Freedom demands rest, and rest demands freedom. You can never have freedom when you stop thinking. The Sabbath was to be a thinking day when you didn’t work physically, but rather you rested, thought, and reflected.
There are two kinds of Sabbath: The temporal Sabbath which is the faith-rest technique of the believer in HEB 3:11, “as I swore in my wrath, ‘they shall not enter My rest.’” Then the moment-by-moment Sabbath of
HEB 4:1‑7, “therefore, let us fear lest, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you should seem to have come short of it. for indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard. for we who have believed enter that rest, just as He has said, ‘as I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter My rest,’ although His works were finished from the foundation of the world. for He has thus said somewhere concerning the seventh {day}, ‘and God rested on the seventh day from all His works;’ and again in this {passage}, ‘they shall not enter my rest.’ since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience, 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.’”
It was the basis of spirituality in the dispensations of the Old Testament, believing, claiming, and resting on verses, principles, and doctrines. The eternal Sabbath is eternal life. MAT 11:28 “Come unto me all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” The Sabbath was first mentioned back in Gen chapter 2. In 6 days God took the earth and He restored it. He converted it into a wonderful place to live. In 6 days He provided everything that man would need on the earth to survive and live in happiness! Food, perfect climate, a garden, He even provided a Bible class with the greatest Bible teacher of all time: The Lord Jesus Christ.
Notice in GEN 2:1, “thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts.” Please notice the word finished because it has a tremendous relationship with the Sabbath. GEN 2:2, “and by the seventh day God completed His work which He had done; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.” The Hebrew word for rested is the kal imperfect of shabath. It means to rest. This is what we call Sabbath or the rest of grace. Everything that man would ever need was provided by God, and so He rested. Perfect environment was provided, and nothing could be added to it! This is what we call grace. God does the work and man does the benefitting. Man does not earn or deserve or merit what God provides.
GEN 2:3 “then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.”
From GEN 2:2 to EXO 16:23, no reference is made to the Sabbath. You have anywhere from 3 to 4 thousand years without the mention of the Sabbath. The Sabbath finally became known to Israel as the day of rest. They would work for 6 days, Sunday through Friday. Then, on the 7th day, Saturday, man would rest! It was to be a reminder to Israel that God provides everything, and that you can’t work for Salvation. You can’t work for Divine provision, you can’t work for blessing. Grace and works are not compatible in any way. As Paul said in ROM 11:6 “but if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.” It has to be one or the other says Paul! Either grace or works! So again, the Sabbath was a day in Israel when man would rest to remember and commemorate the grace of God. There is nothing like stopping the routine and having a day when you can be reminded of grace. Rest is a memorial to the grace of God. You see for 6 days God worked, on the 7th He rested because there was nothing else for Him to provide! Just like God provided for Adam in perfect environment, God has provided for you in eternity past everything you will ever need.
Point 2. Salvation Rest.
Salvation is described in terms of rest; that is the rest of eternal life. Eternal life is not characterized by simply resting, but by tranquility and blessing. MAT 11:28 “Come unto me all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest [eternal life].”
Point 3. Supergrace Rest.
The land of Canaan is a type of the Supergrace life, and in the context of HEB 3:11, Supergrace is manifest by faith‑rest; For example, the maximum use of faith-rest with learned doctrine and the maximum application of that doctrine from the heart or the right lobe of the soul. There is a temporal Sabbath mentioned in HEB 3:11 and this is for all believers. Now it became obvious in the age of Israel that observing the Sabbath could be distorted too easily. For example the Jews began to set up rules and regulations that were ridiculous and had nothing to do with grace. For instance, if you saddled a horse on Friday, you could not remove the saddle if the horse was still saddled on the Sabbath. You couldn’t cook anything. If you have mud on your robe you were not allowed to clean it off. You couldn’t stop anyone from bleeding on the Sabbath, you had to wait for Sunday. So you can see they completely missed the entire spiritual meaning behind the Sabbath. They had all kinds of ridiculous rules and regulations which were ludicrous. And these rules and regulations were ridiculous and incompatible with the commandment. The commandment said to remember grace. The commandment was a ritual. It had to do with what you thought. They had certain rituals on the Sabbath. They had animal sacrifices which portrayed grace.
