Doug Batchelor - Bricks Without Straw - Part 2

TOPICS: Slavery, Freedom

In 1629, the emperor of India, Shah Jahan, went on a military campaign to crush rebellion in his kingdom. Even though she was ill and pregnant, his wife joined him on the grueling journey. On the way, she collapsed, gave birth to their daughter, and then died. The beautiful empress was only 39 years old. Beside himself with grief, the emperor carried his wife's body home and constantly wore white robes of mourning.

When he finally came out of seclusion, he ordered that a beautiful palace be built for his beloved wife. It was never to be called a tomb. It was to be called by the Indian word mahal, meaning palace. The palace that the emperor built is one of the most breathtaking structures ever built, a dazzling wonder of marble and jewels, known today as the Taj Mahal. This majestic tomb is an abiding memorial of the emperor's love for his wife.

Did you know that God has also given believers an eternal memorial of His creative power of love? It's built, not in marble, but in time, and it can change your life. So, let's dive in together now and explore this important and fascinating subject.

All right, friends, our study tonight is dealing with the subject of Bricks Without Straw. The story of the Bible is the story of a people that God calls out of slavery into the Promised Land. Well, you know, I'm not going to tell you the whole story of the ten plagues. You know that what happened then Moses said, "Pharaoh, if you don't let them go, it's going to be really bad."

Plague after plague after plague came. Finally, the tenth plague firstborn died, except for those who had the lamb's blood on their homes. The blood of the lamb protected them. Then after that, they began their journey out of the Promised Land. God parted the Red Sea. They're not going right to Israel. They're actually going south. They're going to Mount Sinai because God said, "You're not prepared to go to the promised land until we go to Mount Sinai and I give you My law."

Notice God did not give them the law to save them. They were saved by the lamb. After they're saved by the lamb, He brings them to the law. We are not saved by keeping the law, we're saved by the lamb, the blood of the lamb, amen? But then when you aren't saved, God says, "If you love Me, here's My commandments." First commandment says, "I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt out of the house of bondage. I'm the God who saved you. If you love Me, here's My law." Those who trusted and loved the Lord, made it to the Promised Land. Those who lost faith, did not. It's a pretty simple lesson.

So, as they're going into the wilderness on the way to Mount Sinai, they haven't got there yet, they got hungry. God said, "I'm going to rain bread down from heaven for you, but pay attention." He said, "I'm going to rain bread down from heaven six days a week. You got to go out and gather it. On the sixth day, gather twice as much for the Sabbath day." Now, they hadn't been to Mount Sinai yet. Where's this Sabbath business come from? "Moses said, 'Eat that today.'" He says, "You got twice as much here on the sixth day of the week. And for today, eat what you collected the day before, for today is the Sabbath to the Lord; today you're not going to find it in the field." The whole time they were in the wilderness, that manna fell six days a week and none fell on the seventh day because God had rested and blessed that day.

All right, let's go into our questions here. "What day of the week is the Sabbath?" In North America when the Pilgrims came over, there was no confusion about whether or not people should keep a Sabbath. Everybody believed that. So, let's go and find out what the Bible says.

What day of the week is the Sabbath day? And you can read in Genesis chapter 2, verse 2, now, we just quoted part of this a minute ago, but I want to emphasize something. "And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done; and He rested on the," what day? "The seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and He sanctified it."

You notice a number that keeps coming up? Seventh day, seventh day, seventh day. Here, in the very beginning of the Bible, you find the first time a number is mentioned three times, 777. When you go to the end of the Bible, seven is the day of God, God's rest. Six is the day that man was made. It's a day for man. When you get to the end of the Bible, you got 666 at the other end of the Bible, and it's about manmade worship. And you realize that the whole battle through the Bible is about, who do we worship? It's repeating itself.

"How has God demonstrated the importance of His holy Sabbath?" Well, you can read in Exodus chapter 20, this is from the Ten Commandments. By the way, you find it also in Deuteronomy, chapter 5. "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. The Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it." It's very clear which day it is. The Bible tells us that God rested on the seventh day, He blessed it, and He sanctified it. It's obviously important.

