Herbert W Armstrong

   I'd like to illustrate it by a lesson. Our daughter came dancing home one day from Kansas City and she said she was kind of half heartbroken and half teased, I guess. She said, "Daddy, that girl across the street said Christmas is Jesus' birthday too, and Jesus was resurrected on Easter too. We're just a bunch of fanatics for not believing in those things." She said, "Who's right, Daddy?"

   I said, "Well, you know, it seems to me there's one fundamental mistake you've made, and that is right doesn't have to do with who. You know. That's something great people ought to learn, you know. Right is right. Truth is truth. It doesn't make any difference what somebody else is doing. It doesn't make any difference what somebody else says. It doesn't make any difference what somebody else believes, you know. Right is right, and truth is truth. And yet so many times people say, 'Well, so-and-so's doing it,' or 'I saw so-and-so do such and such,' and you know, you think, 'Well, what's that got to do with it? Does that make it right or wrong?' So, I hope to begin with we'll learn a great lesson and that is the truth doesn't have a thing to do with people."

   You know, I'm in this church because it's the truth. I'm not in it because somebody else is in it, and I'm not in it because somebody else isn't in it. You know, I've heard people get their feelings hurt and they'd say, "Well, if old so-and-so is gonna be in that church, I'm just not gonna be there. If he's gonna be in God's Kingdom, I just don't want to be there." And some of the statements you can't imagine. But you know, the truth is truth. And I know, and I know that I know this is the truth, and I know that nobody is going to be able to rattle my cage on the truth, and I know it's the truth.

   Now, I sat there in this doctrinal committee meeting and listened to these ministers talk for six hours the first day, and their biggest opposition was that Jewish Sabbath. "Well, what's the matter with us anyway?" We got all off and somehow they got hoodwinked and they've been observing this old yoke of bondage, that Jewish Sabbath for all those years, and now they've just gotten enlightened and praised the Lord. Boy, they weren't going to keep that old Jewish Sabbath anymore.

   Well, they brought up all the arguments I've ever read. You know, I've read arguments in the Church of Christ literature and the Baptist literature. I've read a high variety of excuses for not keeping the Sabbath Day. They brought up all of them, and I've never heard all those arguments put together all in one package as well as they did ever.

   Now, here are their arguments, and I want you to be able to answer them. In the first place, the Sabbath is never mentioned until Moses' time. Now, off the top of your head, do you think you can refute that? But I'll bet you if you got a good old Church of Christ or good old Baptist preacher and he nails you down, you'd find yourself flinching and dodging. "And the Sabbath isn't even mentioned until Moses," you say, "Oh, now, wait a minute. Oh, yes, it is." Well, we'll see. We'll get back to that.

   They had another argument: the Sabbath was only given, it says as plain as day, as a reminder of them coming out of Egypt and that they've been in bondage. Now, you may have seen that in the Ten Commandment movie, you know, if you saw that. And at the beginning of it, they said, "This is a documented movie. We've searched Josephus, we've searched," you know, they gave a big old list of historians that they said they checked out to prove this fact about the Sabbath. And you know what they did? Here was Moses and he watched these slaves working seven days a week and he scratched his head and said, "Hey, I bet they get more done if we let them rest one day. Let's me see if I can talk him into trying that." So sure enough, Moses goes into the Pharaoh and he says, "Hey, I got a good idea. I think we can get more work done if you let those people rest a day out of seven." And of course, he never did say the seventh day. He just said a day out of seven. Well, that's the way the movie went. It went along with that idea that the only reason you have the Sabbath is to remind you you were slaves in Egypt. And that's why the Sabbath was given.

   Now, you might say, "Oh, now, come on. I can't believe anybody could be as dumb as to believe that." Well, the third argument the Sabbath was just for Israel. No, the Sabbath wasn't for man, the Sabbath wasn't for everybody. The Sabbath was just for Israel. So that's another one of the arguments they came up with about the Sabbath Day. Now, in line with these arguments, another one they brought up with, they said, "You can't show me anywhere in the Bible that Noah kept the Sabbath, that Abraham kept the Sabbath, that Isaac kept the Sabbath, that Jacob kept the Sabbath. You can't show me anywhere in the Bible that the great fathers and those great patriarchs kept the Sabbath Day. So there."

   Now, of course, then you get into the New Testament Day and they say, "Why didn't you know the Sabbath was changed in the New Testament? Why, the Sabbath was changed in the New Testament, and all of a sudden it became the first day of the week." First day of the week, is the Sabbath. Now, some churches won't agree with that. You know, the Baptists, if you went up and you said, "Brother Bennett, one who was a Baptist preacher when I went up there, First Baptist Church in Kilgore, Brother Bennett, is Sunday the Sabbath?" "Why, no, sir, Brother Blackwell. Sunday is not the Sabbath. Sunday is the Lord's Day." And yet If you ask the Church of Christ, a brothers, "Is Sunday the Sabbath?" They say, "No, Sunday is the Lord's Day. That's the day that the New Testament church assembled and that's the day Jesus was resurrected." But, you know, if you ask some of the other Presbyterians, Methodists, some of those churches, "Brother, is Sunday the Sabbath?" "Amen. Yes, sir." So some of them say it is and some of them say it isn't, and they keep the same day and they don't even keep it for the same reason.

   You know, that's one thing that kind of dawned on me when I was looking into the Sabbath question is if you ever ask any Sabbatarian whether they're Seventh Day Baptists, Seventh Day Adventists, Seventh Day Church of God, Seventh Day Worldwide Church of God Armstrong, all right, if you ask any of them, "Why do they keep the Sabbath Day?" They all have the same reasons because the Bible says the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. They've all got the same reason. But you ask the Catholic, "Why do you keep Sunday?" "Well, because the church changed the day of worship." And maybe you heard, you've read in our literature, a quote out of a Catholic document by a man named Gibbon where he said, "Protestants have no Bible basis for observing the first day of the week because they say you can search the Bible from cover to cover, and there's no authority in the whole Bible for changing the Sabbath to Sunday or worshiping on the first day of the week. We do it because the church decreed it. The church changed the Sabbath."

   Now, churches that go along with Catholic authority, like the Episcopalians and Church of England and the Lutherans, you know, they believe that Sunday is the Sabbath because the church has the power to change it. But now you go to some and they say, "Well, they keep Sunday because Jesus was raised on Sunday." Then you go to some and they say, "Well, we keep Sunday because the New Testament church assembled on Sunday." That's what they tell you if you came here tomorrow and start asking them some questions.

   Well, another thing you can find out if you check with people, they'll say, "Why don't you know, Jesus broke the Sabbath and if it's a sin to break the Sabbath, Jesus couldn't have died a sinless sin because he broke the Sabbath." Now, they'll say, "If I can show you a verse that says Jesus broke the Sabbath, then you'd have to either admit that it's not a sin to break the Sabbath, or you'd have to admit Jesus was a sinner and couldn't have died without sin." Oh, they have some crafty arguments. I mean, they were ingeniously thought up. Then they'll say you one last argument. They'll say, "Why you show me anywhere in the New Testament, an example of the New Testament church keeping the Sabbath. I mean, you just show me one of them."

   All right. Now, let's back up and take a look at some of these arguments. In the first place, you might kind of look at the argument. If you've jotted them down, you might notice a few contradictions even in the argument. Now, in the first place, who is the Sabbath for anyway? I mean, is it for Israel? When did the Sabbath begin? You know, they say why the Sabbath didn't even begin until Moses' time. And yet, you know, Jacob's name is Israel. If the Sabbath was made for Israel, it should have been made when Israel was made, shouldn't it? I mean, if the Sabbath is for Israel, then why didn't God give it to Jacob when Jacob was changed, when his name was changed to Israel? Now, if the Sabbath was given just because they came out of Egypt, then it wasn't really given to Israel because didn't the mixed multitude come out with it? And have the people join themselves with Israel when they were in bondage and captivity? But you know, you take their argument and look at their argument, they don't even agree in their argument.

   Now, let's come back and right away your first thought, I'm sure when I said why the Sabbath isn't even mentioned until Moses, you said, "Oh, come on. Now, let's just get in the book of Genesis 2. I'm gonna stick your nose in Genesis 2 and show you the Sabbath is mentioned before Moses." OK. Let's do that. It's Genesis 2. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them. And on the seventh day, God ended his work, which he had made and he rested on the seventh day from all his work, which he had made and God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it, he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

   Now, you've just read over that in the past and you assumed that it says Sabbath in there, but it didn't end the word Sabbath in there at all. The word Sabbath isn't in there. Then they'll say, "Why, who are you to say the seventh day is the Sabbath? It doesn't say, don't use the word Sabbath at all. It says on the seventh day, God ended these works." How do you know which day was the seventh day then? You know, how can you be sure the seventh day now is the same as the seventh day back then? You might say, "Well, because we've always had the Jews." Not from Genesis 2, you didn't have Jews. I mean, you didn't have Jews until the time of Judah. So you can say that the Jews have always preserved the Sabbath Day, but not before there were any Jews they couldn't have.

