THE SABBATH IS TO REMIND US OF THE PRINCIPLE OF GRACE AND REST. PART 3
The Sabbath is to remind us of the principle of grace and rest. Part 3.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Point 4. The Origin of the Sabbath Rest, GEN 2:2-3.
To rest - Qal imperfect - shabath = to rest, to relax, to have tranquility, and to be confident in your relationship to God.
COL 1:13 For He delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son,
Filled - pleroo =
a. To fill up a deficiency. At salvation we are deficient of doctrine.
b. To fully possess. The believer must be fully possessed by the Holy Spirit and Bible doctrine before he can be fully possessed by the blessings of maturity.
c. To fully influence. The believer is fully influenced by Bible doctrine so that he can have capacity for blessing.
d. To fill with a certain quality. Doctrine is the highest quality with which the believer can be filled.
This is having comprehensive insight into the ways and purposes of God and in understanding and discernment of spiritual things.
There is a tremendous difference between having gnosis (knowledge) and epignosis knowledge (wisdom).
1. The will of God for mankind is two-fold.
For the unbeliever: Salvation.
For the believer: Epignosis or metabolized doctrine, 1TI 2:3-4 summarizes this will of God in one sentence. 1TI 2:3 This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the epignosis knowledge of the truth.
2. The cosmic believer fails to metabolize doctrine, 2TI 3:2-7.
2TI 3:7 always learning and never able to come to the epignosis knowledge of the truth.
3. Only metabolized doctrine can be useful for problem-solving -
EPH 1:17 the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the epignosis knowledge of Him.
4. All genuine fellowship with believers is based on metabolized doctrine and virtue -
PHM 1:6 {and I pray} that the fellowship of your faith may become effective through the epignosis knowledge of every good thing which is in you for Christ’s sake.
5. Only metabolized doctrine can fulfill the mandate of virtue-love first in the PPOG -
PHI 1:9 In fact, I pray this, that your virtue-love may excel to the maximum still more and more by means of epignosis knowledge [metabolized doctrine] resulting in all spiritual discernment,
6. Only metabolized doctrine can fulfill the PPOG, COL 1:9-10.
7. Only metabolized doctrine can provide blessing under the PPOG, 2PE 1:2-3.
2PE 1:2-3, Grace and peace be multiplied to you by means of the epignosis knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the epignosis knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.
8. You can have a zeal to know God, but if you do not have metabolized doctrine it is useless -
ROM 10:2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge.
9. True wealth and prosperity comes from epignosis doctrine -
COL 2:2 that their right lobes may be confident, {attaining} to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, {resulting} in a true knowledge or epignosis knowledge of God’s mystery, Christ,
10. The new man can only be renewed and energized through metabolized doctrine -
COL 3:10 and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge or according to epignosis knowledge according to the image of the One who created Him.
Since there was nothing God could add, obviously there is nothing that man can add.
Point 5. We have the Sabbath Given to Israel as a Command from God, EXO 20:8-11; DEU 5:12-15; LEV 23:3;ISA 58:11-14.
This very change of pace was not only beneficial to them physically and mentally, but it had ultimate benefit to them in the spiritual realm because it was a reminder of grace.
Zakar = to mark so as to be recognized, to be brought to remembrance, to be remembered, to be thought of. Like all rituals this was a training aid during this pre-canon period.
To “remember” means to draw upon the resources of your right lobe.
ISA 32:17 And the work of righteousness will be peace, And the service of righteousness, quietness and confidence forever.
The effect of righteousness will be peace which is internal and external.
Internally, it is being at rest in your souls.
Externally, it is having courage and confidence.
ISA 60:21 “Then all your people {will be} righteous; They will possess the land forever, The branch of My planting, The work of My hands, That I may be glorified.”
By maintaining good health with periodic rest, this contributed to the full, free function of the mind. This command under the laws of divine establishment was for the protection of believers and unbelievers alike.
In EXO 16:11-30 the Sabbath was taught to the Jews in a special way.
PRO 5:11-14 And you groan at your latter end, When your flesh and your body are consumed; And you say, “How I have hated instruction! And my heart spurned reproof!”
PRO 5:13 “And I have not listened to the voice of my teachers, Nor inclined my ear or submitted or consented to my instructors! I was almost in utter ruin In the midst of the assembly and congregation.”
Manna represented divine provision for the believer in time.
In verse 22 on the 6th day (Friday) they were told to gather a double portion.
What God does not provide, do not try to gather.
LUK 14:11 “For everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled. And he who humbles himself shall be promoted.”
JAM 4:10 “Humble yourselves before the Lord and He will promote you.”
1PE 5:5-6 “God makes war against the arrogant [believer], but gives grace to the humble [believer]. Humble yourselves under the powerful hand of God that He may promote you at the proper time.”
ECC 3:1 There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven -
You go at least from
GEN 2:2 to Exo 16 which is approximately, 1441 B.C. You have anywhere from 3 to 4 thousand years in between.
The Jewish Sabbath was a part of the 10 commandments and therefore the Sabbath was for both believers and unbelievers. It was the 4th commandment of the decalogue found in
DEU 5:12-15; EXO 20:8-11.
1CO 11:24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it, and said, “This is My body, which is for you; keep on doing this in remembrance of Me.”
1CO 11:25 In the same way He took the cup also, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; keep on doing do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”
Verse 8 - “to keep it holy” = to set it apart. They were commanded to set aside Saturday, the 7th day in order to do something they didn’t do on any other day i.e., rest in the physical realm.
Freedom demands rest and meditation.
The word “blessed” indicates that God pronounced it a source of blessing or intensity of happiness.
Freedom and blessing go together.
The phrase “made it holy” means to set apart, and the verb tense in the Hebrew indicates that this setting apart would last for a long time, in fact for the remainder of human history.
“The remainder of human history” does not mean keeping Saturday as the Sabbath, but as HEB 4:9 teaches, a day-by-day rest for the people of God.
There is a Yugoslavian Proverb that states:
A good rest is half the work.
Rest is a time of restoration.
2CH 14:7 The promise land is still ours, because we have sought the Lord our God; we have sought Him, and He has given us rest on every side. So they built and prospered.