Refuting Sunday-Keeping III

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Again we’re going to follow through with the book here, Sunday Facts and Sabbath Fiction, and we’re going to see how that every one of these arguments are not true. They lack in understanding. They don’t know the truth of the Word of God. They don’t know the Greek, they don’t know the Hebrew, and we’re going to see today one of the real reasons why the Protestants claim that they do not have to keep Sabbath, but they can keep Sunday.

3. No Sabbath command in the New Testament (Sunday Facts and Sabbath Fiction, pg. 21).

We will prove that that is absolutely wrong.

We can safely assume that if God wanted His Church to observe the Jewish Sabbath...

Now let’s stop right there. There are at least two errors in this assumption here:

1)      We are not to assume

God says that we are to ‘prove all things, hold fast to that which is good.’ We’re to be like the ‘Bereans who searched the Scriptures whether those things were so.’ So God does not want us to assume.

2)      They denigrate the Sabbath of God by saying it’s a Jewish Sabbath

So therefore, saying that it’s a Jewish Sabbath and they do it with vitriol in their voice and in their attitude and the way that they do. They denigrate and they reject the Sabbath of God. The seventh day Sabbath is not the Jewish Sabbath. It is the Sabbath of the Lord. It was given to all twelve tribes of Israel, of which one tribe, Judah, became known as the Jews. The assumptions here are completely erroneous.

...He would have done a better job communicating this to us.

Let’s understand: God did a great job in communicating it to us. So here they are accusing God of falling down on His job. They are accusing God that He didn’t do a good job.

Surely somewhere in the 27 books of the New Testament we find the mandate to keep the Sabbath if it were important to Him and binding upon us.

We will show and prove today that yes, there is a place that is very specific and very dogmatic which is an absolute direct command for the people of God to keep the Sabbath, and as we will see in such a way that it includes the annual Sabbaths, not just the weekly Sabbath.

Certainly in 27 books there was ample opportunity for a Sabbath ordinance to be mandated to the Church if it were in God’s scheme of things.

Now we want to come to page 104, because we’re going to approach this a little bit differently. We’ll tie these two together.

3. No Sabbath command found in the New Testament [allegedly].

Then we’ll go back and we’ll analyze the other part of number three when we come to Acts 15, because that’s what it covers for the rest of it. But this section here, chapter nineteen, or reason number nineteen, it says:

19.  Faith in Christ is our Sabbath

We’re going to see that’s really quite a sleight of hand, because what they’re saying is the bottom line, that if you believe in Christ, you’re not obligated to keep the Sabbath. We’ll see a little later on how that ties in with how they do with the rest of the laws of God by throwing all of them away. We will see that that really creates a great problem.

The Old Testament Sabbath of rest was only a picture of the future spiritual rest that the believer would enter into by placing his faith in Christ alone and ceasing from his own works (Heb. 4:1-11). The word Sabbath means rest. (page 103)

As we will see, there are other terms for rest that are used, meaning rest, and also Sabbath rest as it applies to God.

God took a Sabbath rest on the seventh day. In six days He created the world, the universe, the heavens, and on the seventh day God is said to have rested from His works (Gen. 1).

No that is an incorrect reference. It’s Gen. 2, we’ll see that in a little bit.

Of consummate importance is the fact that He did not then institute a Sabbath observance binding upon man...

We’ll see that that is an assumption which is not true.

...that eventually came with the giving of the law to Moses…

Which was about thirty-five hundred years later.

…when men were to maintain a covenant relationship with God through works (Neh. 9). But a Sabbath of rest would eventually be the heirs when in the dispensation of grace they could rest in their salvation having found justification with God by faith in Christ.

Now there are a lot of assumptions in here that are incorrect. We’ll tackle that a little bit later as we go along. But needless to say, the dispensation of grace as it is put, does not mean that you don’t have to keep any of the commandments of God. We’ll see a little later that grace in fact establishes law, not abolishing law. So if you establish something, you’re surely not abolishing it.

Now he’s quoting another theologian, he says:

Rice says, “The Jewish Sabbath Saturday is clearly a picture of an earned rest….

Very clever words. You don’t earn the rest of the Sabbath, you work six days and you cease working and keep the Sabbath.

“Under the law if one were perfect all of his life, fulfilling all the commands, he would deserve heaven...

Now there’s another assumption. God never expected the children of Israel to be perfect. That’s why He gave all the offerings for the sin offerings and trespass offerings so they could come to the temple and be forgiven. There was the Day of Atonement on which God gave a clean slate every year.

No one goes to heaven. You see every false doctrine in religion, because religion is not the way of God. God’s way is the way of life. You walk in the way of the Lord, it is the way of Christ. Religion is a substitute for it and then they go ahead and inculcate their own doctrines and all religions believe in the immortality of the soul and going to heaven, and such teaching is not in the Bible.

“Since no one was ever perfect but Jesus, nor did anyone beside Him keep the law, man cannot be saved by the law.”

Now there’s some truth in some of the things that they say here. No one was ever perfect, but Jesus. Nor did anyone besides Himself keep the law, that is perfectly; no man could be saved by the law.

Please understand something: When God advocates Sabbath-keeping, He is not saying you are justified by Sabbath-keeping. Sabbath-keeping is required. Justification comes through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, through the grace of God. Those who are Sabbath-keepers do not under any circumstance feel as though that they are earning salvation or working their way toward God so that they can ‘be in heaven’ or be in the resurrection, because of doing the Sabbath. If their hearts are not right, if they are not converted, and if they don’t have the Holy Spirit, then all the things that they do count for nothing.

“You can see how the Jewish Sabbath picturing salvation by good works is out of place in a dispensation of grace. We are saved by grace, freely justified without the deeds of the law.”

That’s a term that they don’t understand at all. I’ll try and explain it very clearly here in just a minute, but I want you to understand something very important. If you want to have an in-depth study on works of law, you write in for our whole series on the book of Romans. We go through the book of Romans verse by verse, very carefully and this will tell you what ‘works of law’ really are and what ‘grace’ really is. It’s not in the way that the Protestants have misinterpreted it. Now continuing, we’ll finish this section, then we’ll look at a couple of other Scriptures in the book of Romans to answer that.

“So we worship on the first day of the week, representing peace and rest obtained without labor. The Jewish Sabbath... [There it goes again.] ...Saturday is a ceremonial law.”

Now that’s not true. The day came first. Now if you want to write for another sermon, you can do that, Which Came First: the Day or the Ritual?, or the day or the ceremony. God did not give the ceremony first, He gave the day. That was added to the day. The day was established by creation—be it the weekly Sabbath and God blessing it, or be it the Holy Days that God has given—and those actually began with Abraham when you properly understand it.

“Saturday is ceremonial law and does not fit in a grace dispensation. Our Lord’s Day, the first day of the week, does fit every Christian.”

Now that’s the end of the quote from Rice. Now continuing with Tabor’s writing here:

In a very real sense this whole dispensation of grace is a Sabbath....

That’s not true. That is a conjecture that men have devised to avoid Sabbath-keeping.

...for it is a dispensation of rest.

Why then does Jesus say that you enter into the Kingdom of God by force? Why does Paul say ‘through must tribulation’ we enter into the Kingdom of God?

Neither do they say by much rest we enter into the Kingdom of God. By doing nothing we have rest from God, so we don’t have to do anything, and so therefore we enter into the Kingdom of God.

Such thinking is pure and plain lawlessness.

It is a dispensation of salvation not by works, which was foreshadowed in the six days of creation in which God worked, but by faith which is a foreshadow of God’s rest on the seventh day.

Now then he quotes Heb. 4:3 and he uses the New International Version. By the way, if you have a New International Version of the Bible, you might as well get rid of it and get a King James Version, because it is not the Word of God. There is so much wrong with the NIV that it’s almost impossible to try and tell you in just a summary. If you want more information on that, you can write us and we’ll send it to you. So he quotes Hebrews 4:3:

“For we which have believed do enter into rest.”

And we will see a little later that that means that we enter into keeping the Sabbath. Now let’s go back and look at a couple things in the book of Romans, chapter 3 and let’s look at that place where they say that you don’t have to keep any commandments based upon what is said here. That’s because it’s misunderstood. That’s because it is also mistranslated.