Let’s look at a passage where the importance of the Sabbath is really brought out, HEB 3:7-10, Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, “Today if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me, As in the day of trial in the wilderness, Where your fathers tried Me by testing Me, And saw My works for forty years. Therefore I was angry with this generation, And said, They always go astray in their heart, And they did not know My ways;” Notice the phrase they have not known My ways. You are the beneficiary of many wonderful blessings from God. Yet, many of you don’t even know a thing about those blessings. The Sabbath or rest that God has for you is completely neglected because of ignorance! The modern tendency of apostasy stresses the works and production of the believer.
Just as the Jews distorted the ritual Sabbath, most Christians distort the real one! The main problem is ignorance of Bible doctrine. People feel guilty and condemned and think they are not doing enough for God. Or, they think they have because of not witnessing daily, or haven’t prayed. You see, many have been brain washed by men behind the pulpit who have not studied, but simply emphasize that you should be 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 ignorance concerning His plan for life. The main problem in your life is no doctrine. Ignorance of Bible doctrine means a break down of the spiritual Sabbath in your life which is in reality the faith-rest.
HEB 3:11 “as I swore in My wrath, they shall not enter My rest.”
This rest is a state in which the believer has a relaxed mental attitude no matter what the situation may look like. It is a complete trust in the character and nature of God working for you. Why? Because He knew billions and billions of years ago every problem you would ever face and he made a provision.
HEB 3:12 “take care, brethren, lest there should be in any one of you an evil unbelieving heart, in falling away from the living God.”
What is an evil heart? It is what verse 12 calls a heart of unbelief in falling away from the living God. A heart of unbelief is a heart without rest. No faith-rest is to say God is a liar. One of the greatest problems the Christian faces is fear. Fear, worry, anxiety always takes away your rest, when that occurs, there will be no Sabbath for you, and there should be. HEB 4:9 says “there remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God.” That is, an identification with the eternal rest of God. Fear takes away your rest! In fact, the only time we are told to fear is if we don’t have rest.
HEB 3:13 “but encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called ‘today,’ lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”
Worry is also a sin (ROM 14:23), and the cure for worry is the promises of God.
HEB 3:18 “and to whom did He swear that they should not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient?”
Unbelief is a manifestation of negative volition toeards Bible doctrine and this equals no Sabbath or no faith-rest. Faith is a technique that demands spiritual food, it must be constantly fed.
HEB 3:19 “and so we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.”
It is not personal sins, lack of ability, or lack of talent that takes away our rest, it is unbelief! Lack of rest in a believer’s life usually causes them to blame others for their misery.
HEB 4:1 “therefore, let us fear lest, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you should seem to have come short of it.”
Refusing to enter into His rest will not stop God from being glorified, but it will sure rob us of what He desires to give us! The Lord is constantly pouring out His grace on His people while His people are constantly pouring out complaints.
HEB 4:2 “for indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit the, because it was not united by faith in those who heard.”
Please notice that the prerequisite for entering into rest is being filled with the spirit for the believer, and mixing faith with what you hear. 1JO 1:9 is only the beginning of entering into rest, but it’s not enough! We need the daily intake of Bible doctrine. If you have failed the sabbatical test of entering into His rest, the only way to victory is to sit and learn under EPH 5:18 and HEB 4:2. The only work for the believer to do is to labor to enter into his rest. Somewhere in eternity past, many thousands of years ago, God solved all your problems, and then He rested. Whether our problems come from God or from Satan, or from the law of volitional responsibility, they have all been given a solution.
HEB 4:5-6 and again in this passage, “They shall not enter My rest.” Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience. Notice in verse 6 that 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. Many think that the Lord is faithful to them because they’re faithful to Him. 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.” Again we see rest offered to David. The Lord’s invitation for rest has always been available to every believer, but, His rest consists of specific instructions and directions and must be accompanied with the perception, metabolization and application of Bible doctrine. Faith is not blind, it is the greatest vision in the world. Faith-rest requires understanding! This is especially true in understanding the finished work of Christ, the doctrine of the baptism of the spirit, and the doctrine of eternal security.
HEB 4:9-11, “there remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God.” [this rest is not only a provision for self, but also for those who are around you as well]. For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience.
The Greek word for diligent is spoudazo and it means to study, to make an effort, or to be diligent in study. It’s the same word found in 2 Ti 2:15 “be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth.” Refusal of entering into His rest results in double mindedness, instability and confusion. Entering into His rest is important, it is how to persevere in life,
HEB 4:12 “and indeed, all who desire to live Godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”
The temporal Sabbath or moment by moment Sabbath means that you depend on God day by day, and rest entirely upon what God has provided. The moment by moment Sabbath is bible doctrine in the soul.
