The 7th Day Sabbath - Pt. 1

Wayne Matthews

February 9, 2013

When we're first called by God the Father we have to address many things in our life, and the first matter to be addressed, that God requires us to look at, is the 7th day Sabbath. So the purpose of this sermon is to answer questions relating to the 7th day, the Sabbath day.

We're going to answer questions like: What is a Sabbath? When was it created and by whom? Why was it created? Why is it important to God and to mankind? What is required in keeping a 7th day Sabbath.

Well, I'll answer questions like: Can a person have a spiritual relationship with God and not keep the 7th day Sabbath? That's a good question for mankind because they would say that you can have a relationship with God and not keep the 4th Commandment, which is of course, keep the 7th day Sabbath. But we're going to look at that in a lot more detail and see what God has to say about it.

What are some of the do's and don'ts with regards to Sabbath keeping? Now, that also is quite a lengthy process because there are a lot of aspects in our physical life with regards to Sabbath keeping that we don't fully grasp and understand and only is understood through experience and application as you begin to keep the Sabbath, and as God reveals more of Himself and as we become more like God in our thinking we begin to appreciate the Sabbath more, we begin to understand the Sabbath more, and in the end we see the deep meaning and purpose and the beauty of the 7th day Sabbath. But in the beginning it is more a physical function that leads to spiritual understanding.

So the first thing we're going to look at is: What is a Sabbath? Then we'll look at: When was the 7th day created, or the Sabbath created, and by whom?

Firstly, the word 'Sabbath' in the Hebrew really just simply means 'rest'. It mean rest. And we're going to start off in Genesis 1, so if you'd like to turn to Genesis 1:1 we're going to go through all of Genesis 1 because it actually establishes what God's purpose is for mankind and we really need to understand that - and of course it involves the keeping of a 7th day Sabbath.

Genesis 1:1 - In the beginning, well, that really is In a beginning God, which is Elohim created the heavens and the earth. So here we see that after the creation of a spirit realm and spirit beings Yahweh Elohim created a physical universe, which was all the planets, and that included the earth. So it actually included the earth in a particular state and it also included what we would consider today, the planets or the stars in the universe. Now, He did this for a purpose and that purpose was to place mankind on it in a future time, but in the beginning God created all the universe, and including the earth, for a purpose and that purpose, of course, in the end was to place man on it in a time period so that man could be transformed into His image, and then for them, mankind, to enter Elohim as spirit beings with His character, His mind, His way of thinking dwelling in them. Now, that is an incredible purpose!

Now the time that is involved here we have no real understanding - we just know that it is millions and millions of years, but God is so patient that He saw the need to start off with a creation that would lead to Elohim, which is the beginning, really, of a spiritual creation, and when that is complete then there are more plans. So God has a plan for eternity and there is lots in that plan that we have no idea or don't understand. We understand aspects of this plan today, which is God is creating His mind inside a human - which is incredible - to change the thinking, to transform the mind from a physical to a spiritual state.

So we'll look at verse 2 - The earth was without form, now that word 'was' is became, so the earth became without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. So God created the earth and the universe in perfect beauty, and we can find that in Isaiah 45:18. You may want to hold your place in Genesis 1.

Isaiah 45:18 - For thus says the Eternal, that word is Yahweh, the Self-Existing One who created the heavens; who is God, who is Elohim, Who formed the earth and made it; and that word like 'formed the earth', is like a potter fashions an item. So it takes time, it takes moulding and fashioning.  Who has established it, who did not create it in vain, so God did not create it empty or void, it was actually a beautiful creation and it wasn't 'lay in waste', it was actually a beautiful, perfect creation. Now that word 'in vain', the root meaning there is 'to lay waste, to be empty, to be in confusion without form, a wilderness, an empty place'. Well, God is saying that He didn't create it that way, He created it in beauty, it was a perfect creation.

Going on there... Who formed it to be inhabited: so now God is stating here in Isaiah the reason for the creation was it was formed to be inhabited. I am the Eternal; and there is no other. We know that... we know from what other scriptures state that Lucifer and many of the angels were given charge over the earth. We know they rebelled against God's way and they desired to destroy the earth, and the other planets, that would in the future support mankind. We know Satan's rebellion, we know what he did and we know from other scriptures that he rebelled against God and he did not like God's plan, because he had lifted himself up in what he thought was his power and his beauty and he actually resisted God and went against God's will by his own choice. By doing so Lucifer believed he could destroy God's plan to create a spirit family through mankind, because in Satan's thinking (or Lucifer's thinking at the time; he was changed later to be called Satan)...so we have Lucifer's thinking which is if you destroy the earth where God is in the future going to place mankind...therefore if you destroy the earth - destroying God's plan. But of course that is limiting God's great power and that is really just insane thinking, really, that you could stop God and His purpose, because He is almighty and He will achieve His purpose and nothing will stand in God's way.

So here we have a spirit being trying to destroy God's plan. The earth became void and empty of physical life and the earth was covered in water with no life existing in it.This is the first time where we see the earth completely covered in water. Now, all the life that existed on it, the plant life and the animal life that existed on it at that time was now destroyed and therefore it was totally buried under water and all physical life had been destroyed by Satan.

Often there is discussions with regards to how dinosaurs existed. Well, there is in the FAQ section in Topics, under Dinosaurs, it states that:

God created the universe and the earth millions of years ago. Dinosaurs also existed millions of years ago along with other plant life on the earth. God placed the earth and its care under the rule of a spirit being named Lucifer. When Lucifer rebelled (his name then changed to Satan [after the rebellion]) against his Creator, along with a 1/3rd of the angelic realm, all physical life was destroyed which included the dinosaurs. Their bones have been found spread out all over the earth and are dated as being millions of years old.

At this time the sun and the moon, along with other planets continued to exist, but of course, they were out of orbit at that time because the moon was thrown out of its orbit, the earth was thrown out of its axis, because Satan had set out to destroy the earth, and a lot more I'm sure than just the earth. In this we see that God is now renewing the earth, in Genesis, where He is now taking steps to renew the earth for the purpose of supporting physical life because He has a plan to create man and in that process He would then transform them into a spirit life through a transformation of the mind and at some point in time change them to spirit. Isn't it a wonderful plan!

Let's go on in Genesis 1:3 - And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. So here the sun and the moon are placed back in their correct orbit so they can enable physical life on the earth in the future - not just yet, but at this point God is correcting the planet alignment so that light can now shine through to the earth's surface. And God saw the light, on the earth, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. So in the beginning, at this point, there was darkness, then light.

Verse 5 - God called the light, day, and the darkness He called night. And the evening (so the night) and the morning (the day) were the first day. So a day period was created by God. God is the creator of all things, but here it clearly states that God created what we term today as a day, a night portion and a day portion. God here creates time for mankind. A day consists of darkness (a night) when the sun is down, and a light period called daylight, when the sun is up. This is the first time since the rebellion that sun was now affecting the earth so life could once again exist. God called it day 1. It's not the day of the sun, 'Sunday', as Satan has deceived mankind into believing. God just simply calls day 1 as day 1 of His creation.

