Grace Bible Church
Pastor-Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
Sunday, March 11, 2018
HOS 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being My priest. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.
You see, many have been brain washed by men behind the pulpit who have not studied who are lazy, stupid and ignorant and they emphasize you hustling around the church working, usually for them.
However, when God gets down to indicting you He doesn't mention your failure to do this or that but He indicts you for your stupidity and ignorance concerning His plan.
Ignorance of doctrine means a break-down of the spiritual Sabbath in your life or the spiritual rest which is in reality....no faith-rest.
Whether they come from God or from Satan, or from the law of volitional responsibility, Heb 4:5-6; please notice in verse 6..."God's rest was preached but they didn't believe it."
Now, rest is a promise and the PROMISE is only as good as the character of the One who promises.
"Rest" depends upon the faithfulness of God and not the faithfulness of man.
However that is totally false according to Heb 4:7; "He again fixes a certain day, "Today," saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before, "Today if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts."
2CH 14:7 For he said to Judah, "Let us build these cities and surround them with walls and towers, gates and bars. The land is still ours, because we have sought the Lord our God; we have sought Him, and He has given us rest on every side." So they built and prospered.
But, His rest consists of specific instructions and directions and must be accompanied with hearing B.D.
Faith is not blind, it is the greatest vision in the world. Faith-rest requires understanding. Especially understanding the finished work.
The doctrine of the Baptism of the Spirit. And the doctrine of eternal security. HEB 4:9 "There remains therefore a sabbath rest for the people of God."
Rest - sabbatismos, Thayer says it is a blessed rest from toils and troubles. Vines says sabbatismos is used to illustrate the perpetual continual sabbath rest to be enjoyed uninterruptedly by believers in fellowship with God.
This rest is not only a provision for self but also for those who are around you as well, HEB 4:9 There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God.
Point 7 (15 points) in the doctrine of the Sabbath which is what is known as the sabbatical year of Israel, Exo 23:10‑11; Lev 25:3‑4, Lev 26:33‑37.
The word fallow is used to cultivate land that is allowed to lie idle during the growing season so that it may grow and yield even more production after it grows.
This was the big test of supergrace or what we would call the test of faith-rest.
Every seven years, the Jews were supposed to stop work.
If they had been functioning properly under supergrace, then this was really a year's vacation in which they didn't have to work.
Having followed so well the laws of divine establishment, and having functioned under the P.M.A. of B.D., they now took a break on the seventh year to exercise their capacity for life.
So they did not work for a full year without any detriment to them.
Now it is very interesting that the failure of the Jews to observe the sabbatical year was the basis for determining how long they would stay out under the fifth cycle of discipline.
From the Exodus until the first administration of the fifth cycle of discipline to the southern kingdom, they had accumulated 490 years in which they had not observed even one sabbatical year as a nation.
Now God, in His great sense of humor, told the southern kingdom in 586 B.C. that since they had missed seventy sabbatical years, therefore he would give them those seventy years in slavery.
Therefore, the first administration of the fifth cycle of discipline lasted for seventy years, Lev 26:33‑36; 2Chr 36:20‑21 cf. Dan 9:2 and Jer 25:11‑12, 29:10.
2Ch 36:20 and those who had escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon; and they were servants to him and to his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia,
2Ch 36:21 to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its sabbaths. All the days of its desolation it kept sabbath until seventy years were complete.
So the Jews had to be reminded about the Sabbath.-------- JUST LIKE WE DO.
For 6 years they planted as much as they wanted to and operated under the principle of free enterprise.
And so when the first 7 year Sabbath came they didn't observe it, 14 years later they again did not observe it.
“21 years later they again did not observe it, they just “let someone else do.”
For the next 28 years later they once again did not observe for Sabbath. They went on and on and on until finally in a period of 490 years in Jewish history they had missed 70 sabbath years (70 x 7 = 490).
So God said “Alright, you don't want to rest when I tell you to...so I will give you rest. This is the principle of Isa 29:24; and those who err in mind will know the truth, and those who criticize will accept instruction.
And so they went out for 70 years of captivity in Chaldea and Persia.
It was to be followed but as usual the Jews rejected that which commemorated the grace of God.
Under the agriculture economy of Israel each 7th year they were to stop all work and live off the profits of the 6 years production.
Point 8 is a very interesting point: The year of Jubilee, Lev 25:8ff.
After forty-nine years (in which there were seven sabbatical years), the fiftieth year was called the year of jubilee; it was a sabbath year also.
Now during the year of Jubilee, all the real estate in the land went back to its original owners, all the businesses went back to their original owners; everything reverted back to how it was in year one.
