Episode Transcript
You are listening to daily insights on the Three ABN Radio Network and here is your host, Kaysie Butler. Hello there. Great to have you join me for this program.
We are going to explore the topic of the Sabbath today. The Sabbath is something which God regards to be of great import ordinance and he wants us to treasure it as well. In Ezekiel 20 verse 20 we read the following hallow my Sabbaths and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God.
See, the Sabbath is a sign that we have a relationship with God, that God is the God that we have chosen and he has chosen us. And it's kind of well it reminds me of a wedding ring actually, because that's like a little symbol of the relationship between two people and it's the same in our relationship with God. The Sabbath is a sign of this relationship that we have.
But the Sabbath is so much better than just an object like a ring. The Sabbath is a whole day in which we can spend with God and with others, nurturing that relationship to help it grow deeper. So this is what we're going to explore today and we are going to explore it through song as well as a story.
And first of all we are going to listen to a song called Don't Forget the Sabbath. The Lord our God has bless of all the week, the brightest of all the week, the best it brings recalls from waver it tells the joy divide it seems of life descending with heavenly beauty shine. Keep the Sabbath holy and worship Him today, who said to his disciples I am the living way and if we me follow our Savior here below, he'll give us all the fountain restream eternal blow, dear sacred pleasure it's golden house will spend in faithful hands to Jesus the children's.
Dearest friend, o gentle loving Savior, how good and kind I'll precious is, I promise to dwell in every heart. Welcome Blessed Sabbath Day. Welcome ever.
Welcome blessed day you. Which day should we welcome as the Sabbath? Well, Exodus 20 verse eleven says in six days the Lord made heaven and earth the sea, and all that in them is and rested the 7th day wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. This verse clearly suggests that the 7th day of the week is the Sabbath, which for us would be Saturday.
Not everyone would realize this though, because so many people don't keep Saturday as their Sabbath. Today I want to share with you a story about a church minister who went on this journey learning about which day was the Sabbath. One day he couldn't sleep.
He had just had a dream in which he had seen a man come to his door with a book and he gave him the book. He didn't recognize the man, but he felt sure that if he did see this man again, he would recognize him and he would receive the book. Well, one day a man came to his house and he came to his house selling books, christian books actually.
Well, the bookseller gave a book to the minister and he couldn't believe it. This was exactly the book which he had seen in his dream so quickly. He eagerly bought the book and he found it to be a very spiritual book.
And it was all good except for one section. There was one section that really bothered him. And this section actually stated emphatically that the Lord's day wasn't Sunday.
The Lord's day was the Sabbath, which was not on the first, but the 7th day of the week. This really, really challenged his mind. This can't be right.
He thought to himself, how can so many Christians worship on Sunday and be wrong? He sat thinking about it and he just thought, they can't be wrong. So many Christians can't be wrong. So he continued his work as a minister, preaching on Sundays.
But the idea of the Sabbath being on the 7th day would not leave his mind. We are going to continue the story in a few minutes after we have listened to another song. And the next song we are going to hear is called Remember and it's sung by Sarah Draguette.
In ancient times, God built a monument at the dawn of creation. He hallowed and blessed those moments of rest, that day of complete veneration. That pillar he made not of stone, but of time.
The hours were sacred, the idea divine. And the morning stars sing for joy they did shine and shout that first week of creation. And lest they forget, he made angels suit fall down from the sky on all days but one.
And he wrote it down for the sake of us all. Among the ten rules on the stone, those rules about murder and stealing and lying, engraving with blazing finger defying whoever in heaven or hell should endeavor to change the commandments. He wrote here is the patience of the saint.
Here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Then came God's own Son to show us the way. He hallowed that same Sabbath day.
The pure Lamb of God as our soil, he trod in God's perfect will. He did stay till heaven and earth shall indeed pass away. Not one daughter, one dash will be changed, he did say.
The apostles of old, kept and honored were told the same law that their master obeyed for 300 years after our Savior died and arose from the grave and ascended on high, the Christians respected the law and the stone, the one written with finger divine. But then came the day Constantine was his name, the emperor who over owns it. Rain tore down the old landmark, the pillar of God, and erected the day of the sun.
Here is the patience of the day. Here are those who keep the faith of Jesus. Close it.
As millennia passed, the memory of God's pillar of time was slowly erased by the ceaseless waves of generations of human traditions and days. But God called his people out from among them to point to his word and light up the darkness and restore the knowledge of his special covenants preserved from the dawning of time. Let you think that the crowd can't be wrong today.
Remember the crowd in a land far away. The mother rejected their king and the pride of the priest and their death we sing as the jealous lying accusation they bring and they murder their humble Messiah. The pages of time pushed a heathen day in place of the divine thought to change times and laws.
The loss that God's finger engraved on the tables of stone. Those who oppose it, it trembles and kills that city that sits on seven hills. That market causes small and great to receive on forehead or hands in thought, or indeed it cares not whether you're really deceived or just afraid, and so follow it lead.
Here is the patience of the saint. Here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Remember you remember who was the Sabbath made for? Mark 227 says the Sabbath was made for man, so the Sabbath was made especially to be a blessing for people.
Well, let's continue the story of the church minister. One night he tossed and turned. He just couldn't sleep.