It's interesting, though, that this first day where the sun is made available and God creates a day, that Satan takes this day and calls it 'the day of the sun', because this is the first time in God re-establishing the earth for mankind to live on it, that He allows the sun or daylight to appear on the earth and Satan turns around and says to mankind, "Well, let's call it Sunday, the day of the sun." Well, that's how Satan has deceived mankind. Here we have Satan changing the 1st day of the week and calling it 'Sunday', yet mankind today is so deceived that they will call the day of the sun the 7th day, and yet here it is very clear that it is the 1st day of the week, the day the sun appeared, but Satan in time has now changed man's thinking to believe that Sunday is the 7th day.

Verse 6 - Then God said, Let there be a 'firmament' and that word actually is 'expanse', which is like a gap, in the midst of the waters, and let it divide/separate the waters from the waters. Here we see the water is basically considered as a solid mass supporting the water below and the water above, so they're like joined together. God here is separating the firmament, or the expanse, He is creating one. So He's lifting water up to make clouds where the water exists and keeping water on the earth's surface like what we call oceans today.

Verse 7 - Thus God made/fashioned the firmament/expanse, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. God created a gap or space between the waters and the clouds.

Verse 8 - And God called the firmament, heaven. So the evening and the morning of the second day. So, just to come to understand something in scripture; scriptures actually talk about three heavens. Now, the word 'heaven' means 'lofty' or 'heaven' or 'air', but there are three heavens written in scripture. The first one is the atmosphere above the earth. So, it's the atmosphere above the earth, it is the gap between the clouds and the earth. The second area that scripture mentions about the heavens is the area outside the earth's atmosphere, which is above the clouds going into what we would call outer space. And the third heaven is the location of God in a spirit world that He created. So they are the three heavens that are spoken of in scripture.

God called it day 2 and not the day of the moon or moon-day. It's interesting how Satan calls this day moon-day really, and we call it today in modern society, 'Monday', which is simply another meaning of the word 'moon-day', because the ancestries of mankind have gone back and have worshiped planets. The history of man since Adam and Eve is to worship something, and worshipping false god's, making false gods and worshipping the sun, worshipping the moon and worshipping planets is a history of mankind.

Verse 9 - Then God said, Let the waters under the heavens, the water that covers the earth's surface, be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. So here is the earth still covered with water, the clouds have been created and there is a big gap there with what we would call the atmosphere today, the first heaven, and now God is saying, the waters that are covering the earth, He's going to move them and put them into different locations. For example, move and create land so that land could appear; so move the waters, create land.

Verse 10 - And God called the dry land, earth; and the gathering together of the waters He/God/Yahweh Elohim called 'seas': now that word 'seas' is from a root of a word meaning 'to roar', because the waters do roar, the roaring ocean, and God saw that it was good.

Verse 11 - Then God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind: and God saw that it was good. And so the evening and the morning of the third day. God called day three, the third day, day 3; practical and logical. Man, of course, has turned that and changed it into 'Tuesday'. The planet Mars is in honor of the God 'Mars', the Saxons named this day after their god, 'Tiw', or 'Tiw's day' - Tuesday... Tues - Tuesday, comes from the name of a Saxon god.

Now we come to day 4, the creation of a calendar to mark time for mankind, a calendar of time so we know when to worship our Creator. But man has lost that, they just kept time and they try to change aspects of time in the way they've changed months and renamed days, but the seven days of the creation still exist in today's calendars because of seven days in a week - but man has changed the names of the days and they've changed the month to change the moon cycles, which we may or may not get time to get into that in the end.

So a calendar and time as we know it were created for mankind. Verse 14 - And God said, Let there be light, which is a luminary to be seen from the earth, in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and 'seasons', and that word there is 'appointed times', and for days, and for years: So God is the one who has created days, God is the one who creates time and the calendar. He appointed signs, i.e. the moon cycle, the cycle of the moon, and the sun. It was Him who did it and He did this for a reason, and it's to do with appointed times.

How mankind was to count time from one appointed time to another was established by God, because it is about appointments. This was the only way to work out when mankind could keep appointments with God. So we have to understand the seven day week to be able to even begin to keep appointments with God.

Verse 15 - And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth: and it was so. Then God made two great lights; Actually, He didn't create them but He made them to shine on the earth in their seasons based on their rotation, the greater light, the sun, to rule the day, and the lesser light, the moon, to rule the night: He made the stars also to shine on the earth. He didn't make them but He made them to shine on the earth at night time; so they were given for seasons and times to work out time to when we were to meet to worship our Creator.

Verse 17 - God set them, in the designed rotation to achieve seasons; so God is setting the planets in their rotation to achieve seasons, in the firmament of the heaven to give light to the earth, And to rule over the day and over the night, to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. So the evening and the morning of the fourth day. God called this day, day 4, and it's not the day of 'Woden', 'Wednesday'. The planet Mercury, man later in honor of the god 'Woden'. You can see that man has simply changed God's times and really what we call 'Wednesday' is actually day 4 and God will call it day 4 in the future, because that's what He named it, the fourth day. It's called day 4.

Now we come to day 5, the creation of the fish in the water and the birds in the air. Verse 20 - Then God said, Let the waters abound with an abundance of 'living' 'creatures', now that word is 'nephesh', 'creeping things' is another way to put it, or 'living' is 'nephesh' and 'creatures'/'creeping things', and let the birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens. So God created great sea creatures, and every living thing, every living nephesh that moves, with which the waters abound, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind: and God saw that it was good, that it was pleasant. Now, the word 'kind' there is really 'groups of living organisms belonging to the same created kind, or genetic pool'.

Verse 22 - And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, in other words, increase and fill the waters in the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth. And so was the evening and the morning of the fifth day. And God called this day 5, and it is not the day of 'Thor', 'Thursday', the planet Jupiter later named in honor of the god 'Thor'.

Now we come to day 6 which is the creation of animals and mankind, the purpose of why God is doing all this, to create man, to give him the potential to enter His Family, to live in peace for eternity. It's incredible when you fully come to grasp the purpose of God and what potential mankind has, which of course man has no idea of his real potential. None whatsoever! Only God's Church and those that may have been in part of God's Church in times past have some inclination or understanding of this, but that is soon lost.  They soon lose the real purpose, the real understanding of the transformation that needs to take place.

Verse 24 - Then God said, Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to its kind, 'cattle', that word is actually 'beasts', and living things, and 'beasts', this is not 'beasts', it's 'living creatures' of the earth, each according to its kind; and it was so. And God made the living creatures of the earth according to its kind, beasts according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind; and God saw that it was good. So here we have the creation of the animals to roam the earth, to be there for mankind. You know, people these days, there are religions that worship the earth, they call it 'Mother Earth'. They give credit to animals and people desire to come back as an animal; they think that's the purpose of life. But animals were created for mankind, they weren't just created just to be on the earth, they were created for mankind.

