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[Kat]

December 2007 Bible study

                                  KEEPING SABBATH

The Sabbath commandment is the longest of the ten commandments.

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy:  Six days you shall labor and do all your work.  But the seventh day is the Sabbath of Lord your God:  In it you shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger that is within your gates.  For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day:  Wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it” (Ex. 20:8-11 Concordant).

There is a couple of things I want you to notice about this.  This is a long commandment.  In verse 9, “Six days shall thou labor…”
In the King James in says, verse 11 “for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth…”

And I don’t think it uses the plural for heaven - heavens.  When ever you see heaven in the Old Testament and the New Testament it is almost always plural - heavens.  The King James just does not do that.  They usually have it singular - heaven.  
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Gen 1:1, King James).
It should be plural, heavens.  

But the word “in” that is in Ex. 20:11, “for in six days” that word “in” if you look at it in your King James it’s in italics, because it is not in the Hebrew and it really shouldn’t be there.  Sometimes you have to add words because it helps the understanding, but in this case it hinders.  Now if it doesn’t make sense or is not proper grammar without it, then you may have to insert it.  There are times you need to do that, because languages do not translate word for word or even phrase for phrase.  But in this case it is not necessary and it changes the meaning.  
So it’s not “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth…and all that in them is”  but it should be “For six days the Lord made heaven and earth…”  Now that is a giant difference.  

For six days He made the heavens… for six days He made the earth… for six days He made the sea… for six days He made all that in them - the heavens - the earth - the sea, is.  For six days He did that you see.
It doesn’t say for in six days He did these separate unconnected things.  No, for six days He made the heavens and earth and… He did all that.  For how long did He do that?  For six days!  

Now I hope you all come to Nashville, because I’m going to explain that in much greater detail.  That is an amazing  truth there.  That I don’t think very few people alive have ever seen.  Not “For in six days” but - "For six days God created the heavens… for six days He created the earth… for six days He created all that in them is.”  You say, ‘well how can that be, in the Old Testament it says, day one and then the second day.’  
By-the-way it does not say “the first day,” another big change.  It says in verse 5, “…And the evening and the morning were the first day.”  No it wasn’t, the Hebrew is very specific, “the evening and the morning was day one.”  DAY ONE, not the first day.

Then the second time it says “…evening and the morning”  verse 8, that’s the second day and that’s correct.  In the Hebrew it is second, but the first one is not “first,”  it’s day one… then the second day… third day… fourth day.  All these things have meanings and I don’t think most people have ever seen it before.  I certainly did not see a lot of these things before.

Everything made on all six days came into being by means of what was made on each preceding day.  That’s what this fourth commandment says and that is what it means.  That is what is backed up by the latest geological, cosmological and astrological findings of science.  

God finished making Adam on the sixth day, whom He started making five days earlier!  What?  You say, ‘where do you see that?’  It’s in this commandment,  “For in six days the Lord made… all that in them is.”  
One of the things “that in them is,” is man - Adam and Eve.  How long did He make them?  FOR SIX DAYS!  

Are we so foolish as to think that it took only ONE day, Genesis 1:1, to create 200 billion galaxies with a 100 billion stars in each?  But then in verse 2 when it comes to the earth, and down to verse 11, where it starts with the grass and then the animals and man on the sixth day.  Do we think it took just ONE day to create 200 billion galaxies with 100 billion stars each, but it took an additional FIVE days just to make the earth and all that is in it?  The earth is like one-trillionth quadrillionth the mass or complexity of the universe.  So why would it take five times longer to create it?  That doesn’t quite fit does it.  

Boy I tell you there is a lot going on here.  This is equivalent to saying if God took one day to create the earth He would take an additional five days to create a pebble on the beach.  See what I’m saying?  It doesn’t make sense does it. That’s because when He created the pebble on the beach, it was in the creation in the beginning on the first day.  But that’s for Nashville.

So “God created the heavens and the earth… all that in them is… for six days”  How long were these six days?  Were they 24 hour periods?  
It was on the seventh day that it said God rested in the King James.  
Was that a 24 hour day?  If it was, why is He STILL CEASING from His work?  
This Scripture says He is. Genesis 2:2 in the Concordant correctly says;

Gen 2:2 And finishing is the Elohim (God), on the sixth day, His work which He does. And ceasing is He on the seventh day from all His work which He does.

So He’s “finishing” it all up in the sixth day and He’s ceasing, that’s the indefinite tense.  He was ceasing, is ceasing and will continue to cease.  It’s not past tense, like most of the Scripture say.  You read those that are aware of this technical difference and you’ll see that it is in the indefinite.  It makes all the difference in the world.  