Point 4. The Sabbath Rest.
GEN 2:2-3, and by the seventh day God completed His work which He had done; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all his work which God had created and made. On the seventh day of the earth’s restoration, everything was provided for man, and God rested in the sense that nothing else could possibly be provided for man in grace. God was not tired. Everything man needed at that point was provided, but God had to go to work again, as it were, when man sinned. So the Sabbath is a memorial to the grace of God. He has provided everything and there is nothing left to provide. And the principle is, since there was nothing God could add, obviously there is nothing that man can add!
Point 5. The Sabbath of Israel.
EXO 20:8-10, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God; {in it} you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”
This was instituted as the fourth commandment in the Decalogue. This occurred every Saturday as the last day of the week. The Jews were permitted to work for six days, but on the seventh day they had to stop all work.
This change of pace was not only beneficial to them physically and mentally, but it had ultimate benefit to them in the spiritual realm because it was a reminder of grace. The fact that you had to cool your heels at the end of every week was a reminder that you could do nothing for Salvation and nothing for blessing. It is all the provision of God. Even if they knew no doctrine, this day of rest caused them to think and hopefully to realize that they could do nothing for Salvation or blessing. This is why we have the word remember in EXO 20:8. In effect, like all rituals this was a training aid during this pre‑canon period. The Jews were specifically commanded to think, and not work. To remember means to draw upon the resources of your right lobe. It demands that the right lobe controls the soul (not emotions) as the basis of freedom. When you find yourself doing nothing, then you suddenly realize you can do nothing for Salvation and nothing for blessing under God’s plan. For under God’s plan, God does all the work and you are the beneficiary.
By maintaining good health with periodic rest, this contributed to the full, free function of the mind. With loss of health, your mind becomes a slave to certain pre-occupations, like pain. This command under the laws of Divine establishment was for the protection of believers and unbelievers alike. In EXO 16:11-30 the Sabbath was taught to the Jews in a special way. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ”I have heard the grumblings of the sons of Israel; speak to them, saying, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread; and you shall know that I am the Lord your God.’” So it came about at evening that the quails came up and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. When the layer of dew evaporated, behold, on the surface of the wilderness there was a fine flake-like thing, fine as the frost on the ground. When the sons of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “It is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat. This is what the Lord has commanded, ‘Gather of it every man as much as he should eat; you shall take an omer apiece according to the number of persons each of you has in his tent.’” The sons of Israel did so, and some gathered much and some little. When they measured it with an omer, he who had gathered much had no excess, and he who had gathered little had no lack; every man gathered as much as he should eat. Moses said to them, “Let no man leave any of it until morning.” But they did not listen to Moses, and some left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and became foul; and Moses was angry with them. They gathered it morning by morning, every man as much as he should eat; but when the sun grew hot, it would melt. Now on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one. When all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses, then he said to them, “This is what the Lord meant: Tomorrow is a Sabbath observance, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. Bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over put aside to be kept until morning.” So they put it aside until morning, as Moses had ordered, and it did not become foul nor was there any worm in it. Moses said, “Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath to the Lord; today you will not find it in the field. Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will be none.” It came about on the seventh day that some of the people went out to gather, but they found none. Then the Lord said to Moses, “How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My instructions? See, the Lord has given you the Sabbath; therefore He gives you bread for two days on the sixth day. Remain every man in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.” So the people rested on the seventh day.
Notice in this passage that they had received manna from heaven. Manna represented Divine provision for the believer in time. Moses told the Jews to gather the manna every day for their daily bread, but on the 6th day (Friday) they were told to gather a double portion. The reason was on day 7 God wouldn’t provide manna and they were not to try and gather it. In other words what God does not provide do not try and gather. So this was the first specific reference to the Sabbath since GEN 2:2, when God rested. You go at least from GEN 2:2 to Exo 16, 3 to 4 thousand years in between. All of that time man understood the principle of the Sabbath without being forced.
The principle in view here is that freedom demands rest and meditation! And you cannot have freedom when you stop thinking! Therefore the Sabbath was a day for physical resting and mental thinking! Again, EXO 20:9-10, “six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God; {in it} you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you.”