Verse 26 - Then God said, and this is actually a bad translation of the true intent of the scripture because the way that they've interpreted these words they've had to add the word 'us' in here because the word 'God' is a plural, 'Elohim' is like a plural word, so you can't...they haven't turned it into a singular because it's a plural word so they've added the word 'us' here, but 'us' is actually not in scripture; it's just simply not there. And the word 'our' is actually not in scripture either, when we get through this. So God said, Let us make, and of course the word 'us' is not in scripture, make man, make Adam, in our, and the word 'our' is not there, in image, and 'image' means 'resemblance', according to our, and the word 'our' is not there, likeness/similitude, it's like a copy; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle/beasts, over all the earth, so man was to have dominion, was to manage it, to be able to rule it with a correct mindset in the way that God had desired to manage animals, for example, which man doesn't do, but that was what God said, was that we were to have authority over the animals, to have dominion over them, to rule over them but with a nature that was directed towards proper management, it wasn't the wrong side of the carnal mind, it was to have some level of understanding of how to manage animals the correct way ...and over every living/creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

So this can be best read, Let man be made in Elohim image. This statement covers God's purpose for all of His spiritual creation and His physical creation. So we can clearly see from this very scripture why God created animals but also why God really created man - to be in Elohim.

Verse 27 - So God created mankind in His/His own image, in the image of God He created him; it's all singular; male and female He created them. So God created male and female.

Verse 28 - Then God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it: to manage it, to control it to the benefit of mankind, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, so they was to be consumed, the clean ones were and the ones that God decided were correct for mankind's structure, over the fowl of the air, again, we could eat certain ones but not others, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. Again, according to what God established what we would call clean foods.

Verse 29 - And God said, See, I have given you every herb that yields seeds, which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree, who's fruit yields seed; to you it shall be food. Also every living creature, the word 'beast' is there but it's every living creature on the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth in which there is life, I have given you every green herb for food: and it was so. God was establishing what could be and what could not be eaten at this stage. It wasn't that you could just go and eat everything that you like, but God was saying that He gave them for us, for a purpose.

Verse 31 - Then God saw everything that He had made, and, indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day. God saw that His purpose to create Elohim through mankind was good and God called this day 6, not the day of 'Frigg', 'Friday'; the planet Venus later named in the honor of the god 'Frigg'. Isn't it incredible? God just simply calls it day 6.

Genesis 2:1 - Thus the heavens and the earth and all the hosts of them were finished. God has now established man in an environment where he could be sustained and He had created all these different plants and animals that were able to be consumed by mankind to sustain physical life for a period of time.

Verse 2 - And on the seventh day He ended His work which He had done; and He rested - He Sabbath'd...here is the creation of the Sabbath - on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. So here is God saying He rested from all His work because He was working to do this, He had a goal and a purpose, and He had done; it was to do, to fashion, to accomplish, to make.

Verse 3 - And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it: now, the word 'sanctified' means 'to dedicate, to prepare, to consecrate, to appoint, to sanctify, to separate.' God separated this day for a purpose and here is the answer, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. God, having created the world in six days, and that is refashioned it to sustain human beings on it, rested. He actually stopped His work on the seventh day. So by stopping and resting He created it, that's how it was created, it was created by God for mankind and the way it was created was He set the example, He stopped His work and rested on it; and that's why the word means 'rest'. He ceased from producing new physical beings in this creation, and because He had rested on it He blessed it and set it aside; in other words, He made it holy, He made it for Him to be able to use for the benefit of mankind.

Now we have some answers to some of the questions we originally asked. What is a Sabbath? It is a time of rest. This now opens up also other questions, because people will say, "Well, define 'rest'." Well, in scripture it is cessation from working. That's basically what it is, stop working. God stopped working. A rest is you stop working. But it also requires not only physical stopping work but it also requires mental, the mind to stop working, because a person can stop physical working but they can continue to work in their mind. In other words, work out all the things they're going to be doing tomorrow or the next day, all the ways they're going to create to make money. But God's saying, no, it's actually a physical rest but it's also a time to rest the mind from ways of trying to work out how to earn a living. So we are to stop working physically but also mentally to stop working.

So another question which we had was: When was the Sabbath day created and by whom? We've just gone through that. It was created by God, Yahweh Elohim, the Great Almighty God, after six days of working. It was created by resting, resting on the seventh day. God blessed this day and set it aside for holy use and purpose. It was a day He was going to use to benefit His creation.

Why was the Sabbath made? Well, let's look at Mark 2:27, what Christ said about it. Later on we will - this is actually probably part 1 because it's probably going to be two parts - we're going to look at why God created the Sabbath in a lot more detail but also we're going to explore the other scriptures that relate to the way Christ kept the Sabbath. But here Christ is saying and giving the answer to why the Sabbath was made.

Mark 2:27 - And then He, Christ, said to them, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath: God created the Sabbath for the benefit of mankind because He was going to use this day to develop Elohim.

How would mankind benefit from this day? This is a day of physical rest from man's labors, gaining an income. It is a time to rest the mind from looking at ways to earn an income. This is a spiritual rest that would benefit mankind. So it's a physical one but it's also a spiritual rest. This is the day God set aside to teach those He would call. God teaches His way of life on this day by the power of His holy spirit. It is the day that God uses to create His mind, His ways and thinking in mankind. Isn't that wonderful! God created this day by resting. Now, He created it for a purpose and that purpose was to take what He created physically, being mankind, to give him a physical rest and a rest of the mind so that God on this day would pour out His spirit and teach man His ways, because man on the other days was too busy working. This day God forces man to rest so that He could teach [and man] could learn, so he could learn spiritually on this day. Now this is the day, the Sabbath, where God pours out His spirit onto mankind so that mankind could learn to understand God's ways, to live God's ways, to know how God thinks. But of course, it's only for those that God calls into this relationship with Him.

The Sabbath is the means by which God uses to transform the mind of those He calls into a relationship with Him. So it does require a calling from God, and we are called, first of all, to come to know God through the Sabbath. So when a person's called the very first thing that they must come to see and understand is the keeping of the 7th day Sabbath. Now, if somebody refuses to keep the 7th day Sabbath by setting it aside for holy use and purpose they cannot enter into a relationship with God, it's impossible.

So the first sign of somebody that is being called by God is their desire to keep the 7th day Sabbath. Now, that creates lots of issues in people's lives because we have grown up, generally, in this society not understanding the Sabbath, believing that Sunday was the 7th day and therefore people are sort of half-heartedly setting aside a day called Sunday to stop working or to in an attempt at vain glory to worship the god of their own thinking, but not the true God who established the day to worship Him. So this creates issues in people's lives because they normally, most people in most societies, work on the 7th day, the Sabbath. People are faced with a challenge; it's a spiritual challenge, "Will I obey God and submit to God or won't I?" So that's the first choice.

So nobody can continue a relationship with God or His Church unless they set aside the 7th day Sabbath. That is the beginning of understanding God or beginning to understand God, because it's the beginning of obedience, and from that obedience, by resting on that day, God will now pour out His spirit on those He calls into this relationship to have them begin the process of developing the very mind of God. It's a wonderful, wonderful plan. That's why the Sabbath is so important. That's why without the Sabbath mankind doesn't have anything - absolutely nothing - they can't grow in a relationship with God without the Sabbath.

Now, the problem with mankind, with a natural carnal mind, is that without God's spirit they have now turned the Sabbath day, a particular group of people, generally the tribe of Judah, and worship the day rather than the Creator of the day. Mankind has in his own thinking, thinks that by setting the day aside or separate they turn the day into the burden because they worship the day with all these rules and regulations, what you can and can't do, and don't do this, don't do that, but they forget the Creator and the reason why He created the day. God created the day for mankind, it wasn't the other way around, it wasn't mankind for the Sabbath, but that's what certain people do, they actually turn the day into what is worshipped, they worship the day not the Creator of the day because they don't understand why the Sabbath was created.

