Amazing Facts

Doug Batchelor: Back in the days of Thomas Edison, in the 1880s and 1890s when he invented the light bulb and the light bulb was introduced into first American and then later European and the world economies, it had a radical change on human behavior. Up until then, people would start winding down and going to sleep when the sun went down. They had artificial light with candles and kerosene lamps, but that was expensive. For a while, they used whale oil because it burned clean, but that was very expensive as well.

With the electric light, factories began to work 24 hours a day, people stayed up late at night studying, they went to social events, they could wake up before dark, and people began to get a lot less rest and a lot more stress. The Christian religion is a religion that invites us to have rest. Jesus says in Matthew chapter 11, "Come unto me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

But the children of Israel, when they were in Egypt, the devil did not want them to rest, and he tried to increase their workload. He said to Moses, "Stop talking to them about rest. You're making the people too Shabbat." That's exactly what the devil said. And he increased their workload. And if you look in Revelation 14, talking about the ones who have the mark of the beast, it says, "And they have no rest day or night, those that worship the beast in his image." So what we're talking about is rest, no rest.

The impact of the work schedule today, and not just only with electric lights, but how many of you keep your cell phone by your nightstand? Come on, confess. And it's the first thing you reach for when you wake up in case you missed something. The Lord told us, speaking of the second coming, "Beware lest your heart be overcharged with the cares of this life, lest that day overtake you as a thief." We can become so busy day after day saying, "One of these days I'm going to get ready," and the devil sees to it that we're always too busy to be ready.

The American Psychological Association states that chronic stress is linked to the six leading causes of death: heart disease, cancer, lung ailments, accidents, cirrhosis of the liver, and suicide. People need to rest. More than 75% of all physician office visits are for stress-related ailments and complaints. And over half of all the medication that is bought at a drugstore is dealing with stress-related illness. We are a very stressed-out world right now.

Now, you might be surprised to learn the Bible prophecy tells us the devil plans to rob God's people of this rest, just like the Pharaoh tried to increase the workload of the children of Israel. The beast, he lets them have no rest day or night, those who worship the beast and his image. Now let me tell you why this plays into a study on Revelation. Please pay close attention. I'm assuming you know a little bit about the Bible.

In the days of Daniel, Daniel and Revelation go hand in hand. To understand Revelation, you need some Old Testament stories for it to make sense. Revelation 13 tells us that the beast power is going to make an image, and those that do not worship the image of the beast should be killed. You go to Daniel 3, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon makes a great image, those who do not worship the image should be killed. God's people, namely Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, would not bow down and worship the image of the beast because that violates the second commandment. We had a study that talked about the importance of the commandments.

You get to Daniel chapter 6, the King of Persia, Darius, he makes a law that you're not to pray to any god or king except him for 30 days or you'll be killed and fed to the lions. Daniel cannot violate his conscience because that would mean breaking the first commandment: "You are not to have other gods before me." You go to the book of Esther and there is a law made by Ahasuerus that all of God's people are going to be killed on a certain day because Mordecai will not bow down to Haman, because we're not to worship a man.

There are many professed Christians in the world today that believe that there is a man that should be worshipped, and this violates a commandment in the Bible, the commandment that says you don't pray to idols, commandment number two. In the last days, the devil is going to do the same thing he's always done. Sin is the transgression of God's law. He's going to use political power to try to compel the people of God to break one of the commandments of God, and he's going to do it in a devious way where they're going to think that somehow they're worshipping God, yet they're really breaking the law of God. And you might be surprised to learn the Sabbath is going to be connected with that.

There's been a great revival among Christians the world over in rediscovering the importance of Sabbath rest, especially in our culture that is so overworked. So we're going to go through our study and I promise I'm going to share from the Bible. You decide at the conclusion of this presentation if it's biblical. It may not be going along with what the world's doing, but I'm going to tell you it is from the Bible.

Question number one: Did God make the Sabbath rest only for Israelites or Jews? What does the Bible say? Jesus said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man." Now, that word in Greek is the word *anthropos*. That's where you get the word anthropology. It means man meaning humanity. It would have been very easy for God to say the Sabbath was made for Israel or the Sabbath was made for Jews. He said the Sabbath was made for man because who was the first man that kept the Sabbath? Adam. How many here related to Adam? Let me see your hands. Just wondered if anyone's an exception out there.

Six days you shall do your work, here you find it in Exodus 23:12, and on the seventh day you will rest, that you, your ox, your donkey may rest, and your son and your female servant may be refreshed. This is Exodus 23:12. It's for man and animal. The word *anthropos* means human being. It's used for all people and it's not limited to a specific group. People need a day of rest. That is not for one specific race of people; it's for all humans.

