THE LIVING WORD TRANSCRIPT

Program Air Date – 4-18-10

LESSON TITLE: “THIS IS THE DAY THAT THE LORD HAS MADE: THE SABBATH DAY”

WELCOME

“I will praise Your name, O LORD, for it is good,” Oh, what glorious words the Psalmist proclaimed here as one who loved and cherished His God! Isn’t it wonderful to come together this morning for the very same purpose, “to praise Him,” our God, “for His name is good?”

I am glad you are with us this morning and thank God you have made the right decision to give this time to your God. I look forward to our time spent together today as we sing praises to the Almighty and as we study from His matchless Word! This morning, I know we will all be edified through our time spent together. So let’s all do our part to make this time profitable before God, and furthermore may we use it as a great encouragement one to another! At this time, let’s approach our Father’s throne in prayer:

(PRAYER)

Now it is time to join in our first song of the morning. So, won’t you participate with the congregation at this time as we sing together, “For the Beauty of the Earth?”

(SONG # 1)

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHTS

One thing I love about the Old Covenant and the New Covenant is that they are so tied together and unified in purpose. How encouraging it is to see the fulfillment of the Old in the New and to see the confirmation of the New in the Old. The more we study and learn about the two, the more we find that verse by verse, chapter by chapter and book by book - that God’s hand was truly in it. And furthermore, that God’s Will was fully accomplished and completed in this wondrous Book divine!

With this in mind, I wanted to look briefly at one of the familiar statements of Jesus, which we often refer to as the golden rule. There in Matthew 7:12, Jesus said, “Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” Was this something new or revolutionary in thought? Certainly not! God has inspired the wisest man who ever lived to say a similar thing in Proverbs 3:27, there we read, “Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, When it is in the power of your hand to do so.” How clear it should be to all of us and how evident the facts should be that our great and mighty God truly gave us the Bible, which could have come from no other source or no other power. Nothing and no one except God could have given such a work which is so perfect and complete. Thanks be to God for the great blessing of His inherent Word. That Book of Books which provides for us all things pertaining to life and godliness!

We are excited to have a guest speaker with us this morning who has been with us before. We thank brother Jerry Sullins for again being with us. As most of you know, brother Sullins is the director of the Bible Institute of Missouri – a preacher’s training school right here is Springfield. We look forward to him leading our thoughts from God’s Word at the appropriate time.

As far as our topic of study, we will again consider the proclamation, “This Is the Day That the Lord Has Made.” Our specific lesson of the morning is entitled, “The Sabbath Day.” So please stay with us and after the next song brother Sullins will be leading us in this study from God’s Word. But for now, let’s join together in our second hymn of the morning, its name, “Alas and Did My Savior Bleed.”

(SONG # 2)

LESSON

By Jerry Sullins

We want to welcome you again to “The Living Word” broadcast. We certainly appreciate your watching our program on Sunday mornings as we understand we have one of the larger listening audiences in this area and certainly we appreciate you watching our program every first day of the week. This program has been going on for over 30 years now at basically the same time every morning on this good station and we do appreciate your support in every way. It is our desire in these programs to teach what the Word of God is concerning many vital and important subjects from God’s Holy Word so that men might know, so that we all might know what God’s Will is for us and hopefully have an opportunity to spend an eternity in Heaven.

Our series of thoughts through these few weeks are based upon different days that are mentioned in the Bible. Now it has been my task that has been given to me this morning that I should speak concerning the Sabbath Day, a very important subject because there is a lot of misunderstanding concerning the Sabbath. There are some people who are very confused about the Sabbath Day today for they believe as they have been directed by their leaders that there is such a thing as a Christian Sabbath. Well, there is such a thing as a Christian Sabbath according to man, but there is no Christian Sabbath according to the Bible. Now this doesn’t mean that we should get all hot and bothered and concerned about this to a great degree, but we need to speak where the Bible speaks and be silent where the Bible is silent. If the Bible speaks of certain things then we need to recognize that it is God’s Holy Word. “All scripture given by inspiration of God is profitable for doctrine, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” The apostle Paul said that to Timothy in the book of 2 Timothy. Now if this is true then we need to understand how important it is for us to speak what the Bible speaks because the Bible is literally God’s Word. It is inspired of God. So we are going to consider this subject of “The Sabbath.”

