I'd like to talk with you this morning about the Sabbath. Seven Sabbaths. You know, certain days are very important to each of us, and the Sabbath is no exception. The Sabbath is an extremely important day to Christians, it ought to be, and to Jesus. And the Sabbath, you see, is important because it's the birthday of the world. And birthdays are important. And so the very first Sabbath that I would like to emphasize, and I want to emphasize seven of these today. Seven of what I consider to be the most important Sabbaths of all time.
Number one, would be the Sabbath at creation, the very first Sabbath. And the record of that is in Genesis chapter 2, verses two and three, where it says that He created the world, and then on the seventh day He rested on that day, He blessed that day, He hallowed that day, He made that day into a special day. That's when the Sabbath was created. Long before the first Jew, of course. When the foundations of the earth were laid, then was the foundation of the Sabbath made. That's when it was made. The Sabbath is the birthday of the world.
And this Sabbath happens to be a double blessing for me, because today is my birthday. October 27. So we have a double birthday here that we're celebrating, that I'm celebrating today, and so I'm pretty happy about that.
Now men have thought to change the Sabbath from the seventh day of the week to the first day of the week. And you recognize that people are, "well I'm just going to change it". But you know, nobody can change your birthday. Now if Congress voted to change your birthday, would that change it? You see, the day that you were born is a historical fact. You can't change history. You can't go back and change it. It's impossible. And the seventh day of the week continues, on this day, because it is a historical fact.
Imagine the very first Sabbath. God was there. Adam and Eve were in church. Probably the three of them. Maybe the Angels were there too. Exodus chapter 20. We read that for our scripture reading. Verses eight through 11. At the close of this time Jesus rested on that day. Not that He was tired. He set an example for us. He blessed that specific day. Your birthday is a special day. The Sabbath is a special day. God hallowed that day.
Point number two. The Sabbath I want us to consider next is the Sabbath that Jesus spent in the tomb. That's an important Sabbath. That's perhaps the saddest Sabbath of all the Sabbaths in the history of the world, because Jesus was dead. You can read about that in Luke 23:54. How could the great angelic choirs in Heaven really sing on that day? That would be tough. It's hard to sing when you have a cold, but it might even be harder to sing when you have a lump in your throat. Nobody was happy that day. It was not a good Sabbath, but it was important because our salvation was paid for. We were saved. That's an important day.
The next Sabbath I want us to consider is the last Sabbath that we will spend on this old earth. The last of the seven that I want to talk about today. The very last Sabbath. Now you'll never know when it's going to be. It’ll just happen and then the first thing you know Jesus will come. The first Sabbath in Eden was spent, where? Out in nature. In the Garden of Eden. Outdoors. The last Sabbath on this earth will be spent outdoors. Where will we be? We won't be in this church on the last Sabbath. We're going to be out in nature, because Revelation tells us that in the last days some people will have the mark of the beast. You know, if you want to buy and sell, you'll have that, and the others will be in hiding. Their lives… there’ll be a death decree. And we will be hiding and running. We'll be in the woods. We’ll be in the strongholds of the mountains. We'll be in solitary retreats, and forests. Hidden from our enemies who are seeking us. All the Christians will do that. Other Christian Sabbath keepers will be in retired homes in secluded places among the mountains. And each little group will be totally dependent on God and his angels for protection. I don't know if you could be in your camper, or where you're going to be, but you will not know that you have just celebrated the last Sabbath because nobody knows the day or the hour of Jesus’ coming. But at some point you will celebrate the last Sabbath that the world in its sinful condition will ever have. And you'll be totally unaware of it. And it will be kept with a mixture of fear and anticipation. Fear of what might happen to you. Anticipation of what is going to happen to you when Jesus comes.
