Announcer: This presentation is brought to you by the friends of the Amazing Facts ministry. announcer: Coming to you from New York City, at the historic Manhattan Center with your host Doug Batchelor, join this exciting journey of discovery as we learn the truth about Bible prophecy. Explore the timeless wisdom of God's Word and see how it relates to our lives today. Stay tuned, your "Amazing Facts" adventure begins now.
Doug Batchelor: Tonight's study, I think, you're going to find to be a great blessing, but I always like to begin with an amazing fact. You know, the world record for many years regarding the person who had stayed awake the longest under a measured experiment without sleep was Randy Gardner. In 1963, he went for 11 days and 24 minutes without sleep. After several days in the experiment, Gardner displayed increasing cognitive dysfunction and problems with concentration, moodiness, memory, paranoia, hallucinations.
His record since was broken multiple times. The last time it was Robert McDonald, he went 18 days and 21 hours without sleeping. He did it all at Starbucks. No, I made that up, that's not true. But you know, since then, in 1997, Guinness World Records refused to accept any new attempts for health and safety reasons. For decades after his first experiments, Randy Gardner struggled with severe insomnia, it permanently damaged him. People need rest.
Our lesson tonight is about rest and prophecy and how all of it ties together. Now, we're going to be talking about one of the commandments tonight, in particular, the fourth commandment dealing with the subject of the Sabbath. And you might be thinking, "Pastor Doug, how in the world does that fit into a prophecy seminar?" Follow me very carefully.
If you read in Revelation chapter 13, it tells us that this beast power makes a law that whoever does not worship the image of the beast should be killed. Although that would be a problem for God's people because the Bible is pretty clear in the Ten Commandments, it says in the second commandment, "You shall not make unto you any graven images, the likeness of anything in the heaven above, or the earth beneath, or the water under the earth, and bow down yourself to them and serve them: for I the LORD Your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me; And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me, and keep My commandments."
Notice, "love Me and keep My commandments." There's a commandment that says don't worship images. You may remember in the book of Daniel chapter 3, King Nebuchadnezzar told everybody to bow down and worship the image that he made or be killed, Revelation is drawing from that. But Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they said, "We ought to obey God rather than men. We will not break God's commandment, even if it's a government commandment."
You look in Daniel chapter 6, the king of Persia, Darius, made a law that said, you're not to pray to any God except the king for 30 days. Well, that's a problem for God's people because the first commandment, who knows? Thou shalt not ma--have other gods before Me. Actually, the first commandment says, "And the Lord God spoke all these words, saying: 'I am the LORD your God, that brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall not have other gods before Me."' Daniel said, "I can't have another god before my God," and he went to the lions' den and God delivered him. It was a government law, worldwide law, this empire. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego went to the fiery furnace, and God delivered them.
In the last days, the devil is going to do the same thing again. Have you read the book of Esther? There was a law made to exterminate all of God's people because Mordecai would not bow down and worship Haman, because it broke the commandments of God. The devil is going to do the same thing. See, does everyone here know the devil wants you to sin? That's why he tempts us. What is sin? The transgression of God's law. But what the devil's going to do in the last days, he's going to be very sneaky. He is going to create a law and it's going to be requiring people to break the law of God, but it's going to seem like they're obeying. And he's going to look through the Ten Commandments and he's going to say, "Can I make a law that tells everybody to lie? That's going to be hard to sell. Everybody to murder? That won't work. What if I tell everybody, remember the Sabbath day, but don't do it on the seventh day, do it a different day, just change it a little bit?" He's very clever. And a lot of people are going to go, "What difference does it make? It's a little thing."
So, follow me, and I think you're going to understand why this is going to be an issue in prophecy in the last days. Question number 1, we're going to our lesson, did God make the Sabbath only for Israelites? What does the Bible say? "He said unto them, 'The Sabbath was made for the Jew,'" that's not what it says. This is on the seventh day of creation. God made man in six days--on the sixth day, made the world in six days. Then after He made man, and the word here in Greek is "Anthropos," you've heard of anthropology, talking about humanity, not just one race of people. Jesus said the Sabbath was made for humans. How many here are related to Adam? Then you fit, the Sabbath was made for mankind, humanity, not man for the Sabbath.
God did not make the Sabbath and then make man to serve the Sabbath, He made man and then made Sabbath to be a blessing to man. See how that works? And you read in Exodus 23, verse 12: "Six days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day you shall rest, that your ox and your donkey may rest," and He says, "and your servant also and the son of your female servant and that your stranger may be," what's the word? "Refreshed."