Now, you know, I think it's interesting that when I share this message, I often have pastors that will sometimes come to programs like this, and I'll visit with them. And I remember I was doing a seminar like this one time, and pastor didn't wait until after the program. He saw some of his members were coming, and he was a little concerned that they were going to start asking him too many questions. And he said, "Pastor Doug," and just shouted out from the audience. Said, "You're putting these people under the bondage of works." I said, "All right, brother, why do you say that?" He said, "You're putting them under the bondage of legalism." I said, "No." Said, "I'm telling them to keep the Sabbath day. I'm telling them to rest, you're telling them not to. You're telling them to work."

And I said, "Do you think God wants us to keep the Ten Commandments?" He said, "No." Several of his members turned and looked at him like, and then he said, "Yes." But he knew that would include the fourth and he said, "Nine of them." This really happened. And I said, "So you're telling me and the people here that the one commandment you think we ought to forget about is the only commandment that begins with the word 'remember'?" I said, "That sounds suspicious."

You know, one reason that I came to believe the Sabbath truth is because when I talk to pastors, if I asked ten pastors, I got 11 different answers on this subject. I talked to one pastor, I said, "Why don't we keep the Sabbath anymore?" "Well, because we don't keep it on the seventh day anymore because it's not mentioned again in the New Testament." I said, "Really?" So, I did a study, and I found out there is one commandment that's not repeated in the New Testament. You know which one it is? "Thou shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. The Lord will not hold him guiltless that takes His name in vain." Show me where that's in the New Testament.

But is the Sabbath mentioned in the New Testament? Many, many times. It's like an urban myth that just got out there and people repeat it, and they don't actually look to find out it's not true. Then another pastor, he said, "Well, we don't have a command to keep the Sabbath day, but we've got a long-standing tradition that we now remember Sunday in honor of the Resurrection." I said, "Okay, that's beautiful. Now, where's the verse?" "Well, we don't have a verse, but we do have a church tradition." I said, "I don't know if that's got the authority I'm looking for." And I kept asking these questions.

Another one said, "You know, we're not under the law now." I said, "Okay. Does that mean we break the Ten Commandments?" They said, "Well, we keep the spirit of the law, but not the letter." What does that mean? I mean, if you're keeping the spirit of the law, don't you keep the letter? Yeah. And then I talked to...another guy was really creative. He was kind of a cowboy evangelist and he said, "Pastor Doug," said, "back in the days of Joshua, he prayed, the sun stood still, Saturday turned into Sunday." I never heard that before. I said, "Well, they kept keeping it on Saturday for a long time." A lot of confusion out there in the Christian world about this. And it's not really hard to figure it out if you look at what the Bible actually says.

Now, is this important? Jesus says in Matthew chapter 5, verse 19, "Whosoever therefore shall break one of the least of these commandments, and teach men so, he will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever will do and teach them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven." So, please don't take offense with Pastor Doug because I'm teaching you about this commandment. The Lord and Savior said, "Whoever shall do and teach it is called great in the kingdom of heaven." I want to be a doer, and I want to be a teacher of the Word of God. I have to answer to Jesus, so I'm not going to teach you what tradition says. I'm going to teach you what he says and what the Word says, amen. So, it's important to Him.

"Did Jesus intend for His people to be keeping the Sabbath after He died for their sins?" Some are saying, "Well, you know, once He died on the cross, the law was nailed to the cross, and we don't need to keep it anymore." Jesus told them, speaking of the last days, he said, "And pray that your flight," he's talking about this tribulation, "pray that your flight..." It depends what airline you're booking, right? "Pray that your flight may not be in the winter or on the Sabbath day." Because obviously, in the winter if you're fleeing, he said, "Those that be in Judea flee into the hills." We may have to flee into the hills in the last days. It's hard to find food that time of year, harsh environment. And he's also saying that wouldn't be appropriate for a day of rest, having to run for your life. Jesus, looking down on, says, "Pray that you won't have to do that then." Christ still expected His people to recognize the Sabbath, even in the future.