In Isaiah 41, verse 17 it says "God will not forsake them." The faithful Saints finally look up in the skies and they see a small black cloud about the size of a man's hand coming in which sky? The northern sky? The eastern sky. That's right. And they know that that is Jesus. He's coming with all the angels and maybe there's a rainbow, and here comes our Savior. Our Lord. Matthew chapter 25 verse 31. The Angels will be there. The base of this cloud is like a consuming fire. And there's a rainbow above. You can look in Revelation 19:11 to 16. I imagine that as Jesus and the Angels get closer we will hear music. We're going to hear them singing because they're going to come excited. This is deliverance day. Do you know that 15 hundred and 18 times in the Bible the second coming of Jesus Christ is referred to. His return will be the same as He left. Acts chapter 1, verse eight. It will be visible to all people. Revelation chapter 1 and verse seven. It will not be a secret rapture. Matthew 24, 26 to 27. The Saints will be caught up in the air to meet Him in the air. First Thesselonians 4, verse 16 and 17. And the wicked will be destroyed by the brightness of His coming, and the Saints will be changed. First Corinthians 15. In the moment, in the twinkling of an eye. It's going to be a great experience when Jesus comes.
I want to now go to the fourth Sabbath. This one would be the last Sabbath, well the first Sabbath past sin. The very first past sin, on the other side of sin. In route to Heaven. Our trip to Heaven will take how long? How long will it take for us to go from this world all the way up to Heaven? It'll take one week. How do you know that? Well, Revelation Chapter 8 and verse one describes 30 minutes of total silence in Heaven. Why will it be silent? Because nobody’s there. Where is everybody going to be? They're coming down here to get us. So the trip will take about a week, because a day in Bible prophecy represents one year. And so one hour would be two weeks, 30 minutes would be one week. So in one week, that's the time that I think that we will be going to Heaven. And somewhere in that last week, there will be a Sabbath. And so I think we will celebrate the Sabbath in route to Heaven. And that'll be really great.
The living saints will be caught up in this cloudy chariot. We will ascend up through the skies toward Heaven. First Thessalonians describes it. And Jesus will see His children. Isaiah chapter 53, verses 10 and 11. He will see His offspring. That's going to be a grand moment, isn't it?. And we will see Him. And our angelic spaceship begins to move. Now I don't know how fast we will move. Many times the speed of light, perhaps. Our destination will be Heaven. So where will we head? To get to Heaven we will head through that open space in Orion. Now I'm going to explain more about that next Sabbath. That's where we’re going to go. And by the way, if you get outdoors you can just begin to see Orion now in the skies. It's coming up. I saw it the other night. And so we're going to go through that open space in Orion.
Space travel is going to be exciting, and I don't think that it will be a straight and narrow path. I think that when we actually get in route, and began to head off, that the Lord will say, "I want to show you this constellation over here. Have you guys ever seen a dark hole? Well let's go in one." It's going to be fun. On the way to Heaven, we're going to see all kinds of things, and on one of those days will be a Sabbath. And so everybody will have kept the Sabbath before they get to Heaven. It's going to be great. Eventually, we’ll see Jesus. We'll get to meet him face to face. There'll be a re-linking of the family chain. We'll get to meet our guardian angel. It's going to be an exciting trip. There's going to be a great experience.
Now on the last day of our one-week trip we will see the light of the city, the new Jerusalem. That's going to be great, isn’t it? You’re going to get to see it. And it's going to get brighter and brighter. And what a great celestial place that will be. It's a prepared place for a prepared people. We should be preparing now.
Now let's go to the fifth Sabbath of the ones that I would consider are the most important. And this would be the very first Sabbath in Heaven itself. Okay? Finally we're going to arrive in Heaven. We're going to land. It won't be St. Peter at the gate. I imagine Jesus will be there, I don't know who, but that's described in Revelation 21. I'd like to invite you to come to Revelation 21 in your Bible, and the city, the new Jerusalem has walls that are approximately 210 feet high. Now that's high. We don't have any buildings in Collegedale that are that high. And the city is 375 miles this way, 375 miles that way and 375 miles high. It is a perfect cube. With, I guess, the walls clear up on top. And there are gates in the wall. And each gate, well let's read about that. Revelation 21, and look at verse 21. "The 12 gates were 12 pearls." What an oyster. Each gate is made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of pure gold like transparent glass. Now those gates to be in proportion. If you have a wall and there's three gates in that one wall, would you expect that the door is going to going to be about 30 inches wide? I think it's going to be a big gate. Maybe a mile wide. What a pearl. You know? Let's continue reading. Verse 22. "I did not see a temple in the city because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. And the city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp." So don’t get the impression that it's going to be a dark place. It's going to be very, very bright. Verse 24. "The nations will walk by its light, the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it and on no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there." Somebody said well there'll be no night in Heaven. Well there's no night in the new Jerusalem, because that's where God is, and wherever God is it’s bright and shining, and so you'll never be in darkness when you're around Him. Verse 26. "The glory and honor of the nation's will be brought in to it. Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful." Are you doing something shameful? Stop it. With the power of Christ you can do that. You can overcome what you're doing that’s shameful, because you want to enter the city. Nothing deceitful. Only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life are going to be there. And you can have your name written in the Lamb's book of life. It's not written there according to the deeds you do, but according to your faith in Jesus Christ.
