HopeLives365

Mark Finley: Is it possible that God is calling us to something deeper, broader, higher, something larger than we ever imagined? Is it possible that God longs for us to see a new depth of meaning in the Sabbath? Is it possible that God yearns for us to experience a genuine heart revival?

Announcer (Female): This is HopeLives365 with Pastor Mark Finley. Today's message: "An Advance on Eternity, Part 2." Enjoy and remember you can always catch up with past messages and stay up to date with HopeLives365 and Pastor Mark by going to HopeLives365.com. And now, Pastor Mark Finley.

Mark Finley: God's word is a creative word. Now, my word can be a declarative word. I can say what is. I can say that's a TV screen. I can say that's a chair. That's a computer. That's a house. But God says what is not and what is not becomes what is because when God says it, it's done, it's finished.

So, evolution bypasses totally this thought. And if you say that God used evolution to bring Earth into existence, that creates all kind of problems. I'll show you just a few of those problems, but first, let's look at the clear biblical information.

Hebrews chapter 11. Remember Hebrews is that great chapter of faith. It takes faith to believe that Christ died for me and can save me. But it also takes faith to believe that Christ created me and he created the world in six literal days and rested the seventh.

In Hebrews the 11th chapter, the first verse, it says, "We understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, not by things which are seen and not with by things that are visible." So, Hebrews 11 is clear. Through faith, we understand the worlds were formed by the word of God so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

The Bible is plain that God created the world in six literal 24-hour days and rested on the seventh day, the 24-hour period of time, and that the seven-day week is indeed a Sabbath, is indeed the seven-day week is clearly seven literal days.

Now, somebody says, "How do you know those days are 24-hour periods? How do you know those days are not millions of years?" Well, there's a variety of ways. Let me share a few. The Hebrew word for day is yom. And yom can mean a longer period of time. But throughout the Bible, every time a number precedes the word yom as an adjective, it limits the time period to 24 hours.

There's not a single instance in the Bible when a numerical number precedes the noun yom and yom indicates an indefinite period. Without exception, if you have a number like first day, second day, third day, fourth day, fifth day, sixth day, seventh day, if you have a number preceding the word day or yom, it has to be 24 hours.

To accept the false idea of long indefinite periods of creation is to challenge the very linguistic structure of scripture. It is to superimpose my personal opinion upon the grammatical structure of God's word. But here's another point. If you just go to Genesis and look at the days of the week, God creates the world and let's just look at creation week for a minute and walk through creation week together.

31 times in Genesis, God says, "God created, God created, God created." In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now, there are two words in Hebrew for create. One is bara. And that bara is something only God can do. No human being can do it. Only God can do it. So, it says here, "God created." He bara-ed. He did something nobody else could do.

The other word is asah. And asah means to make something from something already in existence. For example, if I'm a carpenter, I can make a chair out of wood already in existence. So, you can asah something. But asah is not used here when it says God created the heavens and the earth. In other words, he created them out of nothing.

Then you let your eyes go down. It says God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. God separates the waters. He calls the light day and the darkness he calls night. Evening and morning of the first day. Notice again, evening and morning, two 12-hour periods, light and darkness.

Then you go down. He makes the firmament, the second day. He separates the waters on the dry land and you come down to the third day when God says, "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yields seed, and the fruit tree yields fruit." So, God is creating them. And this is the third day. And God says, "Bring forth grass and herbs."

Now, let's suppose just for the purpose of discussion that this day is thousands of years. Let's suppose that. Well, you don't have any sunlight yet to produce photosynthesis, so all those plants, fruit trees are going to die before the fourth day ever comes where God creates sun, moon, and stars.

First, the idea that God uses evolution to bring the world into existence, first, it's not biblical. Secondly, it's not linguistically accurate based on the Genesis text. And thirdly, it's not logically sensible. But let me give you one more reason.

You see, if you take that position that God uses evolution to bring the world into existence, you have death before Adam and Eve ever get there in sin. And the Bible says the wages of sin is death. Because you have these thousands of years and you have death and you have new life springing up out of mutations, etcetera, etcetera.

And so, you have death before life. And that can't possibly be true in the biblical sense because God creates a perfect world. There is no death before that. And God says, "I looked upon everything and it saw it was very good." If you had this endless cycle of living and dying, God would not have obviously said it was very good. He creates this world.

So, the Sabbath is an eternal reminder of the majesty and the greatness of God who creates this world. And by the way, how could you have a seventh-day Sabbath as a reminder of the all-powerful God as creator if indeed it took millions of years for the world to come into existence and if there was no literal six-day creation and God resting on the seventh day?