Now I am going to preemptively share with you a Scripture because you're going to hear these things, you're going to go, "I got to ask my friends or my pastor about this." Two verses that are often misunderstood that people turn to when it comes to learning the Sabbath truth, one of them is found in Romans chapter 14. Let me just read that to you real quick. Romans 14, and I'm going to jump to verse 5. "One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each one be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, does not observe it."

What's that talking about? "Well, Pastor Doug, that just means that, you know, if you want to go to church, go to church. If you want to go Thursday, Saturday, Sunday, doesn't matter, just go when you feel like going." Would God really say that? I have never heard a pastor stand up in his church on Sunday and tell his congregation that, never ever, ever, because they know, well, first of all, if you tell all your people, "Oh, you don't have to go, it doesn't matter," well, they have a hard enough time getting them to come. This is talking about the Jewish converts to Christianity that were asking the Gentiles. They said, "You've got to keep the ceremonial sabbaths."

There are two kinds of sabbaths in the Bible. There was the perfect Sabbath of the Ten Commandments that existed before sin. Then there were the ceremonial sabbaths nailed to the cross that came after sin that were fulfilled in Christ. They were annual sabbaths. They were feast days. They were other days and new moons. They were saying, "You got to keep all these." And Paul said, "No, you don't. If you want to go ahead, no sin in it, but you don't have to." But there was never a contest about the importance of the weekly worship day of rest.

So, using these verses that are talking about the ceremonial sabbaths to say that God doesn't care if we keep the Ten Commandments is not an honest biblical argument. Most pastors know that, but I've heard them use it that way. Let me show you the other one. It's in Colossians chapter 2, and I'll start with verse 13. "And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together..." Notice it mentions circumcision. That's one of the things they've done away with, part of the ceremonial law. "He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven all your trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting..." It's not the finger of God. It's talking about handwriting of a man. "Of requirements..." not talking about the Ten Commandments, these are ordinances. "That were against us, which were contrary to us. And He's taken them out of the way, having nailed them to the cross."

I just want to pause here and give you some points. The ceremonial laws were not written on stone, they were written on paper. Moses instructed the children of Israel, "Take this scroll, put it in a pocket on the outside of the Ark of the Covenant, that it might be a witness against you," uses the very words. Paul is specifically talking about the ceremonial laws that were to be a witness against them that contained ceremonial sabbaths, wasn't talking about the Ten Commandments inside the Ark of the Covenant.

Going on here. It says, "Having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. Having taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross." You can't nail stone to anything. "Having disarmed principalities and powers. He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. So let no one judge you in food or in drink..." These are the food and drink offerings in the sanctuary. "Or regard of a festival or new moon or sabbaths." There's an S there. "Talking about sabbaths, which are a shadow." He tells you what sabbaths, the ones which are a shadow of Christ. All the ceremonial sabbaths and feasts it's talking about, not talking about the weekly day of worship and rest. It says here, "Don't let anyone judge you about this, the substances of Christ."

Those are the two verses people typically turn to and say, "That's one commandment that we don't need to keep anymore." But friends, let's be perfectly honest. I'm willing to go anywhere that has the truth. I accepted the Sabbath truth, not because anyone else in my family did. Matter of fact, I knew it might be more unpopular. I did it only because I had no choice. I thought if I'm going to be a Christian, I want to get to heaven, I want to be a real Christian. And you can't convince me that God would have these Ten Commandments that He would speak from a mountain for the whole nation, thunder and lightning was His majesty and glory, write it with His finger in stone, I mean what more could God do to emphasize the glory of it all? Give it to His people and say, "This is to be placed in the Holy of Holies. It's My Word." And then say later in the New Testament, "Well, from here on out, you only need to keep nine of them."

"Can we be certain that the present seventh day of the week (Saturday) is the same Sabbath that Jesus kept holy?" How do we know that for sure? That's pretty easy. Just look here at the examples you find in the Bible. It tells us that day, the day that Christ was crucified, Friday, was the preparation. They used to prepare on the sixth day of the week by getting their cooking, their wood gathered and everything. And the Sabbath drew on. It says, "And then they returned and they prepared spices and fragrant oils." Christ was crucified. They did not finish their work of embalming him. "And they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment."

