Bricks Without Straw, Pt. 1

Doug Batchelor: If you've ever been to Arlington National Cemetery, you've probably seeing a sharp-looking sentinel guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Every detail of this Honor Guard Service is flawlessly executed, and it's filled with symbolism, too. Only a fraction of soldiers who try out for this position are accepted. Candidates must meet strict qualifications and pass both written and proficiency tests. Those who make the cut are held to a very high standard.

The guards, which are changed every 30 minutes in the summer, and every hour in the winter, have been patrolling the tomb 24 hours a day, 365 days a year continuously since April 6, 1948, in all kinds of weather, including hurricanes. For them, guarding the tomb is not just an assignment. It's the highest honor a serviceperson can receive.

Did you know the Bible teaches that God has a memorial to be remembered in His Word? It's found in the fourth commandment, and it memorializes God's creative and sanctifying power, honoring Him as our Creator and Redeemer. Let's take a few minutes now and explore from the Bible this memorial found in God's Word.

Doug: I want to welcome those who may be not only here, but those who are watching "The Panorama of Prophecy," and we're starting to get into some of the very crucial Bible prophecy subjects. Our study tonight is dealing with the subject of "Bricks Without Straw." The story of the Bible is a story of a people that God calls out of slavery into the Promised Land.

We remember where it tells us in the book of Exodus that Moses was a little baby. You know, he was adopted by the Pharaoh's princess, and it looks like he was in line to be a prime minister, but he recognized his people were the Hebrews, and they were being persecuted. When he tried to deliver the Hebrew people, when he was a young man about 40 years of age, he ended up murdering one of their taskmasters that was beating a Hebrew, and he had to leave the country.

Moses spent 40 years in the wilderness taking care of the sheep of Jethro, his--turned out being his father-in-law. Then God called him at the burning bush and said, "I want you to go back. And now you're ready. You've learned. I want you to lead the people out of Egypt." He said, "How am I going to do this?" God said, "I'll give you My power. Trust Me." So, Moses went, and he met up with his brother, Aaron. And before he went to the Pharaoh, he was instructed first to gather together the elders, the leaders of Israel, and tell them, "God is about to visit you and do many wonders and signs to deliver you." But since they'd been living in Egypt, they had drifted from God.

See, Abraham, the Bible tells us he obeyed God's commandments, and laws, and precepts, but His people in Egypt had begun to compromise with the Egyptians. Egypt was full of idols. You still see that today. And they started to get involved in idolatry, and some of their promiscuity and other problems. And among the things that happened is they had stopped remembering God's holy time because the Pharaoh had them working 7 days a week. "Then Moses and Aaron went, and they gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel. And afterward, Moses and Aaron went in and they told the Pharaoh, "Thus says the Lord God of Israel, 'Let My people go.'" Pharaoh said, "Who is the Lord that I should let Israel go?" And the Pharaoh said, "Look, the people of the land are many."

Pharaoh had his spies out there, and he knew the taskmasters were watching when Moses and Aaron met with the leaders. And he said, "The people are many, and you make them rest from their labor." Because they had started keeping the Sabbath again. And the word there--even the Pharaoh uses this word. "'You make them shabbat. You're making them rest from their labor. I'm not going to let them rest anymore. Thus said the Pharaoh, 'I will not give you straw. Go out and find straw where you can find it.' And he said, 'I'm going to basically increase your workload. Therefore go now and work, for no straw will be given you.' Says, 'You're idle, and you're listening to senseless words.'"

Pharaoh knew that they'd been listening to Moses and Aaron. He didn't want them to listen. And he figured, "If I can keep them working, working, working, they won't think about worshiping their God. They won't think about being free. Just get them too busy to think about freedom." Now, if I was going to tell you, tonight, friends, "I've got good news for you, at the conclusion of our presentation, tonight, you have the opportunity to have joy, to be blessed, to have peace, to have rest," would you say, "Hey, I'm all in for that"?

