Genesis chapter 2. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them and on the seventh day Okay, that's not gonna work. I'll just do this I know the seventh day God ended his work which he had made and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made and God blessed the seventh day and Sanctified it because in because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made so that's what God did on that day so everybody said Amen, so it's a very special day the seventh day was wasn't it Saints and so he did some special things I want to bring this out before I go too much further just to give you a Thought an encouraging thought about creation that you can use to talk to those those of your friends or acquaintances, people you come across that don't believe in God, don't believe in creation, things of that nature. You know, one of the most awesome truths in my, this is my opinion only, about creation was that God was the one who established the seven-day week. He did it from the beginning, and so he had the first day through the seventh day, and the seven day week has been the plan of God or the way of God since the beginning. And there's been several efforts over the centuries to try to Change that because number one of trying to deny the existence of God or to take something away from From Bible believers and things of that nature for instance the Romans during the Roman Empire They tried to implement a nine-day week a nine-day week. And then the Soviet Union, more recently, they tried this, did a ten-day week. The communists there, they knew the communism that the Soviets practiced was an atheistic communism. It really was. So the Romans tried a nine-day week, the Soviets tried a ten-day week, and the French, during the French Revolution, tried to eliminate Sunday. Tried to eliminate Sunday. But here we are. 2024 and we're still all observing all of us whether you're a believer or not a seven-day week Sunday through Saturday and insights, you know And so it has not changed even though men have tried to change it and empires try to change it You cannot change the plan of God. You cannot derail the plan or the move of God candy Saints Still observing that seven-day week that God put into motion when he spoke the universe into existence And God established that six days of work and then one day of rest. That was the mind of God. That was the heart of God. We know that God created man with the ability to work. Even Adam, before the curse, had a, quote, a job to do in the garden of Eden. He kept or dressed the garden, the Bible says, and so he had a job to do. God created man with the ability to work. But God also knows this, that man is gonna need time to rest from his or her work. I don't know, I've met many people over the years that their spouse or their friend or their family would refer to that person as a workaholic. How many of you would fall in that category of a workaholic? Have a hard time taking a day off? Amen. I see some finger pointing over there. I'm not going to mention any names. All right. But anyway, you have a hard time resting or taking time to rest. But God created man to work, but also knows that man needs to rest from time to time. There's six days for work. 6 days for work and then 1 day for rest. 6 days for work and then 1 day for rest. Even how God created the universe, there was 6 days of work and 1 day of rest. Not because God was tired. but because God wanted to look at what he had made and to enjoy what he had made. I like this thought. I was reading through this, and I'm only to chapter four as far as my outlining goes, but I was thinking about this thought and how important it is in the 21st century, the way things are done and the mindset, the work ethic or the lack of work ethic that we see. God gave Adam a job before he gave Adam a wife. Amen. So I think to the ladies who are not yet married or who are thinking about that or whatever the case may be, make sure the guy could work. Amen. It has a has a heart and a mind to work because the things that we're seeing in 2024 when it comes to the work ethic is I think it's really, really sad and talks about a lot of makes a commentary of how bad off our society is getting. Don't you agree? But the seventh day, God does some really different things, some really interesting things. And so I'm going to just take you through and just show you some key words or phrases or actions that God had done. Remember, in chapter one, only God is mentioned. You know, God is the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, the only one who's acting in chapter one about creation. And then he's still doing it here in chapter 2. Only God is mentioned. We're not introduced to anybody else yet. Adam isn't officially on the scene. Only the talk or the narrative of his creation is on the scene so far. And so he's not even on the scene yet. So all of these actions or all of these verbs... that we're looking at all have to do with God doing something different or something special. I would say there's something extraordinary on the seventh day. He does all kinds of different things. And so, number one, he finished the work that he had started. It says in there, verse number one, thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them. Everything that had to be made was now made. Then he ended his work on the seventh day. And on the seventh day, God ended his work, and then it talked about the word made. And it's three times here in these three verses. Ended the work which he had made, and rested on the seventh day from all the work which he had made. And in the last word of verse three, God created and made and so God talked about the things that he had finished the things that he had ended and then God Rested he rested on the seventh day from all his work Which he had made and then this is really interesting God blessed the seventh day He blessed the seventh day if you go back