   All right. What's the answer here then? Well, sure enough, the bigger, the deeper you dig, not the digger you deep, anyway, the deeper you dig, the more you're going to nail down the truth, the more you're gonna prove the truth. Now, let's just dig in a little bit here in Genesis 2 and just soak up what we really find there. In the first place, it's kind of obvious that isn't any way to begin a new paragraph. This isn't the beginning of chapter 2. This is actually the last part of chapter 1. These first three verses. Of course, you remember the translators are the men who put chapters and verses in so you can find places in the Bible easier, which is good, but it sometimes breaks the paragraph. And this is a good example because chapter 1s been telling you all about what happened on each day and then you come to chapter 2 and it says, "Thus." You know, that's no way to start a new thought, a new paragraph. That's no way to start a new chapter. Thus, so that's just showing this is the last part of chapter 1.

   Now, why did they split it up where they did? Well, I think the translators wanted to distract from the truth wherever they could. They split this chapter up because this should be the last of chapter 1. Thus, the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them. And on the seventh day, God ended his work, which he had made. Now, there's a puzzle too when people read that, they'll say, "Now, wait a minute. Did you see that? It didn't say God ended his work on the sixth day, it says on the seventh day, God ended his work. What kind of work was God doing on the seventh day there? On the seventh day, God ended his work." It doesn't say he ended his work before the seventh day. It doesn't say he finished his work at the end of the sixth day. In some way, God was working on the seventh day and God always has worked on the seventh day, but you'll find out it's a certain kind of work. It's not the same kind of work he did the other six days.

   What kind of work was God doing on the seventh day? Some kind of work. On the seventh day, God ended his work. Now, you know, some translators get so mixed up by this. If you read an Arab Bible, they actually fudged it and said on the sixth day, they changed the word seventh to sixth because they couldn't figure it out any other way. So the Arabic and there's one other language, I don't remember which it is, but they actually changed seventh day to sixth day there because they know the Hebrew says he was doing work on that day and they've always assumed that it couldn't be the seventh day. God couldn't have been doing any kind of work on the seventh day, but you'll find out he does.

   In fact, we will see a little later. You remember when Jesus was healing a man on the Sabbath day, which broke Jewish law. And you remember they came and said, "Hey, there's six days men ought to work. What are you doing that on the seventh day for?" And you know, you've heard Jesus was a real politician. He was a real ambassador, a diplomat. You know, you probably heard the gentil Jesus would never hurt anybody. But you know what he said to those guys? He said, "My Father works hitherto and I work." You know, that's not the right thing to say when somebody is already getting at you because you're working on the Sabbath day. But he was healing somebody on the Sabbath. And that didn't break any law of the Bible. It broke the Talmud law. I can show you that. And when he was confronted with that, he just said, "Well, my Dad's working, my Father's working and I work on Sabbath all the way." But it's healing work. It's, you know how many people you know, have been healed on the Sabbath day, how many women, you know, that end up having their children on the Sabbath day. I bet you if we were in a test as to how many women had babies on what day the Sabbath would come out three or four to one on any other day. But you know, there are certain kinds of work. God made chickens where they lay eggs on the Sabbath. You know, the Sabbath wasn't made for cows. They keep right on building up milk on the Sabbath. The Sabbath wasn't made for chickens. They lay eggs on the Sabbath. Now, the Jews have a law. You can't, you can't sell an egg just laid on the Sabbath Day. You can't eat it. You can't use it but you can give it away to a stranger or somebody. I'll bring that big old green volume of the Talmud next week on the Sabbath and read you some of those laws. You can't believe that their one volume on the Sabbath is as big as that National Bible. Now, you might think that's ridiculous. But then, then also next week, if I can find this book in those boxes, I've got one on the Sabbath day in New England, which is Sunday and that book is just as big and it's got laws that Protestant church has made about Sunday observance and what you can and can't do on Sunday. So, you know, everybody's always laughing at the Jews for having their Talmud about the Sabbath. Well, wait till you see that Protestant book about Sunday.

   Now, here he said on the seventh day, God ended his work, which he had made and he rested. Now, if you check that word rested in a concordance or a dictionary, you're gonna find out that the word "Shabbat", Shabbat in Hebrew. So unknown to these arguers hidden away, right in Hebrew, on the seventh day, God ended his work, which he had made and God Shabbat on the seventh day, kept the Sabbath on the seventh day. That's what that word rested is there. Exactly the same Hebrew word. No different. Period. From all his work, which he had made. And God blessed, that's a good keyword. God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it. Now, you find several things God was doing here. God was ending his work on the seventh day. God rested on the seventh day. God blessed the seventh day and God sanctified the seventh day. So you got four key things there connected with the seventh day because now look, God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it, he had rested. There again, the word rest to be Shabbat, Sabbath, Sabbath because that in it, God himself had Sabbath from all his work which God created and made.

   Now a good question to bring up to the arguers is a, why did God rest on the seventh day? Is he tired? You know, what was God doing resting on the seventh day? What, what did God do by resting on the seventh day? He had to be doing some kind of work and yet here he was resting on it. So resting on it must have been doing some kind of work and it says he blessed it and he sanctified it. Now, did he do that by resting on it or did he do that by proclamation, by command or what did he do? Now, you know what arguers have the gall to say? They have the gall to say, "Well, God just rested on the seventh day anticipating the time, several thousand years later when he would give that law to Israel." Now, you know, if that makes sense to you, when I, when I hear that my brain just kind of goes, I think, wait a minute now. Right. It just kind of rattles around in there. It doesn't make sense. That is an argument. That's not an answer. That's not a fact. That's just a, you know, like a bunch of lizards running up straws when a flood comes. That's a straw, some lizards trying to run up to escape the flood's coming.

   Why did God rest on that seventh day? Well, the keys are in two words, the word bless and the word sanctified. We don't like the word bless. The Hebrew word bless there means bow down on the knee to worship. Now, it couldn't have been God doing that. Couldn't have been God doing that. Bow down on the knee to worship. Who's God worshiping? It couldn't be God. Now, the word sanctified proves that it had to be set apart for somebody else to bow down on the knee to worship. When you put the word bless and sanctified together, they have to mean set aside for somebody to bow down on the knee to worship. Now, you might say, well, you know, here's this lizard with a straw again, you'd say, "Well, I guess, I guess the one God was bowing down on the knee to worship the other God." Yeah. There, see, we got it. The only trouble is the word God there wipes that argument out because the word God there is the word Elohim. That means both of them. It isn't the word Lord in capital letters that meant the one who became the Son. You know, that is another argument too. And that is people say why the God of Israel gave the Sabbath to Israel. No... it isn't the God of Israel that blessed the Sabbath. You better look at the word God there in verse three, your Bible, my Bible, every Bible shows it's God, the O and the D are in small letters. That means it's the Hebrew word Elohim, which has to mean more than one. So you can't say that means one of the Gods set apart the Sabbath and bowed down on the knee to worship the other God. That can't be with the Hebrew because the word Elohim is the word for God's. So Elohim blessed, bowed down on the knee to worship and sanctified, set apart for holy use. And he was working on that day. Now, most honest old commentators, you know, you just take, I can show you this in some of the old Protestant commentaries. They were more honest, I guess, than some of the modern ones. But I can show you in the old Protestant commentaries that even they admit Genesis 2 is the foundation, the beginning, origin of the Sabbath. It didn't start with Exodus 20 and Moses. It didn't start with the Ten Commandments. But you know, the Lutherans and Methodists and a whole bunch of churches believe that the Sabbath began with the Ten Commandments. Don't let anybody ever kid you with that argument. That's just a big argument.

   All right, here you've gotten several key points about the Sabbath then in Genesis 2. All right. Now, the old argument goes that, you can't show me Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, any of those guys kept the Sabbath. You can't show me the Sabbath. Now, if you take your concordance, you look up the word Sabbath, you know where you find it the first time? Exodus 16. First place you find it. OK? Let's just come over to Exodus 16. Let's say we are just innocent, naive people and we want to find out about the truth. So we get a concordance, we look up Sabbath. You have to be struck by the fact that it didn't even mention in Genesis. It didn't mention in Exodus till chapter 16. You say, "Well, I wonder why that is." Right. Let's read a little bit in Exodus 16. And they took their journey from Elim and all the congregation of the children of Israel came into the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai on the 15th day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt. And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. And the children of Israel said, "Would to God we had died by the hand of the Eternal in the land of Egypt when we sat by the flesh pots, we ate bread to the full. You brought us forth into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly." Then the Eternal said to Moses, "Behold, I'll rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, and notice why the manna came down from heaven that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law." Now. Well, the Ten Commandments aren't even given till Exodus 20. Here you are in Exodus 16 on the 15th day of the second month. That's not when the Ten Commandments were given. You know, that's only 30 days from the first day of Unleavened Bread. The 15th day of the second month, Pentecost comes 50 days after the day after the Sabbath. But here, this is only 30 days later on the 15th day of the second month. And God's miracle of manna was to prove them whether they will walk in my law, so they must have already had the law before they can to Siani, they must of already known the law, they must have already been aware of it because how could God rain down manna beginning with the 15th day of the second month and prove whether they would walk in his law or know by that?