Romans 3:19: “Now then, we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law... [Who are under the law? Everyone is under the law. If you sin, you’re under the law for judgment, for sin. ‘The wages of sin is death.’] ...so that every mouth may be stopped... [Not just the Jews mouth, because he [Tardo] says up here that ‘we have concluded both Jews and Gentile’ that they are ‘all under sin.’ And ‘if you are under sin, you are also under law.’] ...that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.” So God is judging the whole world based upon His Ten Commandments, not just coming against the Jews, not just judging so-called Christians.

Verse 20: “Therefore, by works [‘deeds’ (KJV)] of law... [Now this is very confusing because there are two definite articles added in the translation from the Greek. This should read, literally translated: ‘therefore by works of law,’ that is by works of any law—a ritual law, a ceremonial law, a sacrificial law, a law of Sunday-keeping, which is what Sunday-keepers do, they do their own works. Justification means this and they miss the whole point. Justification means to be put in right standing with God. That is only done through the sacrifice of Christ. The law cannot accomplish it. But because the law cannot accomplish that, nor was it designed to do that, that doesn’t mean that we don’t have to keep law. It just is in keeping law, it does not justify you, the sacrifice of Christ does. And nothing can substitute for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.] ...for through the law is the knowledge of sin.” So that tells us what sin is so that we don’t transgress the law and sin, because ‘the wages of sin is death.’

Verse 21: “But now, the righteousness of God that is separate [without (KJV)] from law has been revealed... [Now let’s understand something here. The KJV says ‘without,’ which is a poor translation in English—‘without’ gives you the connotation in English, the absence of, meaning that there is nothing that you have to keep, there is nothing that you have to do. That is not correct! That is a complete, twisted lying interpretation of the Scriptures!] ...the righteousness of God... [which is then accomplished through justification] ...separate from law has been revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets.”

This is the righteousness that we want. This is the righteousness that we also derive through keeping the Sabbath. How can you have righteousness unless you keep the commandments of God? How can you be righteous spiritually unless you have the forgiveness through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ?

Verse 22: “Even the righteousness of God that is through the faith of Jesus Christ, toward all and upon all those who believe; for there is no difference.” So when you are justified, you are forgiven of your past sins. And Jesus said how many times in the Gospel, ‘Go and sin no more.’ And ‘sin is the transgression of the law.’ You need your sins forgiven, and when you have your sins forgiven you ‘cannot continue in sin that grace may abound.’ No, but that’s what Protestants believe. And Catholics have their own works that they do which is not correct either, but we’re dealing here basically with Protestant and somewhat with Catholic theology.

Verse 23: “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; but are being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; Whom God has openly manifested to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, in order to demonstrate His righteousness, in respect to the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God...” (vs 23-26).

Let’s understand something. If God forgives your sins in the past, and sins are the transgression of the law, which they are; and then through grace you’ve been freely forgiven:

• Does that mean now the law does no longer exist?
• Does that mean now you’re free to sin?
• Does that mean now you’re free to judge God?
• Does that mean now you can thumb your nose at God and cast away His Holy Sabbath?

No! Because then you would be living in sin and you would make Christ the minister of sin. Paul said, ‘God forbid! Christ is not the minister of sin.’

Verse 26: “...yes, to publicly declare His righteousness in the present time, that He might be just, and the one Who justified the one who is of the faith of Jesus. Therefore, where is boasting? It is excluded. Through what law? The law of works? By no means! Rather, it is through the law of faith” (vs 26-27). The law of faith is this:

• you believe in God
• you accept the sacrifice of Jesus Christ
• you repent of your sins
• you accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior
• you are baptized
• you receive the laying on hands for the Holy Spirit
• you have now been justified

Through constantly growing and overcoming and living in the state of grace that God has put you, also as we will see including commandment-keeping, you then come to God whenever you do sin, have those sins forgiven, and that is the state of grace in which you stand. That is justification. That can only come through belief in Christ.

All Sabbath keepers do not—let’s put it this way—most Sabbath-keepers do not believe that they are justifying themselves from their past sins by Sabbath-keeping. Sunday-keepers, however, believe that they are justifying themselves by keeping Sunday, because Sunday is not a commandment of God.

Verse 28: “Consequently, we reckon that a man is justified by faith, separate from works of law. Is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? YES! He is also God of the Gentiles, since it is indeed one God Who will justify the circumcision by faith, and the uncircumcision through faith…. [They’re both justified in the same way.] …Are we, then, abolishing law through faith?.... [And Protestants say, ‘Yes!’ God says, ‘No!’] ...MAY IT NEVER BE!.... [may it never, ever come that way, may you never, ever think this thought.] ...Rather, we are establishing law” (vs 28-31).

Now let’s understand how we establish the law. You establish the law because you’ve had your sins forgiven, you receive the Holy Spirit, and then the love of God is shed abroad in your hearts so you can keep the commandments of God from the heart. That’s how you establish the law. Just to do it in the letter does not establish the law. You have to have the inner desire to keep the commandments of God. So therefore, we can conclude, since a lot of Protestants—let’s just say all Protestants—who consider that they are under grace, they destroy the law, they don’t establish it; they reject the law, they don’t keep it. Quite a difference! God gives us forgiveness through grace so that you may love Him and serve Him and have a clean conscience and go forward. It does not do away with the commandments of God at all in any means. So you need to understand that.

Let’s look at some other things here; let’s understand one of the most important things; this is very important for you to grasp, because what we are dealing with here in the this book [Sunday Facts & Sabbath Fiction) are carnal minded, self-centered, humanistic point of view of looking at the laws of God. And as a matter of fact, what we are dealing with, we are dealing with the mystery of lawlessness, when you come to understand it. Now if you don’t have those sermons, you can write for them: What is the Mystery of Lawlessness? You need to know, if you keep Sunday, you are wholly wrapped up in the mystery of lawlessness.

Romans 8:7: “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God... [That means an enemy of God.] ...for it is not subject to the law of God; neither indeed can it be.” That’s why they have to get rid of it, so that they can justify their conscience themselves by saying, ‘We have grace,’ when they don’t, so that sin may abound, that ‘we can go ahead with doing out way, our own thing.’

Let’s come up here and let’s look at something very important here—talking about grace. Romans 6:1: “What then shall we say? Shall we continue in sin, so that grace may abound?” Now let me phrase this very clearly for you. What shall we say then, because we found ourselves sinners, we repent of our sins, we’ve had them forgiven through the righteousness of God and the blood of Christ. Now we stand before God pure and clean. What then, shall we sin? That is shall we break the Sabbath? Shall we break the Holy Days? Shall we commit idolatry that we can say grace will abound even more? What does Paul say?

“MAY IT NEVER BE!.... [These are lying and twisting arguments. Like Peter wrote of Paul’s things that he wrote, he said that Paul wrote some things, which are hard to be understood, that they which are unlearned, and that means ignorant of the Word of God, which these people are. They’re ignorant of the Word of God. They may be able to read it. They may be able to apply some of it, but they’re ignorant of it because they don’t understand it. Anyone who would claim that you could on in grace and continue in sin has got to have something greatly missing in their understanding of the Word of God. Why can you not read this verse here then see?] ...MAY IT NEVER BE! We do died to sin... [Which is what happens when you’re baptized and have been freely justified and forgiven.] ...We who died to sin, how shall we live any longer therein?” (v 2).

If you don’t keep the Sabbath, you’re living in sin. If you keep Sunday, you’re living in sin.

• God is the One Who defines the rules.
• God is the One Who defines the commandments.
• He is the One Who inspired John to write, ‘sin is the transgression of the law.’

The actual Greek means ‘sin is lawlessness.’ So if you have Sunday and keep it and you have Christmas and Easter and all the pagan holidays to go with it, you are lawless. You can reach back for the other commandments of God and claim you’re righteous, but you are lawless, because you have rejected the Word of God. You only want to keep part of it. We’re going to see some other things a little later on to really get these things straightened out here.