Now, do only Jews need refreshment, or did the Lord also include even animals in this commandment? Does God even care about creatures? So, do people need rest? Yeah, when the Lord said the Sabbath was made for man, He meant for the human race, people need rest. How many people are struggling with stress-related disease? Some of you out there, struggling with stress. When did God establish the Sabbath? Answer, "Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested." Man is made in the image of God, we follow His example, He rested as an example for us. He rested on what day? "The seventh day from all His work which He had done."
And I'm going to continue, it goes on to say, "and God blessed the seventh day." You know, right here in the beginning of the Bible, a number is mentioned three times, seven, seven, seven, first book of the Bible. Go to Revelation, the end of the Bible, there's another number mentioned three times, six, six, six. Seven is the perfect number of God and worship of God. Six is the day that man was created, it's the number of man and man-made worship, and this is a battle for worship that you're going to see going on all through the Bible.
Question number three, how has God demonstrated the importance of the holy Sabbath? If you have your Bible, you'll not only find this in Exodus chapter 20, verse 8, it's also in Deuteronomy chapter 5. You can find the Ten Commandments and you'll find them in partial places, several places. In Exodus chapter 20 verse 8, it is the longest of the Ten Commandments, it's the only commandment that begins with the word remember, and it is in the middle of God's law. "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all of your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the" Jews. That's not what it says, "seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall not do any work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor the stranger within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and the sea, and all that is in them, and He rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it." This is what you call the fourth commandment.
Now, when God writes something in stone, how important is it? I want you to think about what God did when He created the Sabbath commandment. Matter of fact, we're going to put it up here on the screen here just as a little visual so that you can all see this. God had the Ten Commandments, were they written on paper, Silly Putty, or stone? You want a little amazing fact, you know that old movie "The Ten Commandments" by Cecil B. DeMille? My mother was in that movie, it's a very small part. When I watched it with the kids, I'd say, "There goes grandma," but she was in the movie. And he said, "If you will not live by the law, you will die by the law," and he throws the commandments down. It's true that he threw it down and broke it. You know what God said, "Come back up, I'm going to give it to you again." He spoke it with His own voice, He wrote it with His own finger to indicate the permanence of it. And as I mentioned, it's the longest of the Ten Commandments.
Now, it's amazing to me that I can go to almost any church in New York City--and I want to reiterate, there are good Christian people in many denominations, y'all listening? I used to teach Sunday school in a Methodist church, I used to attend Pentecostal Church, Church of God, Four Square, Baptist. I--I've been in many different churches, John and I can tell you some interesting stories of churches that we've been in and visited, and there are good people in many different churches. I'm not here to condemn, is that clear? I want to find out, what does the Bible say? I could go to virtually any church in town and the pastor would say, "Well, preach what's on your heart." I could preach on marriage and not committing adultery, and people would squirm, but they'd say amen, right? And I could preach on honoring your father and mother, amen. I could preach on do not steal, amen, do not covet. I--you go through the Ten Commandments, amen, amen. You preached on idolatry, some people in some churches would be a little uncomfortable with that because there's idols in some churches. But then I say, "And remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy" and people say, "Pastor Doug, you're putting these people under bondage, that is legalism." What happened?
I was doing a seminar like this one time, I talked about this subject, and a pastor was in the audience, and he stood up and interrupted me. And I could tell he was rather agitated because his ears were red, and he said, "Brother Doug--" small town, he knew who I was. He said, "You're putting these people under a bondage of works." I said, "Wait a second, Pastor." I said, "I'm telling them to keep the Sabbath, I'm encouraging them to rest. You're telling them don't keep the Sabbath, you're encouraging them to work." And he said--I said, "Do you think God wants us to keep the Ten Commandments?" He said, "No," and then some of his members were there and they said, "Huh?" And he said, "Well, yes," but he knew that would include the fourth commandment, he said, "Nine of them." That's what he said. I said, "So you're telling me the one commandment that we're supposed to forget is the only commandment that begins with the word remember."
Maybe God said remember because He knew there was a risk that we would forget that commandment. God's Word is eternal. Jesus said, "Heaven and earth will pass away, My word will not pass away." Jesus said, "Think not that I have come to destroy the law. I have not come to destroy, but to fulfill." He said, "Whosoever therefore will break one of the least of these commandments," these are the words of Jesus, "and teach men so, he will be spoken of as least in the kingdom of heaven: but whoever will do and teach them will be great in the kingdom of heaven." So why am I teaching it? Because Jesus told me to, you take that up with Him. This is His law, Christ kept the law of God, and the devil's going to use this as a special test and attack in the last days.
