Worshiping the Creator

Doug Batchelor: Did you know most baby mammals, birds, and even some fish instinctively identify and bond with their parents in the very early stages of their lives? But if the parents aren't available, well, some strange things can happen. In the 1930s, Austrian zoologist, Konrad Lorenz conducted some of the first experiments on the imprinting of precocial birds, those that leave the nest soon after hatching. When he presented himself to a newly hatched group of mallard ducklings and he quacked softly to them, they recognized him as their mother and consequently followed him everywhere. Cross species imprinting has been observed many times even among some species that are naturally enemies, like cats and squirrels or lions and antelope.

Did you know that in a spiritual sense, we humans can also be imprinted? We tend to become like what we look at. That's why it's so important that we fix our eyes on Jesus. So join me today as we explore the Bible facts about how we can be imprinted by our heavenly Father and have a life-changing experience with Jesus.

Doug: We've got a verse--everything we're doing in this series, we're basing it on Revelation 14, and I want to tell you why this fits into our study tonight. You look in verse 6, and it pictures three angels flying in the midst of heaven. Who remembers what the word "angel" means? A messenger flying in heaven. These are good, godly messengers, the angels on earth, and the beasts, they're all down below. An angel flying is a symbol of a message that goes to the world, and God--the messages of angels usually go through people.

You'll often find angels will tell people to give messages, and so, it's telling about this message that goes around the world, and of course, you've got first, second, third angel's message. And then if you look in verse 14, "I behold, there was a white cloud, and One on the cloud like the Son of Man, coming," who is that? Jesus comes. So after these messages go to the world just at the end of time, Jesus comes.

What is in this first angel's message? In verse 6, Revelation 14:6, "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, tongue, and people--saying," here it is, "with a loud voice, 'Fear God'," and the loud voice here is "megaphone" in Greek, megaphone. Y'all know what that means, right? Megaphono. It's saying loud voice, "Fear God and give glory to Him, glorify God, the hour of His judgment is come," clearly near the end, right? And it says, "And worship Him that made the heaven and the earth, and the sea and the springs of water." This is dealing with a quote from the Ten Commandments, "For in six days the Lord made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and the fountains of waters." And you'll see that in Exodus 20, verse 11.

So, after God makes man, how many days in creation? Six days of creation. But how many days in a week? Seven, why? After God created everything, He then created a period of time, a dimension of time, a day for communion, for fellowship, to put aside, aside the distractions of work and things like that for focusing on relationship, and He said this has to happen on a regular basis for love and relationship to be strong with each other and with God. We need that time, and He knew that we'd get distracted, and that's why in the Ten Commandments it says, "Remember." Because we're prone to forget.

How many of you remember in the story of the Exodus, when Moses comes to the Pharaoh and he says, "God has sent me to say, 'Let my people go,'" and the Pharaoh said, "I'm not going to let them go," and he said to Moses, "You are causing the people to Shabbat from their labors." Do you know that's the word that the Pharaoh used? See, when Moses came out of the wilderness and God sent him, he first met with the elders of Israel and said, "God is getting ready to act in a mighty way to deliver you from your slavery. You need to reconsecrate yourselves to God. Turn back. Obey him. Remember His Sabbath." And they started doing it again, and the Pharaoh heard that. He said, "I've heard you're causing the people to Shabbat." And then the Pharaoh said, "I'm going to make sure that they cannot rest. I am not going to let them have straw anymore. They're going to have to collect their own straw. I'm going to intensify their labor so that they work, work, work and they can't think about their God anymore." Moses is like Jesus saying, "Let my people go." The Pharaoh is saying, "Work, work, work and don't think about God." Jesus said, "Beware. Be careful that your hearts are not overcharged with eating, and drinking, and the cares of this life."

So that day, whether it's your death or the Second Coming, that day overtakes you as a thief. Some people plan on changing one of these days and they never do. God says, "We need to pause, and keep recalibrating, and making sure that God is our priority."

So, question number 1, we got a lot to cover: When did God establish the Sabbath? Genesis 2, verse 1 through 3: "Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were FINISHED. And on the seventh day He ended his work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day." Now, what chapter of the Bible is this? Fir--book of Genesis, first book, second chapter. How far back does the Sabbath go? This is why Jesus said the Sabbath was made for man way back in the beginning.

Question number 2: What day of the week is the Sabbath? What does the Bible say? Exodus 20, verse 10: "The," what? "SEVENTH DAY is the Sabbath of the Jews," Sabbath of who? "The Lord thy God." And then you look again in Genesis chapter 2. Let's read the rest of that: "And on the," what's it say? "SEVENTH DAY God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the SEVENTH DAY from all the h--the work that He had done. And then God blessed the SEVENTH DAY and sanctified it, because He rested from all His work which He had created and made."