Here’s what happens when people do that. Let’s go to James 4. This becomes a very important principle that you need to understand, because what you’re doing when you come to the Bible and you say that God says when He doesn’t say; and you say that God doesn’t say when He does say, then what you are doing, you are judging God.

James 4:11: “Brethren, do not talk against one another. The one who talks against a brother, and judges his brother, is speaking against the law, and is judging the law....” That’s a very important thing.

• Have they not spoken evil of us who keep the Sabbath and Holy Days?
• Have they not judged us as unworthy of salvation?
• Have they not accused us of trying to seek salvation by works?
• Have they not said that we are trying to earn salvation?

O Yes!

• But who are they really judging when they say that?

“...But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law; rather, you are a judge…. [Now who are you judging? “But there is only one Lawgiver, Who has power to save and destroy. Who are you that you presume to judge another?” (vs 11-12).

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Track 2 Download

In other words we all have to be judged by the commandments of God—don’t we? Yes, we do! Now if you judge God, what are you doing? You are making yourself God. If you make yourself and your ideas, and your Sunday and your Christmas and your Easter, and all of these things, and you accept those, and you go before God and say, ‘God, we are delivered to do these things.’ And say, ‘God, we are thankful to be delivered from your Sabbath and Holy Days,’ you have judged God! Not only that, you have made yourself God, because you are saying what you have in these things is greater than what God has.

• God is perfect, is He not? Yes!
• God is holy, is He not? Yes!
• God is righteous, is He not? Yes!

Is there anything that God has ever done that is not right, even in destroying the wicked, even in bringing the flood upon the world that perished? Dare any man stand up and accuse God and say God was evil in doing so? Now if you do, then you put yourself in some very rare company.

Let’s go to the book of Job, chapter 40. I told you when we started we would come back to Job 40 quite often. I want you to understand a very profound principle that is: No man, regardless of how righteous he may appear, is going to judge God. If you judge the law, that is the Ten Commandments, any part of the law, then you’re judging God. Let me just interject here that everything that was changed in the New Covenant made everything a higher standard. It did not abolish the law, it gave a greater spiritual replacement for it.

We’ll understand that a little later as we go on through this whole series. But here Job considered himself so righteous; he wasn’t thankful to God that he was able to do all of these things. Everything he did was according to the laws of God, the commandments of God. He was considered in the flesh as perfect as can be. But in the spirit, is another total story. Even if, in the letter of the law, you keep all the commandments, then you must describe all of that to God, not to what you do. So Job thought that the trial he was going through was unfair, that God was unfair to him. He really wanted an umpire to come down and put his hand on the shoulder of Job and his hand on the shoulder of God, and to umpire the dispute of the opinion between the two. It even said another place, ‘Oh, that God would come down and talk to me, I would answer Him.’ Well, God did that.

Job 40:1: “And the LORD answered Job and said, ‘Shall he who contends with the Almighty instruct Him?.…” (vs 1-2).

• And is that not what they do when they replace the Sabbath with Sunday?
• Are you not instructing God?
• Are you not saying that you have something better than what God has given?

“...He who reproves God, let him answer it’” (v 2). And we just read some of these things about reproving God: the ‘Jewish’ Sabbath, justification by works, and all of those things. That’s not of God. We need to understand that. That’s reproving God. And especially the attitude, ‘Well, everything in the Old Testament has got to be done away with.’

• that’s reproving God
• that is judging God
• that is instructing God
• that’s arguing with God

Now Job was in no mood to argue any: “And Job answered the LORD and said, ‘Behold, I am vile!.... [That’s what we all need to come to. Here he began to see his true nature for what it really was. Though he kept all the laws and commandments of God, his nature by its own was vile. He could not be compared to God.] ...What shall I answer You? I will lay my hand on my mouth…. [In other words, he’s going to shut up. It’s about time, Job, it took 40 chapters to do it]: …Once I have spoken; but I will not answer; yea, twice, but I will proceed no further.’ And the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, ‘Gird up your loins now like a man. I will demand you, and you declare unto Me’” (vs 3-7).

• Christ is the One Who has come.
• Christ is the One Who spoke to men.
• Christ is the One Who inspired the New Testament.
• Christ is the One Who gave the direct command to keep the Sabbath and the Holy Days, right there in the New Testament.

No doubt about it! But men refuse to, because they have the same attitude as Job.

• Now’s the time to stand up!
• Now’s the time to gird up your loins!
• Now’s the time to listen to the Word of God!

—not twist it, not pervert it, not turn it to your own destruction, not handle it deceitfully as many do.

Verse 8: “‘Will you even annul My judgment?.… [Or we can say, ‘Will you disannul My law?’ Will you disannul anything of God? Shall a man go up to God and say, ‘God, I don’t like what You’re doing; You better quit that’? And if God said, ‘Oh, you’re right, I’ll stop’; then you become God, because you just told God what to do and He obeyed you and you disannulled His judgment.] ...Will you even annul My judgment? Will you condemn Me so that you may be righteous?.... [And that’s what men do concerning the Sabbath in holding on to Sunday. They condemn God that they can be righteous. Little do they realize that in creating a Sunday law, they are seeking justification by Sunday works. You just think on that awhile.] ...And have you an arm like God? Or can you thunder with a voice like His? Deck yourself now with majesty and excellency, and array yourself with glory and beauty....’” (vs 8-10).

Come on, let’s have all the Protestant ministers stand up and do this. Let’s have all the great evangelists in the world stand up and do this, make themselves magnificent, make themselves shine with spiritual glory. Let the pope stand up there and declare that as the vice-regent of Christ, he is a spirit being. Nonsense! No man, not even the pope is going to tell God what to do. God is God, we’re human beings. He’s going to tell us what to do.

“Cast abroad the rage of your wrath; and behold everyone who is proud, and abase him. Look on everyone who is proud, and bring him low; and tread down the wicked in their place. Hide them in the dust together; and bind their faces in darkness. Then I will also confess to you that your own right hand can save you’” (vs 11-14).

Now that’s quite a lesson for us; same way with all Sunday-keepers. God never commanded Sunday. God only commanded the Sabbath, as we have seen. So therefore, this is a great conflict. Then coming in and twisting and turning the Scriptures of God to try and justify something that a man has devised, is doing exactly like Job did here. So if you are right, stand up and make yourself a spirit being. Stand up and clothe yourself with majesty and glory. Stand up and prove that since you take upon you the prerogative of God—Who gave the Sabbath—that you now take the prerogative of God to declare the Sabbath void and Sunday is the day of worship. Let’s see your spiritual power.

On page 104 (Sunday Facts & Sabbath Fiction) he begins to explain their interpretation of Heb. 4:1-11.

This passage is widely misunderstood by Sabbatarians who feel it supports Sabbath-keeping.

He’s wrong! We will say, ‘No, it’s not widely misunderstood by Sabbatarians, but by Sunday-keepers.

In fact it does just the opposite.... [We’ll see he’s wrong.] …The passage in its entire context refutes the concept of returning to a Jewish works-based salvation.

Now please understand, how they denigrate, how they put down. Since they can’t give the right answer, they have to pin labels on people.

The Hebrew Christians were being influenced by legalists who tried to bring them back under bondage to Jewish laws and observance.

Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! The Hebrew Christians were Hellenistic Christians who were Greek speaking, composing of both Jews and Gentiles and they were going back into Gnosticism. That’s what they were going back into.

The epistle was written to combat that error and to remind Christians that we live in a Sabbath dispensation, that is a dispensation of grace.... [Wrong interpretation.] ...No one is saved by works.... [Right, we understand that.] ...not by offering sacrifices, nor by following strict dietary restrictions, laws, rules, regulations, and not by Sabbath observance.... [Wrong again!] ...This dispensation, faith in Christ, is our rest, our Sabbath, from all religious works.

Now stop and think on that! In other words, they say if you accept Christ you enter into a Sabbath with Christ, and others even say, ‘Since Christ kept the Sabbath, and you enter into this Christ, He kept it for you.’ Now understand something very clearly: God could not convict the world of sin, nor hold us accountable for sin, if Christ kept the commandments for us. Do you understand that? Now continuing. Then he quotes from the Living Bible.

