wise, And God
did REST the seventh day from all his works. And in this [place]
again, If they shall enter into My REST.
Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to
whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief:
Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David,
To day, after so long
a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your
hearts. For if Jesus had given them REST, then would he
not afterward have spoken of another day.
There remaineth therefore
a REST to the people of God. For he that is entered into his REST, he also
hath ceased from his own works, as God [did] from his. Let us
labour therefore to enter into that REST, lest any man
fall after the same example of unbelief."
THE "SEAL" OF A CHRISTIAN IS THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT; NOT OBSERVING THE SABBATH
"Now I’ll prove to you that God’s Seal is the baptism of the Holy Ghost. See? That’s the baptism of the Spirit, is the Seal of God.
Now, I know that the, our dear Seventh-day Adventist
brethren think that that’s the Seal of God. They said, “You’re sealed by keeping the sabbath.” There’s NOT a Scripture in the Bible that says that.
And here’s a Scripture in the Bible that says that you’re sealed, Ephesians 4:30, said,
“Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby you are SEALED unto the day of your redemption,” the baptism of the Holy Ghost."
53-0729 - Questions And Answers On Genesis
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JESUS HEALED A MAN ON THE
SABBATH
DAY
LUKE 14:1-6~
1 ¶ And it came to pass, as he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the sabbath day, that they watched him.
2 And, behold, there was a certain man before him which had the dropsy.
3 And Jesus answering spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day?
4 And they held their peace. And he took him, and healed him, and let him go;
5 And answered them, saying, Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the sabbath day?
6 And they could not answer him again to these thinngs..
JESUS & HIS DISCIPLES HARVESTED CORN ON THE SABBATH DAY
MATTHEW 12:1-7~
1 ¶ At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungred, and began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat.
2 But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day.
3 But he said unto them, Have ye not read what David did, when he was an hungred, and they that were with him;
4 How he entered into the house of God, and did eat the shewbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priests?
5 Or have ye not read in the law, how that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless?
6 But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple.
7 But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless.
8 For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day.
JESUS HEALED THE BLIND MAN ON THE SABBATH DAY
JOHN 9:11-14~
11 He answered and said, A man that is called Jesus made clay, and anointed mine eyes, and said unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash: and I went and washed, and I received sight.
12 Then said they unto him, Where is he? He said, I know not.
13 ¶ They brought to the Pharisees him that aforetime was blind.
14 And it was the sabbath day when Jesus made the clay, and opened his eyes.
JOHN 5:16~
"And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the sabbath day".
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CHRISTIANS WORSHIP ON SUNDAY BECAUSE IT IS THE DAY OF CHRIST'S RESURRECTION
"No, sir, there's not, not a Scripture in the Bible, nor in the New
Testament, for us to keep either Saturday or Sunday. But the reason we keep
Sunday, is a memorial of the resurrection. "
(~William Marrion Branham, 53-0729 - Questions And Answers On Genesis)
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