It would make absolutely no sense at all to leave the Sabbath as an eternal legacy of a six-day creation week if a six-day creation week never existed. To accept long ages of creation is to challenge the very need for the seventh-day Sabbath. It's to challenge the authority of the Bible. It's to raise serious questions regarding the integrity of scripture. It is to ultimately undermine the very existence of the word of God.

I believe that Satan's challenging the very heart of God's authority by attacking the Sabbath today through evolution. You see, the Sabbath is not merely good advice. It's a command from the very throne of God. To lightly disregard God's command and to work incessantly for seven days a week is to be filled with stress. It's to be filled with anxiety. Not to rest on God's Sabbath, not to take that time to be with our families.

Could it be that one of the reasons we have so much stress, worry, anxiety, that we have so much heart disease in our world and so much physical sickness and many times families are breaking up and so much secularism is because we have forgotten the very words of the Lord written with His own finger on tables of stone: "Remember the Sabbath"?

The Sabbath, you see, is a holy day, not a holiday. While our own individual choices on Sabbath observance may not always be exactly the same, there's one common principle: the Sabbath has been given to us by a loving God, by a loving creator to unite us with Him. The heart of the Sabbath is relationship, the acknowledgement that God is worthy of our supremest devotion, our deepest allegiance, and our total loyalty.

There's another sense in which the Sabbath speaks courage to our weary hearts. It shows us that we can rest in Christ for our salvation. The Sabbath is a symbol of rest, not works. It's a meaningful symbol of righteousness by faith, not legalism. It's a clarion call to trust him, not in ourselves. Look, we did not create the world. When we rest on Sabbath, we rest in the security of a loving creator.

But also, just as Jesus rested on the Sabbath the day after the crucifixion on Friday, we rest in his completed salvation. We rest in the fact that on the cross, Jesus said, "It is finished," and the work was done for us.

The Sabbath is depicted in the book of Hebrews where the writer of the book of Hebrews in Hebrews chapter 4 verse 9 is speaking about the rest in Christ. And he speaks about the rest in Christ illustrated by the rest of Sabbath. So, Sabbath rest is an illustration of our rest in Christ.

Hebrews chapter 4, we look there at verse 9 and 10. "There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered his rest has also ceased from his works as God did from his." When we rest in Christ, we rest from our works. Hebrews 4 verse 4, he has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: "God rested on the seventh day from all his works."

So, God creates the world in six days, rests on the seventh. Christ dies on the sixth day and rests on the seventh. And when we rest on the seventh, we're resting in his love. We're resting in his care. Entering into Sabbath rest means that we cease trying to create salvation on the basis of our own efforts. God has saved us in Christ.

When Jesus voluntarily poured out his life on the cross, he died the death we deserved. He gave his perfect life as a substitute for our sinful life. The Sabbath is not a symbol of legalism. It's rather an eternal reminder that we rest in him for our salvation.

The carpenter from Nazareth built a special dwelling for us. We can find refuge there. We can be safe there. His work is complete. It's finished. We can know that in Christ we are accepted by our loving heavenly Father. When we rest on the Sabbath, we're resting in his loving care. We're resting in his righteousness.

Sabbath rest is a symbol of a faith experience in Jesus. It's a graphic illustration of our trust in him. All week we work. But on the Sabbath day, we rest. We turn from our works to a total rest in Christ. In Jesus, we have some place to belong. We need not stressfully work out our own salvation.

Our lives need not be filled with guilt and fear and anxiety. The Sabbath reveals the restful attitude. Salvation comes only through Jesus. We did not deserve it. We cannot earn it. We rest and receive it by faith.

When Jesus breathed his last and cried, "It is finished," he closed his eyes and died. The work of redemption was complete. He rested on Sabbath, symbolizing a completed or finished work. At the end of creation week, God rested, symbolizing the finished work. Each Sabbath as we rest on the last day of the week, we too declare, "Jesus, I'm resting in the completed work of you on the cross. Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling."

But there's still more, still more that rounds out the picture. The prophet Ezekiel declares, "Moreover also, I gave them my Sabbaths to be a sign between me and them that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctifies them." Ezekiel 20 verse 12.

Here's another reason why God gave us the Sabbath. It shows that the Lord is the one who sanctifies us. Now, how's that? Well, that's what God did on the seventh day. It was an ordinary slice of time, just like any other day at the end of creation week. But God set this particular day apart. He sanctified it.

And through the Sabbath, God tells us, "That's what I want to do for you. I want to set you apart as my special child. I want to pour myself into you. I want to sanctify you. I want to share my holiness with you." The Bible reminds us of where we develop character: a relationship with our heavenly Father and with Jesus Christ.

The Sabbath is a continual living promise of God's ability to help us grow through all the ups and downs, the tragedies and triumphs of our lives. We need that distinctive time with the heavenly Father. We need quality time with God who sanctifies us, the God who helps us and keeps us growing.