and read the the account of creation and chapter 1 God only blessed animal life and he blessed human life he blessed animals or the Creatures that he created and he blessed Mankind that's it. He didn't bless the Sun the moon and the stars. He didn't bless the day and the night he didn't bless the heaven or the firmament or the the the dry ground, or the seas, or the rivers, whatever the case may be. But He blessed the living things, and then on the seventh day, He blessed the seventh day. He blessed the seventh day, and then He also sanctified the seventh day. So I want you to get the sense here that God finds the seventh day to be a very special day. A very special day. The seventh day is a very special day. And that's the only day that he blessed. It's the only day that he sanctified. And it's also interesting, I think it is anyway, that the seventh day is mentioned three times and the other days aren't mentioned like that at all. It's the evening, the morning, or the first day, and on and on and on. So the seventh day is mentioned three times here in this text. And so again, we're seeing a lot of emphasis and a lot of important thought About this seventh day. He got everything done in six days. That's pretty amazing, isn't it? But it's God He got everything done in six days and on the seventh day. He was able to rest from his work He finished everything that he wanted to get done. Everything was absolutely done and so he was able to just kind of step back and what he's that visual step back and and just take in everything that he had created. He had already determined in chapter 1, the last verse, that everything was not just good but it was very good. And so now there was nothing else for God to do as far as the creation of the universe is concerned. There was nothing else for God to do but to enjoy it, Just to look it over and just see what he had done and it was it was perfectly finished again He's the one who declared that it was very good. We can call it very good But that doesn't hold as much water as when God says something is very good and when God says something is very good It's a lot better than our very good Amen. So he's looking at this, he's enjoying it, he's examining it, all of these different things. You know, the first thought that I wanted to bring to your heart tonight was this, is that God always finishes what he starts. He always finishes what He starts. That's what it says in verse number one. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. God always finishes what He starts. I mean, what would it have been like if God would have said, let there be light, and then nothing else? There would have been God and light and nothing else. But God didn't just stop at let there be light, did he, saints? He had a night and a day. He had a great light to rule the day and a lesser light to rule the night. He had the animals, the fowls, the skies, the heavens, all those different things created. He populated all of those things. And then He created mankind on the sixth day. So He didn't stop. was just let there be light. He absolutely finished what He started, and now He is resting on the seventh day. How about the redemptive work of God? When He started that all into motion? We'll look at that when we get to the chapter when we have the curse and we see this promise, the first gospel promise in Genesis. But when Jesus walked the earth in John 5, verse 17, Jesus had this to say about God the Father. But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. And what that was talking about was the redemptive plan of God. It wasn't going to stop. It wasn't going to be derailed. It wasn't going to be delayed. He was going to finish the work. And we know the words of Christ on Calvary's cross. When Jesus, therefore, had received the vinegar, he said, it is what? It is finished. He went all the way to Calvary's cross for you. He went all the way to Calvary's cross for me. He went all the way to Calvary's cross for anybody who would believe in Him and accept the free gift of His grace and salvation. And then saints. And so He finishes what He starts and then of course He was resurrected, right? And that just kind of put God's stamp of approval on the whole plan of redemption. And so we look to the resurrection and we are overjoyed that God finished what He started. And we also know this, because Jesus lives again, we're going to live again. And we're going to live again in his forever place called heaven. And we even see that God does not always, excuse me, God always finishes what he starts even when it comes down to the life of the individual believer. Be confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. How many of you are glad that God's still working on you? Amen? I know that I am. I was just thinking about Donna's daughter, Celeste. And you know, Celeste professes to be a Christian. If she is, God's going to perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. He's not done working on her either. Amen? Or anybody else who might be going wayward in your life, or in your prayer life, you're thinking about. Anybody else who's a burden on your heart right now. God's not done working on them. And He always finishes what He started. He's a great God, isn't He, Saints? He's a great God. The seventh day, again, I've mentioned it already a few times, the seventh day is the only day that God blessed. And when God blesses something, He's choosing to make that something special. He's putting His mark upon it. He's putting His approval upon it. You know, sometimes God blesses us with grace, or He blesses us with provision, or He blesses us with a promise being fulfilled, or He blesses us with answered prayer, right? So I put his mark of approval on that thing and it's a blessing to us when God makes Something in our life something in our heart that was heavy when God says that thing is special to me And I'm going to bless that thing and so