Exodus 16 and Exodus 20. Which chapter comes first? This is not a deep question. Exodus 16. Exodus 20 is where God gives the Ten Commandments. Some people say, "Well, God didn't have the Sabbath until He gave the Ten Commandments to the Israelites." But is that what the Bible says? If you go to Exodus 16, God told the children of Israel, "I'm going to rain down bread from heaven for you six days a week. Friday, gather twice as much, cook it then, and you can eat it then on the Sabbath because there will be no bread on the Sabbath day."

And that's what He did. Six days a week He rained down the manna. They gathered it, they baked it, they made food, made a little extra for the next day so they could rest. And He did it for 40 years to remind them. Manna miracle six days a week, Sabbath none. That was a miracle in itself. And that's before they ever got to Mount Sinai because the children of Israel knew about the Sabbath. Jacob and Abraham and Isaac, they all knew about that all the way back to the day of Adam. It was a day that God had set aside for a sacred, blessed rest. That has been forgotten.

Number two: When did God establish the Sabbath? Here we are in the very second chapter, first verses of Genesis. "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them, and on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested." Who rested? God rested on the seventh day from all the work which He had done, and then God blessed the seventh day because in it He rested. And man is made in God's image; He says, "I want you to follow my example."

Now, who created man? God, Father, Son, or Holy Spirit? All things that were made were made by Him. Jesus created us. Jesus told us to keep it because He loves us to be a blessing. Now, you notice what we just read there. The first time in the Bible you find a number mentioned three times, what number is it? Seventh day, seventh day, seventh day. You get to Revelation, you've got the it's juxtaposed to the truth. You've got the counterfeit religion, you've got the devil, and what's that number? 666.

I'll tell you an amazing fact. It's not in the lesson, but it's just really interesting. There's another time in the Bible you find the number 666. You read about the story of Solomon. Solomon loved the Lord, 1 Kings chapter 3, walking in all the commandments of the Lord. Queen of Sheba came, he built the temple, gold and silver are like stones, God blesses the kingdom, they were at the zenith of their blessing during the early reign of Solomon.

And it says all the gold that came to Solomon in one year was 666 talents. Everything is good, good, good, good, it says 666 and then it says "but." Solomon loved many foreign women, and they drew his heart away, and then the kingdom goes down and there's a civil war, it's divided, it never goes back. It's like once it gets to that number, it goes down. Wonder if it was a warning for the future.

So God made the Sabbath, this 24-hour period, because that's what it takes to develop a love relationship. God made man what day of the week? Sixth day, man and woman. The first 24 hours he said, "I want sacred time with you." The reason the devil is attacking the Sabbath truth is because the Sabbath represents its holy time. That's quality time that we spend with God. The devil wants us so busy that we neglect our quality time with God. Every love relationship requires time.

You spend time with a person, you get to know them, and the more you know God, the more you love Him. Some people, the more you know them, it works the other way. But with God, the more you know Him, the more you love Him. But when I do marriage counseling, I often hear, "We're not spending any time together. All you do is work, work, work." Any of you heard this conversation in your family? You don't have to raise your hand.

And Karen will sometimes say, "Doug, we're just not spending any time together." And I'll say, "I was home all day yesterday." She said, "Yeah, you were in the office." I said, "Well, I texted you twice." So how many of you have texted your spouse while you're in the house? Oh, you're admitting it. Good, I'm not alone. We need this quality time. The devil wants us to work, work, work so we don't have our time with God.

Number three: How has God demonstrated the importance of His holy Sabbath? It says, and this is the commandment again, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." I was doing an evangelistic series like this and people from the community came and one pastor was there. Pastors often come. And he interrupted the presentation, said, "Pastor Doug," I was halfway through my Sabbath presentation. He says, "You're putting these people under bondage of works."

I said, "Pastor, why am I putting..." He says, "The Sabbath is works-oriented." I said, "No, actually I'm telling them to rest. You're telling them not to rest. You're putting them under works." And he said, "We're not under the law, we're under grace." And this is happening right during he interrupted the program, please don't do that now, but he interrupted the program and I said, "Do you believe God wants us to keep the Ten Commandments?"

He said, "No." And some of his members were there and they kind of went "huh" and they turned and looked at him. He said, "Well, yes." And then he realized that didn't make sense because they're a package deal. And he said, "Nine of them." I said, "So you're telling me the one commandment that God is wanting us to forget about is the only commandment that begins with the word 'remember'?" Does that make sense?