As you read in the very first book of the Bible, in the book of Genesis, and I believe this was covered somewhat last week, the Sabbath is mentioned or a Sabbath is mentioned. As you know, God created all things in the time of six days. The first day, He created light and darkness. The second day, He divided the waters. The third day, the land appeared and the seas were formed and all plant life came into existence. The fourth day, the sun, moon and stars were set in their place in the firmament. The fifth day, all creatures on the earth, that is all creatures in the water and creatures in the air, that is birds and fouls were created. And the sixth day, all land animals and people were created. Then on the seventh day, God rested as is recorded in Genesis chapter 2 verses 1-3. It says, “Thus the heavens and the earth and all the hosts of them were finished. And on the seventh day, God ended His work which He had done and He rested on the seventh day from all of 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.” It was a day in which He had rested, not is resting. He sanctified it or set it apart so that He would set a pattern in order or in place concerning man’s days of work because there were six days in which God worked and there was one day in which He rested.

Now as we look throughout the scripture, we know that this Sabbath that we’re speaking of now, and we are not talking about the Sabbath Day as it originated in the Law of Moses in Exodus chapter 20. We are not speaking of that Sabbath. We’re speaking of this Sabbath that God sanctified or set apart because He had just created all things and in that day rested. When was it sanctified for a religious use? This is an important question. As I said actually there is no indication in all of the book of Genesis which covers 2500 years of Biblical history until Exodus the 2nd book of the Bible, chapter 20 that there was a day that was to be worshipped and that is a day in which people should worship which is mentioned in Exodus chapter 20 as we’ll read in a few moments from now where God said in the Ten Commandments, “Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy.” So God rested on that day that He sanctified, that seventh day of creation, that Sabbath Day meaning the seventh day.

So for our understanding of this Sabbath Day, we note that before Sinai, God had given many laws, but no mention of the Sabbath Day. The great man of faith, Abraham, did not worship on the Sabbath Day as we well know because there is no mention made of his worshipping on the Sabbath Day, but God did make a commandment. God did establish laws with Abraham.

I call to your attention the book of Genesis chapter 17 and I hope you have a Bible by your side and you can read along with us as we look at these passages. In Genesis chapter 17 verse 7 and 8 it says, “And I will establish my covenant,” that means laws, “between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generation for an everlasting covenant to be God to you and your descendants after you and also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all of the land of Canaan as an everlasting possession and I will be their God.” Then He goes on to say in verses 9-12, “And God said to Abraham, ‘As for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. This is My covenant which you shall keep between Me and you and your descendants after you. Every man and child among you shall be circumcised and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you.”

So God established a covenant. He established laws with Abraham. We’re talking about here in Genesis 17. If Abraham would have done what, which he did in Genesis chapter 12? He left his home in Ur of Chaldea and by faith he did what God wanted him to do, to start out on a journey to a place of which he did not know where he was going. But Abraham did that. This covenant with Abraham was solemnized and it was perfected and it was put in place by the act of circumcision of every male child. This is the covenant that God made with Abraham. So there was a law, a circumcision. No mention of the Sabbath before Exodus chapter 20, that is of the Sabbath that many people refer to today.

In Nehemiah chapter 9 verses 13-14, it says definitely that, “The Sabbath was made known at Mt. Sinai.” Now what is that speaking of? It is speaking of what took place in Exodus chapter 20 when Moses went up into the top of Mt. Sinai and he stayed there for a long period of time and he received the Ten Commandments and all other laws and regulations that would regulate God’s chosen people, the children of Israel.

So the first Sabbath was a memorial, also in another way for we see in Deuteronomy chapter 5 verse 15 that it was a memorial of the deliverance of the children of Israel out of Egypt. So we see the purposes for the first Sabbath. One of those purposes was a memorial and the other purpose was for God to recognize that after six days He rested, and it just shows that rest that He took. That’s what it signifies. That’s how it was set apart or sanctified because it was sanctified in that it just recognized what God did when He created all things.