he's going to bless the seventh day and then he's going to sanctify the day Sanctify the day. To sanctify means to set apart to himself. God says the seventh day, I'm going to sanctify, I'm going to bless it first, I'm going to sanctify it, I'm going to set it apart to myself. What he was saying is this, I'm taking the seventh day, I'm making it special, I'm making it really, really special, I'm going to make it a holy day. A holy day. How many of you know this, that Mondays are not holy? Amen? I mean, I've had some unholy Mondays. Have you? But the Sabbath day is supposed to be a holy day, a blessed day, a sanctified day, a day set apart to God. If I can use this, a day completely different than the other six days. A day completely different than the other six days. The Sabbath day. The day of rest. Exodus 20, the Ten Commandments reflect what God said about the Sabbath or the seventh day in Exodus 20, verses 8-11. Remember, Don't lose sight of. Keep your focus. Remember the Sabbath day. To keep it how? Holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do how much of your work? All thy work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt not do any work. Thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day. Wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it." And so, again, we're to remember the Sabbath day and to keep that Sabbath day holy. We're going to talk about what that means here in just a little while. Just hang on as I continue to develop this Sabbath day from the Ten Commandments. Here's the Deuteronomy. Retelling of the Ten Commandments in chapter 5 verses 12 through 15 keep the Sabbath day to sanctify it as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee six days Six days thou shalt labor and do all thy work. What does all mean? All means what? But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt not do any work that thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates, that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou. And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out hence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm. Therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day. Don't go back to how you were in Egypt. You were beat up slaves back then. You didn't get a day off. You didn't take a day off. If you're going to take a day off, you're going to get a good beating and whipping by the taskmasters in Egypt. And he said, please, when you have servants in your own home, don't treat those servants how the Egyptians treated you. Let them have a day off too. Let your oxen have a day off because, hey, they need to rest also. Right? So, you know, you don't want to wear out your oxen too early. They'll fall over dead and you're going to be plowing by hand. So these things, you know, God knows what He's doing. He created these things. He knows what these things need. Isaiah 58, if thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord honorable, and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words, then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord. Look at this promise of blessing here. And I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. God's got these promises attached to keeping the Sabbath holy, of not forgiving the Sabbath, and not treating anybody else any differently on the Sabbath. Amen, saints. So all these things are being talked about here. I want to take you to a real quick New Testament text over in Hebrews chapter 4 Just about this idea of resting How important it is? Hebrews 4 verses 8 through 10 or the whole chapter talks about what least from verse 1 to 11 talks about it But here's what it says here at 8 through 10 for if Jesus had given them rest. I then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore a what saints? A rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest he hath also hath ceased from his own works as God did from us. And I believe that that rest being talked about here in Hebrews chapter 4 is the rest that we experience at the end of this life in God's glorious heaven. That's when rest really comes. That's when you don't have any worries anymore. That's when you don't have any sicknesses anymore. That's when your heart doesn't ache over your wayward children anymore. Amen So when you're in heaven that rest will be an eternal rest and we can we go into the the the glory and the splendor again of God's beautiful heaven, right? All right now Let me try to get some more Sabbath stuff here that we can talk about that you'll know about It was a common custom For Jesus to go into the synagogue on the Sabbath It was his custom It was in the synagogue where Jesus declared his ministry in Luke chapter 4 when he said he was going to preach the gospel to heal the bruised and all those different things in Luke chapter 4. So he did that in the synagogue. It was his custom to go into the synagogue on the Sabbath day. What day is the Sabbath day? Saturday, right. The Sabbath day is Saturday. Now, Jesus also did not adhere to any man-made Sabbath laws. If it was man-made, Jesus had no problem violating that law. Because it was man-made. It wasn't God's law. It wasn't God's morality. It was Jesus saying, you guys are taking this way too far. And he went in on the Sabbath day and started pulling ears of corn off for his disciples. Remember that? And the Pharisees lost their ever-living mind, didn't they? They just blew up, they just realized that he was an infidel, that he was a blasphemer, that he deserved to die. They kept on using that against him time and time again. They brought him up again at his crucifixion, that he didn't keep the Sabbath and all different things. And Jesus said, he said this, for the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath day. And so when it comes to the Sabbath, what Jesus says goes. What the Pharisees say, what the Sadducees say, what the Maccabeans would say about the