   Well, let's skip over a little bit in the chapter. Same chapter verse 22. It tells you about how they gathered manna. And if they gathered too much, it would stink and bred worms, verse 20 says, "They didn't hearken to Moses. Some of them left of it till the morning. It bred worms. Moses was wroth." They gathered it every morning. It came to pass on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man. All the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. He said to them, "This is that which the Eternal has said, tomorrow is the rest of the Holy Sabbath unto the Eternal." Now, imagine that here you are on the 15th day, between the 15th day of the second month and the day of Pentecost when Exodus 20 happened. And here God is starting this manna miracle and it says, "Tomorrow is the rest of the Holy Sabbath unto the Eternal." It didn't say Moses thought up the Sabbath because the people were in bondage working seven days, seven days, seven days. It says God had said, "This is that which the Eternal has said, tomorrow is the rest of the Holy Sabbath unto the Eternal." So it wasn't the Sabbath to Israel or to Moses or to anybody else. It's always called the Holy Sabbath unto the Eternal. Now it's holy. Who made it holy? When do you read where it was made holy? When you come back to Exodus 16, it's already said the Holy Sabbath. When was it made holy then? You gotta find somewhere when it was made holy. If it's just introduced to them, it's already holy. You know, if someone came to me and said, "Hey, this is the seventh day, this is holy," I'd say, "Well, yeah, who made it holy? When?" That's what I want to know right away. And I already know who made it holy and when, because you can search all the way back from Exodus 16, all the way back. And the only place you'll come to is Genesis 2. Who made it holy and when? And how did he make it holy? And why did he make it holy? We read all those back there in Genesis 2.

   Now, notice though, "This is that which the Eternal has said, tomorrow is the rest of the Holy Sabbath unto the Eternal. Bake what you will bake today, seethe what you'll seethe, and that which remains over, lay up for you to be kept till the morning." Well, they laid it up so they could get it on the sixth day and lay it up till the morning, and it didn't stink and it didn't breed any worms. Then Moses said, "Eat that today." And I notice here's another trick of translators. Look at the word is, it's italicized. He had been telling you today is a Sabbath. They knew that. They'd already been shown they were being tested whether they keep God's law. They'd already been told that tomorrow is the rest of the Holy Sabbath unto the Eternal. So now it just says, "Eat that today for today the Sabbath unto the Eternal." And why does it say a Sabbath instead of the Sabbath? Well, because it was the first time they gathered up on the sixth day and kept it over to the seventh and it didn't breed worms and stink. So he says today is a Sabbath and so is next Saturday and next seventh day and next Saturday and a week from now and next seventh day. So this is just a Sabbath in a long series of Sabbaths. "Today is a Sabbath unto the Eternal." I notice again, it's never called a Sabbath unto Israel or a Sabbath unto Moses. "A Sabbath unto the Eternal. Today, you'll not find it in the field. Six days you gather, but on the seventh day," and notice which is italicized again, He's not telling you the seventh day is the Sabbath. They already knew that. That was taken for granted. And the very Hebrew here shows that they already knew it was the seventh day. It was the Sabbath. But the translators want to put in words and say today is the Sabbath. No, "Today the Sabbath." "Six days you gather, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, in it there will be none."

   Well, it came to pass there went out some of the people on the seventh day to gather and they found none. And now look at this. The Eternal said unto Moses, "How long refuse you?" Now, if I'd been there, I'd have said, "How long? You just told us about it. I mean, it's the first test. It's the first day. It's the first Saturday. What do you mean how long refuse you to keep my commandments?" It's a bit obvious by that they already had God's commandments and laws a long time. I mean, could you read that and not know that? God says to Moses how long refuse you to keep my commandments and my laws?

   See, "For that the Eternal has given you the Sabbath, not Moses, the Eternal has given you the Sabbath." Given who the Sabbath? [inaudible] man? Therefore, he gives you on the sixth day, the bread of two days. Abide you every man in his place. You know, the Jews take that totally out of context. There's no place in the Bible that says you should stay in the house all day Sabbath. That isn't what this is. I've never been out of my house yet on the Sabbath day to gather manna. Have you? And have you been out of your house on the Sabbath day to gather manna? Boy, if you have, you've broken that scripture then. It doesn't say stay in your house, period. It says don't any of you be going out of your house on the Sabbath Day to gather manna. That's what it says. But, you know, I've had Baptist preachers quote that verse to me right out of the whole context and say, "Well, you know, if you're gonna keep the Sabbath, you can't even turn on your lights, you can't even go out of your house, you know, you can't even do this and that." And they'll quote a bunch of unscriptural ideas they come up with. This says, "Let no man go out of his place on the seventh day in order to gather manna." So the people Sabbathed, there's the word rested again. And Sabbathed, right there, it's exactly the same as the word Sabbath. So that shows you the word Sabbath and rested is the same. It is right here in this verse and it is back in Genesis 2. And why do you think those translators translated the word Shabbat rested in Genesis 2? You think they'd be honest and put Sabbath back there? They don't want you to think that Sabbath went all the way back to creation. So they translate it rested, which is permissible. You can do that in Hebrew, translate it either way. But why would they do it that way back there and this way here? So the people rested on the seventh day.

   Now, you know, most of us just read that and that's it. I'm not gonna do that. Look at verse 35. "The children of Israel did eat manna forty years." You realize how many Sabbaths that'd be? Over 4,000 Sabbath days, or 2,000 rather. You've got forty years, times 52, 52 Sabbaths a year for forty years. Now, can you imagine that every Friday you go out, you gather twice as much? Nothing happens to it on Saturday. Twenty years later, you try to go out and get some on Saturday. There isn't any. If you decide you're gonna make Sunday the Sabbath, so you go out and try to get twice as much on Saturday and it'll breed worms and stink on Sunday. You know, for forty years, you can't imagine that, can you? Can you imagine 2080 Sabbaths in a row for 2080 weeks, twice as much on Saturday, I mean, on Friday and then on Saturday. Now, what did that prove to these people? That proves at least for forty years, they knew which day is the Sabbath and they kept that Sabbath and they were, had that Sabbath so drilled into their very being. Maybe it's why the Jews are so deeply rooted in the Sabbath because if you'd been forced for forty years to go out and get manna, now, you know, most people think manna is one of these big flows that come floating down. I didn't know what manna is. Manna is a little bitty thing about as big as the tip of your finger. And you go out like snowflakes and gather it up and you got to knead it together and make bread. Now, you know, in order to get around the miracle of manna, some great scholars in our day say they found some bush over there in Palestine that has little white things that you can sure enough put together and eat like bread. And now I'll believe that when I see one that put out twice as much on Friday and didn't put out any on Saturday. That's kind of dumb, isn't it? But they try to work around every miracle. They try to make light of the Bible miracles.

   I believe God rained down manna from heaven for forty years. I believe he's gonna do it again too when we get in a place of safety and we see this white stuff flowing. We're gonna know what it is. It's gonna be work. You get out there and gather it up, you compress it together and make a loaf out of it and put it in the oven and bake it and you got manna. It must be pretty good. It's called angels' food in another place. Maybe those angels have to eat it all the time. I don't know where it comes from, but I know that God rained down manna twice as much on the sixth day, none on the seventh day for forty years. And then you have people so stupid. They say, "No, Sabbath didn't exist before Moses." I mean, where, where have they been? Exodus 16. What's that show you? And it says, "How long refuse you to keep my commandment and my laws?"

   Now, let's backtrack just a second. Genesis 26. You think Abraham didn't keep the Sabbath Day? I can show you this says he kept the Sabbath Day. Now you might argue like these arguers do and say, "Oh, no, that doesn't say Abraham kept the Sabbath." OK. Let's just read and see what it says. Genesis 26. I'm gonna just read the one verse to save some time. God says he's going to bless Abraham in this chapter, multiply his seed as the stars of heaven. Then he says in verse five, "Because that Abraham...

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   ...dissidents laughing at that Armstrong bunch thinking they're going to fulfill Isaiah's commission. They're gonna fulfill Ezekiel's commission. They're gonna fulfill, you know, Jeremiah's commission. And you know, they went on and on about how this Armstrong bunch thinks they're going to fulfill the Elijah commission and they're gonna fulfill the John the Baptist commission. And he says, "Why, I guess those guys didn't get to fulfill their own commissions, you know, just left Armstrong to fulfill all of them." And said, "Why don't we realize Isaiah did Isaiah's commission and Elijah did Elijah's commission and John the Baptist did John the Baptist commission?" And laugh, laugh they just had a big party and big laugh at these dumb Armstrongites.