Somewhere in Romans I used that indefinite to show in Greek it’s called the aorist tense - past, present, future.  
Somebody wrote me an email this week.  He said, ‘I’ve checked dozens of Bibles and I can’t find and I can’t substantiate what you are saying.’  
Well you go to John 3:16, and you can check all Bibles and I don’t think but one has it “For God thus Loves the world.”  The most known Scripture on earth.  “For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son…”  So did God “so loved the world” and now it’s pass, finished and over with?  He loved it once and now love is gone?  No.  It's loves, it’s the aorist tense.  He loved then, He loves now and He will continue to love.  It’s a big difference, yet you won’t find it in many Bibles.  

But neither the Concordant nor the Rotherham gets this verse right in Exodus, where we are given the commandment to rest on the Sabbath day.  Here it is in the Young’s Literal translation, he’s the only one that follows this very precisely.  “For six days…” notice he takes the ‘in’ out.  

Exo 20:11  for six days hath Jehovah made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and resteth (rests, aorist tense) in the seventh day; therefore hath Jehovah blessed the Sabbath-day, and doth sanctify it.

So we’re talking Exodus, this is sometimes long after the creation, possibly a couple thousand years after the creation and it says “He rests” not rested.  

People don’t want to be spiritually converted inside, in their heart.  They want to make a show of religion and morality and so on.  That to them is what is important.  

So all of these things, like keeping the seventh day... keeping the Sabbath day holy...  which of course much of the church around the world have changed that to Sunday.  They have the Catholic church to thank for that.
 
A Catholic bishop once said, (I put this in my paper ‘The Origin Of Endless Punishment’)  ‘The Protestant church so prides itself on coming out of Catholicism and rejecting all of their heresy and he says, what are the facts?  The Bible says remember the Sabbath day - the seventh day - Friday sunset to Saturday sunset, the Sabbath day keep it holy.  But the Catholics says no, keep Sunday holy and the whole Protestant world bows in subjection.’  

See that is where that comes from.  The commandment is for the Sabbath day.  


                    HOW MANY DAYS DO WE ENTER INTO GOD’S REST

So people ask me about everything from circumcision to fasting, Passover, the Lord’s supper, baptism and all these things.  They ask me a lot, ‘do you keep the Sabbath day.’  In other words do I stop working and stop doing everything on Friday night until Sat. night, don’t go anywhere, don’t do anything, just study and pray or whatever and go to church.  
So they say, ‘do you keep the Sabbath?’  I say absolutely, everyday of the week. They don’t know what to make of that.  I keep the Sabbath everyday of the week.  How do I keep the Sabbath everyday of the week?  Because I know what the Sabbath means.  If you know what the Sabbath means, you can not possibly keep it on Saturday only, you can’t.  If you know what it means and you do it on Saturday only, it’s proof that you don’t know what it means.  And I’ll show you that.  If you can’t keep the Sabbath on everyday, then you are not keeping the Sabbath in the spirit of truth at all.  
Further you can’t do any of these things.  We’ll go through these things, the Lord’s supper, communion, what the Catholics call mass and so on.  

Now the Catholics do keep mass, at least the big churches have it everyday.  But especially in the Protestant world, some keep it just once a year, not too many and some every six months, and some once a month.  
I was a Methodist and we kept it four times a year.  Why four times?  Well they thought that was a good amount of times.  Why, what was it based on?  Nothing, just human reasoning.  
Some keep it once a week on Sunday.  Why do they do that?  Because they don’t know what it means or not only would they keep it everyday, like the Catholics do, but they would keep it all day.  Not just everyday, but all day everyday.  Everything in this Bible if all it is, is physical ritual, then it’s of no value to you and you are just a religious person.  

Of course you know we have a war going on in Afghanistan and Iraq.  These are two religious people killing each other.  Well actually in Iraq you have the Sunni and the Shia and they are fighting the Americans, which are Christian.  They are all religious.  What does their religion mean to them on the battle field?  Well you kill your enemies.  Well what did Christ say?  

Mat 5:44  But I say to you, love your enemies…

Well then you say, ‘Muslins don’t go by Christ’s teachings.’  But they do, they don’t accept Him as their Savior for their sins and all that.  But they think He was a great prophet and therefore they should do what He says, “love your enemies.”  But of course if they all loved their enemies, they would stop killing each other and torturing each other and water boarding and all this other stuff.  

In Gen. 2 look at the Concordant;

Gen 2:2 …And ceasing is He (God) on the seventh day from all His work which He does.

“Ceasing”  And He is continuing to cease, so the seventh day has not yet ended.
We need to believe the Scripture.  Notice what it says in Romans.