Now, we do know that the seventh day was given to Adam and Eve, they were instructed on this day because they were created on day 6 and God rested on day 7 and He began a relationship with them. We do not know how long they held onto observing the 7th day Sabbath; we just don't know how long it took. They possibly even after they were rejected or ejected out of the Garden of Eden, they possibly continued some form of 7th day keeping, but without God's spirit of course we cannot really keep the 7th day Sabbath. They probably did for a time being but over time the 7th day Sabbath was lost to the vast majority of mankind except those, of course, that God called into a relationship with Him. Course that brings us up to the time where we have the flood, then you have mankind scattered out, then you have Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, then you come to a period where the Israelites were in captivity. And for the sake of not going through all of that period, because we're trying to focus in on the Sabbath day...so once the Israelites were taken out of a physical captivity by God through the exodus where they had the Passover and then they left on the very First Day of Unleavened Bread, they left that night on the 15th of Abib, they entered into the wilderness and they journeyed for a period. Now God is going to re-establish with the Israelites, the twelve tribes of Israel, He's going to re-establish the Sabbath day, the timing of the Sabbath day because it appears that that was lost and the observance of the Sabbath was not there for the Israelites.

If you'd like to turn to Exodus 16:1, and we see God establishing the 7th day Sabbath with the Israelites. Exodus 16:1 - And they journeyed from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they departed from the land of Egypt. This is exactly one month after the exodus.

Verse 2 - Then the whole congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness: so this is the natural carnal mind at work, they don't have God's spirit and they're complaining against the leadership, they are unhappy. It's been one month and they're unhappy with the way things are.

Verse 3 - And the children of Israel said to them, to Moses and Aaron, Oh that we had died by the hand of the Eternal in the land of Egypt when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full; it doesn't take them long to come to realize that things aren't the way that they thought they would be and they're looking back now and reminiscing of the times where they had food, whereas at this point in time things aren't the way that they want them, and so now they're saying, "Oh, we'd have been better off if we'd stayed there! Why didn't you just leave us there?" for you, talking to Moses and Aaron, have brought us forth into the wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger. So they're hungry and now they're complaining, things aren't the way we want them.

Verse 4 - Then the Eternal said to Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; now, today of course, it's a spiritual food. God is going to complete miracles here to establish which day is the 7th day Sabbath for them, but He's also going to feed them, to give them food and meat to eat. ...and the people shall go out and gather a certain quantity/quota every day, why? that I may test/prove them, whether they will walk in My law, or not. So we're going to see from this that the Sabbath is going to be established as a test commandment, obedience or not. Six days of work, but God established that mankind should rest on the 7th day from physical work for spiritual reasons.

Verse 5 - And it shall be on the sixth day, known as Friday today, that they shall prepare what they bring in and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily. From this we can see that God established the sixth day, day six, which we call Friday today, as a day of preparation, a day of preparing to keep the Sabbath holy.

Verse 6 - Then Moses and Aaron said to all the children of Israel, At evening, in the evening, you shall know that the Eternal has brought you out of the land of Egypt: Now, this is the same on a spiritual level as our calling. We are called out from the land of Egypt, we're called out of the worlds system, out of sin. So there is a way to know that you've being called out of sin and it points you directly to the Sabbath. God will feed us on the Sabbath day; that's the day He feeds us spiritually, and once called and once we have proven to ourselves through the power of God's spirit in us that the 7th day Sabbath is required we then begin to keep it and that continual keeping of the 7th day Sabbath actually reaffirms the faith in us that God is working with us, because He feeds us on that day and we begin to see spiritually. That's the day we see spiritually because God works through a governmental structure to feed His people, just like the children of Israel were fed manna we are fed spiritual manna on the Sabbath day. We're to work six days but on the seventh we are to rest.

We now see that God would provide proof that He is the one who provides for them, just like we should have by now being members of the Body of Christ have proof that He is the one who provides food for us, spiritual food on the 7th day Sabbath.

Verse 7 - And in the morning you shall see the glory of the Eternal; for He hears your complaints, your murmuring, against the Eternal: but what are we that you complain or murmur against us? Here Moses and Aaron are saying, "Well, you're actually, when you complain against us, you're actually complaining against God because God is in charge of all things." For us today we need to be very careful about what we think, what we say about the leadership of God's Church in relation to the ministry, because it's the same thing. God established the ministry, the ministry was not self-appointed. It was God that appointed the ministry and therefore it's God's will that people are ordained and it's God's will that He has set aside time.

We should see that God sees all things. Nothing in thought, word, or action, is hidden from God.

Verse 8 - Also Moses said, This shall be seen when the Eternal gives you meat/flesh to eat in the evening and in the morning bread to the full; for the Eternal hears your complaints/murmurings which you make against Him: and what are we? Your complaints are not against us, but against the Eternal.  Finding fault with God's leaders is the same as finding fault with God. The principle here, we need to be very careful the way we think toward the ministry. We should not judge with condemnation or condemn as guilty another man's servant.

You know, the ministry really is God's servants, and I know from my own personal experience that the ministry strive to obey God, and yes, the ministry don't always by words or actions or thoughts get it correct, but deep down I know that God's ministry strives to do the right thing. But that doesn't mean to say that there isn't mistakes that are made - we are human as well - but in that the lesson really is that we, all of us, every one of us, needs to be very careful the way we think toward others in the Body of Christ, because everyone else is somebody's servant - they're God's servant whether they're in the ministry or whether they're lay members of the Body of Christ, a member of the Body of Christ. Everyone is a servant of God so we need to be careful the way we think towards others in the Body.

Verse 9 - Then Moses spoke to Aaron, Say to all the congregation of the children of Israel, Come near before the Eternal: for He has heard your complaints/murmurings. Now it came to pass, as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and, behold, the glory of the LORD appeared in a cloud. And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, I have heard the complaints of the children of Israel: speak to them, saying, At twilight, between the two evenings - one day, evening and a morning, which is at twilight, you shall eat meat/flesh, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread; and you shall know that I am the Eternal your God. So it was that quails came up at evening, at the night, and covered the camp; and in the morning, in the light portion, the dew, or it's like a mist, lay around all the camp.

Verse14 - And when the layer of dew, the night mist, lifted, there on the surface of the wilderness was a small round substance, that 'small' is 'thin and fine', and 'substance' is like a 'flake' as fine as frost on the ground.

Verse 15 - So when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, 'What is it?' For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, This is the bread which the LORD has given you to eat. Now, this same matter applies in the New Testament, of course, which is in relation to the Bread of Life.  This was the physical food, or a physical food that would support and maintain physical life while they were in the wilderness. Manna pointed to what God would provide on a spiritual level in the future. Jesus Christ was the Bread of Life.

We can see that the Israelites could only stay alive on a physical level if they ate the manna, which was the bread of life. So we can only stay alive on a spiritual level if we consume the Bread of Life. Let's look at John 6:30 -Therefore they said to Him, What sign will you perform then that we may see it and believe you? What work will you do? They desired physical proof of a spiritual situation. They were saying, "Prove yourself to us!"