That's the result of what I want to share with you, tonight, it is a blessing. I want to talk to you about something where God wants you to be blessed, and a lot of people have been--the devil's got them working themselves to death like the Pharaoh, making bricks without straw, empty distractions with the cares and worries of the world. Jesus said, "When it comes to the second coming," He said, "Take heed, beware, lest your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and the cares of this life, so that day overtakes you as a thief."

The devil wants us to be so busy with the cares of this life. Have we ever had a culture that is busier than what's going on in the world, today? Never. You know, partly because of Thomas Edison. Used to be when the sun went down, people went to bed. It was expensive to keep oil lamps burning all night long. Had to kill a lot of whales back then to do that. According to the American Psychological Association, stress is linked to the six leading causes of death in the United States, heart disease, cancer, lung ailments, accidents, cirrhosis of the liver, and suicide. And the Bible's got a prescription for that kind of stress.

We're living in the age of stress due largely to laptop computers, smartphones, email. The concept of leaving work at home has almost become obsolete, amen. I know it. With Karen, I've got a place way up in the hills. But years ago, I figured out, hey, I can get satellite reception up here and have the Internet. And now even when I go out of town on vacation, I find myself checking my emails to find out what work has been left undone. And Karen will say, "Come on, Doug, we're out here. Let's go take a walk or work in the garden." I'll say, "I've just got a new email. I'll be right there."

How many of you have emailed your spouse or texted them, and they're still in the house with you? You don't want to raise your hand, but I could tell by the laughs that some of you are guilty. But we're living in an age where people are working to death, and churches used to know about that day every week that was called the day of rest, and people aren't resting anymore. So, we're going to study that subject because it is not only a blessing, it is a commandment of God. And what the devil is going to do in the last days is try to get people to disobey God's commandments.

One time there was a--you know the story about the talking donkey and Balaam? God protected His people. Balaam wanted to curse them. He tried to curse them, and blessings came out. Balaam went back to the king of Moab and said, "Look, if you want me to curse Israel," he says, "I can't just curse them. But if you can tempt them to disobey one of God's commandments, then God will withdraw His protection, and they'll suffer. You've got to get them to disobey." So, they sent a bunch of women in, enticing them to idolatry and adultery, and a curse fell on Israel.

The devil tries to get us to disobey because sin hurts us, and it hurts God. That's what happened in Daniel chapter 3. Nebuchadnezzar makes an image. Those who do not pray to the image will be thrown in the furnace. He tries to get God's people to compromise. Daniel chapter--and that's the second commandment. Daniel chapter 6, tries to get Daniel to pray to the king instead of to God. That's breaking the first commandment. And in the last days, he's also going to focus on the fourth commandment. But so many Christians have basically skipped over this commandment.

First question, "Did God make the Sabbath rest only for Israelites?" I often hear people say, "Well, yeah, that's a Jewish law." And when we interview people, they say, "Oh, yeah, well, that's for the Jews." Well, is that what the Bible says? Jesus said, Mark chapter 2, verse 27, "And He said, "The Sabbath was made for," what's it say? "For man, and not man for the Sabbath." That word there, "man" in the Greek is, like I said, Anthropos, it means humanity. Do only Jews need to rest, or does everybody need rest? Of course, this is something that we all need.

By the way, there in the garden of Eden, God made something else for man. The Bible said, "It's not good that man should be alone." So, God made woman. All right, so here's the question. Do we still need women? Then do we maybe still need a day of rest? We need what God made for us in the garden. And the Sabbath goes all the way back to the beginning. Also, and here's a passage you find in Isaiah 56:6 to make it clear Sabbath is not just for Jews. "Also the sons of the foreigner who join themselves to the Lord, to serve Him, and to love the name of the Lord. To be His servants--everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, and holds fast My covenant--Even them I will bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer."

Jew, Gentile, those who'd come and worship God on the Sabbath Day, what does He say He's going to do? "I'm going to make them miserable"? "Joyful in My house of prayer." Now, did God curse the seventh day or did He bless it? He blessed it. God wants you to have a blessing. And so many people are missing that blessing. They're working themselves to death. The Pharaoh's got them making bricks without straw, and they wonder why they have no peace. As I mentioned, we are a society that is literally dying from stress and too much work, heart disease, and cancer, and all these things are affected by stress. All these different drugs for antacid--the counselors in North America are counseling people and medicating people for anxiety.