Maybe God said "remember" because what? You know, every commandment God seems to know that we would have a problem. God doesn't ever have to command us to be selfish; it comes naturally. He commands us to do the things we forget about. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, six days you'll labor, do all of your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Jews. Is that what it says? It's a Sabbath of the Lord your God. Is He your Lord?

In it you shall do no work, you or talking about secular work, you or your son or your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, or your cattle nor the stranger within your gates. For in six days the Lord made we're remembering His creation the heaven and the earth and the sea, all that is in them, and He rested the seventh day, therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. God did something special with this day to be a burden or to be a blessing. All of the commandments of the Lord bring a blessing. Amen.

The Bible says remember to keep the day holy. Now, why does He say "keep"? All right, you come to visit me in the mountains in the winter. We use wood to keep our house warm. I have a fire in the stove to keep the house warm. So you come to visit and I say, "Look, I got to run to town, it takes about 20 minutes to get there and 20 to get back, will you do me a favor and keep the fire going?" You say, "Sure, Doug, I'll be happy to do that." I say, "There's the woodbox, if you can keep the fire going, that'd be great."

Okay, so I leave and you go to check on the fire and you open the stove, there's no fire. It's cold ashes. And you're thinking, "Why did Doug tell me to keep the fire going if there was no fire already going?" Wouldn't that be unkind? Right? I would say, "Get a fire going." But the fact I say "keep it going" means it's already going. So when God in Exodus 20 says "keep it holy," God says, "Look, I made it holy, read Genesis 2, I want you to keep it holy because you're forgetting and it hurts our love relationship when we forget our holy time."

Remember to keep the day holy. The Lord blessed the Sabbath day and He hallowed it. Notice what happened on that day. He rested that day as an example, He blessed that day we can claim it and He sanctified it. What does sanctify mean? He made it holy. It's set apart, it is separate. When God makes something holy, that means that it's to be treated differently.

Now let me give you a little test. If I were to ask you right now on planet earth, if I were to tell you about the holy land, what am I talking about? Israel. Correct. And if I say in Israel the holy land, there is a holy city. What city am I talking about? Jerusalem. All right. Now, in Jerusalem, they've got a place called the holy mount. What mount am I talking about? Mount Zion or Mount Moriah, they're both the same, you're correct.

Now, in ancient times, on Mount Zion they had a temple, a holy temple, right? And in the holy temple, they had a holy place. That was called the holy place, not the courtyard, the first apartment. Once you went past the first apartment, they had an inner sanctum. What was that called? The most holy or the holy of holies. Am I right? So far. And in the holy of holies, there was one article of furniture. What was it? The holy ark of the covenant.

And in the holy ark of the covenant that is in the holy of holies that's in the holy place it's in the holy temple on the holy mount in the holy city in the holy land, there is what? The holy law, Ten Commandments. In the holy law, you find the word holy one time. Guess where? "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." It is in the middle of God's law, it is the longest of the Ten Commandments, and it is under attack by the devil in the last days. God is calling people back to His word. Amen.

Let's find out what else the Bible has to say. "Whoever therefore breaks," this is from Matthew 5:19, the words of Jesus, "whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments," so you look through the Ten Commandments and you figure which one you think is the least. "Whoever therefore breaks one of the least commandments and teach," by the way Jesus here is talking about the Ten Commandments, He talks about "don't kill," "don't commit adultery," so we know what He's talking about.

"Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, he will be called," that means spoken of as, "the least in the kingdom of heaven." They're not in the kingdom. It's saying people in the kingdom of heaven will talk about that person as though they are the lowest. "But whosoever shall do and teach it, he will be called great in the kingdom of heaven." Pastor Doug, why are you talking about this tonight? Because Jesus said I should.

Number four: What are two of the precious things that God says the Sabbath is a sign of? Answer: It, the Sabbath, is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever, for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth. Every Sabbath day, we are remembering that God is the Creator. You know, there's a lot of people in the world today that are forsaking the truth that God created everything.

But you know, right now with super microscopes, evolution is really under attack because thinking biologists realize that the odds of life happening spontaneously without outside intelligent intervention is absurd. When Darwin first came up with the theory of evolution, they looked through a primitive microscope, they saw a little blob of a cell and they said, "Yeah, that could suddenly appear in a swamp, doesn't look like much to it, it's got a nucleus and it's got the cell wall, looks like a little egg."

Now, when they look with their super electron microscopes, they've got even more powerful ones now, I heard one biologist say a single cell of human life is more complex and has more activity and more machinery than New York City at rush hour. One single cell of life. There is so much going on. The idea of lightning hitting a puddle a billion years ago and suddenly life happened is ridiculous. And then look at the great variety of life and the symbiotic relationships, and yet when our schools stop teaching that we were created, suicide among teenagers shot up.