Rom 1:18  For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness,
v. 19  because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.
v. 20  For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that ARE MADE (past tense), even His eternal (imperceptible) power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse,

There it is “are made,” pass tense, that’s what I want to draw your attention to. Everything that was made, WAS made - pass tense, it’s already made.  Are there any more things being made?  NO.  Science tells us this too.  There is no new matter or creation, coming into the creation.  Nothing being created nor destroyed, only changed, that did not exist in some form or fashion before.  

When new stars are born it is from the gases and the accumulation of a previous super nova and so on.  They explode and gather back again.  
Our sun was not created as it is today in Gen. 1:1.  It took the whole six days to bring it into the condition that we find it today.  That’s part of the heavens you see and God created the heavens, for six day He created the heavens.  Our sun is not an original sun, it’s like refried beans.  It was part of another sun that exploded through a super nova and now became our sun.  
How do they know that?  Because they know what basically constitutes our sun versus what elements that constitutes other stars.  Our sun contains heavy metals, which original very old stars apparently do not.  There is something that happens when a star burns out, collapses and turns into a super nova.  Then it reformulates some place else, some how, as another heavenly body in the universe.  
I will go into some of this when we go to Nashville.  It is an amazing study.  

But notice in Heb. 4.

Heb 4:3  For we who have believed do enter rest,  as He said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest…

That is one of those half-sentences that I talk about in the first installment of the Lake of Fire.  There are all different forms of signs and symbols and words structures and so on.  This is one of those half-structures, half-sentences.  When He says, “if they shall enter into my rest…”  What?  It just stops, it’s not a complete thought. Now here is what I want to emphasis.

Heb 4:3 … although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.  

Now you all have read that in the past, right.  How many of you have ever thought about what it’s saying?  “the works were finished” when were they finished?  “From the foundation of the worlds” is what it says.  

When you build a building, is it finished from the foundation?  What are we talking about here?  I  tell you this stuff in the Bible… you just wouldn’t believe, it will blow you away.  As I have said you have got to pay attention to all the words.  “the works were finished from…”  When?  “the foundation.”  Concordant translates that “the disruption.”  Of course the disruption doesn’t have to do with some destruction, but “disruption” really specifically has to do with casting down of seed.  

When a man impregnates a woman, that’s the disruption or casting down of his seed, which is the foundation of what?  A new baby.  
So foundation means conception - the start - the beginning, the conception - the foundation.  How can the works of the creation be finished at the conception or from the conception - from the foundation - from the casting down - from the disruption (Concordant)?  How can it be finished from the start?  What in the world are we being taught here?  
I tell you it’s only in the last 10-20 years that we can possibly know what that really means.  

I’m going to show you where science is not as stupid as most religious people want to make it out to be.  All scientist are not idiots, because they believe that the earth is billions of years old and so on.  We need to look at what science has found and see whether or not it’s sound or not.  Some like to speak of ‘science falsely so called’ which is a verse in the King James, but not this King James.  It’s in the 1611 edition, they took it out.  There is no such thing as ‘science falsely so called’ in the Scriptures.  The word in that verse is knowledge, not science.  So anybody who tries to tell you that the Bible speaks about false science, it’s nonsense.  

So you come to Nashville and we will talk about how is it possible that the works were finished from the foundation.  How is that possible… that sounds like an absolute contradiction.  
That sounds like it is saying we were finished from the start.  I finished the race from the start…  I finished it.  Is it a contradiction?  It’s not a contradiction when you understand how the physical universe works.  If God made the physical universe and the laws of physics and the laws of quantum mechanics and the laws of electro magnetism and all that, then they are true and honest laws.  God doesn’t make fake and phony, confusing laws.  

[Kat]

       
         
                GOD IS YET CEASING FROM THE WORKS HE COMPLETED


Gen 2:2  And F I N I S H I N G is the Elohim, on the sixth day, His works which He does. And ceasing is He on the seventh day from ALL HIS W O R K which He does.” (Concordant Version)

The works ARE finished and God IS ceasing from all those works of physical creation of the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that in them is. Now all this ties in with keeping the seventh day, a day of rest. If God is still ceasing from all the works that were finished, He does that on the seventh day. This still must be the seventh day of God’s ceasing!   

We don’t read of anything where God began creating some other part of the physical universe on the eighth day or the ninth day or any such thing, nowhere. We are now into God’s SPIRITUAL creation… making man in God’s very own spiritual image.

The idea behind the seventh day is it represents rest. Israel was told to rest every seventh day of a weekly cycle. But it represents something. It was a law, they had to rest, it’s the fourth commandment, it’s a law.

Heb 10:1  For the law (part of the... remember the Sabbath and keep it holy) having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things…

The shadow is not the image itself. So in some ways it’s almost worthless, except it points you to something. 