Whatever their talents, abilities, skills or professions, they were not to use these on that day of the week. All work was to stop on the Sabbath for the purpose of orienting to the grace of God. This applied not only to the adults, but also the children, the servants, the cattle, no one worked on the Sabbath!
This one day of rest each week is not only a principle of blessing, it is also a principle of freedom! Freedom and blessing go together! You cannot have one without the other. The Sabbath was set apart and this setting apart would last for a long time, in fact, for the remainder of human history. However, this does not mean keeping Saturday as tha Sabbath, but as we will see in HEB 4:9, something totally different!
Now the Sabbath was designed to commemorate grace by doing no work on the 7th day. The Sabbath was never designed to be any kind of trouble or any kind of difficulty. It was designed to be a time of rest, relaxation, and tranquility.
Point 6. The sabbatical year of Israel.
EXO 23:10-11, “And you shall sow your land for six years and gather in its yield, but {on} the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, so that the needy of your people may eat; and whatever they leave the beast of the field may eat. You are to do the same with your vineyard {and} your olive grove.”
LEV 25:3-4, “six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its crop, but during the seventh year the land shall have a Sabbath rest, a Sabbath to the Lord; you shall not sow your field nor prune your vineyard.”
This was the big test of Supergrace or what we would call the test of faith rest. If they had been functioning properly under Supergrace, then this was really a year’s vacation in which they didn’t have to work the fields. Having followed so well the laws of Divine establishment, and having functioned under the perception, metabolization and the application of Bible doctrine, they were to take 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. This was a great test to see if they could trust God to provide everything for them? If so, it was no problem. If not, they were like squirrels who hadn’t gathered nuts for the winter. The Jews were to depend on God’s provision for one year.
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.
LEV 26:33-37, “you, however, I will scatter among the nations and will draw out a sword after you, as your land becomes desolate and your cities become waste. Then the land will enjoy its Sabbaths all the days of the desolation, while you are in your enemies’ land; then the land will rest and enjoy its Sabbaths. All the days of {its} desolation it will observe the rest which it did not observe on your Sabbaths, while you were living on it. As for those of you who may be left, I will also bring weakness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. And the sound of a driven leaf will chase them and even when no one is pursuing, they will flee as though from the sword, and they will fall. They will therefore stumble over each other as if {running} from the sword, although no one is pursuing; and you will have {no strength} to stand up before your enemies.”
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. Over a period of 490 years they had accumulated seventy lost sabbatical years. Now God told the southern kingdom in 586 B.C., that since they had missed seventy sabbatical years He would give them those seventy years in slavery. Therefore, the first administration of the fifth cycle of discipline lasted for seventy years.
2CH 36:20-21, 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, 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.
JER 25:11-12, “and this whole land shall be a desolation and a horror, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. Then it will be when seventy years are completed I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, declares the Lord, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans; and I will make it an everlasting desolation.”
JER 29:10 “for thus says the Lord, ‘when seventy years have been completed for babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place.’”
The Jews were to be reminded about the Sabbath. Here we discover that they had a 7th year or a Sabbath year. For 6 years they planted as much as they wanted to, and operated under the principle of free enterprise. But on the 7th year they were to stop all sowing and all planting! God said that if they would stop on the 7th year and make a memorial to grace, that grace would provide what they need! The Jews would not! They completely rationalized the 7th year Sabbath away! In reality the Sabbath probably never meant a thing to most of the Jews. When the first 7 year Sabbath came they didn’t observe it, 14 years later they again did not observe it. 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 in effect, you don’t want to rest when I tell you to, 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. They went out for 70 years of captivity in Chaldea and Persia. The sabbatical year of Israel was also ignored. It was to be followed, but the Jews rejected that which commemorated grace. Under the agriculture economy of Israel every 7th year they were to stop all work and live off the profits of the 6 years production. This gave the land a rest. This allowed the people to rest (some leisure time). It was a test of their faith-rest, could they trust God to provide in the 7th year? The Jewish rejection of the sabbatical year was the basis for determining the length of their discipline as a nation. The principle – Gods people will learn obedience one way or another.
Point 7. The Year of Jubilee.
LEV 25:8 “You are also to count off seven Sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years, so that you have the time of the seven Sabbaths of years, {namely,} forty‑nine years.”
This could be called a super sabbatical year. 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. 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. So no matter what you ever owned, it was all, always on a lease basis, and you were never to keep any of it past the year of Jubilee. Of course, the Jews violated this as well.
