The Sabbath, as we know it from the New Testament, is NOT the keeping
of a certain day. We have no command whatsoever to keep Saturday for a Sabbath, nor do
we have any commandment to keep the first day of the week, which is Sunday, as a
Sabbath.
Many people keeps days. Others make Sunday an idol, a worship day. Others
make Saturday as the worship day. Both the Sunday worshipper and the Sabbath keeper
are absolutely wrong, according to the Word of God. Sabbath to a Christian is no longer the
keeping of holy days, new moons or seasons. It means “eternal rest” to one’s soul by the
New Birth. We have to go by the Word of God, not by what the Adventists say, nor by what
the Protestant says, nor by what the Catholic says.
SABBATH MEANS “REST”
Hebrews 4:8, “For if Jesus had given them REST (or rest day), then would He
not afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest (Sabbath
keeping) to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from
his own works, as God did from His.”
Reading the key phrase in the last part of the verse, it says that “God ceased
from His own works.” God gave Israel the seventh day for their Sabbath, in commemoration
of His own work wherein He created the world and all that was therein, and then stopped
creating. He ceased from His labors. He rested. Now it was fine to give a Sabbath rest to
a people who were all in one place at one time, so they could all keep a certain day. Today
half the world is in light while the other half is in darkness, so it wouldn’t work at all. But that
is just an argument from the natural.
Let’s see what the Bible teaches us about this Sabbath rest. “For he that is
entered into his rest.” This entering in is not only entering in, but remaining in, the rest. It
is an `eternal rest’ of which the seventh day is but a type, to the Christian.
“SEVEN” MEANS COMPLETION. `Eight’ goes back to the
`first’ day cycle again.
Jesus’ resurrection was in the first day of the week, giving us eternal
life and eternal Sabbath rest. Thus we see why God could not give us any one certain
day of the week as a Sabbath (rest). We’ve `entered into’ and do `remain in’ our rest, which
Israel could not do, having only a shadow of the true substance which we enjoy. Why go
back to a shadow when we have reality now?
How we receive this rest, or continuing Sabbath, is at the invitation of
Jesus. He said in Matthew 11:28,29, “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me;... and ye shall find
rest (or keeping of the Sabbath, not a day, but eternal life, Sabbath) unto your souls.”
No matter how long you have been laboring under your load of sin,
whether it is ten years, thirty years or fifty years, or longer, come with your tired weary life
and you will find His rest (the true Sabbath). Jesus will give you rest.
Now exactly what is that rest that Jesus will give?
Isaiah 28:8-12, “For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no
place clean. Whom shall He teach knowledge? and whom shall He make to understand
doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. For precept must
be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there
a little: For with stammering lips and another tongue will He speak to this people. To whom
He said, This is the rest (Sabbath) wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest (or keeping of
His Sabbath); and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.”
Here it is prophesied right here in Isaiah. And it came to pass about 700 years later
at Pentecost when they were all filled with the Holy Ghost exactly as it was said they would
be. This is the true Sabbath that was promised. Thus when they were filled with
the Holy Ghost they ceased from their worldly works, their worldly doings, their
evil ways. The Holy Ghost took charge of their lives. They entered into rest. There is your
rest. That is your Sabbath. It is not a day, nor a year, but the eternity of being filled
and blessed in the Holy Spirit. It is you ceasing, and God doing. It is God in you
willing and doing of His good pleasure.
Oh, that people might come unto Him and find that rest. There is a cry in all hearts
for that rest but the majority don’t know the answer. So they try to still the cry by a religious
process of keeping certain days or accepting denominational creeds and dogmas. But failing
in that, many try drinking, carousing, and every physical excess, thinking that by worldly
pleasures there can be some satisfaction. But in such there is no rest. They smoke and
take pills to quiet their nerves. But there is no rest in earthly potions. They need
Jesus. They need the heavenly remedy, the rest of the Spirit.
Then the most of them go to church on Sunday. That is good but even there they
have no idea of how to approach God and how to worship Him. Jesus said that true
worship was in Spirit and in truth, John 4:24. But what kind of worship can you get in
a church that knows so little of God it puts up a Santa Claus at Christmas and bunnies at
Easter? Where did they get that? They got it from the pagans and made it a part of the church
doctrine.
But when one turns to the Lord and is filled with the Holy Ghost he
ceases from all such things. He has a rest in his soul. He really begins to live, and
love God and worship Him.