Now, did God say, "I want you to remember a seventh day?" Did God say “a” seventh day is the Sabbath, or did he say "the" seventh day? If I were to say to you, "Now, can you please bring me a book?" You could grab the hymnal in the back of the seat there. You could grab a Bible. You could grab Harry Potter. You can grab anything. Hopefully, there's no Harry Potter books here. Right, a book is a book. It could be your phone book in your top pocket. I--but if I said, "Bring me 'the book,'" you'd want--look around, you go, "Wonder who has 'the book.'" It's a definite article. It's talking about a specific book, isn't that right? So when God says that "the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord," it's as definite as the language can make it. He's talking about something specific.

Now, if you're wondering, "Well, what day is the seventh day?" We don't really know anymore. Calendar has been changed. You've probably heard that. No, no calendar change has ever affected the weekly cycle. The "Merriam-Webster Dictionary," I typed in the word "Saturday." The definition: "the seventh day of the week." So we know what day is the seventh day, and if you doubt that, there's about 16 million Jews in the world that still know what day it is. Has the calendar ever been changed? Yes, about 500 years ago, we transferred from the Julian calendar that goes way back before Christ to Julius Caesar to the Gregorian calendar. Thursday the 4th became Friday the 15th. But here's a question. What day followed Thursday? Friday. No change in the calendar has ever affected the weekly cycle. So, there's no question about the days of the week. People have no problem with that until they learn the Sabbath truth.

Number 3: How are we to memorialize the Sabbath? God tells us, says in Isaiah 66, verse 23, "And it will come to pass that from one New Moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to?"

Congregation: WORSHIP.

Doug: Or does it say "all Jews?" Says "all flesh," it's all people, "'Come to WORSHIP before Me,' says the Lord." It's talking about in the new earth, from month to month, from week to week, all flesh will come to worship before Me. Again, Exodus 20, verse 8: "Remember the Sabbath day, to KEEP it HOLY. Six days you should labor and do all of your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do NO WORK: you, or your son, or your daughter, or your male servant, your family servants," even animals were given time off. God's a loving God, "Your cattle, nor the stranger within your gates."

Again, you read in Isaiah 58:13, "If you TURN AWAY your foot from the Sabbath, from doing YOUR pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight," is it a burden or a delight? "on My holy day, call it a delight, the holy of the Lord honorable, and shall honor Him, not doing YOUR own ways, or finding YOUR own pleasure, or speak," it doesn't mean you're not supposed to have any pleasure. You should enjoy your food on the Sabbath. It means it's doing your own thing or speaking your own words. We should be talking about spiritual things.

The Bible also tells us it's a holy convocation. "Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath, a solemn rest, a holy CONVOCATION. You shall not do any work in it; it's a Sabbath of the Lord in all of your dwellings." Wherever you happen to be in your homes, you keep the Sabbath, and your son and daughter that are with you, if anyone's in your gates, you invite them to keep the Sabbath. But it calls it a holy what? Convocation. This is a convocation. Convocation means assembly, a convening, a coming together. It's not only a day where you rest, but we should come together to worship the Lord, and this was the habit and pattern of our Savior as well.

Number 4: When does the Sabbath begin and end? And some people have been confused about this, but the Bible's pretty clear. It says, "From EVENING to EVENING, shall you celebrate your sabbath." Sabbath begins Friday sundown and ends Saturday sundown, and you probably have some Jewish friends and you already knew that.

Number 5: Does the Sabbath matter to God? The Sabbath truth. What does the Bible say? "Observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy, as the Lord your God COMMANDED you." Moses said it there in Exodus and again before he dies in Deuteronomy 5. He says to remember it. God's commanded you.

Does God make--this is question 6: Did God make the Sabbath only for Israelites? What does it say? "And He [Jesus] said to them, 'The Sabbath was made for MAN, and not MAN for the Sabbath.'" What does that mean? By the way, the word that Jesus uses here, and I put it on the screen, when He said, "The Sabbath was made for man," Jesus easily could have said "Jew." The word He uses is the word anthropos, and you probably recognize anthropology. It's the study of man, and the word there means humanity. The Sabbath was made for humanity. Why in the world would God eliminate this one law from the Ten Commandments? Do only Jews need rest, or does everybody need rest?

Did Jesus keep the Sabbath? Let's look at the example of our Savior. "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 or twice, or it's a way of life? "As His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the SABBATH day, and He stood up to read," He read the scriptures. And you have the story. He read Isaiah 61 that day. He read the scriptures on the Sabbath day. It was His pattern.