   Well, that laugh's gonna end up on the other side of their face though because in the first place, what is a charge? You know, you think they know what a charge is? You think they'd go to the trouble before they laugh to get a concordance, look up the word charge and look it up all the way through the Bible. I've done that. I know what the charge is. I know what a charge is. But you know, these jokers laughing, they said, "Why, that Armstrong bunch, they might as well fulfill Noah's commission and get everybody to build a big boat somewhere." Laugh, laugh, laugh. "They might as well fulfill Abraham's commission and take their firstborn sons out there and sacrifice them." You know, they laugh and laugh, but it just shows shallowness it just shows ignorance because what is a charge? Well, you'll find out if you take the trouble to look it up. It's an individual responsibility that God puts on somebody. When God charged Abraham to sacrifice his son, the fact that he charged him shows I don't have to do that, you don't have to do that, we don't all have to do that. That was an individual thing that God himself placed on Abraham. Now you read back about Noah. God charged Noah to build an ark. That didn't charge me to build an ark. He didn't charge us to build an ark. That's not a commission. That's dumb and ignorant a commission. You know, Noah preached for 200 years. Noah was a preacher of righteousness. Your Bible says, "Well, that's what his commission was to preach, to try to warn everybody about a flood. But nobody listened. But a charge, God charged Noah to build an ark." But you better know the difference.

   Now, Abraham kept God's charge. You notice it in the singular. It doesn't say kept my charges, it just kept my charge. And when God said, "Abraham, take your son, your only son Isaac, and go up there to Mount Moriah and offer him as a sacrifice for sin." Abraham obeyed God's charge. All right. What else did Abraham do? "Abraham kept my commandments." Well, you know, how do you do that when they didn't even exist till Moses' time? Well, I think, you know, we've got an article that shows the Ten Commandments existed before Moses' time, that at Moses' time, they were just codified, given to a nation on a, in a book and on tablets. And that before that time, they were given the individual people knew God's law all the way from the beginning. God taught them his law. They weren't codified in the book or on tablets until Exodus 20. That's true.

   But it says Abraham kept God's commandments, plural. But in all of it, it says, "kept my statutes." Well, that's, boy, that is really a puzzle for people that want to argue against the truth. That says, "Abraham kept God's statutes." All right. That's the Hebrew word "choq," and you look that up in your Bible, what are statutes? You know, what did Abraham keep when he kept God's statutes? Well, I can show you in Exodus 12 and 13 that Passover and Unleavened Bread are statutes. Those weren't what Abraham kept. I can show you that Holy Days are statutes. That's not what Abraham kept. He didn't keep Holy Days. But it says Abraham kept my statutes, plural. So if you look up the word statutes and you look through and see what statutes are, you're gonna have to come up with some Abraham kept. So that's what God says here, "Abraham kept my statutes." Tithing is a statute. You read Deuteronomy 12, first few verses. Tithing is a statute. Is that a statute that Abraham kept? Is that why he tithed? You know, those same arguers would have you believe that, "Oh, Abraham didn't have any tithing as a law. They didn't have a law of tithing back then. Why, the law of tithing didn't come in until Moses' time." That's really untrue. That's a big laugh. And that's another subject we'll get on in a few weeks. But anyway, tithing is one of the statutes Abraham kept. I'll tell you what the others are another time. But, that verse says Abraham kept God's statutes and my laws. Now you look at those terms he uses there, commandments, statutes, laws. And you're gonna find out when you look up those words, when you find those terms together, commandments actually means the ten. Statutes means what statutes you find listed. And laws means the other regulations that aren't included in the Ten Commandments or in the statutes. The last term is a summary term showing that Abraham kept the rest of God's system too. But he specifically mentions by name, commandments, which includes the Sabbath day. Oh, yeah, that verse says Abraham kept God's Sabbath day. That's one of the commandments. He kept God's statutes too, it shows he tithed. Now, let's come to Exodus 20. This is what everybody says, law begins and the Sabbath begins. And certainly not true though. But anyway, let's read Exodus 20. Let's jump right in the middle of the chapter like good Baptists do in verse 8.

   Can you imagine now all of a sudden for the first time in history, God is going to launch out with this law. So here you are totally innocent in the past, never having heard of God's regulations at all. And all of a sudden, God says, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." You say, "Wait, wait a minute, God. What's that? Remember? You never had told me that. Remember the Sabbath? Which one is it, God?" You know, what are you gonna do if all of a sudden for the first time in history, God's voice booms out from heaven and says, "Remember the Sabbath day?" Well, you're gonna, you're gonna get scared and rattled. You're gonna say, "Well, yes, sir, I sure will. Which one is it?" Now, remember you told me that? Why tell me, "Remember?" You never told me. Can you imagine that? You know, that doesn't work. You come up to your kids sometime and say, "Remember I told you don't ever eat with a fork." "Well, Dad, you never told me such a thing. That's the first time I ever heard that." You know how that would leave you feeling. But can you imagine God starting out for the first time in history, a law by saying, "Remember?" Well, he's never told you. That'd be ridiculous, wouldn't it? Now alright. Let's just read here and see what it says.

   "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." Right away, I'd want to say, "Well, now, wait a minute. Who made it holy? And how do I keep it holy? And when was it made holy? And, you know, why was it made holy? I mean, isn't any day out of seven just, just any other day? I mean, why, why, why on the seventh day?" I want to ask some questions if God spoke that to me. And it's kind of like Mr. Armstrong's always used this example. You know, if somebody hands you a, a pint jar of water and says, "Keep this warm." We're gonna look at him and say, "Well, nobody's warmed it up yet. And how am I gonna keep this warm when nobody's warmed it up yet?" You know, you can't keep something holy until it's made holy. Now, let's just say the New Testament church started meeting on Sunday. Would that make a day holy? Is that how you make something holy? Just start doing it and it makes it holy? You want to make Thursday holy? Well, let's just start doing it, huh? You want to, want to have Wednesday holy? Let's just start. That is the way you make something holy? You know, in the first place, the person that's going to make something holy has to be holy. Can an unholy human make a day holy? There's no way you could do that. Only a holy God could make something else holy. It's God's Holy Spirit, God's Holy Scriptures, God's Holy Days, God's Holy Sabbath. God, who is holy, has the power to make something holy. No human has the power to make anything holy. So God couldn't hand you something that never has been made holy and say, "Now, remember, keep it holy." So God made it holy and he made it holy the way we read back here in Genesis 2. All right. Now, look what he says.

   Now, here's another argument I forgot about the Sabbath Day. They say, "Why, the Sabbath Day is an oppressive law that requires you to force your practice on your neighbors, on your kinfolks, on your mates, on anybody. The Sabbath Day is an oppressive law. It's an offense to all neighbors." May I say that in truth? Well, read here and see. "Six days shall you labor and do all your work, but the seventh day," notice the word is again italicized, that means it's added by the translators "but the seventh day the Sabbath of the Eternal your God. You shall not do any work." All right, look how oppressive the Sabbath is. You who are reading this and believing it and accepting it. You, you don't do any work. Your son doesn't, your daughter doesn't, your manservant doesn't, your maidservant doesn't, your cattle don't, the stranger that's within your gates don't. But it doesn't say don't let your wife do any work. Don't let the foreigner do any work. It doesn't say that. You notice this isn't an oppressive law. You can't force your neighbor about the Sabbath. You can't even force your own mate who's an adult about the Sabbath. But anybody who is not an adult when it comes to your son and your daughter, God holds the man accountable. Now of course, you can't require someone to be under the law of God unless, unless they're willing to be. But God says, you notice, he leaves out your wife, he leaves out your mate there dead obvious. Leaves out your mother-in-law and your father-in-law and your mother and your dad, leaves out your neighbor. The Sabbath is not oppressive. The Sabbath is for the man who reads it and believes it and wants to be blessed by keeping it.

   You don't see me, I mean, you don't see in that any oppression. "You, you don't do any work, not your son or your daughter. Don't let a manservant or maidservant work for you on that day. Don't let your cattle be used for working on that day." So in that sense, the Sabbath was made for working animals, horses, cattle. You know, nowadays, if a neighbor wants to borrow your tractor, your tractor doesn't need to keep the Sabbath. It doesn't need rest. It doesn't work out for your tractor to keep the Sabbath. But if your neighbor wanted to use your oxen or your horses to work on the Sabbath, that wouldn't be right. I've got another little book I want to use in these studies when we have the public invited. It's called "The Science of the Sabbath." And it shows they took a flock of horses and they divided them up as evenly and fairly as they could. One group of horses, they just worked straight seven days, seven days, seven days, eight hours a day. The others they worked six days and rested seven, worked six days and rested seven. And you know, they literally proved by that test that the horses that rested the seventh day were stronger, were healthier. And in the long run got more work done than the ones that they worked seven days a week. I mean, I didn't even know somebody would go to all that trouble to try to prove the Sabbath scientifically. But I've got a book that shows that. But anyway, God does say, "Your manservant, your maidservant, your cattle." Nor, look at this, "The stranger that is within your gates." In other words, some alien that wants to join himself to you and your religion. Then he should be following the Sabbath too. It doesn't say a word about unbelieving neighbors, unbelieving mates, anybody like that.