Now, just use common sense, do people need rest today? Do you realize that we are living at the time in the history of humanity where more people are dying from stress than all of history combined? The five top selling medications are stress-related. Chronic stress is linked to the six leading causes of death, including heart disease, cancer, lung ailments, accidents, cirrhosis of the liver, suicide, according to the American Psychological Association. And you know, things started changing back when Thomas Edison installed electric lights in New York City. People used to go to sleep when the sun went down. I mean, they might have the kerosene lamp, but, you know, that was expensive. And now because of artificial light, people are up all the time and they don't rest, and they work, and they work, and now we got our work devices in front of us all the time and it is a stressed out world. God said if we would take time every week and rest during the time He's blessed, it would lengthen your life.
Let me tell you something in case you didn't know this. How many of you have heard of something called the Blue Zones? Let me see your hands. National Geographic did a study--and they are not a religious organization. National Geographic did a study, and then there have been several programs on it. Individuals went around the world, they studied--there were pockets of people around the world that lived longer. It was very common for them to live to be over 100 years of age, places like Okinawa, Japan, Sardinia in the Mediterranean, and you know what the third place was? Loma Linda, California, and they thought, why Loma Linda, California? They said, oh, they got a Seventh-day Adventist hospital there, and it's a Seventh-day Adventist community and the people are keeping the Sabbath, and they are often living to over 100 years of age because they rest every week. Not to mention a lot of them are vegetarians, but the Sabbath had a lot to do with their longevity.
Jesus said, "Come unto Me," Matthew 11, "and I'll give you" what? "Rest," Jesus wants us to experience that rest, and the devil is robbing the culture of that peace and rest. By the way, when Moses came and he told the Pharaoh, "Let My people go," before Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh, it says he met--Moses came, he met with the elders. You find this in Exodus chapter 5, I believe. He met with the elders of Israel. He says, "The LORD Jehovah has met with us and told us He's going to deliver us, but we need to return to God, we need to recommit ourselves, we're wandering from the commandments of God. The Israelites are worshiping Egyptian idols, and we're forgetting to rest on the Sabbath day."
That's why when Moses goes to the Pharaoh, Pharaoh said to Moses, "I've heard what you're up to, you are making the people to rest." You know what the word is in Hebrew? Moses says, "You are causing the people to Shabbat," that's what it says. He said, "I'm not going to let you rest. In fact, I'm going to stop giving you straw for your bricks, you're going to have to gather your own straw, and I'm going to increase your workload." Moses is Christ, He says, "Let My people go." The Pharaoh is the devil, he says, "Work, work, work."
The devil wants us to be so busy with the cares of this life, even good things, you can work too much. Jesus said, "Beware lest your heart be overcharged with eating and drinking and the cares of this life, so that the Second Coming overtakes you unaware." The devil doesn't want us to rest. Do you know what it says about those who have the mark of the beast? They have no rest. This is a Bible prophecy subject, friends, can you see that?
On what two precious things does God say the Sabbath is a sign? Answer, Exodus 31:17: "It [the Sabbath] is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the LORD made," what's it say? "The LORD made the heavens and the earth." Now, did He just do that for the Jewish people or is that a sign for all people to believe the Word of God that He is the Creator? Would you agree with me that a lot of people in the world no longer believe that God created? They think we've all evolved from lower forms of life. I used to believe that, now I can't believe I used to believe that.
Because life is so complex, the idea that the complexity of life happened by accident is really absurd. You don't get organization and design and interworking system that I--did you know that they've studied one cell of a human being, one single cell of a human being now with an electron microscope? And they've come to the conclusion there are more machines and more activity and more interworking systems in a single cell of life than--this is the illustration, I did not invent it--the doctors are saying there is more activity in a single cell of life than New York City at rush hour. How could that ever happen by accident?
We are fearfully and wonderfully made. Every Sabbath day we are remembering that we are a creation of God, made in the image of God. And you know, one reason I think that so many young people are misbehaving and destroying themselves, when we started teaching that we all evolved from monkeys, the suicide rate shot up, they lost the purpose of life. When you tell young people there's a God, He's got a purpose for you, you are created in His image, that's a whole different destiny for young people. So, God says one reason for the Sabbath is we remember He created us, amen? It's a miracle, it's a marvel. Every Sabbath day we remind ourselves that He is our Creator, and you know what else that means? He's the boss. He is the Creator, we are the creation. He makes the rules, we follow. What else does the Bible say the Sabbath is a sign of? Ezekiel 20, verse 12: "Moreover I gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign."
Now, I want to stop before I even finish this. You know, in Revelation, what do people get in the forehead? Mark, what's it called? Some are saying mark, some are saying seal. Everybody thinks about the mark of the beast in the last days in the forehead. That's true, there is a mark of the beast in the hand or in the forehead, but they forget that the righteous also gets something in the forehead, it's the seal of God, and that word is a sign, God places a sign. Look what it says here, "Moreover I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know." The Bible says eternal life is knowing Jesus, "that they might know that I am the one who," what? "I sanctify them," that means I make them holy.