Like I’ve (kiddingly) said years ago. What would you sooner have, the shadow cast by a $380,000 Ferrari or the Ferrari? Now if you see the shadow of it and if you know exactly what kind of a shadow it cast, you would say, that shadow looks like and is pointing me to… a Ferrari! But you don’t want the shadow, you can’t drive the shadow, the shadow has no value. But the Ferrari, that’s most valuable, very valuable. Or you could say the shadow of a million dollar mansion or anything else. 

So these laws are all a shadow of something better.

Heb 4:10  For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.

There it is. When you enter into God’s rest… now we are talking about the real rest, then you cease from your works, just as God ceased from His. How long has God been ceasing from His works of the physical creation? For thousands of years! Does He cease everyday? YES. There is not a day that goes by that He starts creating another universe or another earth or another human race someplace. 

So in the same way we are entering that rest. We enter into that rest! Which rest? The one that God is ceasing from. I does’t mean that God rests because He is tired, okay. We rest because we are tired. It’s just that when it says ‘rest’ it means to cease. It can mean to rest, but it means to cease or to stop. 

So he that has entered into His ceasing, he also has ceased from his own works. Ceased or you can say rested, but it means to stop - cease from his own works. “AS God did from His.” Now do we do that and what does it mean? 

God is yet ceasing from His physical creation and making physical things. We too are commanded to cease from working our work, and we start by resting every week on the seventh day of 24-hour periods… first the physical then the spiritual. But that is NOT “entering into God’s rest” by keeping the letter.

Rom 7:14  For we know that the law is spiritual…

Now if you just work six days stop working the seventh day, what is spiritual about that?  Well not very much.
Did the Israelites have some grand vision of what that represented spiritually? No, they didn’t. That’s why they broke it, because they didn’t see any particular value in it. How many times in the Bible does God condemn His people for breaking His Sabbath day? 

Then sometimes when they came back from captivity or whatever, they kept the Sabbath day real good and for a long time. Because they knew that God got angry when they didn’t keep that Sabbath day. But all they knew was that was a token of obedience. But of what practical value was it spiritually. 

Sure if you worked hard for six days, then you rest a day that’s good. You rest you feel rejuvenated, you are very appreciated of that. But what does that do for you spiritually? What is the spiritual connection? What does it have to do with the life hereafter? Well quite frankly nothing. Why didn’t they understand it? Because there was no such heart in them.

Deu 5:29  Oh, that they had such a heart in them…

They didn’t have such a heart. 


                          HOW THE CHURCH PLAYS ‘RELIGION’

When I was in the Worldwide Church of God every year we celebrated Passover and we partook of ‘real’ unleavened bread and ‘real’ wine… not leavened bread and grape juice. 

Then we also, to out do all the other churches, we would line up all the chairs around the parameter of the hall. Then we had plastic wash basins and warm water and a towel for every person. Then one person would wash the person sitting down feet and they would dry off, get up and put their shoes on. Then the one that had washed their’s would sit down and they would wash their feet. They would dry off and put their shoes back on. We did this once a year. 

Why did we do that? To fulfill the commandments, so that we could feel righteous and holy and better than others. Did people do that everyday of their life? NO. Why? Because they didn’t know what it meant. Well they knew what it meant, but they didn’t think about it everyday. Because well you only do it once a year, so I’ll think about it when it’s time to do it.

That is NOT what Jesus meant when He said we should wash one another’s feet. That is NOT what Jesus meant by partaking of His body and His blood either. That one day out of the year, we eat a little wafer and drink a little grape juice. That is not what He meant that is NOT keeping Passover or the Lord’s Supper.

Cutting off the foreskin of a man’s penis is NOT circumcision. You say, ‘well it represents carnality and so on.’ Well what do women cut off? Are there no carnal women? What do they cut off and how do they live by this? 

I made a list of physical rituals that carnal-minded Christians like to do, according to their faith. Well depending on which religion, but sooner or later everybody does some of this. The physical letter of the law can, in fact, deceive you.
 
Tithing - pseudo tithing
Religious pilgrimages
Circumcision
Holy Day observance
Clean and unclean foods
Prayer cloths
Foot-washing
Fasting
Alter calls
Water baptism
Making vows
Anointing oil
Burning incense
Doing penance
Speaking in gibberish
Lighting candles
Pictures
Icons
Idols
Holy water
Holy smoke
Confession
Last rights
Sign of the cross
Rosary beads
Wearing phylacteries
The Lord’s Supper
Sabbath keeping
New moons
Prayer wheels
Religious junk

TBN every month if you send them money they will send you a piece of religious trinketry. This month it was a little plastic egg that you can open up the top half of it, like two little doors and there is a little tiny Joseph, Mary and a little baby inside there. Isn’t that cute, that’s precious. Every month they’ve been doing this, for some 30+ years, let’s see 30 x 12 that’s close to 400 now. Can you imagine that somebody has 400 pieces of such religious junk. Where do they put it all? If you gave me 400 such pieces of trinketry junk, I mean it will cover the whole floor and all the tables in here. It’s total nonsense. 

