Monday, July 8, 2019

The Sabbath and The Cross - Pt 2 -Yield to God.


When is the Sabbath first mentioned in the Bible?

Gen 2:1  Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 
Gen 2:2  And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. 
Gen 2:3  And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. 

No, mention of the word Sabbath? Let God speak for Himself-

Exo 16:27  And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none. 
Exo 16:28  And the LORD said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? 
Exo 16:29  See, for that the LORD hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. 
Exo 16:30  So the people rested on the seventh day. 

BEFORE the law was given at Mount Sinai on two tablets of stone, written by the finger of God Himself- God said…"HOW long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?"    What commandment was that? What law? They had yet to receive the moral law just mentioned. Yet God said otherwise.

The LORD has given you the SABBATH.

Most pointedly God was reminding His newly freed people that it was important to listen to Him. In the very beginning of creation God rested- He BLESSED and SANCTIFIED a day. 

A day was given a blessing. A day was made holy. When? After creation!

Directly after creation!

No sooner was creation completed then the creation of a blessed holy day was given.  Leaving no doubt that this day was blessed and made holy- God reiterated its existence before He even made it one of the ten moral laws. 

Had God blessed any other day? Had God made any other day holy? God never took that blessing away, never. He never unsanctified the seventh day. We live in a world of weeks- SEVEN DAY weeks.

Note: 'A continuous seven-day cycle that runs throughout history paying no attention whatsoever to the phases of the moon was first practised in Judaism, dated to the 6th century BC at the latest.'

From <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Week#History>

Now lest you believe the children of Israel newly freed from slavery were keeping all the moral laws already before they were given we know they were not. They we well versed in the worshipping of idols because one of the very first things they demanded of Aaron after determining Moses had abandoned them was that he make them a golden calf to worship. If they'd known nothing of idol worship they most certainly would not have asked for an idol to worship. These people were estranged from their unwritten moral laws.  Did they believe murder was wrong? Yes, taught from the Egyptians as well, murder was wrong. Stealing a crime? Yes. The moral law was not plucked out of non-existence to suddenly appear. Abraham taught Isaac, Isaac taught Jacob and Esau, Jacob taught Joseph, and all eleven offspring besides and all their family. When Joseph rescued his father, Jacob and all his family they were God's people. Read this--

Gen 46:1  And Israel took his journey with all that he had, and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices unto the God of his father Isaac. 
Gen 46:2  And God spake unto Israel in the visions of the night, and said, Jacob, Jacob. And he said, Here am I. 
Gen 46:3  And he said, I am God, the God of thy father: fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will there make of thee a great nation: 
Gen 46:4  I will go down with thee into Egypt; and I will also surely bring thee up again: and Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes. 
Gen 46:5  And Jacob rose up from Beersheba: and the sons of Israel carried Jacob their father, and their little ones, and their wives, in the wagons which Pharaoh had sent to carry him. 
Gen 46:6  And they took their cattle, and their goods, which they had gotten in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt, Jacob, and all his seed with him: 
Gen 46:7  His sons, and his sons' sons with him, his daughters, and his sons' daughters, and all his seed brought he with him into Egypt. 

Gen 46:26  All the souls that came with Jacob into Egypt, which came out of his loins, besides Jacob's sons' wives, all the souls were threescore and six; 
Gen 46:27  And the sons of Joseph, which were born him in Egypt, were two souls: all the souls of the house of Jacob, which came into Egypt, were threescore and ten. 

Seventy children of Israel (Jacob) not including the wives. And Israel consulted God before ever going to Egypt- they had a relationship, and God was leading them as His.  Joseph had been sold into slavery for the express purpose of ultimately saving his family.

Were the children of Abraham taught to worship idols. No. Were they taught to make sacrifices to God. Yes. These children were not Godless. Remember this--

Exo 2:23  And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage. 
Exo 2:24  And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 
Exo 2:25  And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them. 

Exo 3:4  And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. 
Exo 3:5  And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. 
Exo 3:6  Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God. 
Exo 3:7  And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; 
Exo 3:8  And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 
Exo 3:9  Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me: and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them. 
Exo 3:10  Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt. 

Exo 3:14  And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you. 
Exo 3:15  And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations. 
Exo 3:16  Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto them, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared unto me, saying, I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you in Egypt: 
Exo 3:17  And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey. 

Exo 4:28  And Moses told Aaron all the words of the LORD who had sent him, and all the signs which he had commanded him. 
Exo 4:29  And Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel: 
Exo 4:30  And Aaron spake all the words which the LORD had spoken unto Moses, and did the signs in the sight of the people. 
Exo 4:31  And the people believed: and when they heard that the LORD had visited the children of Israel, and that he had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped. 

Exo 5:3  And they said, The God of the Hebrews hath met with us: let us go, we pray thee, three days' journey into the desert, and sacrifice unto the LORD our God; lest he fall upon us with pestilence, or with the sword. 
Exo 5:4  And the king of Egypt said unto them, Wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron, let the people from their works? get you unto your burdens. 
Exo 5:5  And Pharaoh said, Behold, the people of the land now are many, and ye make them rest from their burdens. 