THE NEW BIRTH IS OUR SABBATH
The Law of the Old testament was only a shadow of things that was to come in the
New Testament. The Old says, “Thou shalt not commit adultery”. The New saith “Whosoever
looketh upon a woman with lust has already committed “adultery” with her in his heart”. The
Old Testament states, “Thou shalt not kill”. The New Testament states, “He that hateth hisNew Testament even magnified the meaning of the Law. And so is the same concerning the
Sabbath. The Old saith, “Keep holy the Sabbath Day”. The New saith, “Come unto Me all of
you who labour and are heavily-laden, and I will give you Sabbath (rest). For I am the Lord
of the Sabbath.” If Jesus Himself never hesitated to heal the sick on the Sabbath Day and
was condemned by the Pharisees for doing such, it just follows that Jesus was not
anymore concerned about making holy that certain literal observance of a Sabbath day.
Jesus was pointing us to the “New Birth” as the real true Sabbath or “rest”. Didn’t Jesus say
to Nicodemus, “Except a man be born of water and of Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of
heaven.” This “New Birth” or in the state of “being born again” is now the real Sabbath to the
Christian believers of today.
HARDEN NOT YOUR HEARTS
Here in the succeeding verses of the Book of Hebrews Chapters 3 and
4, we find God solemnly warning us to fear, lest we fail to enter into that Sabbath
(rest) of God just like the children of Israel who provoked God and perished in
the wilderness
HEBREWS 3:7-19 - “Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his
voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the
wilderness: when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.
Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in [their] heart;
and they have not known my ways. So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my
rest). Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing
from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be
hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold
the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; While it is said, To day if ye will
hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. For some, when they
had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was
he grieved forty years? [was it] not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the
wilderness? And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them
that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.”
HEBREWS 4:1-11- “Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left [us] of
entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the
gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being
mixed with faith in them that heard [it]. For we which have believed do enter into rest,
as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works
were finished from the foundation of the world. For he spake in a certain place of the
seventh [day] on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works. And in
this [place] again, If they shall enter into my rest. Seeing therefore it remaineth that
some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of
unbelief: Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it
is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. For if Jesus had given
them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth
therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also
hath ceased from his own works, as God [did] from his. Let us labour therefore to
enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.”
of a certain day. We have no command whatsoever to keep Saturday for a Sabbath, nor do
we have any commandment to keep the first day of the week, which is Sunday, as a
Sabbath.
Many people keeps days. Others make Sunday an idol, a worship day. Others
make Saturday as the worship day. Both the Sunday worshipper and the Sabbath keeper
are absolutely wrong, according to the Word of God. Sabbath to a Christian is no longer the
keeping of holy days, new moons or seasons. It means “eternal rest” to one’s soul by the
New Birth. We have to go by the Word of God, not by what the Adventists say, nor by what
the Protestant says, nor by what the Catholic says.
- True Sabbath
SABBATH MEANS “REST”
Hebrews 4:8, “For if Jesus had given them REST (or rest day), then would He
not afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest (Sabbath
keeping) to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from
his own works, as God did from His.”
Reading the key phrase in the last part of the verse, it says that “God ceased
from His own works.” God gave Israel the seventh day for their Sabbath, in commemoration
of His own work wherein He created the world and all that was therein, and then stopped
creating. He ceased from His labors. He rested. Now it was fine to give a Sabbath rest to
a people who were all in one place at one time, so they could all keep a certain day. Today
half the world is in light while the other half is in darkness, so it wouldn’t work at all. But that
is just an argument from the natural.
Let’s see what the Bible teaches us about this Sabbath rest. “For he that is
entered into his rest.” This entering in is not only entering in, but remaining in, the rest. It
is an `eternal rest’ of which the seventh day is but a type, to the Christian.
“SEVEN” MEANS COMPLETION. `Eight’ goes back to the
`first’ day cycle again.
Jesus’ resurrection was in the first day of the week, giving us eternal
life and eternal Sabbath rest. Thus we see why God could not give us any one certain
day of the week as a Sabbath (rest). We’ve `entered into’ and do `remain in’ our rest, which
Israel could not do, having only a shadow of the true substance which we enjoy. Why go
back to a shadow when we have reality now?
How we receive this rest, or continuing Sabbath, is at the invitation of
Jesus. He said in Matthew 11:28,29, “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me;... and ye shall find
rest (or keeping of the Sabbath, not a day, but eternal life, Sabbath) unto your souls.”