Verse 31 - Our fathers ate manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat. Now, they could see the proof of the work that God did, they could see the manna, so they had physical proof. They could see it on the ground therefore they had proof that it was real and it was written in scriptures. Here the Scribes and Pharisees are saying, "Well, we've got this proof! You've given us nothing to prove that You are who You say You are."

Verse 32 - Then Jesus said to them, Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give them the bread from heaven; because it was God that did it, but My Father gives you the true Bread from heaven. For the Bread is of God.

Verse 33 - The Bread of God is 'he', that word can be 'it', the Word made flesh, who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. How? By forgiveness of sin, by Passover and the holy spirit being given on the Day of Pentecost 31 A.D.. So here is Christ saying, "Well, I am the Bread of Life." It's the Word of God made flesh, it is the mind of God, the Word of God in a man, and therefore everything that Jesus Christ said or did was from God. He was the Word made flesh, and He has come down from heaven in the sense that God has placed His thoughts, His Word into a man - and therefore He is the true Bread of Life.

Verse 34 - Then they said to Him, Lord, give us this Bread always. So here they're turning it completely physical, which is understandable because they don't have God's spirit. They're thinking, "Well, if we have this physical bread like manna and we eat it we'll have life, we'll be fine every day, we won't have to go looking for it or whatever, just give us this bread and we'll have life. The bread of life, this is fantastic!" ...on a physical level.

Verse 35 - And Jesus said to them, I am the Bread of Life: He who comes to Me, which is a continual action, it's a continual coming, shall never hunger; and He who believes in Me shall never thirst. Christ is talking, of course, on a spiritual level. We, brethren, have to continually come to Christ, which we do through repentance. We will never hunger if we continually come to Christ, through the power of His holy spirit we will then have God's spirit and Christ living and dwelling in us because that is the Bread of Life, it is God's spirit, it is God's mind, it is the mind of Christ living and dwelling in us. 'He who believes in Me shall never thirst,' on a spiritual level. If we appear before God on the 7th day Sabbath we will always have the Bread of Life. If we appear before God on the 7th day Sabbath we will never thirst spiritually. So we'll never hunger or thirst on a spiritual level if we appear before God on a Sabbath in spirit and truth.

Verse 36 - But I say to you, That you have seen Me, and have not believed.

Verse 37 - All that the Father gives Me comes to Me; and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. This requires a calling of course. We know that God the Father is the one who calls us, He gives us to Christ and Christ looks after us in the Church. All that the Father calls and places in the Church under the care of Jesus Christ will not be rejected by Christ. But they, of course, the individual that's called and placed in the Body of Christ through baptism and the laying of hands, the receipt of God's spirit, can reject Christ by their choices, and that is basically through unrepented sin. So we reject Christ and God the Father living and dwelling in us because of unrepented sin, because of our pride. We begin to get cut off from God because of sin and then by our choices of not desiring to repent, not desiring to fight everyday against those thoughts and everyday against the sin that so easily besets us, is when we cut ourselves off, because we just give up the fight and we become lethargic in the battle. We can be cut off from God's spirit because of unrepented sin. We can refuse to allow Christ and God the Father to live in us - just like these people could then, that's what Jesus Christ was saying.

Verse 38 - For I have come down from heaven, in other words come out of the Father, not to do My own will, so it wasn't just something He was doing on a selfish level to please Himself, but He was doing the will of Him who sent Me. Jesus Christ was doing the will of the Father. Jesus Christ was the Word made flesh. He was the express image of God by the way of His mind, of His thinking. So, do we remember the statement, "If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father"?  In that conversation Jesus Christ was saying, "Well, if you've seen Me, if you've seen the way I live, you've seen the way the Father lives. If you've seen the way that I think, the way that I speak, you've seen My actions, you've seen the Father." Because He was the Word of God made flesh.

Verse 39 - This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. Jesus Christ is saying it's a promise of the Father. The Father will call us, place us in the Body of Christ under the care of Jesus Christ, the Head of the Church, and Jesus Christ will nurture us and feed us until the time that we are ready to be changed at a resurrection. He will raise us up at the last day because it is the work of Christ that has been given by God the Father to Him to give us life, and it is only through Christ that we can have life.

Verse 40 - And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him, on a spiritual level, may have everlasting life: that's God's purpose and plan. That's His plan of salvation! That's Jesus Christ's motivation, is to nurture us in the Church, feed us in the Church to give us life. That's the desire of the Father and Christ. ...and I will raise him up at the last day. In a time order that God has revealed in His plan; each one in an order.

To see the Son spiritually requires the gift of the holy spirit. To believe in Him, in what He says, also requires the holy spirit. And that's why today society, mankind, and all the different religions cannot please God; it's impossible because it does require a calling, it does require the gift of God, God's spirit in us to keep us in repentance. It does require God's spirit to believe Him, what He says, and it does require God's spirit to believe the need for keeping of the Sabbath on a spiritual level, not just a physical one. Because there are religions out there that keep a day, the 7th day, the correct day, as a Sabbath, and they rest on it, but it's not kept in spirit and truth because they don't have God's spirit, therefore they cannot keep the Sabbath the way that God has designed it to be kept on a spiritual level.

Do we remember the statement, brethren, "Of Myself I can do nothing." Because, see, without God we can't do anything spiritual, we cannot obey God on a physical level. We can just keep things in the sense of keeping a day but that's not what God requires. God requires it kept on a spiritual level. God requires to feed us spiritually and to feed us spiritually we have to have God's spirit living and dwelling in us. So of ourselves, by ourselves, our natural carnal mind can do nothing good. It's absolutely impossible! Can't do any good on a spiritual level. With God we can because it is God that does the work through us.

This same principle applies to us. With God's spirit we can do good, because it's God doing good through us, therefore we can keep the Sabbath, which is good.

Verse 41 - The Jews then complained about Him, because He said, I am the Bread of Life which came down from heaven. They couldn't understand what He was really saying.

Let's go back to Exodus 16:16 - This is the word, it says 'This is the thing' but it's the word which the LORD has commanded, Let every man gather it, the manna, according to each ones need, one omer, now, an omer is about 2L, for each person according to the number of persons; let each man take for those who are in his tent, those in his dwelling, for the rest of his family. Then the children of Israel did so, and gathered, some more and some less, based on the number in the household.

Verse 18 - So when they measured it by omer's, he who gathered much had nothing left over, and he who gathered little had no lack; every man had gathered according to each one's needs. And Moses said, Let no one leave it till the morning. In other words, don't leave it until daybreak, until the rising of the sun in the morning. They were to consume it all that night and save none of it for the daylight portion. Now, we'll look at this later on, there is a reason for that.

Verse 20 - Notwithstanding, they did not heed Moses; surprise, surprise, the natural carnal mind. The natural carnal mind thinks it knows better, therefore why would you listen to Moses, what he said, because they don't understand the purpose of the manna at this point in time, they simply don't. They just see it as food and therefore they're going to consume it on a physical level, "We'll get it when we want it." Notwithstanding they did not heed Moses, but some of them left part until the morning, and it bred worms and stank: and Moses was angry/displeased with them. So they gathered it every morning, it was fresh every morning, every man according to his need: and when the sun became hot, it melted on the ground. It dissolved on the ground, it melted. But what they had picked and taken back into their home, during the rest of that daylight portion it stayed fine, they were to eat it that night and not keep any for the next day, because they were able to come back out the next morning and pick a fresh lot of manna.