Now let me tell you about the Living Bible. The Living Bible is one of the worst, absolutely pathetic translations of the New Testament. The man who did it didn’t even understand Greek enough to know what he was saying. He read into it all of the Protestant doctrines to justify Protestantism. Now I’m going to read it very quickly, so that we understand what he’s saying, and then we will go verse-by-verse through Hebrews 4:1-11. Then we’ll understand exactly what it’s saying and exactly what it means. Now I’ll just read it as quickly as I can.

“Although God’s promise still stands—His promise that we all may enter His place of rest—we ought to tremble with fear because some of you may be on the verge of failing to get there after all. For this wonderful news—the message that God wants to save us—has been given to us just as it was to those who lived in the time of Moses. But it didn’t do them any good because they didn’t believe it. They didn’t mix it with faith. For only we who believe in God, can enter into His place of rest. He has said, ‘I have sworn in My anger that those who don’t believe Me will never get in,’ even though He has been ready and waiting for them since the world began” (Heb. 4:1-3, Living Bible).

Now let’s continue on here reading this Living Bible translation. It’s almost blasphemous to read it, but I want to read it so that you understand exactly how they’ve twisted and turned and perverted God’s Word, and judged it and cast it aside.

“We know He is ready and waiting because it is written that God rested on the seventh day of creation, having finished all that He planned to make. Even so they didn’t get in, for God finally said, ‘They shall never enter My rest.’ Yet the promise remains and some get in—but not those who had the first chance, for they disobeyed God and failed to enter. But He has set another time for coming in, and that time is now. He announced this through King David long years after man’s first failure to enter, saying the words already quoted, ‘Today when you hear Him calling, do not harden your hearts against Him.’ This new place of rest He’s talking about does not mean the land of Israel that Joshua led them into. If that were what God meant, He would have not spoken long afterwards about ‘today’ being the time to get in. So there is a full complete rest stillwaiting for the people of God” (vs 4-9, LB).

Now that is a complete absolute mistranslation of the grossest kind in a very serious doctrinal point. You need to understand the truth, which we will get into in just a little bit.

“Christ has already entered there. He is resting from His work, just as God did from His creation. Let us do our best to enter into that rest, too, being careful not to disobey God as the children of Israel did, thus failing to get in” (vs 10-13, LB).

So there he even contradicts himself by saying that we should not disobey as the children of Israel disobeyed. So again, let me finish just a couple things here and we’ll have this input from the book done. Continuing now what Tardo wrote:

Again, the promised rest God refers to could not possibly be the observance of a seventh-day Sabbath... [Wrong! We’ll see that it is.] ...because the rest transcends a mere day and speaks of an entire dispensation of faith.... [Wrong interpretation!] ...in which men would find right standing with God, not by their works, but by simple trust in God.

If you keep the Sabbath, whose work is it?

• Who commanded the Sabbath? God did!
• Who said keep it holy? God did!
• Who said remember it? God did!

So therefore if you do it, it is a work of God that He has created that you are to walk in (Eph. 2:10). If you keep Sunday:

• Did God command it? No!
• Did God authorize it? No!
• Did God sanctify it? No!
• Did He keep it? No!

If you keep it, whose work is it then? It’s the work of men, it is your work, not the work of God.

Now then, he quotes here from Matthew Henry:

“It is certain that God after creating the world in six days entered into His rest and it is certain that Christ, when He finished the work of our redemption, entered into His rest. These were not only examples but earnest that the believers shall enter into their rest”.... [So he quotes here, Heb. 4:10.] ...‘For he that enters into his rest has also ceased from his works as God did from his.’”

So they make completely wrong conclusion saying that if you enter into the rest of God, then you don’t have any works to do at all. But if you enter into the rest as God entered into the rest, what did He do? He rested the seventh day! So if you rest, as God rested, you must keep the seventh day. Now continuing on the commentary of Matthew Henry:

“Every true believer has ceased from his own works of sin...

That is true, but is commandment-keeping sin? No! Commandment-keeping is righteousness. See how they twist and turn it?

...from relying on his own righteousness and from burdensome works of the law and God and Christ have ceased from their works of creating and redemption.”

Now this is a bunch of twisted reasoning by a man who is trying to justify Sunday-keeping, rather than seeking the truth of the Word of God.

“The Jews who scrupulously observe the seventh-day Sabbath still fail to enter into the real rest of God...”

That was because they rejected Christ, had nothing to do with Sabbath-keeping. Atheists reject God, too, in the same way and the scrupulously hold to their doctrines of atheism. Has nothing to do with the truth.

“...The true rest is that of faith in Christ and cessation from all external observances and works including the Sabbath.”

Which is a lie!

Let’s go to Ephesians 2 and let’s see what the Apostle Paul said. There are good works that we are to walk in. One of those is the Sabbath, the others are all the commandments of God as amplified by Jesus Christ, and the Holy Days. Ephesians 2:8: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this especially is not of your own selves; it is the gift of God.” Since Sunday is of yourselves and not the gift of God, keeping Sunday does not justify you at all. Keeping Sunday is living in sin and violating grace and saying, ‘Let’s sin, so that grace may abound.’ That is the mystery of lawlessness.

“Not of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto the good works... [Rather than works of sin. Christians are to have good works. What are those good works?] ...that God ordained beforehand in order that we might walk in them” (vs 9-10). That begins with the Ten Commandments. That begins with the whole amplification of the commandments of God throughout the New Testament, including the Sabbath, including the Holy Days. The Apostle Paul said concerning the Holy Days, ‘For Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the feast.’ A direct command to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread (1-Cor. 5:7-8).

I know what the next excuse would be, ‘Well, that’s only one place.’ The question is how many times does it take for God to make the point? Is not once sufficient? And if you don’t believe once, then you don’t believe God. We’re going to see the same thing applies to Heb. 4 and in keeping the Sabbath. He quotes another, he doesn’t give the quote who it was from here. Then he works in a little bit of the Talmud. We’ll bypass that one.

Obviously the rest for believers today is not a mere day, but an entire dispensation.... [Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!] ...It is not a practice, but a person, the Lord Jesus Christ.

But we just read that you’re created in Christ and you are to walk in good works. This contradicts it.

As Spurgeon once said, a great Protestant minister, “The change which our Lord has made in the Sabbath...”

Christ never made it, men have made it. Now we go from the authority of the Catholic Church to now then ‘the Lord changed it.’ He did not do it!

...is indicative of the change which He has made in our lives. The law says work six days and observe the seventh as the Sabbath, but under the gospel the arrangement is rest of the first day before you have done a stroke of work.”

Now where is that in the Bible? Where is that in the New Testament? This comes out of figment of the imagination of a man who wants to justify Sunday-keeping and to judge God, judge the law, and proclaim his own righteousness, disannul the judgment of God, declare himself righteous. I can hardly believe that! I’ll tell you what, you find any place in the New Testament where it says, ‘Rest on the first day before you’ve done a stroke of work.’

“Just as the week begins, take your rest and after that in the strength derived from it and from the grateful motives which arise out of that one blessed day of rest, give to the Lord the six days of the week. There is a change from the law to gospel indicated in that very change, so let it be with you.”

Now, that is blasphemous. I just want you to understand that. Because you see, they speak evil of the law. That’s what they’re doing here. None of that’s in the New Testament, but someone reading this book, never reading the New Testament, would assume that it’s there, because, after all, everybody keeps Sunday. Wrong! Not everybody keeps Sunday. We don’t!

Let’s go to Hebrews 4 and let’s look at this. Let’s understand this. Then we’re going to learn something from the Old Testament, because this refers right back to the Old Testament. Let’s understand something concerning the book of Hebrews here, which is this: The book of Hebrews was written to the Hellenistic Christians. Hellenistic means Greek-speaking Christians, being both Jews and Gentiles. They were slipping back into Gnosticism, and when I do the series on it I will show that in chapter six they were slipping into the Eucharist, rather than keeping the Passover. And yes, there were some Jews in Jerusalem who were then rejecting Christ, and going back to animal sacrifices instead of relying on the sacrifice of Christ. So that much there analysis is true.