Why do they do that? Why do they offer you a piece of junk if you send them $50 or $100 or $1000? Why do they do that? Because people like religious junk. It makes them feel godly, religious, holy or something, you see. 

It’s physical, it’s tangible like;
Physical circumcision
Physical baptism
Physical communion
Physical fasting
Physical food and drink laws
Pseudo tithing
Physical prayer
Physical church and worship services
Physical Sabbath keeping
Like ALL physical rituals, it’s a shadow of better things…

Heb 10:1  For the law having a shadow of the good things to come,

They represent something better. They are almost there to deceive those that are stubborn and will not obey God. They point to something grand, to those who do understand. 

So then are all these things done away? Should we cut them out of the Bible and throw them away, as though they were useless? NO. No because they serve a purpose.   

But here’s the thing, we just read where the things of the law are the shadow of better things to come. Not the actual image itself. So we are to come out of the shadow! When you come out of the shadow you will automatically come into the light. Because if there were no light, there would be no shadow. I mean you don’t come out of a shadow at midnight, because there is no light to cast a shadow. When you come out of the shadow, you come into the light. 


                           THE TRUE LIGHT OF THE WORLD

Now notice what we read in Luke 1 and we will see what this light is.

Luke 1:79  To give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace (rest).

When we come out of the shadow and we are going to find peace and we are going to find rest.

John 1:9  That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.
v. 10  He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.
v. 11  He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.
v. 12  But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:

John said he wasn’t that Light, but he came to give witness of that Light. Of course what we read about that is in verse 29...

John 1:29  The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!


That’s pretty hefty stuff.

John 3:19  And this is the condemnation, that light has come into the world, and men loved darkness (shadows) rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

Did the Pharisees, who were the most strict keepers of the law that there were, were their deeds evil? Absolutely. Were they keeping the shadow? Absolutely. But the shadow kept them in the dark, can’t you see that. The shadow will keep you in the dark. As long as you pay homage to the shadow, you are in the dark. 

It does no good to have all this religiosity and this trinketry and all this junk and customs and hail Mary’s, rosary and all. Even church attendance and prayer meetings and all that. It’s all shadows, unless it brings you into the light. If it brings you into the light, then you are told to come out of the shadow, come out of Babylon. You have to stop doing all that then.

John 12:46  I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness.

If you believe and accept Christ and follow His ways, what do you do? Come out of the shadow. Come out of the dark. When the light shines on the shadow, there is no more shadow. The light will obliterate a shadow, you know that, right.

Acts 22:11  And since I could not see for the glory of that light, being led by the hand of those who were with me, I came into Damascus.

What physical means did God use with Saul (who had his name changed to the Apostle Paul), what means did God use to show him that he was in the dark? How dark was that darkness? He blinded him with the light, so bright he was blind, literally blind for three days. That’s bright, okay. 

I was blinded for a short period of time when a stove blew up in my face once. It’s kind of scary, if you can see and then one day you can’t see and you go all day long and you can’t see. That’s a scary thing. My sight came back as did Paul’s. But do you see what it took to show him how dark he was, persecuting the church. A blinding light!

1 Peter 2:9  But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people…

Now that is what God says about everybody who with all their heart and mind begins to do what He says - believe what He says - follow what He says - practice what He says.

1 Peter 2:9  …that you may show forth the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;

Rev 21:24  And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it.

What is the law? The shadow. When you follow the ways of God completely and totally, what do you do? You come out of the shadow and into the light. You say, ‘oh well then you are doing away with the law.’ You are doing away with the shady part, okay. You are doing away with the shady part, but the light is the real thing, see. It’s not all of this religious junk you get from giving these people your money. It’s not even the good feeling you get when you go to Wed. night prayer meeting and you sing and wave your hands and carry on and all that stuff. 

What people call worship and prayer meetings, what they call all that stuff, do you know what that is? It’s self aggrandizement and self entertainment. They go there to be entertained. Ask any of them why do you go there every week and they will tell you, because it’s fun.

Many if not most of the Pentecostal churches have rock band up on the stage, I mean real rock bands. There is not much differences from a lot of Christians going to their rock band worship services, then teenagers who go to see the Rolling Stones. They both get that similar type of emotional high from the music and dancing and carrying on and so on. What does that have to do with the Creator of the universe? It’s foolishness. Was it important to keep the Sabbath? 

Exo 31:15  Six days may work be done, but on the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord. Whosoever does any work in the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death.

That’s not just a warning declaration, but a parable. If you don’t keep the Sabbath today, you shall surely be PUT TO DEATH.