And so it was on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread/manna, two omers for each person: so they were only supposed to pick one, now they pick two for each person. So it's going to carry them through the Sabbath day, the daylight and night portion, and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. One omer was for a night portion, the day they could eat it, and not to keep any for the next day. Here God is establishing the principle of the preparation day, day 6, and that principle is: Limit the amount of physical work as much as possible and in balance on a Sabbath. We're to work and prepare on the Friday, which is day 6; up until sunset we're to prepare, get ready, because once the Sabbath starts we should then enter into a physical rest and also a spiritual rest. We should limit the amount of work required in a household on the Sabbath day. But on the Friday we should prepare as much as possible, and we'll, hopefully, get into that in part 2.

Verse 23 - Then he, Moses, said to them, This is what the LORD has said, Tomorrow is  a Sabbath rest, a holy Sabbath to the LORD: bake what you will bake today, which is day 6, and boil what you will boil, and lay up for yourselves all that remains to keep it until the morning; until the Sabbath morning because they're not allowed to go out and pick it. So we're to remember that we're to prepare as much as possible on day 6. So they laid it up until the morning, for the Sabbath, as Moses commanded: and it did not stink, whereas every other day it was rotten and worms had developed in it; nor were there any worms in it.

Verse 25 - Then Moses said, Eat that today, for today is a Sabbath to the Eternal. Today you will not find it in the field. In other words, no manna would appear on the Sabbath morning

Verse 26 - Six days you shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, there will be none. Now it happened that some of the people went out on the Sabbath day to gather, in other words they went out to work, they didn't follow the instructions of Sabbath keeping, but they found none. So we can learn from this that God now established which day was the 7th day Sabbath because no manna appeared in the morning. So now they know which is the 7th day Sabbath and God has provided them physical proof.

We can learn something from this. Our physical labor will not last but our spiritual labor will.

Verse 28 - And the Eternal said to Moses, How long will you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws? See, for the LORD has given you the Sabbath, therefore He gives you on the sixth day bread for two days; let every man remain in his place, let no man go out to his place on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh day. We can see now that God has revealed to the Israelites the correct day which the Sabbath is to be kept, the 7th day. He had given them instructions to prepare extra on the sixth day but on the seventh day they were not to work. God would provide them this clear sign for forty years in the wilderness. So it was re-established in them for forty years because it was forty years that God provided the manna.

So the time they went into the promised land, when the manna stopped, they then knew clearly - because they could count to seven - which was the Sabbath day and therefore it was established and set. But also, when they get to Mount Sinai God established it as a law because it is part of the way to love God and it is simply outlined in Exodus 20:8.

Here is now God giving it as a law. It's to be set, it's to be established as a perpetual covenant, an everlasting agreement with the Israelites, with anyone that God is working with. Exodus 20:8 - Remember, now that word is 'call to mind' the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. In other words, keep it separate from the other six days. Six days you shall labor, in other words, work to earn a living, work to earn an income, and do all your work: do all your occupation, your work for your business.

Verse 10 - But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Eternal your God: in it you shall do no work, you, nor your sons, this is talking about things in your control; nor your sons, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates: In other words, anybody that is under your authority or under your control. What you control. Now, when it says your son, there comes a point where a son or a daughter may choose to no longer keep God's Sabbath, cause it is His Sabbath, because they've come to an age of maturity where they're no longer under your authority or under your control because they're now adults, young adults and they have free moral agency to make decisions based on their relationship with God. Now, when it comes to servants, again, it is the same thing.

So you can apply that today in business. We would not have a business that operated on the Sabbath day because you wouldn't have workers working for you on a Sabbath. Because I know, I have worked for companies where I would be a Sabbath keeper and they said they were Sabbath keepers but they would force their workers to work on a Sabbath and I would turn around and say, "Well, I keep a 7th day Sabbath, from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday I do not physical work," and they were Jews and they had businesses, retail businesses, and they would require their male and female servants to work on the Sabbath because they'd operate their businesses on a Sabbath. By doing so they actually break the Sabbath. Now, they of course would not work, they would go home on their Friday evening and have their Friday evening meal with their family and go to the synagogue on Saturday, but meanwhile, all their servants are working. Well, God says that's a pollution of the 4th Commandment and therefore they are not truly Sabbath keepers in the spirit and intent of the Sabbath. 'In spirit and in truth' - God says we're not to have our servants, people under our control, work on that day.

Verse 11 - For in six days the Eternal made the heavens and the earth, now we covered that earlier. God created that to sustain life, physical life for mankind on the earth, that's what it says, He refashioned the earth to sustain mankind, and the seas and all that is in them, and He rested the seventh day: therefore the Eternal blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it. He set it aside as holy, separated it. The 7th day Sabbath is a perpetual covenant. The weekly Sabbath reveals God's 7,000 year plan for mankind, a day for a thousand years. The first 6,000 years belongs to man - 6 days where we can work, but God will reign over mankind during the last 1,000 years, the 7th day. And that's what we look forward to, brethren. We look forward to the end of 6,000 years of man's self-rule, where he has done whatever he wanted to do under the influence of a demonic world, Satan and his demons. We look forward to the day, day 7, the Sabbath, the rest for mankind, a thousand year period where man will be given rest from the influence of Satan. It's going to be a glorious and wonderful time just because of that, where we no longer are going to have the influence of Satan and man's carnal mind to the degree we have. They will not be allowed to do things that they do now.

You know, when you look at the internet and you look at the way man operates it...you know, man could stop the pornography on the internet if he wanted to, he really could. It's not hard to set out rules and regulations. But of course man doesn't want to because it involves money, and they talk about freedom of speech as part of a society that we should have. Well, no, God says we're not allowed to have free speech, you cannot say what you want to, you cannot just do what you want to do, it's not good for mankind. Mankind needs to learn to control himself. But of course, we know man can't control himself with his natural carnal mind because it's hostile against God, it's not subject to God, it's only by the power of God's spirit that it can be done, where we can enter that battle.

Exodus 31:12 - The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, Speak also to the children of Israel, saying, Surely My Sabbaths you will keep/you will observe: for it is a sign/token/ensign/mark between Me/between God and you throughout your generations; for the rest of the generations of humans this is a sign; the Sabbath is a sign. It's a sign of a relationship between God and the man or woman He's dealing with, or child. It's a sign, it's a mark. ...therefore throughout your generations; that you may know, have knowledge, that I am the Eternal who sanctifies you, who separated us. So here people turn around and say the Sabbath is done away, and we'll get into that in part 2, but here God is clearly saying the Sabbath is a sign that provides evidence, evidence that we are in a relationship with God. So anybody who is not a 7th day Sabbath keeper, it is a sign that they do not have a relationship with God, and no matter what they say or what they do God is very clear here saying that it is the 7th day Sabbath that we are to observe, that it is a sign, it is a mark between Him and us throughout our generations while man exists, that we have a relationship with God, that God has set us aside or separated us for holy use and purpose. It is a sign or evidence that we are God's people.