   Now notice the reason for the Sabbath. "Remember the Sabbath day. Six days shall you labor, the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Eternal. Don't do any work in it because," the word for and because are the same, "because six days the Eternal made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day. Wherefore the Eternal blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it." Now, you know, you put that with Genesis 2 and that just nails that down with no way out. I mean, this verse plainly tells you why God blessed, why God hallowed, and the word hallowed and sanctified are the same. This word hallowed here and the word sanctified in Genesis 2, they're both the same words. And I think the translators changed them on purpose to keep the truth hidden from you as much as they can. But this says, why the Eternal blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it because six days he got everything made. And if God Almighty could make everything he did in six days, you know, what's man got to do that he can't get done in six days? Do you think about all that God got done in six days? So the fact that God rested, the Shabbath, blessed and hallowed the Sabbath day, that's why he commands man to remember and to keep it holy. Can you put Exodus 20 in with Genesis 2? I mean, that really nails it down.

   Now, let's come back here to, let's see where this place is. Somewhere I jotted that down. Deuteronomy 5. These people have the gall to skip over Exodus 20, skip over Exodus 23, skip over Exodus 34 and 35. They skip over all the other passages about the Sabbath in the first five books and they come to this one and they make a mountain out of a molehill. Deuteronomy 5 verse 15. Well, let's back up and start where the Sabbath starts. Verse 12. "Keep the Sabbath day to sanctify it as the Eternal your God has commanded you. Six days shall you labor and do all your work." Now, way back years ago, I remember a guy got up and gave the sermonette and he said, "How many of you are Friday keepers?" You know, we'd been tricked many times. Everybody was scared to know whether to raise their hands or not. "How many of you are Friday keepers?" Nobody raised their hands and finally he said, "You ought to be because in order to keep the seventh day, you have to do certain keeping on the sixth day, the preparation day. You know, you got to do on the sixth day what you shouldn't do on the seventh day and what you could have done on the sixth day you shouldn't have been doing on the seventh day." So he was talking about the preparation day.

   Now, in his sermonette, he also said, "God commanded you to work six days. So if you're only working a five day week, you're violating the scripture. It says six days shall you labor." That isn't really true. That isn't what the Hebrew says. The Hebrew says, "Within six days get all your work done." That's all it says. It didn't command you to work six days. It just says, "Within six days you get your work done." That's kind of what it says here, "Within six days you labor and do all your work, but the seventh day," and there's that little is italicized again. See it?, they do that every time. They keep trying to make you think that the Sabbath is beginning anew with each bunch of people here. And you know, it's the same day from the beginning and never changed. "But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Eternal your God. You shall not do any work, you nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your manservant, maidservant, ox, ass, cattle, stranger within your gates that your manservant and maidservant may rest as well as you. And remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt and the Eternal your God brought you out through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm. Therefore, the Eternal your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day." See there, the only reason God commands you to keep the Sabbath day was because you were in bondage and slaves in Egypt. So if you weren't one of those in bondage and slaves in Egypt, then God didn't command you to keep the Sabbath day. Now, you can read all the others you want in Exodus and Leviticus and you'll never find any statement like that. That's the only place in all the Bible that it is. But instead of putting the Bible here a little there a little, line upon line, precept upon precept, instead of adding it all together to get the right answers, no, they'll nitpick one little verse out of context and just use it that way.

   Now you need to be aware of that though because you'll have that sprung on you. People are gonna say, "Hey, how come you keep that seventh day?" And they say, "Don't you realize only those who came out of Egypt in bondage? That's why God commanded them the Sabbath." So if you weren't one of them, you shouldn't have a Sabbath. "See, let me show you Deuteronomy 5," and they'll flip over there and they'll read that to you and you'll kind of sit there astonished for a while and hopefully you'll know the answer. Because all you need to do is show them all the other verses through Exodus and Leviticus and say, "Well, now, wait a minute though. It says, 'Because God sanctified it, hallowed it.' It says, 'Because God rested on it.' It says..." You know, that's the only place that uses that statement.

   Now, just a couple of statements too. Can you, can you come up with any excuse for a seven day week? You know, somebody asked you about a month. A month is scientific. You know, the words month and the words moon is the same word. So a month is very scientific. Well, what about a year? Oh, a year is scientific too. You know, a year is based on the heavens, based on the sun and the moon and the stars and all the heavens. A day? Oh, yeah, sure. You know, every time the sun goes down, a new day starts. Every time another sun goes down, another day starts. A week? No excuse for a week. Can't explain it. No reason for it. Unscientific. No reason ever. You can't find any excuse. You can't find any reason. There's no cause for a seven day week. Well, how on earth did we get one then? I mean, why do we have one if it isn't scientific? You know, some people even made the argument with them arguing about the Sabbath, they said, "Why, those Israelites got the Sabbath from Egypt. And when they came up out of Egypt, they brought that Sabbath with them. It's obvious you just read there in Exodus. They got that Sabbath from Egypt." And the only trouble is, you know, you show your ignorance when you talk like that because if you look it up in history, at the time of the Exodus, the Egyptians had a 10 day week. So, you know, a guy just kind of falls like a tree, just fell over because it just shows your ignorance. A 10 day week and they got a seven day week from the Egyptians who had a 10 day week? Huh? Well, that makes as much sense as all the other arguments.

   Well, let's come to a few in the New Testament and we'll come back to some more in the Old Testament later. I couldn't believe my ears on one time because these guys stood up there and they said, "Is the sermon on the mount the heart of Christianity?" Yeah. I mean, is the sermon on the mount as meaty and as deep spiritual Christian scripture as any? Yeah. Well, then why didn't Jesus say anything about the Sabbath in the sermon on the mount? Why don't you realize what all Jesus said in the sermon on the mount? Let's, let's just take a look back here in Matthew 5. Notice a little bit about Matthew 5. They said, "Why, didn't you notice?" Verse 21 says, "You shall not kill." So here is Christ magnifying about the Ten Commandments. He said, "Thou shalt not kill." Anybody doubt God gave that in the Ten Commandments? So here's Jesus magnifying the thing about not killing. Verse 27 says, "Thou shalt not commit adultery." Verse 33 says, "Don't forswear yourself but perform to the Lord your oaths." Verse 38 says, "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." Verse 43 says, "Love your neighbor and hate your enemy." Chapter 6 tells you how to pray, how to fast, about your money. Chapter 7 says, "Don't judge." And gives you other admonitions by Jesus. And they said, "Isn't it kind of obvious that all the way through there, Sabbath must not have been very important? He didn't say a word about the Sabbath." You follow that same kind of argument. It's what scholars call the argument from silence. You know, just because it's not mentioned, does that mean that therefore you can assume it wasn't important? The argument of silence.

   All right. Let's use the same argument. Jesus didn't say a word in there about stealing. So go ahead. I mean, have at it, go right ahead. Didn't say a word about coveting there, did he? OK. Are you telling me then that only what's in Matthew 5, 6, and 7 you need to worry about? That's kind of dangerous. But let's back up and nail that down. Do it a little better. Matthew 5 verse 1, Matthew 5 verse 1. "And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain." Now, that's kind of an odd verse because I've marked those verses like that crowd in my Bible because I want to be able to show people Jesus wasn't trying to save everybody he could back then because imagine that. Seeing the multitude, he took off, got up in the mountain. And that's not a very good thing to do if you're down there to try to save everybody. Now you can argue around that and say, "Well, yeah, but you know, apparently the crowd's just too big and it wasn't good to try to save everybody there. So he, he lit out." Well, you can say that if you want, but let's read on and see what it says. So here he sees these multitudes and he went up in the mountains. And when he was set, his disciples came unto him. Now that always did kind of strike me funny because if the disciples would go on up into the mountain, why didn't everybody else if they want to hear him that bad? I mean, if everybody else, if the disciples could go up into the mountain where he was to hear him, why couldn't everybody else? Well, I know now why. "He opened his mouth and taught them." So he gives the beatitudes, which aren't new, they're in the Psalms. And he talks about some of the other, "You're the salt of the earth and the light of the world." And one of the odd things he says in verse 17, here's the very first statement out of Jesus' mouth about the law. And look what it says, "Don't think that I have come to destroy the law." Now, why in the world would he say that? The first thing out of his mouth about the law is, "Don't think I came to destroy it." He must have known that somewhere between the Old and the New Testament, some kind of a giant conspiracy came along to try to make everybody think Jesus was going to destroy the law his Father had put down. But here he say, "Don't think that I'm come to destroy the law." Now, back up just a second to Exodus 20. One thing I want to mention back here too. People say, "Why, the Sabbath was made for Israel." This is a good way to knock that argument in the head, but good. Exodus 20 verse 1. Look who gave the Ten Commandments. "And God spake all these words." You see that word God? The O and D are small letters. That means that word is Elohim. That means it wasn't just the Christ who gave the Ten Commandments. It was the Father and the Son together. It was the two of them in unison. So if the God of Israel gave the Sabbath to Israel, then why doesn't it say Yahweh or Eloah? I mean, Jehovah or the Lord spake all these words. You know, the fact that it uses the universal name of God, Elohim, shows that this is a universal law. If it were a law for Israel, then the God of Israel should have spoken it. But he didn't. The universal name for God, Elohim, that's what the word God is. Elohim spake all these words.