All slaves were to be freed, and whatever was their portion of land allotted to them by tribe and by the system was given back to them.
This just proves the point of history, that no matter what you have in equal distribution, certain ones will gain most of the pie, and certain ones will again fall into slavery.
It's all just a matter of time. Or the principle; equality guarantees inequality.
It was a complete shuffle; no one really got hurt by it. The purpose was again to remind everyone of grace. For after you've been a successful businessman for 49 years, it's very difficult to orient to grace.
And so He gave them another one...another chance. He gave them what was called the year of jubilee (yobel). Jubilee, the blast.
So we could call this the year of the blast. On the 50th year all the real estate in the land went back or was to be returned to its original owners.
All slaves were to be freed. And, every 50 years they were to start over, Lev 25 talks about the year of Jubilee.
Rejection of the Sabbath concept was total in Israel. It was totally rejected because they had no doctrine.
It was a "rest ritual" but it was not meaningful unless you had doctrine in the soul to appreciate it.
They blew their Sabbath years, they blew their year of Jubilee when it came out.
And as a result their total rejection of the Sabbath led to grace disorientation.
As a result their total rejection of the Sabbath led to a total rejection of grace which caused the Jewish nation to be removed as a nation, not once but twice.
Point 9. Profaning the Sabbath was associated with idolatry and the apostasy of the Jews, Eze 23:36‑39.
Point 10. Sabbath violation occurred after the restoration, Neh 13:15‑21.
Point 11. The Sabbath is set aside in the church age, Col 2:16‑17; Now, the memorial to grace in the church age is not Saturday but Sunday, the first day of the week, 1Co 16:2; Act 20:7.
1Co 16:2 on the first day of every week let each one of you put aside and save, as he may prosper, that no collections be made when I come.
There is a new day for the Church-age believer to set aside. For the Jew Saturday was a time for animal sacrifices.
The Jewish age terminated very shortly after that the Church-age began.
Fifty days after the resurrection the Church-age actually began. Now in the Church-age every believer is a priest and there is no longer a special day.
Because every believer is a priest, and the objective or every believer is to become spiritually self sustained.
Now, there were a couple of feasts that the Jews had that really bothered them.
On the first Sunday and IT WAS ALWAYS always on A Sunday, they had what is known as the feast of the first-fruits and that use to really bother them.
Point 12. Now the feast of the first fruits was always on Sunday.
There is one thing that the Jews couldn't stand and that was to have a Sunday Sabbath also known as a double-Sabbath.
50 days from that Sunday there was another day which also bothered them because 50 days from that Sunday.
TLJC was resurrected on a Sunday, and Sunday, 50 days after His resurrection the Church-age began.
There had to be a day when assembly worship was authorized. And, all are to come together, and for the Church it is Sunday.
Sunday is the Resurrected Day! Sunday is what we call the Lord's Day! The Jews always had to have a 7th day! For Christians it's the first day.
Point 13. Therefore, the principle, the Sabbath is not for Christians.
The Sabbath is interrupted even as the age of Israel is interrupted. This is taught in Col 2:16-17.
Point 14. Principle, the Sabbath is set aside in the Church-age. In Col 2:16-17 and the entire book of Galatians teaches this principle. In the Church-age we start
all over.
On the day of Pentecost, the first day of the week, on a Sunday, God the H.S. took all the believers who were alive in Jerusalem and entered them into union with Christ.
This means that all believers in the Church-age are in Christ and in union with Christ.
Psa 138:2 For thou hast magnified thy word according to all Thy name.
The R.S.V. says....For you have exalted above everything thy name and Thy word.
Therefore, God halted the age of Israel until the Rapture of the Church-age and then there are 7 more years in the age of Israel called the Tribulation.
Point 15. Moment-by-moment Sabbath for the Church-age.
This is the principle by which the believer enters into the supergrace life. So your moment-by-moment sabbath means your spiritual advance, and your annual sabbatical is comparable to the supergrace life.
A. Abraham, Rom 4:17‑21.
B. Moses at the Red sea, Exo 14:10‑14. Exo 14:10 And as Pharaoh drew near, the sons of Israel looked, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and
they became very frightened; so the sons of Israel cried out to the Lord.
Exo 14:11 then they said to Moses, "is it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you dealt with us in this way, bringing us out of Egypt?
C. The bones of Joseph, Heb 11:22. Heb 11:22 by faith Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the Exodus of the sons of Israel, and gave orders concerning his bones.
D. Caleb and the giants, Num 13-14 cf. Josh 14:6‑14; 15:14; Judges 1:20.