Anybody who does not keep the Sabbath or enter into keeping the Sabbath is a sign that they are not God's people. It is a sign/evidence that a person is in a spiritual relationship with God. If we are not Sabbath keepers and we haven't set aside the 7th day Sabbath we are not in a relationship with God on a spiritual plane. And there is a reason why that is. It's because God pours out His holy spirit on the Sabbath for a person to see what God is saying, because without God's spirit we cannot see what God is saying. We can have an understanding on a physical level of what God is saying...for example, the Sabbath, if we haven't entered a spiritual relationship with God we can't keep a Sabbath on a physical level. We can stop working and stop trying to think about work for a period of 24 hours - sunset to sunset - but that is only keeping the Sabbath on a physical level, we're resting. But God is talking about a spiritual relationship with Him where He is transferring His mind by the power of His spirit into our minds so that we can take on a portion of the way He thinks. Isn't that exciting? Isn't that a wonderful thing that we would desire to keep the Sabbath so that we can be fed?

We look forward to the 7th day Sabbath each week because we know that God is going to teach us, we know that God is going to open our eyes (not our physical eyes), mind's eye, the eye that we see spiritual matters when we read, and God's spirit convicts us of a matter. It's exciting when you see truth, when you see something in a deeper way. Why wouldn't you look forward to the 7th day Sabbath with eager anticipation? It's a wonderful, exciting day, to come and hear what God has got to say so that we can take on more of the nature of God, because that's God's purpose, that's why God created the Sabbath, to feed us so that one day we will take on His mind when we're changed to spirit. It's a wonderful, wonderful time! It's exciting to know that the 7th day Sabbath will exist from this day, this Sabbath forward until man ceases to exist, because it was made for man for a reason. It's a benefit to man yet man in his natural thinking rejects it. He doesn't want it, he doesn't understand it. That's why. Because he doesn't know the beauty of the Sabbath.

The Sabbath is a sign/evidence that a person has knowledge of God, spiritual knowledge of God, they actually know who God is. Mankind can turn around and say, well, they know God - well, they haven't got a clue. They don't know God. They don't know the true God. They don't know the true Jesus Christ. They don't know God's plan and purpose. They don't know why the Sabbath was created. They don't know it's true spiritual intent. They don't really even understand the Sabbath is required by God, that it's required by God for man for a reason, for a purpose - to benefit mankind! It's incredible understanding to have. So why would man reject the Sabbath if they knew it was the best thing for them? They don't understand it.

It is also a sign for all generations while human life exists. It is a sign that God has set aside a person for holy use and purpose. When we assemble before God on the Sabbath, whether we're by ourselves or whether we're with a group, it is a sign that we desire a relationship with God and that He has set us aside for holy use and purpose. We are set aside and sanctified by the truth and God pours out His truth on the Sabbath day. Truth is given from Sabbath to Sabbath, Holy Day to Holy Day. Anyone that does not keep the Sabbaths of God cannot be in a spiritual relationship with God.

Verse 14 - You shall keep the Sabbath therefore; for it is holy to you: so it's holy to us, we set it aside, we separate it as separate, as holy. It's because we know God's in it. It's only holy because God made it holy. It's holy because God's in it. That's why we desire to come before God every single Sabbath. ...everyone who profanes or pollutes or breaks or defiles (that word is) shall surely be put to death: so that's the penalty; the penalty for sin is death. Breaking the Sabbath, not keeping the Sabbath is sin, and the penalty is death. So God is just enforcing a law that He had set in motion. ...for whoever does any work on it, on the Sabbath, that person shall be cut off from among His people. If we pollute the Sabbath we are cut off spiritually from the flow of God's spirit. Without God's spirit we cannot have a true relationship with God.

We're just going to look now at an example of the word 'cut-off' and we'll turn to Numbers 15:32 - Now while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day. Now, he should have done it on day 6, of course, preparation day, but natural carnal mind always thinks it knows better and always thinks that things don't apply to it. Now, here we're talking about gathering sticks, we're not talking about manna, we're talking about gathering sticks. On day 6 the person should have gone out and gathered as much wood required for their house fire, because they needed to keep warm on cold nights, so they should have already gathered it on day six so they had enough to get them through the Sabbath day. And of course, they could have gone out on the Sunday morning, on the first day of the week on the daylight portion and done it, but here they are doing it on the 7th day Sabbath, gathering wood for the fire.

Verse 33 - And those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron, and to all the congregation.

Verse 34 - They put him under guard, because it had not been explained what should be done to him. So here they have put him under guards. They find him, he's polluting the Sabbath and he's working, in other words, so they bring him under guard, they place him there where they have someone to guard him so he doesn't escape because it hadn't been explained, "Well, what do we do? How do we go about implementing the penalty of this gathering of the sticks on the Sabbath?"

Verse 35 - Then the LORD said to Moses, The man must surely be put to death: Now, people would turn around today and say, "You're joking! That's just unbelievable that you would kill somebody for breaking one of the 10 Commandments?!" But here God is saying, "Well, no, here is a willful sin." We have been told not to do certain things on the Sabbath and now this person is deliberately setting out and breaking God's law, so God's going to say, "Well, the penalty is physical death." Now, of course brethren, for us, we often do pollute a Sabbath, breaking it - not necessarily always willfully but sometimes accidentally where we lack understanding, but if we do we can repent. But if we don't repent, of course we're going to have the same thing applied to us. We'll be put to death on a spiritual level, we will die for all eternity, we'll be dead for all eternity because God will not resurrect us. Here we have, if it's willful sin, the penalty is eternal death, but here is somebody who has broken the law, and God's using it as an example on a physical level to point to something spiritual.

...all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp. Spiritually today if there was somebody who willfully broke the Sabbath we would put them outside the camp, the Church would disfellowship them because they're obviously not in a relationship with God any longer, they no longer keep the Sabbath holy and therefore they need to be cut off. They have been cut off from God's spirit but they now need to be cut off, be disfellowshipped, from the Church of God, the Body of Christ. They're cut off from fellowship with God's people who have God's spirit dwelling in them.

Verse 36 - So as the Eternal commanded Moses all the congregation, required unity of purpose in an action, brought him outside the camp and stoned him with stones and he died. So the penalty for willful unrepented Sabbath pollution in the Millennium will be a physical death, because what are we going to do with people that are in open willful unrepentant sin? If a person during the Millennium refuses to keep the 7th day Sabbath, refuses to set it aside as holy, as God has, refuses to be taught by God on the Sabbath, which is the purpose of the Sabbath, what would you do with such a person? Well, you just can't let them run around in their own misery because they're destroying themselves. So it is far more merciful to put the person to physical death, because that would be more merciful, and that's what God is, merciful.

For those called now and in the future, death can be on a spiritual level. Sin cuts us off from God. We are cut off on a spiritual level. The flow of God's spirit stops until repentance. So we can repent.