   Now you come back to Matthew 5. Why, the very Christ who is speaking here is one of the two members of the God family that spoke those Ten Commandments. And the very first thing Jesus says in the New Testament about the law is, "Don't think that I'm come to destroy it." But that's what everybody does think. But anyway, we'll come back to that a little later. But he goes on down through giving these magnifications. You know, Christ came to magnify the law and make it honorable. He didn't come to do away with it. He came to magnify it and make it honorable. Can you imagine you've caught a monarch butterfly and, you know, maybe something real rare and it's real valuable. And you give it to some guy and you say, "Hey, would you mind taking this down to your lab and magnifying it?" And when he comes back the next day, you say, "Well, where is it?" He says, "Well, I destroyed it." You know, you're gonna look at him like he's crazy and say, "Well, I didn't tell you to destroy it. I said magnify it." But that's what people think about the law. God said Christ would magnify the law. So everybody thinks he did away with it. And you know what you do when you magnify something? You enlarge it. You blow it up where you can see it in better detail. You know, you, you make it where it's easier to see it more thoroughly. That's what magnifying means. So here Christ is magnifying the law. So he is talking to disciples. Then he tells them about prayer and about fasting. Imagine about those things about tithing. He tells them about in chapter 6. In chapter 7, he tells them to not be of a judging nature. Then look at verse 28. Matthew 7:28. "And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished." It didn't say disciples. So all you can deduce from that is that the disciples went up there at first, but during the process of this teaching, sure enough, some others came up. And by the time he finished, there were more than disciples there. You wonder why a whole multitude didn't come up. But you'll find out, "When Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine because he taught them as having authority and not as the scribes." "When he was come down from the mountains, great multitudes..." They were still there. They hadn't gone anywhere. They were still there. How long do you think it would take a person to teach Matthew 5, 6, and 7? Well, mostly a few hours at the most. Maybe not even that long. But first, only his disciples came up. Gradually through the time, a few others came up. By the time he finished, the people were astonished. When he comes down, the great multitudes are still down there.

   We'll see this same mountain too Wednesday night where he gave these Ten Commandments. "Behold, there came a leper, worshiped him saying, 'Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.'" Well, Jesus put forth his hand and touched him saying, "I will. You be clean." Immediately, his leprosy was cleansed. Jesus said to him, "See, you tell no man but go show yourself to the priest, offer the gifts that Moses commanded." Now does that sanction the rituals? Does that tell anybody they ought to go ahead and follow the offering of gifts like Moses commanded? Looked like Jesus told him to do it, for a testimony unto them. That's the only reason he told him to go ahead and do it, a testimony to the priest. "When Jesus was entered into Capernaum..." You'll see that town too because he came down the mountain. The multitudes were still there. He heals this leper then goes into Capernaum, which is right there at the foot of the mountain. Here comes the centurion saying, "My servant's home sick of the palsy." Jesus said, "I'll come and heal him." He said, "Well, I'm not worthy." And you remember the story there. Anyway, Jesus said, "Go and be it according to your faith." Now in verse 14, Jesus comes into Peter's house, which is in Capernaum. He sees Peter's mother laid sick of a fever. He touches her hand. The fever leaves her. She arises and ministers to them. "When the evening was come, they brought to him many that were possessed with devils." And you know all that was on the Sabbath day. I'll show you that even more so in Mark. But all of the sermon on the mount was given on the Sabbath day. That all happened on a Sabbath day. That's why the multitude wouldn't go up the mountain because you can't go more than three quarters of a mile on a Sabbath day according to the Jewish Sabbath journey law. And Christ went up this mountain and that's too far to go. They'd be breaking the Sabbath. But the disciples came up and some other people said, "Well, they went up there and the lightning struck them and, you know, I think I'm gonna go up there." So a few more went up. A few more went up and gradually more and more went up. But when Christ came back down, the great multitudes were still there. And when he enters into Peter's mother's house, he heals her. But they had a law against healing on the Sabbath day. I think it's Numbers 39. But I'll show you next week. But anyway, they have a law that says unless it's a matter of life and death, it's working to heal on the Sabbath.

   Now, I personally think more people are healed on the Sabbath than any other day. But anyway, Christ broke their law right here two or three times. He healed on the Sabbath day, healed that leper, healed that centurion's son, healed Peter's mother-in-law. But they won't do anything like that till the sun goes down. So when the sun was down, then sure enough, here comes everybody else bringing everybody to be healed. Now you turn over to Mark and it'll, it'll prove to you that was a Sabbath without any doubt. You put harmony of the Gospels together and it proves it. Mark, let's scan a little bit in chapter 1 and down the, the passage. Mark chapter 1 verse 14 says, "After John was put in prison, Jesus comes into Galilee preaching the gospel of the Kingdom of God. The time is fulfilled, the Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel." As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he sees Simon and Andrew, "Come after me, I'll make you fishers of men." They follow him. He goes a little further, sees James and John. They call leave their father. Verse 21, "They went into Capernaum and straightway on the Sabbath day he entered into the synagogue." So here they are in the synagogue at Capernaum. The same time as the one we're at in Matthew. Well, we'll find out. "They were astonished at his doctrine. That's the same. He taught them as one that had authority." That's the same. "There was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit." Now, Mark adds something in that synagogue at Capernaum on that Sabbath that Matthew didn't. Well, here Jesus heals this lunatic, this person with a demon problem. And then verse 27, "What is this new doctrine? With authority he even commands unclean spirits and they obey. So, fame immediately goes abroad throughout all the region about Galilee." Here they were. They come out of the synagogue. They enter into the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John. But Simon's wife's mother lay sick of a fever. Same thing. See, here's Peter's mother-in-law sick with a fever and they tell him. He comes, takes her by the hand, lifts her up, immediately the fever leaves her. He ministers to them. "And even when the sun did set, they brought all others to be healed." And that proves there that was the Sabbath.

   Now, I want to give you a little time to do something else for between now and next week. But in Mark chapter 2, "Where Christ enters into Capernaum after many days." And then they get the word around that here he comes again. Well, skip over to verse 23, "Where Christ goes through the corn field on the Sabbath day. His disciples began as they went to pluck the ears of corn. The Pharisees said unto him, 'Behold, why do they on the Sabbath day that which is not lawful?'" Now what law are they talking about? Is there some law in the Bible that says you can't pluck ears of corn going through the cornfields on the Sabbath day? Well, let's just back up and read what the law says. Deuteronomy 23 verse 25. Now, I know the Jews have a law, but I'm not interested in what the Jews' law is as far as what God says. What does God say about this? Deuteronomy 23, here's what God's law says about the situation like this. Verse 24, "When you come into your neighbor's vineyard, then you may eat grapes, fill at your own pleasure, but you shall not put any in your vessels, except on the Sabbath day." Now, is that what that says? That doesn't say any exception on the Sabbath. It just says, here you are, you're out somewhere, you're hungry, you're traveling a little distance, and you come into your neighbor's vineyard, eat grapes. You can eat as many grapes as you need to fill yourself up. But God knows your human nature, so don't carry any buckets and wagons and start harvesting the guy's grapes. "When you come into the standing corn of your neighbors, then you may pluck the ears with your hands." So God Almighty says when you come into the standing corn, you may pluck the ears with your hands and who cares what the Jews say if it contradicts that. And if that's what God says, then that's what I'm gonna go by and that's what the disciples are going by. And if the Jews came along and said, "Ah, ha! Look at there, your disciples plucking ears of corn." And it says here in our Talmud that you can't do that. I don't care. If God said as a hospitality, brotherly love law that you couldn't forbid your hungry neighbor coming into your standing corn plucking ears, eating at his pleasure to his fill, but he said, you can't move the sickle into your neighbor's standing corn. Doesn't give you an excuse to rob him or harvest his crop. But if you're hungry and you're going through. Now, you come back to Mark 2 and notice that's the law the disciples were going by. "They went through the cornfields on the Sabbath day and they didn't believe in three fourths of a mile either, Sabbath day's journey. I can show you Sabbath were the traveled more than three quarters of a mile. In fact, you'll see that mountain and you tell me if it's more than three quarters of a mile up that mountain where he spoke the sermon on the mount. The Pharisees said, 'Behold, why do they on the Sabbath day that which is not lawful?'" Well, he said to them, "Have you never read what David did when he had need and was hungered?" Now notice the condition. Did David just say, "Well, you know, foie on God's holy sanctuary. If I want to eat showbread, I'll go in there every week and eat showbread." No, if David was hungered and had need, that was a special condition and he could go in and eat showbread.