Every fifty years you started over, and again the smart ones would acquire more than the others. 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. The principle here is that equality guarantees inequality. This was a cycle of cleansing for the nation. It was a complete shuffle; no one really got hurt by it. The purpose was again to remind everyone of grace. After you’ve been a successful businessman for 49 years, it’s very difficult to orient to grace.
On the fiftieth year it was all taken away, and you started all over again. This taught that, under grace, you can’t earn, deserve, or work for it. Now, the Lord knew that they were not going to observe the Sabbath year, and so He gave them another one, another chance. He gave them what was called the year of Jubilee (yobel). Jubilee, means 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. On the 50th year everything was to return to its original owners.
LEV 25:8-16, “You are also to count off seven Sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years, so that you have the time of the seven Sabbaths of years, {namely,} forty‑nine years. you shall then sound a ram’s horn abroad on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the day of atonement you shall sound a horn all through your land. you shall thus consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim a release through the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, and each of you shall return to his own property, and each of you shall return to his family. You shall have the fiftieth year as a jubilee; you shall not sow, nor reap its aftergrowth, nor gather in {from} its untrimmed vines. For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you. You shall eat its crops out of the field. On this year of jubilee each of you shall return to his own property. If you make a sale, moreover, to your friend, or buy from your friend’s hand, you shall not wrong one another. Corresponding to the number of years after the jubilee, you shall buy from your friend; he is to sell to you according to the number of years of crops. In proportion to the extent of the years you shall increase its price, and in proportion to the fewness of the years, you shall diminish its price; for {it is} a number of crops he is selling to you.”
The rejection of the Sabbath concept was total in Israel. It was totally rejected because they had no doctrine. The Sabbath is a ritual it was not just a day or a year! It was a rest ritual, but it was not meaningful unless you had doctrine in the soul to appreciate it. So the Jews blew their Sabbath days, they blew their Sabbath years, they blew their year of jubilee when it came. As a result their total rejection of the Sabbath led to grace disorientation. They rejected the Sabbath because they rejected doctrine, and they rejected grace. As a result their total rejection of the Sabbath, there was a total rejection of grace which caused the Jewish nation to be removed as a nation twice.
Point 8. Profaning the Sabbath was associated with idolatry and the apostasy of the Jews.
EZE 23:38 “again, they have done this to Me: they have defiled My sanctuary on the same day and have profaned My Sabbaths.”
Point 9. Sabbath violation occurred after the restoration.
NEH 13:15-21, In those days I saw in Judah some who were treading wine presses on the Sabbath, and bringing in sacks of grain and loading {them} on donkeys, as well as wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of loads, and they brought {them} into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. So I admonished {them} on the day they sold food. Also men of Yyre were living there {who} imported fish and all kinds of merchandise, and sold {them} to the sons of Judah on the Sabbath, even in Jerusalem. Then I reprimanded the nobles of Judah and said to them, “what is this evil thing you are doing, by profaning the Sabbath day? Did not your fathers do the same so that our God brought on us, and on this city, all this trouble? Yet you are adding to the wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath.” And it came about that just as it grew dark at the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I commanded that the doors should be shut and that they should not open them until after the Sabbath. Then I stationed some of my servants at the gates {that} no load should enter on the Sabbath day. Once or twice the traders and merchants of every kind of merchandise spent the night outside Jerusalem. Then I warned them and said to them, “why do you spend the night in front of the wall? If you do so again, I will use force against you.” From that time on they did not come on the Sabbath.
This was an illustration that no matter how good God treated his people they still rebelled against Him. The very fact that they would not enter into the rest which the Sabbath spoke of caused them to compromise with un-Godly men or worldly men.
Point 10. The Sabbath is set aside in the Church-age.
The memorial to grace in the Church-age is not Saturday, but Sunday, the first day of the week.
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.
ACT 20:7 And on the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul {began} talking to them, intending to depart the next day, and he prolonged his message until midnight.
When the Church-age superseded the age of Israel Saturday, or the Sabbath, was set aside. There is a new day for the Church-age believer to set aside! For the Jew Saturday was a time for animal sacrifices. Saturday was a time for a specialized priesthood; it was a time for special activities and assembly worship. However, the Jewish age reached it’s end. It reached its end after the Cross, the resurrection, the ascension, and the session of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Jewish age terminated shortly after the Church-age began. Fifty days after the resurrection to be exact. In the Church-age every believer is a priest, and there is no longer a special day.