Notice Luke, a Gentile, writes this. That would have been a really good place for him to say they rested on the old Jewish Sabbath. He doesn't write it like that. It says, "According to the commandment." He states it as a self-evident truth for any believer in Christ. Now friends, I can't get past this point. This is a speed bump for my logic. How in the world could it be that the apostles followed Jesus for three and a half years, heard Him teach and preach hundreds of sermons as He went from town to town, they lived with Him every day, they observed Him week after week, when it came to burying Him, there were no Pharisees that were overseeing that event. It was just the apostles, the inner circle. They said, "The sun is going down. We are not going to be able to finish embalming Him before Sabbath begins. Jesus would not be pleased if we did this kind of work on the Sabbath day."

You can't deny they believe that. They say, "We'll come back Sunday morning, and we'll finish." Read it, this is what happened. They would not even finish this labor of love because they believed it would displease the Lord. Jesus never gave them the impression that it didn't matter because they wouldn't even violate the Sabbath to finish burying Him. You see what I'm saying? And it does matter.

"Now on the first day of the week, they came early to the tomb." So, one thing we just learned here is you've got the Preparation Day, which we call, some people call it Good Friday. Do you realize that Jesus died just before the Sabbath? He said, "It is finished." Then Jesus went to sleep, and He woke up Sunday morning to continue His work as our high priest. Jesus even kept the Sabbath in His death. He finished His work of saving man. He rested, just like Jesus rested.

You know on the sixth day of the week, God put Adam to sleep. He opened his side and out came a bride. You know the story? On the sixth day of the week, Jesus had his side opened up with a Roman spear and blood came out, and the church was born. And then He rested on the Sabbath just like Adam. This is truth that's been lost, friends. And people are missing the blessing.

So, you got Preparation Day, what we would call, what day? Friday. Then you get the Sabbath day. We commonly call it, these are Roman names Sunday and Saturday. And then the first day of the week, they call that Easter Sunday. Now, is it important that Jesus rose the first day of the week? Absolutely. But did He change the Sabbath day? No. Why would He need to? Was there anything wrong with the first choice that God made? It's not a man or a church that picked the seventh day, God picked it. Said, "I bless that day. I've hallowed that day."

Do we find anywhere in the Bible where God said, "I blessed or hallowed a different day"? In fact, I'm going to ask the studio, if you want, you can turn the camera around. I don't want to put you on the spot, but just to demonstrate this point. Show me, I know there's people here from all different backgrounds. Name one Scripture, you hold up your hand, you tell me, I'll repeat it. Name one Scripture where we are commanded anywhere to keep the first day of the week as the Sabbath. There is none. The only command to keep a day is the seventh day.

You know, I think it's interesting that if I were to tell you tomorrow there's going to be a new law and the speed limit in Northern California is 90 miles an hour, would any of you believe me? Some of you would like that. You might try it even. Some of you are already doing it. But you wouldn't believe me that that's been posted. You know why you wouldn't believe me? Because a government has a responsibility that if it's going to change a law that is a major law that's going to impact all of its citizens, that it needs to carefully promote, advertise, announce that change. You see what I'm saying?

One of the Ten Commandments that the people of God had been keeping for ages, if God was going to change that, you'd find some announcement somewhere. You'd find some declaration. You'd find some event. There'd be something stupendous. The reason that you find silence in the Bible is because it was assumed by all the New Testament fathers and writers and apostles that we're still keeping the original.

Matter of fact, it wasn't until a few hundred years after Christ that a change began to come in. The Jews became very unpopular in Rome. And some of the Christians, wanting to distance themselves from the Jews, they said, "Well, maybe we ought to keep two days a week." Since the Romans, Sunday was a big day for them. That's why you get the word "Sunday," the first day was sort of a festival. And they said, "You know, we'll be able to win more Romans into the church. It'll be evangelistic." They argued, "This will be good evangelism. It'll be easier for them to relate."