Much of the plan of God revolves around JUDGMENT. Judgment now upon the chosen few Elect and judgment later upon the rest of humanity. If you are still in the physical - the letter - the rituals - the shadows, then you’re not being judged in the spiritual LIGHT.

The weekly cycle of seven days was a microcosm of the physical and spiritual creation of God. It’s seven days, not just six. The six days were the actual physical creation, the seventh day was the stopping and ceasing from the physical. 

But we have an inkling as to what the seventh day is all about. If it’s not about the physical creation, what is it about? 

Gen 1:27  So God created (creating) man in His own image; in the image of God He created (creates) him; male and female He created (creates) them.

Again it’s the indefinite “creates” and “creating” it’s still going on. But the physical creation is not going on, this is spiritual, God is creating humanity into His own spiritual image. That’s what it is all about, but this is spiritual. This can be done on the seventh day, because it is spiritual. It’s not doing your own work when we enter in, like it says in Hebrews 4.

Heb 4:10  For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.

So when we enter in His rest we cease our own work, just like God ceased His. It doesn’t mean nothing else is going on. Oh there is plenty going on, but now it’s spiritual, at least it should be, that’s what we are hoping. 

I’m going to read this in Hebrews to pick up a couple of key verses, because it’s not just chapter 4, it’s chapter 3 and 4 that deals with this.

Heb 3:7  Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, "Today if you will hear His voice,
v. 8  do not harden your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness,
v. 9  when your fathers tempted Me, proved Me, and saw My works forty years.
v. 10  Therefore I was grieved with that generation and said, They always err in their heart, and they have not known My ways.
v. 11  So I swore in My wrath, They shall not enter into My rest."
v. 12  Take heed, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.

See that, we have the same thing in 1 Corinthians.

1Cor 10:4  and all drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank of the spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.
v. 5  But with many of them God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
v. 6  And these things were our examples, that we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.
v. 7  Nor should we be idolaters, even as some of them, as it is written: "The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play."
v. 8  Nor let us commit fornication, as some of them fornicated, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day.
v. 9  Nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted Him and were destroyed by serpents.
v. 10  Nor murmur as some of them also murmured and were destroyed by the destroyer.
v. 11  And all these things happened to them as examples; and it is written for our admonition…

Those that did this, they never entered into God’s rest. They never learned what this was all about.

Heb 4:1  Let us fear therefore, lest a promise being left of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to have come short of it.

[Kat]

So this whole thing of coming out of our life - coming out of carnality - coming out of religiosity is like coming out of darkness into the light and that light will give you peace or rest. You have to rest or cease your works and that is what this verse says, which concludes in Heb. 4:10. Now let’s look at verse 3.

Heb 4:3  For we who have believed do enter into rest…

There it is. So right now we do enter into rest. How do we enter into rest? By stopping doing our own works, by coming out of the shadow. Keeping the seventh day is a shadow and you’ve got to come out of that and come into the light of that… the real thing is Christ.  

Christ of course did good on the Sabbath day although He was criticized for it. He didn’t break the Sabbath day as some have taught in the past. He did not break the Sabbath day, but He certainly started expanding it into the spiritual realm of doing good. He did good, He didn’t go out and plow with a yoke of oxen. Of course He didn’t.  
When you enter into rest though, you don’t enter into rest by keeping the Sabbath every week. You enter into rest by doing what it says in verse 10.

Heb 4:10  For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.
                                                                                                                
You cease from doing your work, your religiosity, just like God stopped making the physical universe. We are now entering into the light, into the spiritual realm. That is for those who do not have hardened hearts and God gives us these abilities to do this.  

Col 2:10  and ye are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.
v. 11  In Whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,
v. 12  buried with Him in baptism…

So you mean you can be circumcised without hands? Without a knife and without taking your clothes off? Yes you can and guess what? You women can too. Women and men can both be circumcised, the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. Christ was circumcised the eighth day when He was a little boy, we partake of that. Can you see it? We partake of Christ, we are complete in Him. He also suffered persecution, guess what? So we suffer persecution. He was baptized by John wasn’t He? Guess what? We’re baptized. How? We are baptized into Christ, we are baptized into His crucifixion, into His baptism. There is only one baptism it says in Colossians. So we are buried with Him in baptism (Col 2:12). How?  

Gal 2:19  For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live to God.
v. 20  I have been crucified with Christ…
 
What, that one time you were put in physical water and buried? No. You are crucified WITH Christ, daily.  

v. 20 …nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me (daily - everyday).  And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

How did He give Himself for me?

Rom 6:1  What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin so that grace may abound?
v. 2  God forbid.  How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?
v. 3  Do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death (daily)?
v. 4  Therefore we were buried with Him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father; even so we also should walk in newness of life (daily).