So much of that--maybe not all--but so much of that could be improved if people would do what God said. Take one day, put everything aside, spend time with God, spend time fellowshipping with other believers, be rejuvenated. And this has largely been lost by Christian churches. He makes them joyful.

Second question, "When did God establish the Sabbath day?" Some think that it was established at Mount Sinai. It's just for the Jews. The Bible says thus--this is Genesis 2. "Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished, and God blessed the seventh day, and He sanctified it." That means He made it holy. "Because in it He, God, rested from all His work which God created and made." And since man was made in God's image, if God said, "Look, I've rested on this day, I want you to enjoy that rest," think about it for a minute.

How many days did God need to create the world? Six days. How many days in a week? Seven. Why is there an additional day if God didn't create anything? He made a day for us to rest. All love relationships require time. Time is the stuff that life is made of, and it's not just time, it's quality time. Sometimes Karen will say, "Doug, we haven't done anything together. We need to spend some time together." I said, "Well, I was at home all last week." "Yeah, you were in the office working." I said, "Well, I was there." She said, "Well, that's not quality time." Any of you have these conversations? Said, "We need time to bond." So, before the meeting tonight, I said, "Karen, let's go for a walk." It's a little different when you walk around the block just together, listening to each other, holding hands, it's different than me in the house and she in the house, and we're all doing our own thing.

God says, "Look, I want you to have quality time with me." Some people say, "Well, I worship God seven days a week. I don't need the Sabbath." Well, it's not just about worshiping God. It's a day of rest, and if you rest seven days a week, you're not holy, you're lazy, right? So, God is talking about, you know, physical rest, as well as we should worship Him seven days a week, amen? Live in an attitude of worship.

Revelation chapter 14, why is this important in a Bible prophecy seminar? And I want you to look at verses 6 and 7 in Revelation 14. It says, "I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, Having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth--to every nation, Tribe, and tongue of people--saying with a loud voice, 'Fear God and give glory to Him, For the hour of His judgment is come.'" Now listen to what the angel says, "And worship Him who made the heaven and the earth, and the sea, and the springs of water."

When you look at the fourth command, it says, "For in six days the Lord made the heaven, and the earth, and the sea," the Bible is talking about returning to the God who created us. Do you know what happens next in Revelation 14? "I looked and upon a cloud I saw one sat like the Son of Man, having a sickle in His hand." Jesus comes. You see, the Lord is going to restore truth to His church before He returns. These truths have been lost through the dark ages--everything from the problems with idolatry and adultery and the Sabbath truth--God wants to restore us to biblical Christianity before He comes back. Does that make sense?

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You know, it was never God's plan that the Christian church should be so fragmented into so many different parts. Jesus said, "All men will know you're My disciples by your love for one another." And the devil heard that, and he thought, "Well, if everybody knows they're believers because of their love, I'm going to get them to be divided. I'm going to fragment the Christian church like nothing you've ever seen before." And in the last days before Jesus comes, there's going to be a movement and a message, angels in heaven that are going to be proclaiming the truth that the apostles have.

The Bible said when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the apostles, they were in one place and of one accord. That doesn't mean one Honda. That means they were all together. And there's going to be a unity, and God's people are going to come back together based on truth in the last days, and He will baptize us again with the Holy Spirit to take this message to the world, but that means people need to stop following the crowd and start following the Lord and the Word, amen? There's been a lot of compromise that's happened over the ages away from Christianity, and it is a bad witness to the world.

So, of what two precious things does God say the Sabbath is a sign? You can read in Exodus chapter 31, verse 17, "The Sabbath is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever: for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth," because we are to respect Him as the Creator. Now, some of you are thinking, "Well, Pastor Doug, that's just a sign between the Lord and the children of Israel." Well, we already talked about this. The new covenant is made with the children of Israel. No new covenant is made with Gentiles. All Gentiles who are saved become children of Abraham by faith. Paul's very clear on that, that we are grafted in. And so, if we're going to partake of the promises, we also partake of the blessings, and the Sabbath is one of those blessings.