You can also read here in Mark 1:21, "Immediately on the SABBATH day He entered the synagogue and He taught." If you're doing what Jesus did, you're safe. "But Pastor Doug, didn't Jesus break the Sabbath?" No. "Was He accused of it?" Yes. His enemies accused Him of being a drunk. Was He a drunk? They accused Him of being a Samaritan. Was He a Samaritan? They accused Him of being a wine bibber. They accused Him of being demon-possessed and Beelzebub and--yeah, they accused Him of all kinds of things that weren't true. Jesus said, "I have kept my Father's commandments," John chapter 15, "I have kept my Father's commandments, and I abide in His love."

What is sin? Transgression of the law. Did Jesus ever sin? No. Did Jesus have arguments about the Sabbath with the religious leaders? Yes. Was the argument ever whether or not it should be kept, or how it should be kept? All the disputes Jesus ever had about the Sabbath were never disputes about whether it should be kept. There were disputes about how it should be kept. They were attaching all these man-made burdens to the law that God didn't attach, saying that He couldn't heal somebody. You could get your donkey out of the ditch on the Sabbath day, but you couldn't heal an old woman. And so, Jesus said--and matter of fact, it says He was angry with them because of the hardness of their hearts. So that was never the issue.

Did Paul and the other apostles honor the Sabbath day? Paul, after being converted, "He reasoned in the synagogue," one Sabbath? "Every SABBATH, persuading," just the Jews. No, persuading who? "Jews and Greeks," Greeks was a word it meant anyone non-Jew Gentile, "Persuading the Jews and the Greeks about Jesus on the Sabbath day." "Then Paul, as his custom was, he went to them for three SABBATHS. He reasoned with them from the Scriptures." Some said, "Well, he was just doing that because he was accommodating the Jews." No, keep reading. Look at what it says in Acts 13, verse 42: "When the Jews went out of the synagogue, the Gentiles begged him that these words might be preached to them," when? "The next SABBATH."

So, you have Moses keeping it. You have Jesus keeping the Sabbath day. You have the apostles keeping the Sabbath day. You go to Isaiah 66, and it says, "'For as the new heavens and the new earth That I will make will remain before Me,' says the LORD, 'shall--So shall your seed in your name remain. And it shall come to pass that from one New Moon to another, and one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come and worship before Me.'"

Adam and Eve kept it in the garden. Moses kept it. Jesus kept it. We know the Old Testament prophets. Read Nehemiah. Read Jeremiah. They all kept it. Apostles kept it. We're going to keep it in heaven. Can you think of a compelling reason why the church should not be keeping that one Commandment right now? Maybe that's why the angel is seen flying in the midst of heaven before the Second Coming, calling God's people back to worship him that made the heavens and the earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters. Because the Sabbath is a memorial of creation.

Number 9: Did Jesus's resurrection change God's holy day from Saturday to Sunday? Some people say, "Well, if He rose the first day and that became a new Sabbath because the Bible says that they got together on the first day of the week and they broke bread." Well, there's one occasion it says where they got together and they broke bread, but you also read they broke bread, you can read in Acts chapter 2, from house to house daily. Breaking bread didn't mean a Communion service. It meant eating. Now, there are times they did have Communion services. But it tells us what day of the week did Jesus have the Last Supper? Thursday, right? Yeah. Did that become a new Sabbath? How important was that, when he instituted the New Covenant? It's important.

What day of the week did Jesus die? Friday. Was that important? Did it become a new Sabbath? What day did He rise? Sunday. Was that important? Does the Bible say it became a new Sabbath? Show me one verse in the Bible that commands us to keep the first day of the week as the Sabbath. Only reason I can do that is I know it's not there. And yet, what day does most of the Christian world keep? Is there a command that tells us to keep the seventh day? Yes, and you know what you're going to hear? I'm just telling you what you're going to hear.

People are going to say we're only supposed to keep the commandments that are repeated in the New Testament, and the Sabbath's not repeated. Pastors say things and they figure people won't look it up for themselves, but that is an absolute myth. Show me where in the New Testament you find the commandment, "Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain." Where is that in the New Testament? Not there. I think we're still supposed to keep that commandment, would you agree?

But do you find the Sabbath in the New Testament? Several times. Hebrews chapter 4, "He spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise. God did rest from His works.” And so, it's all through the New Testament. So, I hear all kinds of myths that people just buy into. He rose, and it became the new Sabbath. That sounds beautiful, but where is it in the Word? It's not there.

And so, God is calling his people back to the Word in the last days, friends. Why else would Jesus say, warning his disciples about the end of the world and the destruction of Jerusalem, "And pray?" He's looking ahead in prophecy, "Pray that your flight will not be in the winter or on the," what? "The SABBATH day." Jesus, looking down in time, knew his people would still be recognizing the Sabbath. Why else would He say that? He knew they'd be keeping it.

Number 10: What day is the "Lord's Day?" Exodus 20, verse 10: "But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God." What day is the Lord's Day? Sabbath Day. Let's give you another one: "If you turn away your foot from doing your pleasure on MY holy day," what day does God call His day? The Sabbath day. And again, Jesus says, "Therefore the Son of Man is LORD also of the Sabbath." There's no question about what day it is.