But let’s understand something else. These Christians used the Septuagint Bible. Now I’ve got one here and I’m going to read out of it. I’m going to show you some things out of it. We will see that the very key verse—which is a direct command to keep the Sabbath—comes from the Greek that has been used in the Septuagint. Then we will analyze the Septuagint and we will see how these words are used and how they apply. We will be very surprised and I think be astounded as what it means to ‘enter into His rest,’ when we come to Gen. 2.

Please understand that they rebelled in the wilderness by going to worship the golden calf. That is sun worship, coming straight out of Egypt. Please understand they didn’t believe God. They rebelled many, many, many times, and so the last straw was when they were to go into the land and the twelve spies came back from spying out the land for forty days, that two of them Joshua and Caleb said, ‘It’s a good land. God will fight for us.’ Ten of them moaned and groaned and complained, and then the people cried all night, accusing God, just like Sunday-keepers do. Accusing God of being mean and nasty and evil and, ‘Oh, God, why didn’t you kill us in Egypt, why did you bring us out here in the wilderness? Oh, You’re going to kill all of our children. No, we don’t want to go into the land.’

God said, ‘All right, judgment is yours. You don’t want to go into the land, you accuse me of going to kill your children. Your children are going to go in and you’re going to wander in the wilderness for forty years, a year for a day.’ Then they said, ‘Oh, we’ve sinned, we’ll go.’ Moses said, ‘Don’t go.’ ‘We’ll go.’ Moses said, ‘Don’t go, you’ll be destroyed.’ They went and they were virtually destroyed. You cannot have it both ways. You cannot reject God and obey God.

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Track 3 or Download  

Do you understand that? So they didn’t go in. Hebrews 4:1: “Therefore, we should fear... [And we need to fear. That is Christian fear.] ...lest perhaps, a promise being open to enter into His rest... [This Greek word here is ‘katapausis’—which means place or abode of rest, which is the coming Kingdom of God when Christ returns. This is not a special rest that God gives through a so-called ‘dispensation of grace.’ Otherwise, they wouldn’t have to fear. They would have already been entered into it—correct? Yes!] ...any of you might seem to come short. For truly, we have had the Gospel preached to us, even as they also did; but the preaching of the word did not profit them because it was not mixed with faith in those who heard” (vs 1-2). The Gospel they received was not the same Gospel that we have. The Gospel they received was to enter into the ‘promised land.’ That was the good news. Come out of Egypt and go to the ‘promised land.’ Ours is to come out of the world and go into the Kingdom of God.

“For we who have believed, we ourselves are entering into the rest... [When do we enter into rest? Every Sabbath! This is ‘katapausis.’] ...as He has said, ‘So I swore in My wrath, “If they shall enter into My rest”’—although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.... [Meaning very clearly that even though the works were finished from the foundation of the world in the creation of time, in the creation of the Sabbath, that doesn’t mean that the Sabbath is now done away. That means it stands from the foundation of the world, not done away.] ...For He spoke in a certain place about the seventh day in this manner: ‘And God rested on the seventh day from all HIs works.’…. [Now we’ll analyze that in just a little bit.] …And again concerning this: ‘If they shall enter into My rest’—Consequently, since it remains for some to enter into it, and those who had previously heard the Gospel did not enter in because of disobedience” (vs 3-6).

Then eventually they entered into the land—didn’t they? Yes, the children entered into the land, but they make the mistake of making alliances with those that God said they should have killed and gotten rid of. So the rest that Joshua gave them was not complete and the rest that David gave the people when he passed on the kingdom of Israel to Solomon, his son, was not the complete rest of the Kingdom of God. That was only a type of it.

Verse 7: “Again He marks out a certain, ‘Today,’ saying in David... [Now He limited the seventh day. It just says so right up here, the seventh day.] ...after so long a time (exactly as it has been quoted above), ‘Today, if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.’” What voice of God do Sunday-keepers harden their heart against? Sabbath—don’t they? Did God speak the Sabbath? ‘Remember the Sabbath to keep it Holy.’ Did God give the Sabbath as a gift to the children of Israel? Yes! Did they listen to God when God said, ‘Don’t go out on the Sabbath day to gather manna’? No—some did. It’s very important to understand these things, and to understand the concept. ‘Katapausis’ means to rest, to recline, to abode, to settle.

Now we are to have rest from sin through Christ, but that is not replacing the Sabbath. That is a standing before God and has nothing to do with the day to be observed, because if you don’t observe the seventh day, you are living in sin. If you do observe Sunday, you are living in double sin, because you are not doing what God said and you are doing what God said not to do. Do you grasp that? I hope you do, because your understanding of the Word of God and your salvation is going to hinge on that.

Verse 8: “For if Joshua had given them rest... [Which he didn’t do.] ...He would not have spoken long afterwards of another day.” That is the primary meaning. You can also look at it this way: For if Jesus had not brought the Kingdom of God on earth when He was here, then He would not have spoken of another day. That day is pictured by the Sabbath. So in either case, whether it’s Joshua or whether it’s Jesus, you don’t have a complete plan.

• Is the Kingdom of God here? No!
• Is Christ the ruler over all the earth? No!
• Has Israel entered into its rest? No!
• Has the Church entered into its rest, that is being raised from the dead and entering into the Kingdom of God and being a spirit being? No!

So that is the ‘katapausis.’ That is the place of a rest or abode, not here yet.

Now notice, because it’s not here yet, let’s read v 9. First I’ll read it in the King James and then I’ll read it the way it should be translated and then we will analyze some of the Greek words and then we’ll go to the Septuagint and see how they’re used.

Verse 9 (KJV): “There remains therefore rest to the people of God.” Now this an unfortunate and very bad translation. The word ‘rest’ here comes from an entirely different Greek word than the rest of the rest, if we could put it that way. Rest comes from ‘katapausis.’ This in v 9 comes from ‘sabbatismos,’ and means Sabbath-keeping. Now if you have a King James Version of the Bible, you might find in the margin where it says, ‘a keeping of a Sabbath,’ but that’s not correct. It is literally ‘Sabbath-keeping for the people of God.’ Now we’ll go through and we’ll analyze all of this. We’ll answer the question, who are the people of God? A lot of people will say, ‘Yeah, that’s for the Jews all right. Yes, there remains Sabbath-keeping for the Jews.’ No, the people of God are Jews and Gentiles.

Verse 10: “For the one who has entered into His rest... [Which is Sabbath-keeping. This means resting from your work as God rested from His work. This comes from the Greek word ‘katapauo,’ the verb, you’re resting.] ...he also has ceased... [‘katapauo’] ...from his works, just as God did from His own works.” That means you cease from your own labor during the week. That also means you cease from doing your own works for your own salvation. That part is true, but this is ceasing from your own works so you can enter into the weekly Sabbath rest.

Verse 11: “We should be diligent [labor (KJV)] therefore... [How do you labor? Six days a week.] ...to enter into that rest... [keeping the Sabbath] ...lest anyone fall after the same example of disobedience [unbelief (KJV)].” That’s what people do. All those who keep Sunday have fallen in unbelief, because they don’t believe God. Now let’s also apply this to the Millennium. “Let us labor, therefore, to enter into that rest” (KJV). You don’t rest in a dispensation of rest to enter into rest. You labor with Christian works. Labor six days a week and keep the Sabbath. You labor with Christian works that God has given for us to do including the seventh-day Sabbath-keeping so that you may enter into the Kingdom of God.

No one’s going to enter into the Kingdom of God if they’re not keeping the commandments of God. Let’s clear that up and make it absolutely clear. Revelation 22:14: “Blessed are those who keep [do]... [The Greek there is ‘poieo’—which means practice His commandments.] ...that they may have the right to eat of the tree of life, and may enter by the gates into the city.” If you’re not keeping the commandments of God, you won’t be able to eat of the tree of life and you won’t be able to enter into the Kingdom of God and enter into the city of New Jerusalem. You think on that!

That’s why we are to labor to enter into that rest, weekly on the Sabbath, and we are to labor with Christian works to enter into that rest, the Kingdom of God. Now notice, Hebrews 4:12, for if you don’t: “For the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of both soul and spirit, and of both the joints and the marrow, and is able to discern [judge] the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is not a created thing that is not manifest in His sight; but all things are naked and laid bare before the eyes of Him to Whom we must give account” (vs 12-13).