Did He just create the world for Jews, or did He make it for Adam and Eve? How many of you related to Adam and Eve? Test. Some of you, aliens I guess, no? What about, how many related to Noah? Just checking, yeah. Some of you, yeah, you're all related to both. And you know what? The Sabbath was given to man back at the beginning. It's for the human race. Also, it tells us in Ezekiel 20, verse 12, "Moreover I gave them My Sabbaths to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them."

So, the Sabbath is a sign of God as Creator. How many of you need God to recreate you? "Create in me, O Lord, a new heart." And how many of you believe that we need God as a sanctifier? That means He makes us holy and purifies us. Every Sabbath reminds us He made the day holy, and the day is a memorial of His creation. Every Sabbath, we remember that He is a Creator.

Are we having problems in our culture today with people doubting God's creation? You wonder if the problem would be so bad--you know, one of the main reasons that young people commit suicide, highest group that commits suicide is in the teenage years--they're being taught that there is no purpose to their life, that they have just evolved from some lower amoeba, and they're going to die and turn back into dirt. And they figure, "Why not get it over with?" I know, I was one of them. But when you teach them that "God has a plan for your life, that you are made in the image of God, and that you have an eternity to win or to lose," that changes their whole world view.

Every Sabbath, we remember those priorities. This is important, and I think the world has suffered terribly because we forgot. When does the Sabbath actually begin and end? Now, the Romans--you know, in our day, we set our clocks forward and backwards at midnight or 2 in the morning. Bible times, the days began and ended at sundown. I have some verses that illustrate that. "From evening unto evening, you will celebrate your Sabbaths." That's Leviticus 23:32. And in the New Testament, Mark 1:32, "And at evening, when the sun had set," people were waiting for the sundown. When the sun set, then they brought all their sick to Jesus because they were afraid of the Pharisees would not approve of Jesus healing on the Sabbath day.

You can see it all the way from cover to cover in the Bible. The days begin and end--how many of you already knew that, you know, the Jewish people, they, sundown, they began to celebrate the coming of the Sabbath? That's biblically accurate.

By the way, something just popped in my mind. Another little amazing fact about stress. Do you know whenever they have daylight savings time--especially the one where you lose an hour of sleep--that the accident rate and the death rate goes up, accidents on the job and in cars, because people are tired? They have more accidents. The Sabbath literally, resting appropriately literally can save your lives.

Will all the saved keep the Sabbath in heaven? Let's find out. I want to be in that kingdom, don't you? "'For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make will remain before Me,' says the Lord, 'So shall your descendants and your name remain.' And it will come to pass that from one new moon to another," that means from month to month, "and from one Sabbath to another," shall all Jews come and worship before Me, says the Lord. Is that what it said? I've got it on the screen. Some of you who are listening may not know. Some people are listening in on radio. They can't see the screen. I just misquoted on purpose. It doesn't say all Jews. It says all flesh.

So, in heaven we're going to keep it. Now, you just think about that, friends. That means, you know--we know Adam and Eve kept it in the garden of Eden. God blessed it back there in the beginning, chapter 2 of Genesis. We know that Moses and the children of Israel kept it there in the Old Testament. We just showed you where the apostles and Jesus kept it in the New Testament. And now we've just shown you where we're going to be keeping the Sabbath day in heaven.

Does it stand to reason that it's part of His perfect plan that should be always kept? Which day did Jesus keep holy? The Bible is very clear. You can read there in Luke chapter 4, verse 16, "So, He," Jesus, "came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was," what's a custom? Something you do once? It means your pattern. "As His custom was. He went into the synagogue," that was the word for church, "on the Sabbath day, and He stood up to read." Jesus went to church, and He sang and read the Bible every week from the time He was born. And you also read about this in Mark--all through His ministry.