Back to Colossians 2, we will finish that.

Col 2:12  …wherein also ye are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead.
v. 13  And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quicken together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses.

John 13:14  If I then, the Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet (daily).

If you go back into the shadows of this ritualistic stuff, you will never get it.  

v. 15  For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.

What, wash their feet once a year? No.  Be a servant, notice this…

v. 16  Verily, verily, I say to you, The servant is not greater than his lord, neither he that is sent greater than he who sent him.
v. 17  If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them (daily).

Luke 6:46  Christ said, why do you say to Me Lord Lord and you don’t do the things that I say.          


                               WORSHIP IS OBEDIENCE

You know people go to worship services, they think they are going to worship God. They pay their pseudo tithes or they give a little money or whatever. They get baptized in water. They do all these things, why? Because they are worshipping God, but all of that has really nothing to do with worshipping God.  

We have this perfect example in John 4, where the Samaritan woman says to Christ. ‘How do you say we are suppose to worship in Jerusalem, we were always taught we were to worship on this mountain here. So how do you say we are to worship in Jerusalem?’ He said, I’ll tell you something lady, the day is coming and now is (because He is already calling out His disciples). When they that worship God, will worship Him not in Samaria, not in Jerusalem, not in this Temple or that Temple or this church or that synagogue or that kingdom hall, but IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH. That’s how they will worship.  

What word defines worship?  Singing… praising… giving your tithes… going to Sunday school… keeping the Sabbath… being circumcised…  What one word defines exactly what worship is and without it there is no worship? Obedience!  Worship is obedience.  If you are not obedient, forget it, you are not worshipping God. That’s how you worship God.  

Lord Lord… Master… my Lord and my Master… why do you call Me that and you don’t DO (obedience), what I say. (Luke 6:46) It’s all about obedience.  

That’s why people get angry with us at Bible Truths. Because we are trying to throw away the religious junk. At least to the degree that it needs to be thrown away. Some of it doesn’t need to be thrown away. You just have to come out of the shadow and go into the light.  

The shadow is not evil. The shadow has it’s place. But YOU could be evil if you remain in the shadow, when you are told to come into the light. See you could be evil. The shadow is not evil, the law is not evil.  
Paul says, what then is the law sin? God forbid. He says, I wouldn’t have known sin but by the law (Rom. 7:7). In verse 7 the law says I should not covet. But now in verse 14 For we know that the law is spiritual…  Paul says, I wouldn’t have know that unless the law said it.  
But that tenth commandment, Paul says that showed me that the law is spiritual. He didn’t say that the tenth commandment said that you should not covet, therefore we conclude that the tenth commandment is spiritual.  No.  By the tenth commandment he came to understand that the law, the whole ten commandments is spiritual. That includes the Sabbath day, it’s spiritual.

I’m not going to condemn anybody who washes feet or takes a wafer and wine or who keeps the seventh day. Or for paying tithes to their church or who goes to church or goes Wed. night, what they call worship services. I don’t condemn anyone for doing those.  

I’m trying to teach those that God is trying to bring into the light, that’s all. I’m not condemning the shadow, nor am I condemning the people that are still living in the shadow. I’m just saying that God is showing these things and it is time to come into the light. Because that’s where it’s at.

Luke 22:17  Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, "Take this and divide it among yourselves;
v. 18  for I say unto you I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God shall come."
v. 19  And He took bread, gave thanks and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, "This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me."

So like good faithful carnal minded Christians every morning or once a week or once a month or four times a year or once a year, they do that. They take a little wafer and they take a little cup of wine and they do that. They do what Christ said. Is that what it meant? That if you eat a little wafer and a little sip of wine one time a year, you are worshipping, obeying Me? That makes you some how holy or good or something? My goodness can’t we see further than that.  

You partake of Christ’s body, so that you become what you eat! You know how they say, you are what you eat. You partake of His body! So you become the body of Christ!  

How often do you take nourishment? Everyday, not once a year. This is all a daily way of life. It is not a segregated carnal physical ritual. If that is all you can see then you don’t see very much.  
Paul in Galatians goes so far to say that if you observe the physical, thinking it’s going to do something spiritual, it’s a sin. That’s what he says, listen to this.

Gal 5:1  Stand fast therefore in the liberty (freedom - peace - rest) with which Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again in a yoke of bondage.
v. 2  Behold, I, Paul, say to you that if you are circumcised (physically, literally), Christ shall profit you nothing.

He is talking to Galatians, these are Gentiles, Gentiles were not generally circumcises the eighth day when they were little babies. Now they are 60, 70 or 80 year old men and women. In verse 2 he is talking physically and literally, like some of the Jews were saying, remember it in Acts 15. Some of these same ones were saying, except you be circumcised and keep the law of Moses you can’t be saved. Now Paul says to these Galatians, “if you are circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.”  