At one point we’re going to be given a crown. Second Timothy chapter 4 and verse eight. "There was in store for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord on that day will award to me, and not only to me but all those who have longed for His appearing." Each crown is better than any monarch ever wore. Your crown is inscribed with your name on the crown. Don't let somebody else take your crown. Your name will be there. And every crown has how many stars in it, at least. The minimum number of stars is what? One star. And what does that star represent? Well Daniel Chapter 12 verse one intimates that that star represents the soul or souls that you have led to Jesus Christ. That are saved because of you. So everybody there is a soul winner, you see? And Jesus will say in Matthew 25 verse 23, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful in a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." It's going to be great. And we're going to be issued harps, and the talent to play them I imagine. We're going to be issued palms of victory. They'll be handed out. We will break out into singing as we stand there on the sea of glass. You can, all the references are on the website. Happiness like a river around me will flow. Isn't that great? It'll be just like a river of joy flowing around you. It’s going to be so great. We will enter the city singing, praising the Lord from whom all blessings flow.
And when Sabbath comes we will all come and worship. Come over here to Isaiah chapter 66 in the Bible. You can read about this. Isaiah 66, the last chapter of the book. And I want you to look at verse 22, and 23. "Whereas the new Heavens and new earth that I make will endure before me, declares the Lord, so will your name and your descendents endure." So you're going to have the same name plus a new name in Heaven. Your name will endure and your descendents will endure. Now isn't that a strange thing? It almost sounds like if you’re saved, your kids are going to be saved. It sort of reads like that. And if you think about it, Lot was saved out of Sodom, and so were his kids. Hmmmm. Make sure you're there. Verse 23. "From one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another," how many people are going to come? "All flesh is going to come and worship before Me, and bow down before Me." That's going to be a great thing.
Let's move on. Let's move to the sixth Sabbath, of what I would consider to be the seven most important Sabbaths. Sabbath number six. And this will be the last Sabbath ever in Heaven. At some point we will reach year number 999. Right? December 31, or whatever the last Sabbath is on, and it’ll be time to leave. Be time to go home. You say, "well, I thought Heaven is my home." Well, let's think about this. If you were raised as a Seventh-day Adventist, and you’re, let's say 60 or 70 years old, you have spent approximately 4000 Sabbaths in church. However, when we get to Heaven, we will have many more. We'll be there a thousand years, and in 1 thousand years, there are 52 thousand Sabbaths. 52 thousand. We'll all assemble together and worship the Lord. Now as a preacher, I wonder if Jesus already has 52 thousand sermons prepared. You know, it takes me about 20 hours to prepare a sermon, counting all the research and all the things I have to do. And answering the phone between the research. I wonder if Jesus has all those sermons done. Of course, he could do it, probably, in 15 hours for the total thing, or maybe 15 seconds. He’d have it all done, with a mind like His. It would take me probably a million hours to come up with 52 thousand sermons. Let's see, how long is a million hours? Well, anyway. For each of us, during the millennium, we will be doing book research. We're told that. In Malachi chapter 3:16, speaks of the book of remembrance. Philippians talks about, and Luke, and Revelation, the Lambs book of life. There are going to be books up there. And some of us will want to do some book research. Not to prepare sermons. Well why would we want to do that? To find out why our aunt Murgatroid did not make it. Something was wrong with her. I thought she was a saint but she's not here. Wonder why she's not here. And uncle whatever. Not here. What's wrong? And so we’ll have a chance to go over the books, and answer all the questions that we have. And we may not want to look at some of the books. If your dad didn't make it you might not want to know why he didn't make it. You have the opportunity to open the book, or to leave it closed, I guess.