Number 11: Why does so much of the world believe that Sunday is a holy day? Or that God's holy day is Sunday, I should say. You know, this was foretold in prophecy. You can see it in Daniel. It's also in Revelation. If you look in Daniel 7:25, "He the beast power will speak pompous words against the Most High, and persecute the saints of the Most High, and think to CHANGE times and laws." Which one of the Ten Commandments is a time and a law? Fourth Commandment.

This is Encyclopedia Britannica: "The Roman emperor Constantine, a convert to Christianity, introduced the first civil legislation concerning SUNDAY in 321, when He decreed that all should cease work on that day," unless you are working on a farm. You have to know what happened. The Jews had become very unpopular. Christians, not wanting to be associated with Jews, began to compromise with the state. They began to co-mingle the government religion with Christianity, and it just all kind of got shmurgled up together, where they took some of the pagan things. The Romans were worshiping the sun on the first day of the week. They said, "You know, if we just change the day, we can reach more pagans. We'll accommodate them." And so, little by little, they began to change and get away trying to distance themselves from the Jews, even though the Bible was very clear what day was the Sabbath Day. And it eventually became universal in the Catholic Church, and the Protestant churches that came out of the Catholic Church still kind of retained some of that. So, that's the history in just a nutshell.

A little more proof: did you know that out of 108 languages of the world, the word for Saturday is Sabbath? How do you say Saturday in Spanish? Sabado. Any Russians here? Russkis? [speaking foreign language] No Russki? Subbota, right? There you got it, Arabic and Indonesian. We don't have room to put all 108 up there. Isn't that interesting? Their word for Saturday is Sabbath because it goes all the way back to the Tower of Babel, friends, when they all scattered.

Will the saved keep the Sabbath in the new earth? I quoted this to you a moment ago: "'For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before Me, says the Lord, 'So shall your descendants in your name remain. And it'll come to pass it from one New Moon to another, and one SABBATH to another, ALL flesh will come to worship before Me.'" What was this all about? A memorial of worship that God has made. It's going to be the issue in the last days, and this particular Commandment is going to be an issue in the last days.

Number 13: Of what two precious things does God say the Sabbath is a sign? Now, when you see in a Revelation study like this the word "sign," that should mean something. You got people who are going to have the seal of God, and then others have the mark of the beast. What is the Sabbath the sign of? Read in Exodus 31:17, "It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord MADE the heaven, the earth, and on the seventh day He rested," it is a sign that you are His children. You say, "Well, that's for the Israelites." Don't forget, friends, the New Covenant is made only with the house of Israel. You are grafted into that promise. It's a sign that He's Creator and that He can recreate you. How many need a new heart created? You pray, "Create in me a new heart, oh God." Sabbath reminds us He can create out of nothing, and we need that new creation.

What else is the Sabbath a sign of? You can read in Exodus 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," does what? "SANCTIFIES them," that means "makes them holy." You realize that the pure in heart will see God. He needs to make us holy. The Sabbath is a holy day, and whenever we remember that holy day, we believe He can make us holy if He can make a day holy, amen? And we need to remember that it's a memorial that He can recreate us and make us holy. Some will argue, "Well, Pastor, that keeping the Sabbath is legalism." How can God calling us into rest be legalism?

Don't fall for these arguments, friends. It is as clear as day. If you believe the Bible and the Ten Commandments, the Sabbath--practically, we need it. Spiritually, we need it. And for every reason. Do you know why the people fight it? Because it doesn't follow the popular tradition. Jesus said, "You have a fine way of putting aside the commandments of God that you might observe the traditions of men." What is more important, commandments of God or traditions of men? "There remains," New Testament, Hebrews 4 and 9, "There remains therefore a REST for the people of God," that word "rest" there in the original is "sabbatismos," Sabbath, "There remains a Sabbath for the people of God. For he has entered His REST has himself ceased from his works as God did." And then Jesus, in that great invitation, "Come unto Me, all you who are weary and heavy laden," and what will He give us? "I will give you rest."

The Lord wants you to have that rest, friends. You know who has no rest in Revelation? Those that worship the beast have no rest, day or night. Notice the contrast, friends. Those that rest in Jesus, Sabbath is a sign of that. The beast power, they don't rest. How many of you would like to say, "I want that rest?"

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Doug: Friend, God came to earth 2,000 years ago in the form of a man. His name was Jesus. He came for three reasons: to show us what God is like, to show us how to live, and finally, to die for our sins that we might be forgiven. But this only works if you choose to accept Him as your personal Savior, confess you're sorry for your sins, and invite Him to be the Lord of your life. His arms are open wide. Why don't you ask Him now?

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