So, for a while they kept two days. Gradually, they began to give up the day, the seventh day. They called the seventh day a day of fasting, and they called the first day a day of feasting. Nowhere in the Bible does it say you have to fast on the Sabbath. Now, which would you prefer, a day of feasting or a day of fasting? The day of fasting started becoming very unpopular. And gradually, they moved things. It didn't happen overnight. This happened over centuries. And we'll give you more history on that.

In over 105 languages in the world, the word for the seventh day of the week is "Sabbath." A hundred and five languages of the world. Isn't that interesting? These are in places that weren't even Christian. The word for Saturday is Sabbath day, that's because it goes way back before the time of the Jews.

I remember talking to, I used to pastor on an Indian reservation and one of the Sioux Indians said, "Oh, yeah, we had a seven-day week before you guys showed up." They call, the Navajo call the white men bilagaana. They said, "Before you bilagaanas came," and they said, "The seventh day was the Sabbath." I go, "Well, that's interesting." Someone said, "Well, the calendar's been changed. We don't know what day is what day."

Well, friends, you might convince me that, you know, some Jewish family got stuck on a deserted island, they lost track of time, and they forgot what day the Sabbath was. But you're not going to convince me that 15 million Jews around the world all woke up and forgot what their holy day was. We know what day it is. The calendar has been changed. We're under the Gregorian calendar now. In 1582 when it was changed from the Julian calendar, they added ten days to the calendar and October 5 went to October 15, but Thursday was followed by Friday. People are confused. They think because a calendar and the week are on the same piece of paper, that they're intertwined. They're two completely separate distinct cycles of time. That's why your birthday falls on a different day of the week every year. So, changes in the calendar don't do that.

Someone wrote a letter to the US Naval Observatory. They said, "Have you seen that there's any change in the calendar that has affected the weekly cycle?" They wrote back and they said, "In all of our research, we have not seen, from the time of the Christian era, we've not seen anything that has changed the calendar to affect the continuity of the weekly cycle." So, when people say that, that's a myth argument.

"Does the Bible teach that God's end-time people would also be keeping His seventh-day Sabbath holy?" You can read in Revelation 12:17, the dragon. Who's the dragon? The devil, was wroth or enraged with the woman. We've read this before, but it bears repeating. Who's the woman, the church? And he went to make war with the remnant or the remainder of her seed, her offspring, that keep the commandments of God and as the testimony of Jesus Christ. Again, you can read here in Revelation 14:12 just before it talks about the Second Coming, "Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God."

Now, would that be one or two of them? And they get the faith of Jesus. You realize that everybody keeps some of the commandments some of the time. You do a pretty good job when you're asleep. People in jail all keep some of the commandments some of the time. You know, it says in Deuteronomy chapter 5, "O, that there was such a heart in them," God is speaking, "O, that there was such a heart in them that they would fear Me and keep all of My commandments always that it might be well with them and their children."

God wants you to be blessed. The Bible says, "If you know these things, happy are ye if you do them. Great peace have they that love thy law." Sometimes people hear, people hear the Sabbath truth, and they think it's a burden. And God said, "No, no, it's a blessing. I want to bless you." And they're missing out on that blessing. The Bible tells us before Jesus comes again, there's going to be a revival of returning to His law. And this is a commandment that has been neglected, and it may be a real point of contention in the last days. Last chapter in the Bible, "Blessed are those," there's that blessing again, "who do His commandments." Those who hear it? Those who listened to it? No. "Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have a right to the tree of life, and they enter through the gates of the city."

"Pastor Doug, I thought that we're being saved by faith." You are saved by faith. But do you know the Bible says you're judged by your works? It's not me. The Bible says, "Behold, He comes and He'll reward everyone according to his works." Those are the words of Jesus. "But I thought we're saved by faith."

You are saved by faith and if you are saved by faith, your works will be different. It's that simple. And so, it's like, you know, Jesus said, "Not everyone that says unto me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom but they that do the will of My Father." And the simplest expression of God's will in the Bible is the Ten Commandments. It says that in Psalm chapter 40. "Yea, Lord, I love to do Thy will. Thy law is within my heart."