And we may be surprised at who's there as well, and say, "I wonder what they're doing here. The Lord made a mistake." You know, often we regard as hopeless the very people that Jesus died for and is expecting to welcome into His kingdom. Never give up on anybody. Don't give up on your kids. Don't give up on anybody. They might make it. And some people might even be surprised that you're there.
First Corinthians Chapter five, verse two says, "the Saints will judge the world." Revelation 20 verse four. Come over here to Revelation 20 in your Bible, and verse four. "I saw thrones on which were seated these who had been given authority to judge." So we're going to judge. We're going to judge people, and basically we're going to confirm the decision that God made. That's what we're going to do.
Well finally we reach year number 9 hundred 99, the last Sabbath in Heaven. It'll be a special time. Maybe there'll be a celebration. We're ready to go. Everybody’ll be packed. You've got your harp and your crown, and we’ll get ready to go. And Revelation 21 verse three says, "now the dwelling place of God is with man and He will live with them." Actually, Heaven will be here in this world. You see, during the millennium we will live with God, but then it says God will live with us. He's going to come down here. This will be the capital of the universe, the way I understand it. And for a thousand years we have lived with God. Now we’re all going to be here together. This will be the new Heaven and the new earth. Heaven moves down here. Revelation 21 verse two.
So let's discuss Sabbath number seven. The first Sabbath in the new earth. It's going to be great. Everything is brand-new. Nobody's ever stepped on that little piece of ground. And you'll have a chance to walk where nobody ever walked. Or fly over land that nobody else has ever seen. We're going to spread out, and be in the new earth, and enjoy it, and go out. It's going to be precious. It's a renewed place for a renewed people. Where all worship every week. You know, Jesus said, till Heaven and earth pass, not one jot or not one tittle will pass from the law. And so long as the Heavens and the earth remain there will always be a Sabbath. Sabbath will continue, as a sign of the Creator's power, because it's the birthday of the world. And when Eden will bloom on the earth again, God’s holy rest day will be honored here in this place. The Sabbath will remain as a blessing to us. God will be our pastor. We will be His sheep. And we will get to be here forever, in this beautiful place, worshiping God every Sabbath day.
Maybe what you do today will be some indication of what you do for ever. How you live now, how you respond to Jesus’ love maybe’ll be some indication as to whether or not you're going to be there and you're going to make it.
The fourth commandment. I’d like to just read one more time. It's so important. It's addressed to you. It says, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of" who? "Of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt not do any work. Thou nor thy wife." Does it say wife? Where's the wife in here? "Thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man servant, nor thy maid servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger within thy gates, for in six days the Lord made the Heaven and the earth and the sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day, wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it." Hallowed it.
God wrote this commandment with His very own finger. It's unchangeable. And God says of Himself in Malachi chapter 3 and verse six. "I am the Lord. I change not." The Sabbath is unchangeable. He made it. He wrote it with His finger. And what He wrote, He will not change. So my proposition to you today is, we ought to be keeping the Sabbath today, because we’re going to be keeping it forever. Why not just get used to it. If you are already a Sabbath keeper, I urge you to be a good one. To honor the Lord from sundown to sundown. To enter into His joys. Just like recess. It's great. It's fun. Have fun on the Sabbath. Worship the Lord on the Sabbath. Draw closer to Him. Read about Him on the Sabbath. If you're not a Sabbath keeper, join a Sabbath keeping church. Be a Sabbath keeper. You're going to do it in Heaven, do it now. Be involved in it. Rich blessings will come upon you as you celebrate the only day that God ever made holy. You will be holier, happier, and more wholesome, and life will be better. Happy Sabbath.
Let's sing our closing hymn. Hymn number 383.
Hymn of Praise: #36, O Thou in Whose Presence Scripture: Exodus 20:8-11 Hymn of Response: #383, O Day of Rest and Gladness
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McDonald Road Sermon transcribed by Steve Foster 11/10/07