Because now every believer is a priest, and the objective of every believer is to become spiritually self-sustained. You can’t do that by giving God one day a week! There were a couple of feasts that the Jews had that really bothered them. On the first Sunday they had the feast of the first fruits, and that really bothered them. The feast of the first fruits speaks of the resurrection. The first fruits were sacred to God, and man was to offer God his very best, not his leftovers. PRO 3:9-10, Honor the Lord from your wealth, and from the first of all your produce; so your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine.
Now the feast of the first fruits was always on Sunday, and there the Jews couldn’t stand to have a Sunday Sabbath. Fifty days from that Sunday there was another day which also bothered them. Fifty days from that Sunday (always a Sunday), was a day called Pentecost. The Lord Jesus Christ was resurrected on a Sunday, and Sunday, 50 days after His resurrection, the Church-age began.
So, there had to be a day when assembly worship was authorized, and, all are to come together; 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. Something brand new, something which begins over and over again! So the first day of the week is to be a day when Gods people gather together. Therefore, the Sabbath is not for Christians. The Church-age of Israel is interrupted, and a new dispensation is in! The Sabbath is interrupted just as the age of Israel is interrupted. This is taught in COL 2:16-17, Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day- things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. They were only rituals to reveal the reality. In other words the reality that all these things pointed to had come.
The Sabbath is set aside in the Church-age. COL 2:16-17, and the entire book of Galatians teaches this principle. In the Church-age we start all over! The Church-age started with something brand new. On the day of Pentecost, the first day of the week, on a Sunday, God the Holy Spirit 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. It also means that Christianity is not a religion, in fact true Christianity is anti-religion. Christianity recognizes the evil of religion, and that it (religion) is from Satan. Religion is man doing something to try and please God. Man tries to do things to impress man then tries to do things to impress God. However God is not impressed with with what we can do! Man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks upon the heart. God is not impressed with people, God is impressed with Bible doctrine, His word, we are to perceive, metabolize and apply it.
PSA 138:2 For thou hast magnified thy word according to all Thy name.
On the first day of the week, on Sunday, a new dispensation began. Every believer alive in Jerusalem was placed in union with Christ, and now has a relationship with Him. Christianity is a relationship and all of this happened on Sunday. Therefore God halted the age of Israel until the rapture of the church and then there are 7 more years in the age of Israel called the tribulation. Now the O.T. Sabbath is out! The Sabbath was related to a specialized priesthood. Saturday is out and now Sunday is in. And not only is the Saturday Sabbath out but so is the sabbatical year and the year of Jubilee. And so the church-age began on a Sunday, the resurrection occurred on a Sunday, and in reality Sunday is the assembly day for the church age. However, once you start coming consistently on Sunday, and you start to become positive toward doctrine then you find out, that everyday must be alike. And that you must regard every day as a gift from God. Whether it’s Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc. Every day is alike for the mature believer.
ROM 14:4-6, who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and stand he will, for the Lord is able to make him stand. One man regards one day above another, another regards every day {alike.} let each man be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it for the Lord, and he who eats, does so for the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who eats not, for the Lord he does not eat, and gives thanks to God.
Every day is Christmas to the mature believer. Every day is a new day for the mature believer.
Point 11. Moment-by-moment Sabbath for the church-age.
We in the church age do not have a Saturday Sabbath. It didn’t work too well for the Jews, so for the Church-age, God beefed it up and gave us a moment‑by‑moment Sabbath. This is the faith-rest technique, HEB 4:1‑3. 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. Illustrations of this moment-by-moment Sabbath, or the dynamics of faith-rest.
Abraham, ROM 4:17‑21.
ROM 4:19-20, and without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb; yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief, but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God,
Moses at the Red Sea, EXO 14:10‑14.
EXO 14:10-14, 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. 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? “Is this not the word that we spoke to you in Egypt, saying, ‘leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” but Moses said to the people, “do not fear! Stand by and see the Salvation of the Lord which he will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again forever. The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent.”
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.
Caleb and the Giants, Num 13-14 cf. JOS 14:6‑14; 15:14; JUD 1:20.
So it is inevitable that the daily perception of doctrine and the daily function of the faith-rest technique will eventuate in the supergrace life which is your spiritual Sabbatical year.