Sabbath was not important because it was immaterial because they were merely the rules of mankind. And God said, we're not going to adhere to those silly rules. They're burdensome. They're not helpful. They don't glorify me. They don't help people remember their creation and the things that I did that day. And so all these things are going to go by the wayside. And Jesus said, I'm actually the Lord. of the Sabbath day. I'm in charge of those things. I see over these things and I can see through these things. Right. Sabbath day. So the Jews meet on the Sabbath day, don't they? The Seventh-day Adventists meet on the Sabbath day. Seventh-day Baptists, there are those too. They meet on the Sabbath day. And here we are meeting on usually a Sunday. The first day of the week. Why don't we meet on the Sabbath day? You know the answer, don't you? Because the resurrection was on the first day of the week. And since the resurrection was on the first day of the week, Christians gathered on the first day of the week from that time forward. Excuse me, Bible-believing Christians gathered on the first day of the week. Even Paul, when he was talking to the church of Corinth, said, Hey, when you take your offering, you've got to do it on the first day of the week. Right? So the first day of the week, that's what he said. So we meet together on the first day of the week, since the resurrection. Now, if you come across a Sabbatarian, they're going to tell you that we're coming to church on the wrong day. But the Bible does tell us not to worry about what day we worship on. Colossians 2 16 let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of an holy day or of the new moons or of the what the Sabbath days and so they're gonna tell you they even put out a booklet years ago and it tells you that if you go to church on Sunday you've actually taken the mark of the beast I'm not kidding. I'm making that stuff up. They take it that seriously. They take it that personally that we choose to come to church on the first day of the week to do our worship and to set aside our time for rest. We need one day to rest. If we don't rest, we get tired. We get tired, we get worn out. Things start breaking. If not body parts start breaking, the mind starts breaking down. Ever heard of a mental breakdown? I'm nervous breakdown. We need we need to rest Jesus told his disciples to come apart. Tell me apart. He said and you know and somebody said a long time ago Yes, tell me apart before you come apart Because those things will happen to us and so all kinds of things will go wrong If we're not fulfilling God's plan for our life and God's design for our life Yes, he made us to work, but he also said you're gonna need to take a rest When we rest It's not just to take a nap. It's not just to go out in the backyard and get in a hammock and drink lemonade and just pull a hat over our eyes and snooze the day away. When we rest, We should do what God did when he rested. He looked at his creation and said it was very good. And we should stop and look at God's creation or God's work or God's accomplishment in our lives, what God has done in us, what God has done around us, what God has done through us, not just every once in a while. We should do that every week and it wouldn't be bad to do it every day. He's doing things in our lives. We have to stop and rest and reflect and see what God has done in our lives. We need to stop working so we can worship. Amen. Now, as a pastor, I work hard on Sundays, I do. I try to lead you in worship, and so it's a different dynamic for what I'm doing, but I'm just telling you, we need to stop working so we can worship. One man said this a long time ago, I think it was G. Campbell Morgan, he said, if you don't work right, you won't learn how to worship right. because you're not resting. You have nothing to rest from. And it says if you don't worship right, you'll never know how to work right. They kind of go hand in hand because God designed us to work six days and on the seventh day to rest. To rest. I like to, when I read the Bible, I'm going to preach through a book, I like to read the whole book. Genesis I you know 50 chapters Philippians four chapters I like to sit down and just read it, but I know this is truth, too Sometimes we tell ourselves. We don't have time to read that whole book Right let me guess let me ask you a question real quick. Just meet you Let's just say that somebody sent you a letter in the mail Eight pages long Would you just read one page a day I mean, one chapter a day, let's call it one page a chapter. You'd probably read the whole thing through, wouldn't you? Because you want to see what happens at the end, right? Same thing is true with God's Word. We shouldn't just say, I don't have time to read all four chapters of Philippians because that will take me 12 minutes. Amen. or pick out a section of Psalms and just read 10 Psalms because I'm telling you, they're so encouraging and they're so uplifting and challenging. We have to take time to rest. Our souls need to rest too, don't we saints? We gotta rest to memorize scripture. I was talking with one of my pastor friends down in Tucson this week and we both were sad by our inability to memorize scripture like we used to be able to. But we both remember song lyrics from our teen years. Come on. Need to rest, take an entire day and think about what God has done. Discuss the message you heard. Discuss your Bible reading with your spouse, how God is speaking to you, what God is doing in your life, right? Jesus said this, and he said unto them, the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. God made it for us that we could rest. And I feel like if we don't feel like convinced that if we don't observe the created pattern that God put into place in the beginning, we'll wear out physically and very possibly shrivel up spiritually. We have to take time to rest and reflect and see what God is