So that means God knows all of these silly little arguments and vain little rebellions against God. They’re not vain little rebellions, they’re great, huge, gargantuan rebellions and stupid arguments of men who twist and turn, who apply the Word of God carnally, who accuse God of lying, who accuse God of giving the ‘Jewish’ Sabbath as punishment. Let’s dispel all of that.

Now we’re going to take a look at some of the words we need to analyze here in Heb. 4, and also then we’ll get into the Septuagint and see how they are applied in the Greek Old Testament and see how that word ‘sabbatismos’ comes directly from the words used in the Old Testament.

Here are some words that we are going to look at. I’m going to show you the English and the Greek and I am going to show you the meaning of them. Then we’ll look at some of the Scriptures in the Old Testament, in the Septuagint, and see how they’re used. It’s called the Sabbath and the Rest. That’s what we are talking about in Heb. 4.

1.      The Sabbath

‘ho sabbaton’—singular—the Sabbath. Now here is plural, ‘ta sabbata.’ Now I want you to see there’s an ‘a’ at the end—‘ta’—this is the definite article ‘the’ in the Greek and the word also ends in ‘a’ at this end. That’s how we can distinguish between singular and plural. ‘Ho sabbaton’ and ‘ta sabbata’—the Sabbath, plural.

Then we have to ‘sabbathize,’ or to keep the Sabbath. Here’s the verb, ‘sabbatismos.’ Notice that it is a take-off of the noun, but now it is into a verb, ‘sabbatismos,’ which is the root verb, ‘to sabbathize.’

Now here’s another form of the verb, which is called the infinitive, which is ‘sabbatizene.’ Here is another one here, which then is the imperative second-person plural, which is ‘sabbatiz-ete.’ We’ll see that very important when we come to Leviticus 23.

Now let’s go to the next page here and let’s look at some other things. We have right here the word that is found Hebrews 4, ‘sabbatismos,’ which means this is gerund equaling an ‘ing’ noun, meaning Sabbath-keeping. Not keeping of ‘a’ Sabbath, but Sabbath-keeping, meaning that you apply that to all Sabbaths.

Here is the second-person singular, ‘sabbatezee,’ we’ll see that. Here is the aorist third person plural, which we will find in Exo. 16, right here. Sabbatiso, which then we have it here. This is the aorist, ‘sabbatisen,’ meaning this is past tense. We will see that this word is used for ‘rested,’ back in Exo. 16.

2.      The rest

The other word ‘the rest.’ The Greek is ‘katapausis.’ The way it’s used, the ‘s’ is changed to an ‘n’ when it’s used there in Heb. 4, but that doesn’t change it. This means resting place. This is defining the noun of rest. ‘To rest,’ when it’s used with the verb of ‘katapauo,’ which is to rest, to stop, to put to an end, to cease, to give rest to, or give rest from, to settle, to repose. Now all of those things have to do—and we will see where God ‘katapausee,’

3.      To keep

This is the last word we’re going to look at, which is ‘phulasso—means to keep, to observe, to watch, to guard, to preserve, to maintain, to watch over. This is the verb which is used for ‘remember the Sabbath to keep it Holy.’ All of those things can apply to keeping the Sabbath and that’s what Israel was to do with the Sabbath. That command is much more than just observing.

Now I’m going to be reading from the English of the Septuagint and I’ll refer to the Greek here. This is important to understand, because we will use some of the very words that I just covered.

Genesis 2:1: “And God finished on the sixth day His words which He made….

That’s the way it should be translated from the Hebrew.

And He ceased on the seventh day from all His work which He made. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because in it He ceased from all His work which God began to do”

Let’s analyze a couple of the Greek words here. The word for cease comes from the Greek word ‘katapauo.’ It is actually here that God ‘katapausis,’ He rested, He ceased from His works. So when it talks about ‘katapausis,’ back there in Heb. 4, to enter into his rest as God entered into His. How did God enter into His rest? He entered into by ceasing working. Same thing we are commanded to do.

Six days shall you work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord Holy.

So here God blessed it, and undoubtedly kept the Sabbath with Adam and Eve. So here we have the Greek word ‘katapauo,’ the verb and we also have the noun ‘katapausis,’ right there. So when Paul is writing to the Hellenistic Jews, or the Greek-speaking Jews, this is the Bible that they had. This is where they would go to, to understand what Paul was writing about. So there it is right there. This does not give any authority or any license to do away with any of the commandment-keeping at all.

Let’s look at some others. Let’s come Exodus 16:23: “And he [Moses] said to them ‘This is that which the LORD has said, “Tomorrow is the rest of the Holy Sabbath to the LORD... [‘ho sabbata.’ In some places in the Septuagint they use the plural for the singular.] ...Bake what you will bake today, and boil what you will boil. And that which remains over, lay up for yourselves to be kept until the next morning.”’ And they laid it up until the next morning as Moses said. And it did not stink; neither was there any worm in it. And Moses said, ‘Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath to the LORD.... [There we have it, ‘sabbaton.’] ...Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, in it there shall be none’” (vs 23-26).

“And it came to pass that some of the people went out on the seventh day in order to gather, but they did not find any. And the LORD said to Moses, ‘How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My law? See, because the LORD has given you the Sabbath...” (vs 27-29). Let’s understand something about the Sabbath. Not only is it a law, but it is a gift. And all the laws of God are a gift. God gave the Ten Commandments—did He not? Yes! God gave the Sabbath Day; it is a gift. Whatever God gives, He gives from His grace. You need to grasp that and understand it.

Verse 29: “‘See, because the LORD has given you the Sabbath, therefore He gives you the bread of two days on the sixth day. Let each one stay in his place. Do not let any one go out of his place on the seventh day.’ So the people rested [kept the Sabbath] on the seventh day” (vs 29-30). The Septuagint says, ‘The people kept the Sabbath on the seventh day.’ Now keeping the Sabbath on the seventh day here is the aorist form of ‘Sabbatiso,’ which is ‘sabbatizene.’ That’s what that means ‘kept the Sabbath.’ In the King James it says ‘they rested on the seventh day,’ but here this means that they ‘sabbathized,’ the people sabbathized on the seventh day.

Now let’s go to Exodus 31. We’ve already covered this, but I want to cover it from this point of view, and show you the words that are used here and what God means with it. And here we’re dealing with the plural Sabbath. Let’s come to Exodus 31:13: “‘Speak also to the children of Israel, saying, “Truly you shall keep My Sabbaths... [Now this term here is ‘phulasso,’ which is very strong. You are to keep, you are to guard, you are to maintain, you are to preserve. They are to ‘keep’ the Sabbath. In this case plural, ‘ta sabbata.’ So we have it right there, This becomes very important. We’ll see this especially when we come to Lev. 23, because it’s going to really be an eye opener for you to understand that.] ...for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations to know that I am the LORD Who sanctifies you.’”

In other words, you don’t know the Lord if you don’t keep the Sabbath, and you don’t know that it is God that sanctifies you unless you do. He’s the One Who did it. Verse 14: “You shall keep the Sabbath... [Septuagint is Sabbaths, plural. All the way through here it is plural in the Greek. And again ‘phulasso,’ you shall keep, maintain, preserve, guard, watch over.] ...for it is Holy to you. Everyone that defiles it shall surely be put to death, for whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days may work be done, but on the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest, Holy to the LORD...’” (vs 14-15). The ‘Holy rest to the Lord’ here becomes very important, a Godly rest. And that is ‘sabbata anapausis.’ Now there we have a type of the word ‘katapausin’—‘anapausis.’ So you see, it is a rest. So if you enter into His rest, you enter into keeping the Sabbath. If you enter into the ultimate rest of the Kingdom of God, you enter into the Kingdom of God.

“‘Therefore, the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested, and was refreshed’” (vs 16-17). Septuagint says ‘ceased and rested.’ Ceased, ‘katapausee,’ and rested. There we have it, have it right there, very clear.

Let’s go to Leviticus 23 and here is a very profound Scripture. Here is something that we need to understand concerning the Sabbath and this ties right in with Heb. 4:9, because the wording here, it uses ‘Sabbatiso,’ very clearly in the form that applies as we saw for the second-person plural.