Now, some of you are going to say, "Well, Pastor Doug, didn't Jesus have a lot of arguments with the scribes and the Pharisees about the Sabbath day?" Yeah, quite a few. But in every argument, they never argued about whether it should be kept. The arguments were only about how it should be kept. They always agreed it should be kept, the Sabbath should be kept. But they had put a bunch of manmade laws on the Sabbath, and Jesus said, "It's okay to do good on the Sabbath day. If your ox falls in the ditch, you can take it out on the Sabbath day. If someone was sick, you can heal them." Jesus said--He healed several people on the Sabbath day, and that made some of the religious leaders very angry. Jesus said, "You know, there's nothing out of harmony with this." But you never see Jesus in the carpenter shop on the Sabbath day, do you? So, we're supposed to cease from our work.

We gather together, we worship God. By the way, do you know the Sabbath is called a holy convocation? And that means a convening. God has a time for His people to come together. Don't we need to--especially after COVID and all the isolation. I think people are really feeling it that we've not been able to assemble. Something happens when you get together with people. And I know that God's got His spiritual church scattered everywhere, and you can Zoom a worship service. We're streaming this now on the Internet. But you need to get together with fellow believers. Hebrews chapter 10, "Let us not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is." If there's an epidemic, pause or do it safely. I'm not--you know, I understand that. But let's not forsake it.

Had a lot of pastors who are struggling now, because as they're dealing with the epidemic and things are improving, people aren't coming back. And sometimes we get, you know, we get bad habits of kind of sitting on the sofa, don't have to dress up. "I'm going to go to church in my underwear." And the Bible calls it a holy convocation, Leviticus 23. Jesus was there every week.

Number 7, what was Paul's custom regarding the Sabbath? So, it's not only Christ. Now let's look at the apostles. The Bible says in Acts chapter 17, verse 2, "Then Paul, as his custom was, he went to them, and for three Sabbath days he reasoned from them, to them from the scriptures." So, Paul, wherever he went, one of the first things he did is he would reason with--he'd go to the synagogues, and he'd reason with the Jews. And even when the Jews didn't listen, then he would go, and he'd reason with the Gentiles on the Sabbath day. Look at Acts chapter 18, verse 4. "And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath day, and he persuaded both Jews and Greeks." The word Greek there is Gentiles.

What blessing is promised by the Sabbath commandment? What are some of the blessings that God is offering you and me? Matthew 11, this is the great invitation. Jesus said, "Come to Me, all you who labor and you are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." God wants you to have that peace and that rest, friends. Do you want that? He says, "Come to Me."

You can also read in Exodus 33, verse 14, He says, "My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest." And then Hebrews chapter 4, verse 5, the promise is, "And they will enter into My rest." God wants you to have that blessed rest, and He wants you to have that experience every week with Him, that quality time with Him. A lot of people say, "Oh, yeah, Lord, I love you, I want to serve you. I'll even give my money, but don't ask for my time." And some of you are thinking, "Pastor Doug, this is mind blowing." I know you know it's biblical. And the question is what do you do now?

Friends, God brought you to hear these things, or you who are watching this, because He wants you to be blessed. Let me give you one more thought before I wrap this up. If I was to say, "Where in the world is the holy land?" what would you say? Israel, that's right, it is. And where in Israel is the holy city? Jerusalem. And in the holy city there's something called the holy mount, Mount Zion or Mount Moriah. And on the holy mount was a holy temple. And in the holy temple, they had the holy place. And inside the holy place they had the holy of holies or the inner sanctum. And there was only one thing that was in the holy place. And this is what made everything in the world holy. There's the law of God, the holy ark of the covenant. And in the law of God, you find the word "holy" one time. It's in the fourth commandment.

God has put something in there, and He wants us to--see, life is made of time, and every Sabbath God wants us to give Him our time. And He says, "You do that, I'm going to give you eternity. Can you give Me one day a week?" That sound like a fair trade? And we need it. Anything God asks for us is because He wants us to be blessed. Friends, I pray that you'll be praying about this. Jesus said, "If you love Me, keep My commandments."

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Announcer: In six days, God created the heavens and the earth. For thousands of years, man has worshiped God on the seventh day of the week. Now, each week millions of people worship on the first day. What happened? Why did God create a day of rest? Does it really matter what day we worship? Who was behind this great shift? Discover the truth behind God's law and how it was changed. Visit SabbathTruth.com.

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