doing in our lives. You know, when I talk to you and say, I want God to speak to you when I get up and I'm reading the Bible and I'm telling you what the Bible says and how you can apply it to your life, I want God to speak to you. I don't want to just get up here and spend 40 minutes talking and sweating. Right? I don't want you to dry up on the vine. I want you to come in, here it is, the middle of the week, you're working, you've got family issues, you've got health issues, you've got this, you've got that, you've got the other. I want you to be able to, for 45 minutes to an hour, just to rest. And let your soul be fed and for God to remind you that you are his dear child and he loves you and he wants to give you more things than you can even begin to imagine or things your mind can even possibly consume. Isn't that right, saints? We make time for what's important. That's the bottom line. We will make time for what we find important. I think if we set aside an entire day for him, then we should make that day about him. Just thinking and focusing on God, figuring out what it means to worship him in spirit and in truth, right? We make time for what we find important. If we find keeping our job and making money more important, that can replace our worship. If we find sports, little league, entertainment more important, that can replace our worship. resenting our time with God because it's taking away from our entertainment or our little league game. Can I just say this? I'm gonna say it. If you get more spiritual fulfillment from a little league game than you do from church, then go to little league. But be consistent. No, no, no, be consistent. And when someone dies in your family, ask your little league coach to do the funeral. No, no, no. If you think that your job is more important than worshiping God, then by all means, go to your job. And ask your boss to pray for you. Be consistent. The only place that you're going to be spiritually fed is in God's house, with God's people, with God's word. Only place. It drives me up the wall. Can you tell? And I had an aunt and uncle did this. Their kid was good at soccer. I mean, he was good at soccer. So they did club soccer, they did travel soccer, they did league soccer. They were gone all the time. They never had time for church. Never had time for church. Never had time for God. And you ask, well, why are you doing this? Because we think that he could go pro someday. He could. Along with the other 0.0001% who go pro and ever make money in any athletic endeavor. Somebody help us. Amen. So my thought that I had, I want to go pro in God. I'm not looking at it to make money. I'm looking at it to make people worship and to make people and make people spiritually vibrant and excited and enthused about the things of God again. Amen, saints. Here's the thing about this culture. We ran into this when Markersville was a little league. Most people in our culture do not care about you devoting time to God. They schedule stuff on that day. They don't even think about that day. That day that you have chosen to give to God, they said, it doesn't matter to us. We had a baseball coach, and Marcus was in Little League, and Marcus was a good player. He really was, you know. And I told the coach on the very first day, we'll be here for every practice, but not Wednesday nights. Not Wednesday nights. Well, he said, well, what do you mean not Wednesday nights? So we got church Wednesday nights. You know, and he said something snarky about, was in church on Sunday enough? I said, not for our people. They're a mess. Come on. He said, well, okay, we'll let them get out on Wednesday nights. And I said, and he's never playing a game on a Sunday. I said, not even on an afternoon? He said, no, not on a Sunday. Not even Sunday night? No, not even Sunday night. That's the Lord's day. We're giving it to him and the thing was he had an assistant pastor who was who he had an assistant pastor who was an assistant coach And he did he thought that I was a complete lunatic radical. Maybe I am a lunatic radical, but I'm happy Amen, I've got joy and speakable full of glory right Amen Whether you set aside your day And you give it to God And you rest in Him. And you reflect in Him. And you rejoice in Him. And that's how He gets the most out of you. Amen? Six days thou shalt work. You should do all your work in six days. And just give God one of those days. Everybody said. Thank you Father for this time together tonight. Thank you for the Word of God and how it speaks to us. Father, we're glad for the seventh day. It's a picture of rest. It's a picture of what you had done, how you stood back, blessed, sanctified, set apart a special day. And Father, we as your people have to do the same thing. We gotta pick that day, set it apart, make it special, sanctify it, and look at what you have done, and look at what you are doing, and look at what you are going to do, and rejoice in you. Father, we pray you'd just use this time tonight to remind us. We get lazy sometimes, get caught up in the cares of this world, and Father, we gotta remember We've got to recalibrate sometimes that you are the most important thing to a Bible-believing, blood-bought Christian. Help us, Lord. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. We're going to sing a few verses of Is Thy Heart Right with God for our close tonight, our time of response. Let's all stand. We'll sing the first few verses here. If God has spoken to you, would you please take some time and speak back to Him? Thank you. God. Cleanse and made holy, humble and lowly, right in the sign of God. As thou dominion or self and or sin, is thy heart right with God. With out and within is thy heart right with God. Is there no more condemnation for sin? Is thy heart right with God? Does Jesus rule in the temple within? Is thy heart right with God? Washed in the Clemson tide. Cleansed and made holy, humble and lowly.