Now this is Leviticus 23:32_{[transcriber’s correction]}—this has to do with the Day of Atonement: “‘It shall be to you a Sabbath of rest... [the Day of Atonement] ...and you shall afflict yourselves. In the ninth day of the month at sunset, from sunset to sunset, you shall keep your Sabbath.’” Now let’s understand something very important here. From Sabbath to Sabbath is this in the Greek: ‘sabbatiz-ete,’ which then is the verb ‘to sabbathize.’ ‘Ta sabbata,’ which then is plural. So He’s saying here, ‘All of the Sabbath you sabbathize,’ from what? From evening to evening! That’s a little bit different than the King James Version, but it brings out something very important. That’s why when Paul wrote to those who were the Hellenistic Greek-speaking Christians, called Hebrews, when he used ‘sabbatismos,’ they knew because they had the Greek Old Testament, the Septuagint, that it was referring right back here to Leviticus 23:32. The verb ‘sabbathize ete,’

So when Paul says ‘sabbatismos’—‘there remains Sabbath-keeping to the people of God.’ That becomes very, very clear. What we’re find here is this: Heb. 4:9 is a direct commandment in the New Testament to keep the Sabbath. You cannot have any stronger language than, ‘therefore, there remains Sabbath-keeping to the people of God.’ That is so clear. Now we’ll analyze that a little bit more when we get back there and understand how profound that is. But we’re dealing with the Greek Old Testament, with Greek-speaking Christians, and this is what they would read.

So ‘sabbatismos’ is the gerund, the noun ‘ing’ word which is Sabbath-keeping, and it is a direct takeoff from Leviticus 23:32, where it is here ‘sabbatezee ete.’ ‘Sabbatezee ete ta sabbata humon’—meaning keeping your Sabbath.

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Track 4 or Download  

Now let’s go to the book of Ezekiel and we’re going to find the book of Ezekiel is very strong and it backs up entirely what God said there, where we read it when we went through it in the King James. But let’s go here Ezekiel 20:7: “Then I said to them, ‘Let each man throw away the abominations of his eyes, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.’” When it talks about Egypt, I want you to put in your notes Rev. 11:8, because it talks about Sodom and Egypt, the city where our Lord was crucified, referring to Jerusalem. Because Jerusalem and the Jews, and later the Hellenistic Christians and the Gnostic Christians, brought every abomination of Egypt and brought it right into the so-called Christian church. They didn’t do it:

“But they rebelled against Me and would not hearken to Me. They did not each man throw away the abominations of their eyes, nor did they forsake the idols of Egypt. And I said, “I will pour out My fury against them to fulfill My anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt…. [That was before they even left.] …But I worked for My name’s sake, that it should not be profaned before the heathen among whom they were, for I made Myself known to them in their eyes, by bringing them out of the land of Egypt.... [That is by all the signs, by all the wonders, by what Moses did. He was made known.] ...And I caused them to go out from the land of Egypt, and brought them into the wilderness. And I gave them My statutes and showed them My ordinances, which if a man do, he shall even live in them.... [God expected them to live in them, just like He expects us to do today.] ...And also I gave them my Sabbaths to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD who sanctifies them. But the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness; they did not walk in My statutes, and they despised My ordinances, which if a man does, he shall even live in them. And they greatly polluted [grievously profaned] My Sabbaths....” (vs 8-13).

Not just broke them a little bit, but ‘grievously profaned’ them (Septuagint). What does it mean to profane the Sabbath? That means to work on it, to labor on it, to trade on it, to disregard it. And as we saw previously, the children of Israel were carried into captivity because of Baal worship, which is Sunday worship. They went right to the temple of God and said, ‘We’re delivered to do all of these things.’ Just exactly like the Protestants and Catholics today. No different! They are profaning the Sabbath of God. You look at any Saturday, and you see what the world does to it. You see how they profane it. Very few are keeping the Sabbath of God. That’s why God is delighting in those who keep His Sabbath, that love Him, keep His commandments. ‘Grievously profane My Sabbaths.’

“And I said, ‘I will pour out My fury on them in the wilderness to destroy them.’ But I worked for My name’s sake, so that it should not be profaned before the heathen in whose sight I brought them out. And also I lifted up My hand to them in the wilderness, and swore that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them... [They did not enter into the rest, because they rebelled, because they sinned, because they broke the Sabbath, because they rejected the commandments of God.] ...flowing with milk and honey, the glory of all lands—because they despised My judgments and walked not in My statutes; and they polluted My Sabbaths; for their heart went after their idols. Nevertheless My eye spared them—from destroying them; nor did I make an end of them in the wilderness” (vs 13-17).

Boy, I tell you, this is something! This is real strong! Brethren, you need to understand this. Please grasp what we’re dealing with here concerning the Sabbath. This is not just to be taken lightly, this is a matter of truth and error, it’s a matter of life and death, it’s a matter of salvation or the Lake of Fire. We need to understand that.

“But I said to their children in the wilderness, ‘Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers, nor observe their judgments, nor defile yourselves with their idols. I am the LORD your God. Walk in My statutes, and keep My ordinances, and do them, And keep My Sabbaths Holy... [Now where it is ‘to keep’ it is ‘phulasso’ all the way through—to keep, to keep, to keep. They didn’t do them.] ...But the children rebelled again Me. They did not walk in My statutes, nor keep My ordinances to do them—the ordinances which, if a man do, he shall even live in them. And they polluted My Sabbaths, and I said, I would pour out My fury on them, to fulfill My anger against them in the wilderness. Nevertheless I withdrew My hand and worked for My name’s sake, that it would not be polluted in the eyes of the heathen, in whose eyes I brought them out. I also lifted up My hand to them in the wilderness, swearing that I would scatter them among the heathen and scattered them through the lands, because they had not done My ordinances, but had despised My statutes and had polluted My Sabbaths, and their eyes were after their fathers’ idols’” (vs 18-24).

So then what did God do? He turned them over to their own devices, called ordinances, which were not good; judgments, which were not good. In other words, God said, ‘If you want it, you shall have it, and you will destroy yourself!’ That was the punishment that God gave to them. Same thing today, if you want Sunday, you’ve got it, but you’re going to destroy yourself. Stop and think: Look at this nation that we have today in the United States, and we are a country that is more religious than any other country, have more Bibles than any other country, have more churches than any other country. But what do we have? Because you go after your own ordinances of Sunday, Christmas, and Easter, and all the abominations, which God said not to do, what has happened? Look at our society!

• Are we polluting ourselves
• Are we profaning ourselves
• Are we destroying ourselves, and our children, and the whole society? Yes!
• And is not God going to bring judgment upon us for that? No question about it! It’s coming!

God’s judgment is not only coming, it is fierce wrath, but it is also upon us because as we continue to live in sin, we reap the harvest of sin with all of the penalty. And ‘the wages of sin is death.’ That’s what this society has wrought, because they have done exactly as the children of Israel did in the wilderness, being the parents or the children.

Let’s look at Hebrews 4:9 again, and let’s understand something here. Who are the people of God? I know there will be some who will say, ‘Well, that’s for the Hebrews.’ But it doesn’t say, ‘there remains therefore, Sabbath-keeping to the Jews.’ It doesn’t say, ‘there remains therefore, Sabbath-keeping to the Hebrews.’ It says, v 9: “There remains, therefore, Sabbath-keeping [Sabbatismos] for the people of God.” Who are the people of God? Not just the children of Israel, not just the Jews, the people of God.

Let’s come to Romans 9:23 and we’re going to see that that includes the Gentiles. “In order that He might make known the riches of His glory unto the vessels of mercy.... [That’s us!] ...which He prepared before for glory. Those of us whom He also called, not from among the Jews only, but also from among the Gentiles?…. [The people of God include the Gentiles!] …Accordingly, He also said in Hosea, ‘I will call those who are not My people, “My people,” and those who were not beloved, “Beloved.” And it shall be, in the place where it was said to them, “You are not My people,” there they shall be called the sons of the living God.’ But Isaiah cried out concerning Israel, ‘Although the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved. For He is accomplishing and limiting the matter in righteousness... [That is, have a limited time.] ...because the Lord will limit the matter He is doing upon the earth’” (vs 23-28). That’s why today it is small. That’s why today it is the few. It is limited.