MOSES made the children REST.

Here we are God instructing Moses, going to the people descendent from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Israel). God heard the cries of His people and answered them. These people were raised knowing they were not of Egyptian descent but rather people whose Fathers were Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They knew their own history- they were not allowed to forget their history.

When they left Egypt God determined to test and try, and teach His chosen children. God would remind them of all He asked of them.  He began the lessons by again pointedly revealing the REST He instituted. They needed food and God supplied that food from heaven. The supply was conditional.  Six days they were to gather it up and on that sixth day only were they to get double the normal portion, why? So they didn't have to go out gathering their food on the day that God had blessed and made holy upon Creation. The seventh day they would rest and already have their provisions for the day. And God said this…

Exo 16:28  And the LORD said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? 
Exo 16:29  See, for that the LORD hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. 
Exo 16:30  So the people rested on the seventh day. 

Commandment-Law- Sabbath- even before it was written in stone among the ten moral laws.  Just how amazingly important is the Sabbath to God? The Sabbath is a seal of His Creatorship. Truly it is. The Sabbath was all a part of the plan of salvation, of redemption yet people are blind to this, blinded because they serve self.

Exo 31:16  Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. 
Exo 31:17  It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed. 

Read the following written by E.J. Waggoner-

'The cross conveys to us the knowledge of God, because it shows us His power as Creator.

Through the cross we are crucified unto the world, and the world unto us; that is, by the cross we are sanctified.

But sanctification is the work of God, not of man. Only His divine power can accomplish the great work.

In the beginning God sanctified the Sabbath, as the crown of His creative work--the evidence that His work was finished, the seal of perfection, and therefore He says, "Moreover also I gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them." Eze.20:12.

So we see that the Sabbath--the seventh day--is the true sign of the cross.

It is the memorial of creation, and redemption is creation,--creation through the cross.

In the cross we find the complete and perfect works of God, and are clothed with them.

Crucified with Christ means the utter giving up of self, acknowledging that we are nothing, and trusting absolutely in Christ. In Him we rest; in Him we find the Sabbath.

The cross takes us back to the beginning, into "that which was from the beginning." The resting upon the seventh day of the week is but the sign of the fact that in the perfect work of God, as seen in creation,--in the cross,--we find rest from sin.'   Taken from Glad Tidings by E.J. Waggoner

Now recall these verses from the beginning of this particular study--

2Ti_1:9  Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began

NOT according to our works! We are to do NO work on the Sabbath. Is it mere coincidence that we are commanded to do no work on the day our God made holy and blessed, AND the fact that we can do NO work to save ourselves, that salvation has to come solely from our Creator, our Redeemer? Our Savior, our Sabbath.

Before the world was created….our Savior was prepared to redeem us should we sin. All of it was a part of CREATION.  

We are made HOLY by our SAVIOR'S sacrifice…

The Sabbath was made HOLY by God.   If we believe in the SANCTIFICATION of our SAVIOR to make us holy, we have to believe in the SANCTIFICATION of the seventh day Sabbath, that day was made holy upon CREATION. That day was reiterated as HOLY by God over and over again.  How dare we not believe that the Sabbath- a memorial to our CREATOR- not be a memorial to the CREATOR to our REDEEMER, our REDEMPTION. Who makes things holy? Our God, our Creator, Our Savior.   Creation and the Cross.

We cannot save ourselves- FACT.
We cannot make anything holy- FACT.
God can save us- FACT.
God can make us holy- FACT.

To remind us- we are given a WEEKLY SABBATH.
To remind us- we are to do NO work on one day of the week.
To remind us- we are TOLD to remember.
To remind us- we should NEVER forget.

Christ Alone can save us- We can do NO work to save ourselves.
Christ Alone can make us holy- We can do NO work to make ourselves holy.

As we honor the Sabbath we are to remember-

GOD is the Creator- NOT US.
GOD sanctifies- NOT US.
GOD is in control- NOT US.
GOD has the power over all- NOT US.
GOD is to be obeyed- NOT US.
GOD is all in all- NOT US.

We are NOTHING without God.

We need constant reminding of our status in existence.
We need constant reminding of our dependence.
We need constant reminding of pure love undefiled.

If we refuse to yield up our self-absorption in all ways and give our all in all to God for one day in every seven, can we yield ourselves for eternity? Truly we are to give our all to God- always, every day of our lives. He commands us to set aside one day in seven to live in HIM wholly right here, right now outwardly declaring HIM and the creation and salvation power He has over us.

For six days making a living can take over a lot of our lives, but SET ASIDE the SEVENTH day for GOD - not allowing ANYTHING to take over our lives but HIM on this day and HIS WILL.

Christ will make us able to yield, we must let Him.

Christ will remind us that HE ALONE can save us.
Christ will remind us of our dependence upon Him.
Christ will remind us of pure love undefiled.
Christ will sanctify us, Christ will make us holy, we are blessed in Christ.

The Cross and Creation.

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