The nagging question was still remaining on his mind as to how the Sabbath could be Saturday and not Sunday. Finally, he couldn't stand any longer. So he picked up the book and threw it in the rubbish bin.
That's the last of you. I hope. I can never see you or hear of your crazy ideas again, he thought.
Now, thinking that he could finish off his sleep and get some good rest, he went back to bed. But he still could not get the book's idea out of his head. The next morning it was not any better.
He still couldn't forget the idea. So he decided to come up with a plan to settle the matter once and for all. What was his grand plan? Find out after the next song.
Sundown has come again, it's time to rest. The Lord has proclaimed this day to be the best, for the world was created within six days. God rested on the 7th, and to men he said come unto me and leave this world behind.
I know I can help you find a peace of mind. Come unto me and I will show the way. And together we will worship on this life.
Sabbath day, sweet Sabbath morning dawn, spide and fresh, lift up your voice and pray on this day of rest. Marvel at the words of the Creator. Open up your heart to him as he shows you his plan come unto me and leave this world behind I know I can help you find the peace of mind come unto me I will show the way and together we will worship? Celebrate this day? Close saddles fall? Close as the sun gently set? We will ever treasure these moments we've kept? And live with the home? And long for the day when we see our Savior and we hear him say come unto me and take hold of my hand and let me lead you to the Promised Land come unto me I am brought to peace and together we will worship throughout eternity throughout that was Daryl Sawyer and Laura Williams singing Sabbath song.
Now, I'm sure that you're all super keen to hear what this minister's grand plan was. Well, he went to the kitchen and he got two bowls and filled them with water. And then he got two pieces of paper, and on one he wrote Sabbath, and on the other he wrote Sunday.
Meanwhile, his wife came into the kitchen and asked him what on earth he was doing. And then he explained the whole story. He told her about his dreams.
He told her about his struggle with the question and how he couldn't sleep and how he just couldn't reconcile that so many Christians could be wrong. And then finally he got down to the point that he was going to test this matter and settle it for himself. Oh, she says, does that have anything to do with the bowls in front of you? Yes.
Can you see these bowls? They are full of water, but there's nothing else in the water or on the water or under the water. The water is just pure and clean. And each of the bowls are labeled.
One is labeled Sabbath and the other is labeled Sunday. Yes, she said, I can see that. Good.
Now, do you like cockroaches? He asked. Ha. Who does? She said.
Well, I like them dead, he said, and they both laughed. My idea for this test is that when we go to bed tonight, we'll leave these bowls on the bench and then the next morning, the bowl that has a dead cockroach on top will be the right day. Ah, she said, that sounds like you're a modern day Gideon.
Yes, he said, and we kill a cockroach at the same time. Well, they both agreed that that test would settle the matter. And so that night, the minister went to bed expecting to have a good sound sleep.
What happened with his test? Find out after the next song. God took six days and created earth and moon and stars and sun. On the 7th day, he rested from the work that he had done.
Then he blessed it, made it holy as a gift for every man to remind us where we came from and just how this world began. Holy day purified set apart sanctify enter into joy divide in a temple made time. See him worship on the Sabbath as his weekly custom was.
Feel the fury of the rabbis, for he would not he their lives, so they killed him on a hillside as the sun began to fade. But he then kept the Sabbath as they laid him in the grave. Holy day pure as I set apart.
Sanctified enter into joy delight in a temple made of time. All forsaken and forgotten, desecrated and profane. But the sacred fourth commandment is still valid and unchanged.
Hear the Father gently calling if you love me, keep each one, not for merit or salvation, but because you love my Son. Holy days are a fight set apart. Sanctified enter into joy divide.
In a temple made of time, you will find joy to fight. In this temple made of time. That was Temple of Time by Matt and Josie Minicus well, what happened with the minister's test? Needless to say, he had a good sleep.
But he was awake at the crack of dawn because he could hardly wait to see what had happened to his bowls. He raced downstairs to the kitchen and breathlessly peered into the bowls. In the bowl marked Sunday was only water.
But in the bowl marked Sabbath, on top of the water floating, was not one, but two dead cockroaches. Wow. The preacher could hardly contain himself any longer.
He jumped up and down shouting it's not Sunday. The Sabbath is the Lord's day. After this experience, he was quickly telling everyone who would listen about his dreams the two dead cockroaches floating in the water and the book with the Bible truths.
Well, I hope you enjoyed that story. It was quite a unique way to find some confirmation on the Sabbath. And that story is found in the book Him Big God Day and Other Remarkable Sabbath Stories by Stanley M.
Maxwell. We are now going to listen to one final song. And this one is called Remember the Sabbath.
And it is presented by Three ABN music. You remember the Sabbath to keep it holy. Honor the day that our Lord commands us to seize our to.
And we obey, that we know Him and learn his patient way. Keeping the Sabbath me in all his temple with high thanksgiving. Worship the Lord and fill up this house with your voices.
Read. Let them be heard, for we are and if sin rain. Keeping the Sabbath to keep it holy on the day on to see our story.
And we are happy Jesus way, keeping the Sam. I hope you've enjoyed the songs and the story today about the Sabbath. And I pray that as you endeavor to keep the Sabbath holy, that you will experience the blessings of a deeper relationship with God.
You have been listening to daily insights. I am your host, Kaysie Butler. Bye for now.
You've been listening to a production of Three ABN, Australia radio.