Now let us look at the Ten Commandments as they were given and this is found in Exodus chapter 20. Again if you have your Bibles let’s turn to Exodus chapter 20 and we want to read especially the fourth commandment because this is the one that is under consideration today. Here is what God said. He said, “Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh is the Sabbath of the Lord your God, in it you shall do no work, you nor your son nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gate for in six days the Lord made heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath Day and hallowed it.” He set it apart. And now He is saying in the Law of Moses concerning the Sabbath Day that they ought to remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy. Now there were many regulations that were stated, the purposes for the Sabbath Day. We do know that it was limited in its keeping to the children of Israel.

I call your attention to Exodus chapter 31 verses 12-17. “And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Speak also to the children of Israel saying, Surely My Sabbaths you shall keep for it is the sign between Me and you throughout your generations that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you. You shall keep the Sabbath therefore for it is holy to you.” Now I don’t want to read anymore about that because it continues to talk about the importance of the Sabbath. There were laws that regulated what could be done and what could not be done on the Sabbath under the Law of Moses.

Now my friend, I want to point this out to you that the Law of Moses was given by the lawgiver, Moses, to a specific people at a specific time for a specific purpose. It was given by Moses to the children of Israel on Mt. Sinai and it was given for the period of time throughout all their generations until the Promised Seed would come that was promised through Abraham, the father of our faith. It was never intended that the Sabbath Day would go beyond those who would keep the Law of Moses because the Law of Moses and the things that pertain to the Law of Moses were nailed to the cross. They are no longer a part of our faith because the law was not given to us. Christ Jesus came to abolish the law.

Look at Romans 6 verse 14. “For sin shall have no dominion over you for you are not under law, but under grace.”

The apostle Paul said in Romans 7 verse 4, “We are dead to the law.”

Romans 10 verse 4, “We have been delivered from the law.”

Paul explained it so vividly in Galatians chapter 3 and verses 24-25 that, “The law is a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.”

We do know as is clearly stated in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 15 that, “The law was abolished.”

In fact, Paul put it so clearly in Colossians 2 verses 14-17 that, “He took it out of the way,” that is the law, “and He nailed it to His cross.”

We are no longer under the Law of Moses. If we are, then why are we not making those sacrifices as the children of Israel did? Why are we not burning the incense that the children of Israel did? Why are we not worshipping God as the children of Israel did or living as the children of Israel did under the Law of Moses? Because simply the Law of Moses has been taken and nailed to the cross and that included the Sabbath Day.

We’re going to in weeks to come, in fact I believe it is next week, the discussion of “The Lord’s Day” is going to take place concerning the first day of the week and why it is that we as Christians worship on the first day versus worshipping on the Sabbath Day.

I close with this remark that is found in Hebrews chapter 9 verse 15. “We are now under a new Mediator.” In fact, we are under the Mediator that we have always known to be and His name is Jesus Christ our Lord. He is the Mediator of a New Covenant as the Hebrew writer said. He has taken away the first that He may establish the second. Why should we opt out in this day and time to follow after a law that has passed away, that no longer is in effect, that has been taken out and nailed to the cross by Jesus Christ the Son of God. May we look into His Word and seek for His Truth concerning all things.

(SONG # 3 - “Be Not Dismayed!”)

CLOSING COMMENTS

Let me thank you again for choosing to be with us today. I hope our time together has been an encouragement and blessing to us all. We invite you to join us every First day of the week, at 7:30, as we commit ourselves to this time of Worship before God!

But for now, let me ask if you have any questions or comments about today’s lesson? Maybe, you would like a free transcript or a cassette tape of this program? Possibly, we could assist you with free Bible materials or correspondence courses? No matter what your need is, please contact us at the following address:

The Living Word 2540 N. Kansas Expressway Springfield, Mo. 65803

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Or if you prefer, you may call us at: (417) 869-2284

How blessed we are to have a God who understands a need for such days as the Sabbath. And what about us today, do we give God the time He requires and deserves on this day, which He has set aside for worship through Christ? If not, choose today to put God first in all things!

(Program closing)