No matter how long you have been laboring under your load of sin,
whether it is ten years, thirty years or fifty years, or longer, come with your tired weary life
and you will find His rest (the true Sabbath). Jesus will give you rest.
Now exactly what is that rest that Jesus will give?
Isaiah 28:8-12, “For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no
place clean. Whom shall He teach knowledge? and whom shall He make to understand
doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. For precept must
be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there
a little: For with stammering lips and another tongue will He speak to this people. To whom
He said, This is the rest (Sabbath) wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest (or keeping of
His Sabbath); and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.”
Here it is prophesied right here in Isaiah. And it came to pass about 700 years later
at Pentecost when they were all filled with the Holy Ghost exactly as it was said they would
be. This is the true Sabbath that was promised. Thus when they were filled with
the Holy Ghost they ceased from their worldly works, their worldly doings, their
evil ways. The Holy Ghost took charge of their lives. They entered into rest. There is your
rest. That is your Sabbath. It is not a day, nor a year, but the eternity of being filled
and blessed in the Holy Spirit. It is you ceasing, and God doing. It is God in you
willing and doing of His good pleasure.
Oh, that people might come unto Him and find that rest. There is a cry in all hearts
for that rest but the majority don’t know the answer. So they try to still the cry by a religious
process of keeping certain days or accepting denominational creeds and dogmas. But failing
in that, many try drinking, carousing, and every physical excess, thinking that by worldly
pleasures there can be some satisfaction. But in such there is no rest. They smoke and
take pills to quiet their nerves. But there is no rest in earthly potions. They need
Jesus. They need the heavenly remedy, the rest of the Spirit.
Then the most of them go to church on Sunday. That is good but even there they
have no idea of how to approach God and how to worship Him. Jesus said that true
worship was in Spirit and in truth, John 4:24. But what kind of worship can you get in
a church that knows so little of God it puts up a Santa Claus at Christmas and bunnies at
Easter? Where did they get that? They got it from the pagans and made it a part of the church
doctrine.
But when one turns to the Lord and is filled with the Holy Ghost he
ceases from all such things. He has a rest in his soul. He really begins to live, and
love God and worship Him.
THE NEW BIRTH IS OUR SABBATH
The Law of the Old testament was only a shadow of things that was to come in the
New Testament. The Old says, “Thou shalt not commit adultery”. The New saith “Whosoever
looketh upon a woman with lust has already committed “adultery” with her in his heart”. The
Old Testament states, “Thou shalt not kill”. The New Testament states, “He that hateth hisNew Testament even magnified the meaning of the Law. And so is the same concerning the
Sabbath. The Old saith, “Keep holy the Sabbath Day”. The New saith, “Come unto Me all of
you who labour and are heavily-laden, and I will give you Sabbath (rest). For I am the Lord
of the Sabbath.” If Jesus Himself never hesitated to heal the sick on the Sabbath Day and
was condemned by the Pharisees for doing such, it just follows that Jesus was not
anymore concerned about making holy that certain literal observance of a Sabbath day.
Jesus was pointing us to the “New Birth” as the real true Sabbath or “rest”. Didn’t Jesus say
to Nicodemus, “Except a man be born of water and of Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of
heaven.” This “New Birth” or in the state of “being born again” is now the real Sabbath to the
Christian believers of today.
HARDEN NOT YOUR HEARTS
Here in the succeeding verses of the Book of Hebrews Chapters 3 and
4, we find God solemnly warning us to fear, lest we fail to enter into that Sabbath
(rest) of God just like the children of Israel who provoked God and perished in
the wilderness
HEBREWS 3:7-19 - “Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his
voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the
wilderness: when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.
Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in [their] heart;
and they have not known my ways. So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my
rest). Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing
from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be
hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold
the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; While it is said, To day if ye will
hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. For some, when they
had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was
he grieved forty years? [was it] not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the
wilderness? And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them
that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.”
HEBREWS 4:1-11- “Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left [us] of
entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the
gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being
mixed with faith in them that heard [it]. For we which have believed do enter into rest,
as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works
were finished from the foundation of the world. For he spake in a certain place of the
seventh [day] on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works. And in
this [place] again, If they shall enter into my rest. Seeing therefore it remaineth that
some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of
unbelief: Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it
is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. For if Jesus had given
them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth
therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also
hath ceased from his own works, as God [did] from his. Let us labour therefore to
enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.”
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