   Now, I'm going to show you in the next sermon at least that Jesus tells you fourteen ways how to keep the Sabbath in the New Testament. Would, would he do that if he were gonna turn right around and do away with it as soon as he died? Can you imagine Jesus very plainly giving you what you can and can't do on the Sabbath day? Now, in the first place? Can you imagine the history of Jesus' time? Here you have the Jews and they had a volume as big as your big thick Bible of do's and don'ts just about the Sabbath day. Now, the first thing Jesus needs to do with people like that is to stand up there and say, "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God." That'd be ridiculous. They knew and knew and knew that they, the Sabbath was the seventh day. You know, the problem with the people in Jesus' day was to keep them from making the Sabbath a yoke of bondage by all their Talmud laws. Jesus didn't have to worry about telling them which day is the Sabbath. His big job with the Sabbath was to show them what you can and can't do and to get back to the spirit of the Sabbath and to get away from any legalistic Talmud regulations about the Sabbath.

   The word Jesus says, "Have you never read what David did? He went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest. He ate the showbread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priest, but he did it anyway. And God didn't strike him. God didn't do a thing because he was an hungered and had need and David was a converted man and had God's spirit and he was keeping the law in the spirit. And he gave it to some soldiers with him, but he ate the showbread that is not lawful." He said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man." Didn't say the Sabbath was made for Israel. The Sabbath was made for the Jews. The Sabbath was made for Moses. The Sabbath was made, the Sabbath was made for man. Then you ought to see the Sabbath made the first thing when man was made. So what do you find? God made man on the sixth day. The first thing he did make the Sabbath on the seventh day. Now, if the Sabbath was made for the Jew, you should see the Sabbath right after the Jew was made. So Jacob has Judah and right away God makes the Sabbath. Not, not a bit. Sabbath was made for the Jew. It didn't even come when a Jew came. The Sabbath was made for man. And the word man is the same word as mankind. The Sabbath was made for mankind. Chinese, Russian, black, white, brown, doesn't make any difference. The Sabbath was made for man. But man wasn't made to be a slave of the Sabbath day. That's what the Jews were making men in their day. They were so afraid of the legalistic do's and don'ts, they didn't have peace of mind on a Sabbath day. Man wasn't made to be addicted as slave to a day. The Sabbath was made for man. Therefore, the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath. Now, there's nowhere in your Bible you can show me that it says the first day of the week is the Lord's day. First place, it never mentions the Lord's day once in all your Bible. Can you imagine that? In the whole New Testament, Lord's day mentioned once. Circumcision is mentioned fifty-five times. You're gonna tell me God did away and changed the Sabbath and he only mentioned it once, but he mentioned circumcision fifty-five times after all that's a lot more important, when you circumcise male child or not. That's far more important than one of the Ten Commandments, one of the very cardinal laws of the ten. And yet it's only mentioned Lord's day once. First day of the week is only mentioned eight times. Circumcision is mentioned fifty-five. And, you know, you can't, that doesn't make sense. But here it says, "Since the Sabbath was made for man, the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath." It isn't the lord over him. He's the one that tells you how to keep it. He made it. He's the lord of it. He created it. He's the one that requires it. He's the one that made it for man. So that's why he's the Lord of the Sabbath day.

   Now, did you ever notice how much of your New Testament actually happened on the Sabbath day? I'll tell you, when time comes that we've really filtered out all the Sabbaths of the New Testament, you're not gonna believe how much of the events in all of the Bible were Sabbath events. Look at chapter 3. "He entered again into the synagogue and there was a man there with a withered hand. They watched him whether he would heal him on the Sabbath day that they might accuse him." Now the word watch there is kind of misleading. That word means stared at with accusation or to really gaze at with suspicion. "They watched him whether he would heal him on the Sabbath day." He said unto the man which had the withered hand, "Stand forth." "And he said unto them, 'Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath day?'" And that's really saying from God that it's lawful to do good on the Sabbath day. It is lawful to do good on the Sabbath day, to save life? That's what they said, "Only if it's a matter of life and death can you heal." Well, they couldn't answer. "He looked round about on them with anger." So, Jesus wasn't a soft pansy like people picture him. "He looked with anger, grieved because of the hardness of their hearts. He said, 'Stretch forth your hand.' And he stretched it out and his hand was restored. And the Pharisees went forth and straightway took counsel of the Herodians how they might destroy him." And that's the first time ever mentioned about trying to put Christ to death. And it was over the Sabbath. The very first attempt by the Jews to kill Jesus was because of the Sabbath day. Wasn't important, huh? Wasn't important to be in Matthew 5, 6, and 7 except all that happened on the Sabbath. The very first reason they tried to get him is because of the Sabbath.

   Now, I want to show you something quickly. Just scanning, turn to the Gospel of John. And I've come to realize from just researching this kind of a subject that there's only one reason you have the fourth Gospel or the biggest reason, the main reason. And that is the record of the Sabbath and Holy Days in Jesus' life. That's what John is. You know, I started one time, I was a little bit afraid too. I thought some people might get offended, but I was going to get me an old Bible and I was going to bring it up here and I was going to say, "I want to tear out of the Gospel of John everything that doesn't have to do with the Sabbath day." Boy, you know how much I'd tear out? Oh, two or three chapters at the most. Because all of that rest of it has to do with the Sabbaths and Holy Days. Now, if you were wanting to find out how many years Christ's ministry lasted, you know, if you wanted to prove...

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   ...in John, 71 that makes you say, well, I wonder why that is. And the way, the place that appears in Matthew is where it says King of the Jews. There it says King of the Jews. You know, it's not used in the same way. So by the time John wrote the fourth gospel and everybody knows he lived all the way down to about 100 A.D. and was the last man to write a gospel. But by John's time, he uses the term Jew, Jew 71 times. Why does he do that? Well, the Companion Bible says by that time, the Jewish opposition to the Christian church had been dubbed the Jew. But it, it is not speaking nationally. It's not speaking of a country when it says Jews, but it's speaking about the opposing party to the Christian church. Now, I think you might be right there. But you ask yourself, why would the rest of the New Testament gospel writers rarely ever use the word Jew and John used it 71 time and then turn right around in the Book of Acts uses it 69 or 73 or something like that. So obvious that word had come to be widely used and had a strong meaning. Well, here's the Jews Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. He finds in the temple people selling oxen. Of course, he drives them out verse 23 when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover in the feast. Now, this time, not the first day, but during the next seven days of Unleavened Bread, then he believed in his name and they saw the miracles he did. He didn't commit himself to them."

   So all of that from verse13 on down was during Passover and Unleavened Bread up at Jerusalem. Now, verse 3, while he's up there, you notice there's no geographical change. There's no time change. That's another bad thing about reading the Bible in chapters. Mercy. We assume that chapter 3 doesn't relate to chapter 2 at all. And yet it's still while he's there at the feast of Unleavened Bread, doesn't say anything about leaving or time change. So while he is at Unleavened Bread, here's Nicodemus' story comes by night and Jesus says, "Well, you know, man's gotta be born again." So he teaches him about being born again. Now, verse 22, "After these things, Jesus and his disciples come into the land of Judea and there he tarried with them and baptized." So verse 22 shows they go out of Jerusalem and go out into the land of Judah. So the first part of chapter 3 was literally during the feast down there in Jerusalem. Now he's in Judea and it mentions what he does around Judea.

   Now in chapter 4, he comes to Jacob's well and here he meets this woman at the well. But now notice the last part of chapter 4. Verse 43, "After two days he departs from there and goes into Galilee." Jesus himself testified, a prophet had no honor in his own country. He comes into Galilee. So he left Jerusalem, went into Judea. Now he goes up into Galilee. The Galileans received him having seen all the things that he did at Jerusalem at the feast. So that shows you that he was just going home from the feast. From what we read in Judea, in the towns around and he was just on his way back home from the feast. So now he gets back up into the home area of Galilee. And here all these people have been down there at the feast. They saw these miracles he did at the feast because they also went to the feast. So now he comes back to Cannan where he made the water wine.