We're going to look at John 15:1 - I am the true vine and My Father is the vine dresser. Here is a physical analogy of something spiritual. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away: and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes, that it may bring forth more fruit. God's spirit demands growth.  It is God that works in us, therefore we need God's spirit dwelling in us to do spiritual works, good works. To be pruned is to be tried and tested. Here is Christ saying, "Well, every branch that abides in Me should be a fruit," because we're connected to the vine, "but being connected to the vine is only one aspect; it still needs to be pruned back so it will bear more fruit," because that's, as you know, with vine dressers you have the vine, you've got the first year wood and then you've got growth and you've got buds and you cut that to the second buds, some cut back to the third buds, because then the next vine that grows produces more fruit, whereas if you leave it on it won't bear the amount of fruit. So we need to be pruned.

So first of all we have a calling, we know of God, we have knowledge, then we begin to understand that knowledge, then we have to use wisdom and apply it in our life. As we're tried and tested with certain situations and environments we then can use God's spirit. Because of knowledge we can say, "Oh, we need to make this decision or that decision," because it's what God desire of us. It is during these times of testing that we can learn to yield to God's spirit.

Verse 3 - You, talking about those in the Body who are connected, are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Now, 'clean' if God's word dwells in us, we're clean if God's spirit dwells in us. We have been washed by the Word. In other words, we've been baptized and now God's Word washes over us on a regular basis and on the Sabbath in particular, because God's Word washes over our minds. God changes our thinking, He transforms the way we think, and most of that work is done on a Sabbath where God pours out more of His spirit.

God's Word is truth, therefore if the Word dwells in us the truth dwells in us, therefore we will be Sabbath keepers, we will honor the 7th day Sabbath, we will gather together on the Sabbath.

John 17:14 - I have given them, the called out ones, those who are members of the Body of Christ, Your Word/Your Logos; God's Words been given to us, and the world has hated them, talking about the called out ones. We are hated often because we have the truth, we have God's spirit and people can't understand us, because they are not of the world, in other words, we're not under Satan's system, we don't think like the world, we don't have the attitudes of the world, and if we ever do we can repent of it and change our thinking by the power of God's spirit; just as I am not of the world.

Verse 15 - I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, in other words, we're not to be removed from Satan's system, we operate in it because we can then exercise God's spirit in the world and bear evidence and bear witness of Jesus Christ dwelling in us; but that You should keep them from the evil one, in other words, keep us from Satan's attacks on attitudes. Now, we've got choices in some of that; we will still get attacks but they will not be to the degree that they would destroy us, because God is going to protect us from Satan's attitudes and Satan's ways if we desire to have a relationship with Him; we can cry out to God for that protection.

Verse 16 - They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. In other words, don't think like Satan. Christ never ever thought anything of a carnal mind. He never had a carnal mind as we do. He never had a worldly attitude, we do; we were born with a natural carnal mind so we have them but we can fight against them.

Verse 17 - Sanctify/Separate them by Your truth: Your Word is truth. We are different, brethren, we are different because we are separated from the world. The Sabbath is a truth of God so the Sabbath separates us. It is a mark and sign that we belong to God. We are sanctified, set aside by the truth, and the Sabbath is one of God's truths. And it says, Your Word, talks about the Sabbath, is truth. We are different because we have the Word of God dwelling in us. We believe what God gives us by the power of His spirit. We believe what God gives us on a Sabbath. We come into unity of doctrine. We believe God.

Verse 18 - As you sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. Not to be part of it but to be a witness to it. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, set aside as the Passover, for without the Passover we've got nothing...we have nothing; that they may also be sanctified/set aside by the truth. God's word clearly states that the 7th day Sabbath is required to be kept to enable a right relationship with Him and His people, because every time we gather together with God's people on the Sabbath we enter a relationship with God because God dwells in the brethren. We are set aside by the truth of God, therefore the 7th day Sabbath sets us aside as His people.

We'll just turn back to John 15:4 - Abide/dwell in Me; how do we do that? By having the truth dwell in us, having the Logos dwell in us. Carrying on...and I in you. So we'll be in unity with God. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, so in other words, if you're not connected to the vine you're just going to wither and die, unless it abides in the vine; neither can you unless you abide in Me. So unless we abide in Christ and Christ dwells in us - in other words we come into complete unity. If we do not keep the 7th day Sabbath the truth does not dwell in us. To have Christ in us is to have the truth, the Logos, the Word dwelling in us, God's mind dwelling in us. To have the truth and the Logos, the Word in us is to have Christ dwelling in us, to have His mind dwelling in us.

Verse 5 - I am the vine, you are the branches: and of course the branches are attached to and grow from the vine. ...he who abides/dwells in Me, and I in him, in other words, remain attached, bears much fruit: for without Me you can do nothing. So in other words we cannot do anything spiritual, we cannot do spiritual works unless we're attached. If we are attached and bear fruit we will be Sabbath keepers.

Verse 6 - If anyone does not abide in Me, in other words, not attached because of unrepentant sin, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; so we're back to the natural carnal mind that is hostile to God, we can't see anything spiritual. We might have an academic knowledge of certain things, we might understand a little bit about the Sabbath, but we cannot grow in the knowledge of the Sabbath and God's purpose of the Sabbath - it's not possible. ...and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. That is symbolic of the second death which is a final destruction.

Verse 7 - If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, in other words we desire God's thinking, that's what we desire, and it shall be done for you. It's talking on a spiritual level. So we, brethren, have the opportunity to cry out for the thinking and the mind of God, we ask God to dwell in us, to help us in our life, to help us to overcome and conquer the self.

Verse 8 - By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples. The more that God and Jesus Christ dwell in us the more we will think, act and be a witness of God in our lives to others, therefore God is glorified by that action. We will produce godly character, we will live love toward God and toward mankind. In other words, we will live God toward others.

Verse 9 - As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you: abide in My love. In other words, dwell in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; so if you keep the Sabbath, the 7th day Sabbath,  you will dwell in, abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments, and abide in His love. The 7th day Sabbath is one of God's commandments, God the Father's commandments. We've read how it was created, we've seen how He reintroduced it to the knowledge of the Israelites through the manna, and we see it's commandment in Exodus 20, and we're also seeing that it's a perpetual sign that points and shows us that we are God's people, that it is from God and we are God's people. That is the sign.

So back to Exodus 31:15 - Work shall be done six days, but the seventh day is the Sabbath rest, holy to the Eternal: whoever does any work on the Sabbath day, now that is own work or own interests on the Sabbath day he will surely be put to death. God must be first in all things. That's what that's basically saying. God must be first in all things. God must be first in the sense that we've put the Sabbath aside for holy use and purpose and we don't seek our own will and desire.

Verse 16 - Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath day throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant, an everlasting agreement. It says the children of Israel - well, we are the spiritual Israel, the Church of God today, we are God's children. We are spiritual Israel, we are part of the Body of Christ, we belong to God and Jesus Christ.

Verse 17 - For it is a sign/a mark between Me and the children of Israel, God's people today, the called out ones, forever: Why? ...for in six days God made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested, and was refreshed. Now, it wasn't refreshed in the sense of because He was tired, but because He created a period of time for us to rest from our physical labors, because the Sabbath was made or created for mankind.

We'll actually finish today there and pick up the sermon again in part 2 in Exodus 31, and where we just finished that off we'll just summarize that and we'll go into another aspect of 7th day Sabbath keeping.

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