Now think about this, friends, if I were to ask you right now, where on the planet is the Holy Land, what would you say? Israel, sure, right answer, that's what most people would say, right? Muslims, Jews, Christians, we call it the Holy Land. If I were to say, where in the Holy Land--what do you call the holy city? Jerusalem, right answer. It gets a little harder, stay with me. If I were to say, where in Jerusalem is the Holy Mount, what's it called? Mount Moriah, sometimes called Mount Zion. And what is on the Holy Mount? The holy temple. And in the holy temple, when you first enter the first apartment, it's called the what? The holy place, and then after you leave the holy place, you go into the inner sanctum, it is called the what? The holy of holies or the most holy place, and why is it called the most holy place, there's only one thing in the room? The holy ark of the covenant, right? And what is in the holy ark of the covenant? The holy law of God, written by a holy God with His finger. And in the holy law, you find the word holy one time, "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy," you know why? Because God is love.
How do you experience love without time? You show me a couple that's having problems in their relationship and someone's going to say, "We don't spend any time together." And they're not talking about being in the same house, Karen will sometimes say to me--I know you've never had these conversations in your family. She'll say, "Doug, we're not spending time together." I'll say, "I was home all day yesterday." She says, "Yeah, you were in your office." I'll say, "Yeah, but I texted you." She's, "No! What about our date nights, you know? What about quality time?" You ever heard that?
God says, "I love you; I want to walk and talk with you in the garden." God came looking for Adam and Eve in the garden, they ran from God because they were naked, and they sinned. God didn't run from us, He wants holy time with us. The devil does not want us to have a holy time with God because then you'll know Him, then you'll love Him, then you'll serve Him, so he attacks this commandment because if you destroy the time, you destroy the relationship. Does that make sense? That's why it is very important to God and to His people. And in the last days, God's people are going to return to the faith that was once delivered to the saints, we're going to all come back to Bible religion, amen? The Bible says it's a sign, it's a seal, a mark of His authority.
Number five, the bottom line is if you are a Christian, you follow who? You follow Christ. What day did Jesus keep holy? It says, "He came to Nazareth," Luke chapter 4, verse 16: "He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the," when? "The Sabbath day." What was Jesus's pattern, His custom? "And He stood up to read," He used to go to church, and He read and they knew Him. Sometimes they'd have Him do the Scripture reading. When Christ began His ministry, He went to Nazareth, He went into the temple, He stood up to read the Scriptures, He gives an example of it. He even read from the prophecy, so even Jesus did pro--taught Bible prophecy. So, Jesus, He went to church every Sabbath.
By the way, someone is going to write down a question, but I'll preempt it right now and you can still ask, "I thought Jesus came to do away with the Sabbath. Didn't He say that it doesn't matter anymore because He healed people on the Sabbath day?" You know, Jesus never ever said the Sabbath didn't matter. Jesus never had a dispute on whether or not the Sabbath should be kept. Every Sabbath dispute that Jesus had with the religious leaders was on how to keep it, not whether or not it should be kept, because you realize the Ten Commandments are written by Christ.
Did the Sabbath come before or after sin? Before sin, it wasn't part of the ceremonial law, it was part of God's perfect plan. Do only Jews need rest, or does the human race needs a time of rest? And by the way, the Lord calls the Sabbath a holy convocation, Leviticus chapter 23. Convocation means convene, assembly, He wants us to come together and worship Him because we need each other.
Doug: Friends, I hope you've been blessed by today's message, but really the reason we do this is so that people might know Christ. You know, information is not going to save us, it's a relationship with Jesus, the One who died on the cross for your sins. You must personally accept Him, and that's the most important thing and why we do these programs. If you've not asked Him into your heart before, then I'd encourage you to do it right now. His arms are open wide, just come to Him as you are and ask Him.
Doug: Hi, friends, I trust you being blessed by what you're watching. If you want to be doubly blessed, then you're going to want to get the "Prophecy Odyssey" study guides that go along with these presentations. There's 15 study guides, they're beautifully illustrated, and they will greatly enhance your Bible comprehension. So, if you'd like to get them, simply follow the instructions that you see on the screen. You will be glad you did.
Doug: The book of Revelation describes a final war over worship, so perhaps it really does matter how and when we worship God. To learn more about this, you're going to want to get a copy of "The Lost Day of History." This "Amazing Fact" study guide reveals the hidden truth about the war over worship in the last days. To get your copy, simply follow the instructions on your screen, and we're going to send it to you absolutely free.
Doug: What you've seen just now is only part one in this presentation. Make sure and join us for part two in our next broadcast for some of the most important points on this topic, and to complete the corresponding study guides. Until then, God bless.
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