   Now in chapter 5, "After this there was a feast of the Jews, Jesus went up to Jerusalem." So he just got back home, didn't say a thing about what happened in the intervening time. So now here comes another feast. Back down to Jerusalem he goes. And here's this pool and he works this miracle. And this feast was actually on a Sabbath day. Read on down. Verse, "The waters were troubled and he said, 'Why aren't you healed?' He said, 'Nobody has put me in the water.'" And Jesus said, verse 8, "Rise, take up your bed and walk." Now, he told him to do three things there to both the Sabbath and the Jews' law. First place, you can't carry your bed on the Sabbath. You can't walk but three quarters of a mile and you can't be healed on the Sabbath. You ever wonder why Jesus does so many of these miracles deliberately on the Sabbath? Did that ever dawn on you? The Jews had a law that said, "Don't do any of these things on the Sabbath." Jesus just spends his whole life just doing everything on the Sabbath they said don't do it on the Sabbath. So if you think he was how to win friends and influence people, I'll tell you, he didn't do that. He came to straighten out their error. One of the main reasons he came was to get the truth straightened out, to make straight the crooked path. You remember that prophecy? Now, here he is. And he heals on the Sabbath day. "Immediately the man was made whole, took up his bed, walked, and on the same day was the Sabbath." Well, here's the Saturday Sabbath during the feast time down in Jerusalem. "The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured, 'It is the Sabbath day. It is not lawful for you to carry your bed.'" Now, they nailed him on the easiest one of the three to catch you again on. I mean, whether it's life or death, who could really say for sure? Maybe they didn't know how far he walked, had they? But they sure knew he was carrying his bed. So see, they nailed him on the easiest one of the three. "It's the Sabbath day. It's not lawful for you to carry your bed." Well, he said, "Here, I've been sick all these 38 years. Nobody's been able to heal me." You know, if a guy comes along and heals me and says, "Leap," I'll just say, "How high?" On the way up. I'm not gonna ask, you know. That was his attitude. Look, "The one who made me whole said, 'Take up your bed and walk,' and I've been doing it ever since." "They asked him, 'What man is that that said, do you take up your bed and walk?'" Boy, they were gonna get him. "And he that was healed didn't really know who it was. Jesus had conveyed himself away, a multitude there." So Jesus finds him in the temple and says, "Behold, you're made whole. Sin no more or less the worst thing comes on you." "The man departs and tells the Jews it is Jesus that made him whole." Now, look at this, "And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus and sought to slay him because he had done these things on the Sabbath day." There again, why were they persecuting Jesus? Why were they trying to slay him? Because he'd done three things there on that Sabbath that broke their Talmud.

   Now you read on, now the worst thing you could say is what Jesus said. They've accused him and look what he says. "Jesus answers them, 'My Father works hitherto and I work.'" You know, when you've just got nailed for doing things on a Sabbath you shouldn't be doing, you don't just say, "Well, I'm gonna work, those kind of works on the Sabbath." My Father has and I too. That's not how to win friends and influence people. So don't you believe that it was the general Jews who just wouldn't bruise the reed and wouldn't hurt a flea. That isn't what happened. Look what happened then. "Therefore, the Jews sought the more to kill him, it made them mad." Now they were even more gonna kill him "because he not only had broken the Sabbath." And you believe that the people would take that statement and try to tell you that God's holy scripture, the Holy Bible admits Jesus broke the Sabbath. That isn't what that says. You talk about crooked twisting of scripture. The Jews said he'd broke the Sabbath. Now, you ask yourself, did he break the Sabbath? He told a man, "Rise, take up your bed, walk." Did that break Sabbath? If that didn't break Sabbath, he didn't break Sabbath. Those are the things he did. You can't show me anything else he did on that Sabbath. The Bible gives you exactly what he did. Now, did what he did break the Sabbath? No. Then if it says Jesus had not only broken the Sabbath, it must have been somebody else's view that he broke the Sabbath. And if it was, it's what the Jews said. "The Jews sought the more to kill him." Now, here's another way to put that argument to rest, "because he not only had broken the Sabbath but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God." Now, can you show me Jesus made himself equal with God? Or can I show you that Jesus said, "My Father is greater than I?" Can I show you that Jesus always showed that he was only the Father, he wasn't equal with the Father. He wasn't greater than the Father. So is this, is the Holy Spirit witnessing that Jesus broke the Sabbath? It's also the Holy Spirit witnessing Jesus made himself equal with God. But you know it isn't true because other scriptures, the Holy Spirit inspired him to say, "My Father is greater than I."

   Well, let's just scan through now. You know chapter 6, "Before the Passover, a feast of the Jews." But Jesus lifts up his eyes, sees a great company, and gets back to the feast again. Chapter 7, "After these things, Jesus walked in Galilee. Now the Jews' Feast of Tabernacles was at hand. His brother said, 'Are you gonna go up to the feast?' He said, 'You go on up. I won't come up yet.'" And in the midst of the feast, he comes up. Verse 37, "In the last day, that Great Day of the Feast." That's the eighth day of the Feast of Tabernacles. Now, how long did that eighth day last? Well, you know, the last day starts out with an evening meeting and that's what's happening here. This is the evening part of that last day, the last of chapter 7. Now look at chapter 8. Well, verse 53 of chapter 7 says, "Every man went unto his own house." So they left that night meeting, went back to their houses. Chapter 8, verse 1, "Instead of going to his house, Jesus went out to the Mount of Olives." "And early in the morning, he comes again into the temple." That's the eighth day. That's the daylight part of the eighth day. You know, when we read in the Bible they went into the synagogue. Do you think they went in on Wednesday? I'll tell you, its hard enough to get the Jews in on a Holy Day. So when you read they entered into the synagogue, that's a Sabbath day. That's not a Wednesday or a Monday or a Sunday. So here he is on the eighth day early in the morning, back in the temple. How long do you think that feast lasted? All the way through chapter 8. All that's all the eighth day. You look at the last part of chapter 8, verse 59, "Then they took up stones to cast at him. But Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple." So here he was all the way in the temple on that eighth day, all the way to verse 59, of chapter 8. Now he goes out of the temple and goes through the midst of them and so passed by. Now, what does that mean? Well, read the next verse. "And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man blind from his birth." So all this is still on the eighth day. So now he goes out of the temple while he's walking along. Here's this guy born blind, he heals him. Look what happened. Verse 13, "They brought, they brought to the Pharisees him that aforetime was blind." "And it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes." Can you imagine all these healings always on a Sabbath day? Can you imagine Christ saying he could have waited until Sunday to do it. You know, there's some places he could have healed a guy on Friday and he waited literally till Sabbath. Now, you've got to think a while, a little while. He was going to straighten out the Sabbath day. So here he heals this guy on the Sabbath day. Can you imagine a man 38 years he's been crippled and Jesus healed him on Saturday? You know, if he had been that way 38 years, you could wait one more day to do it. Why do it on Sabbath? Why not wait till Sunday and win friends and influence people? That isn't what he did thought.

   Now, you know, all of chapter 9 talks about that eighth day, that Last Great Day, that Sabbath of the feast.

   Now, chapter 10, verse 22, "It was at Jerusalem, the feast of the dedication and it was winter." So now he finished the previous feast and now he's down there at the feast of dedication, which is not commanded, but it's all right to keep if you wanted to. So Christ went down there. Now, here comes the case about Lazarus and the story of Lazarus and Mary and Martha. But look at verse 55 of chapter 11, "And the Jews' Passover was near at hand. And many went out of the country up to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves. And they sought for Jesus." What do you think, will he come to the feast? Chapter 12, "Now Jesus, six days before the Passover, comes to Bethany where Lazarus was, which had been dead whom he raised from the dead." So now here he is on his way down to his last Passover because you know the foot washing is in chapter 13, the Passover is all the way from 14, all the way to the end of the end of the book. So can you imagine that when you read through John in a book, paragraph, story, it's actually the account of Christ going back and forth to the feast and keeping Sabbath. And that's all it is. I think I will get me an old Bible sometime and tear out the parts that don't. I think people would finally really get the lesson there if you just, well, let's see, let me rip that chapter out of there. Would people get offended? You know, some people get offended if I brought an old Bible and tore out some sections just to show you how much didn't relate to the Sabbath and Holy Days? Well, the main thing is that you get the lesson and learn the point.

   But now, John 12, you know another thing, it actually tells you about Palm Saturday. You never heard of that? I'll tell you it was Palm Saturday. It was not Sunday. You just look at that. The Passover was on Tuesday night this year in 31 A.D. Well, then Wednesday is the Passover day. Jesus, six days before the Passover, that brings you back to Friday because the Passover is on a Wednesday. You got Tuesday and Monday and Sunday and Saturday and Friday. That's six days before the Passover. So here you're on the preparation day. And look what happens. "So here he comes into Bethany. He takes Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard. He says to one of his disciples, 'Why wasn't this ointment sold for so much money?'" And you know the argument there. Now, on verse 12, "On the next day." So the first part of chapter 12 was the Friday. "On the next day," that's Saturday. "Much people that were come to the feast, when they heard Jesus was coming to Jerusalem , took branches of palm." Palm Saturday. You can look in the Companion Bible and it even tracks it down by the calendar and shows you that happened on a Saturday. There isn't any Palm Sunday any more than there's any Sunday Lord's day. You know, you ask somebody to show you anywhere in the Bible that it says first day of the week is Lord's day. Never said that. You don't let anybody get you on the Sabbath, get away with it. You know, in a way, I'm glad that these people challenged the Sabbath because it made me dig in a lot deeper. And you know, the deeper you dig, the more you nail it down. I know and I know that I know the Sabbath. And, you know, I don't care, I'd, I'd stand and be shot before somebody would make me work on the Sabbath day. You know, when you think about the Sabbath, the Sabbath was made for everybody individually. And if you keep the Sabbath, it's a blessing. It's a delight, a joy. It's good for you. You live longer. But, you know, everybody has to decide if he's gonna obey God, you know?