Gal 5:3  And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law.
v. 4  Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever attempt to be justified by law…

Now people will say, ‘well I don’t keep the Sabbath to be justified by Sabbath keeping.’  But that is exactly how they feel. That is exactly how that makes them feel. It’s a point of great pride and vanity for those that keep Saturday instead of Sunday and that they have this sign. They go so far as to say, that the mark of the beast is keeping Sunday. Well boy oh boy does that jack them a notch over all their Christian brethren, you see.  

Gal 5:4  Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever attempt to be justified by law, ye are fallen from grace.
v. 5  For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.
v. 6  For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision avails anything nor uncircumcision, but faith which works by love.

“You have fallen from grace” if you do these physical things, thinking that this is something that shows your obedience and spirituality to God, you fall from grace.

It’s not wrong to be circumcises. He is not saying that it is a sin to be circumcised outside of a religious ceremony to put you in God’s good graces.  
It’s in that context that they fall from grace, thinking that they have to do something here, that they were not called to do. Later on Paul says to the Philippians…

Phil 3:2  Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision.

Those that teach, you’ve got to keep the law, you’ve got to keep the Sabbath, you got to be baptized in water and so on.

v. 3  For we are the circumcision who worship God in the spirit…

There it is. Not only are you circumcised, you ARE the circumcision, spiritually, everyday if you worship God in spirit.

Col 2:16  So let no one judge you in meat or in drink, or in respect of a holy day or of the new moon or of the Sabbath days,
v. 17  which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ.

Isn’t that what we read in Hebrew, “for the Law which has a shadow of good things to come (Heb. 10:1)"?  Paul says to the Colossians Gentile (and as far as I know I’m a Gentile), don’t let no man judge you in meat, that is whether you can or can’t eat bacon. Or in drink, whether you can or can’t drink something that’s alcoholic. Or in respect of a Holy Day, Passover - Unleaven Bread - Pentecost - Trumpets - Atonement - Feast of Tabernacles - The Last Great Day.  
Don’t let anyone judge you in respect of a holy day or of the new moon. My oh my Christendom doesn’t even include that one. The new moon is where we get holy convocations of the new moon. I’ve never known of a church in the world that kept that. Yet it’s as much of a commandment as keeping these other days. Or of the Sabbath days, they have days as plural, where in the Greek the word Sabbath is plural. So it should be “or of the Sabbaths” plural.
Now how did we get around that back in the Worldwide Church of God? “A shadow of things to come,” yes we were taught that these all pictured something.  

v. 17  “But the body is of Christ.” There it is. Don’t let any man judge you, but let the body of Christ, the church, let them judge you? Let me see… don’t let anybody judge you… but let the church judge you? I don’t think that is what Paul meant.  

So I’m going to read to you from some of my 26 translations here. Just so you can see, that is not understood by all, to mean the body, the physical body.  
You know the word ‘body’ does mean our body, but it also means the completeness, the whole.

Col. 2:17 …but the body is of Christ.  (KJV)

These things are shadows, don’t let anybody judge you, they are shadows of things to come, but the substance is in the Christ. (20th Century NT)

What “substance”? Look in Hebrews so we can keep this all together.

Heb 10:1  For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things…

Well what is the very image? The very substance? What is it? CHRIST!  
The substance - the reality - the completeness of all this holy days - new moons - Sabbath day - food and drink - feasts and all that... IT”S CHRIST!

…the reality is found in Christ.  (Goodspeed)
…the solid fact is Christ.  (Phillips)
…the One foreshadowed is Christ.  (Olaf Norlie)

There it is. Although we just talked about the Sabbath day, today it applies to all of these physical, ritualistic commandments that Israel thought they were keeping. But what happened? They did not enter into His rest.

The reality is Christ and you know what I’ve been teaching in our installments in the Lake of Fire, The Sermon on the Mount is for YOU now. For you NOW. These are Christ’s teachings for US NOW.  
This is not some future torture in the judgment of the wicked or anything. It’s now. Blessed are YOU. YOU are the light of the world. YOU are the salt of the earth. YOU!  

Everyone of those ‘you’ He is talking directly to His disciples. If we are His disciples He is talking to us.

Mat 11:28  Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

So if you are laboring, if you are doing all your pseudo tithing and all your churchosity - if you are sending Paul Crouch all your money, so you can get your 400 trinkets and religious junk - if you are baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and now you are going to baptize in Christ only, because there is major consequences - all this you’ve got to keep Friday sunset to Saturday sunset, not Sunday or you will go to hell for sure, because that is the mark of the beast and so on…  
Now look at this!

Come to Me, all you who labor (doing your works) and are heavy laden, and I will give you REST!  There it is.