“Accordingly, Isaiah also said before, ‘Unless the Lord of hosts had left us a seed, we would have become as Sodom, and we would have been made like Gomorrah.’ What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not follow after righteousness, have attained righteousness, even the righteousness that is by faith” (vs 29-30). So it includes Jews and Gentiles.

Now let’s come here to 1-Peter 2 and let’s see then Peter in writing to the people, which were actually some of them used to be in Paul’s territory, so this is apparently after Paul was martyred, he writes a letter and hear what he says. 1-Peter 2:9: “But you are a chosen stock, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for a possession of God, that you might proclaim His excellent virtues, Who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; Who once were not a people, but now are the people of God... [including Gentiles] ...who had not received mercy, but now have received mercy” (vs 9-10). So the people of God include all of those that have the Holy Spirit of God.

Now let’s go back to 2-Corinthians 6, and let’s see where it also includes the Gentiles. This is important, because you see, what we’re doing, we’re showing and establishing very clearly where it says, ‘Therefore, there remains Sabbath-keeping for the people of God’—that includes Jews and Gentiles. This means the sneered remarks of ‘Jewish’ Sabbath, can be completely set aside. They don’t even comprehend the Word of God. And the things that are written in this book by Tardo are very shallow indeed and shows his lack of understanding of the Scriptures.

2-Corinthians 6:14: “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers....” Now let’s apply that to the Sabbath. If you believe in the Sabbath, why do you go to church on Sunday? They are unbelievers in the Sabbath! They may have a profession of Christ, but they don’t believe Christ. Why? Christ said, ‘The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.’ Again, ‘anthropos,’ meaning human beings. That’s why God made it. ‘Therefore, the Son of man is also Lord of the Sabbath Day.’ He will tell us what to do. That is His day, so if you go to church on Sunday, then you are walking lock-step, arm-in-arm with unbelievers, because they don’t believe Christ. They may profess Him, but they have a different Christ. They have a different gospel.

“...For what do righteousness and lawlessness have in common?.... [And Sunday-keeping is unrighteous, it’s not of God! God never declared it.] ...And what fellowship does light have with darkness? And what union does Christ have with Belial? Or what part does a believer have with an unbeliever? And what agreement is there between a temple of God and idols?” (vs 14-16).

You take a look at any church that has idols in it and you know it’s not from God. God never sent them. You want to know about the Vatican, go look at all the idols that they have in there. Some Catholics say, ‘Well, those aren’t idols.’ Those are idols! God said in the second commandment, which the Catholics remove, ‘You shall not make unto yourself any graven image of anything that is in heaven above, that’s in the earth beneath, or that’s in the water under the earth. And you shall not bow yourselves down to serve them and worship them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.’

So if you have idols, and you have Sunday-keeping, you hate God. Let that sink in! A lot of people go to church and say, ‘Know the Lord, love the Lord.’ They don’t love God because they don’t keep His commandments. The Apostle John wrote, ‘And this is the love of God that we keep His commandments and His commandments are not burdensome.’ And yet Protestants and Catholics say that Sabbath-keeping is a burden. No it’s not! Sabbath-keeping is a blessing!

Now the truth is the real temple of God are those who have the Spirit of God. And if you have the Spirit of God, what agreement do you have with idols? That’s what Paul is saying here. He says: “For you are a temple of the living God, exactly as God said: ‘I will dwell in them and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.... [Jews and Gentiles. Now that’s profound to understand. ‘Therefore, there remains Sabbath-keeping for the people of God.’ Do you understand that? Sunday has nothing to do with Christianity. It is a false Christ, it is a false gospel, it is a substitute for the true Sabbath of God and is a work and invention of the devices of men which goes clear back to Egypt, because they worshiped the sun on Sunday.] ...Therefore, come out from the midst of them and be separate,’ says the Lord...” (vs 16-17).

If you keep Sunday:

• Are you willing to come out from it?
• Are you willing to leave it?
• Are you willing to forsake it? Are you willing to repent of it?
• Are you willing to come to understand the self-righteousness involved in doing it?
• Are you willing to see that it’s your own works in what you are doing?
• What is it?

The only way you’re going to please God is if you love Him with your whole heart, ‘all your heart and mind and soul and being’ and if you keep His commandments, and do His works and keep His laws, and live His way, not some way that you think devised out of your own heart or some way that another man has thought and devised out of his own heart. ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God shall man live.’

Are you willing to live that way? Are you willing to believe the Scripture, which says, ‘Therefore there remains Sabbath-keeping for the people of God’? If you are, then you need to turn your life around, and you need to repent to God for all of your Sunday-keeping and all the vile abominations of the self-righteousness that goes with it. And you need to turn to God with weeping and with fasting and with mourning, and turn from those abominations. Oh, they look so good in the eyes of people. Oh, they can have great choirs. Oh, they can give great sermons, all this sort of thing, and make you feel good. Like one woman I talked to. She said, ‘Well, I go to church once in awhile, so that I feel good. I get all fuzzy and warm.’

I talked to another man. He knows about the Sabbath, he knows that it’s in the Bible. He knows that’s the day that God commanded, but he still goes to church on Sunday and he says, ‘Well, God knows my heart.’ Yes, God does! that ‘the heart is deceitful above everything and desperately wicked.’ And ‘out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts and murders and adulteries,’ and all of those things. Your heart cannot be right, because you think it’s good. Your heart can only be right because Christ makes it so, through repentance and baptism and the true receiving of the Holy Spirit of God.

If you have a conversion based upon the little prayer that the Protestants give that you open your heart and let the Lord come in, you have been lied to and fooled. You do not have Christ. You do not have the real Christ. You may profess Him, but in order to really be Christ’s, you’ve got to not only repent and be baptized and receive the Holy Spirit, but

• you’ve got to walk in the way of the Lord
• you’ve got to keep the commandments of God
• you’ve got to keep the Sabbath

because in the New Testament there is a direct command which says, ‘Therefore there remains Sabbath-keeping for the people of God.’ That is a command of God.

Now the other question that I have here is this: Since these men who profess Sunday-keeping saying that there is no direct command in the New Testament to keep the Sabbath, now that you know that that is a lie, that there is a direct commandment, and if these men knew that this was a direct commandment, would they yet keep Sabbath or would they cling to their Sunday? I say, that in their rebellion, they would keep their own Sunday. Very few might come to real repentance to keep the Sabbath. So that dispels #3 and #19: there is no direct command in the New Testament for keeping the Sabbath.

It gives you the truth concerning ‘sabbatismos,’ and ‘katapausin,’ and the ‘rest’ of God and keeping the Sabbath. So what you need to do is what the Apostle Paul said, ‘Let us labor six days a week to enter into that rest,’ that is the Sabbath, so that you can be fed the true Word of God.

What will you do?

Will you obey God or obey man?

Scriptures from The Holy Bible In Its Original Order by Fred R. Coulter (except where noted)

Scriptural References:

1. Romans 3:19-31
2. Romans 8:7
3. Romans 6:1-2
4. James 4:11-12
5. Job 40:1-14
6. Ephesians 2:8-10
7. Hebrews 4:1-11
8. Revelation 22:14
9. Hebrews 4:12-13
10. Genesis 2:1-3
11. Exodus 16:23-30
12. Exodus 31:13-17
13. Leviticus 23:32
14. Ezekiel 20:7-24
15. Hebrews 4:9
16. Romans 9:23-30
17. 1-Peter 2:9-10
18. 2-Corinthians 6:14-17

Scriptures referenced, not quoted:

• Ephesians 2:10
• 1-Corinthians 5:7-8
• Revelation 11:8

Also referenced:

• Sermon: Which Came First—The Day or the Sacrifices?

Sermon Series:

• Romans
• What is the Mystery of Lawlessness?

Book: Sunday Facts & Sabbath Fiction: 25 Reasons Why Christians Keep Sunday by Dr. Russell K. Tardo