The Sabbath has continued in the weekly cycle from the dawn of creation until now. The Sabbath began in the Garden of Eden and the Sabbath will be celebrated when this earth is renewed after Christ's second coming. The prophet Isaiah talks about the time when God will make the new heavens and a new earth. And he says in Isaiah 66 verse 23, "It shall come to pass from one new moon to another."

What does it mean from one new moon to another? Well, let's check that one out. Revelation chapter 22. We let the Bible explain itself. What's it mean from one new moon to another? Revelation chapter 22 verse 1 and 2: "He showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and the Lamb. In the middle of its street and on either side of the river was the tree of life, which bare twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and the Lamb shall be in it and his servant shall serve him."

So, the tree of life yields a different fruit every month. Isn't God wonderful? I mean, really now. He could have given one fruit, but He gives us twelve. New tastes, new desires. The tree of life. And when do we come up to eat of the tree of life every month? And what are the leaves for? The healing of the nations.

You say, "Wait a minute. I thought there was no sickness, sorrow, heartache, death in the new earth as Revelation 22." Yeah, you know, that word healing is interesting. It means the up-building of the nations, the unity of the nations. So, when we eat the leaves of the tree of life, yes, the fruit nourishes us, the fruit sustains us, the fruit represents the very life of God. But the leaves of the tree represent the totality of our oneness in humanity. Every ethnic tribe, every various culture, language group, we're all united in heaven.

But the Bible says Isaiah 66, back, so as the new heavens and the new earth, verse 22, which I'll make shall remain before me says the Lord, so shall your descendants and your name remain. It shall come to pass from one new moon to another, from one Sabbath to another shall all flesh come to worship before me says the Lord.

The Sabbath will be celebrated there all through eternity. The scripture is clear. The Sabbath beautifully represents a forever relationship with God. It stretches from the Garden of Eden at creation to the garden that God will make of this planet at the end of time. It stretches from paradise lost to paradise regained.

As we come to the Sabbath, we rest in His love, rest in His care. We remember He created us. We're not specks of cosmic dust. Remember He redeemed us. We rest in His grace and we rest in the assurance, we rest in the hope that one day we can worship Him on Sabbath at the throne of God.

The Sabbath stretches from the Garden of Eden at creation to the garden that God will make of this planet at the end of time. It stretches from paradise lost to paradise restored. We need that kind of forever in our lives. We need a place that reassures us that we are in an eternal relationship with our heavenly Father. We need a palace in time where that assurance can sink deep, a place that says our heavenly Father will always be there for us.

In the Sabbath, we find a contented rest. We get in touch with our roots as Jesus' children there. We grow and mature there. Yes, we need that kind of forever place that ties the whole of our lives to an eternal relationship with God. We need that forever reminder that one day Christ will remake a new heaven and a new earth.

Some time ago, Reader's Digest wrote of the late Harvey Penick. For the 90-year-old golf pro Harvey Penick, Reader's Digest said success has come late. His first golf book that he wrote was titled The Little Red Book. It sold more than a million copies. His publisher Simon and Schuster believes the book is one of the biggest best-selling sports books of all time.

The story of the book's publishing is fascinating. Harvey Penick certainly didn't write it for money. In the 1920s, Penick bought a red spiral notebook and began jotting down his personal observations regarding golf. He never showed the book to anyone except his son for nearly 70 years. In 1991, he shared it with a local writer and asked the man if he thought it was worth publishing.

The writer was elated. He contacted the publishing giant Simon and Schuster immediately. The next evening, the publisher said, "Wow, this stuff is amazing. It's so practical. It's a winner." And they agreed to a $90,000 advance. The jubilant writer passed the news to Penick's wife.

Now, the old man met with his agent later in the day and Penick seemed very troubled. Something was seriously bothering him. Finally, he came clean. With all his medical bills, there was no way he could advance Simon and Schuster that much money to publish the book. The writer had to explain that Penick would be the one to receive the money, not the one to give it. And an advance of $90,000 was his and he didn't even realize it.

In the Sabbath, God has given us an advance on eternity. Every Sabbath, heaven touches earth as the Jewish author Abraham Heschel so aptly put it: the Sabbath is a palace in time. All week we spend time nourishing our bodies. We work to make a living. We work diligently with the sweat of our brow to eke out an existence.

But the Sabbath calls us from the things of time to the things of eternity. It calls us to enter into His, God's heavenly rest. It calls us to experience a foretaste of heaven today. It calls us to a relationship with our creator that will continue through eternity. The Sabbath is in actuality an advance on eternity. There's much more coming, but in the Sabbath, we have the first installment.

Is it possible? Is it possible that in the busyness of life, Sabbath is a day that we're too exhausted to renew our relationship? Is it possible that in the stress of life, we overlook the day that can give us energy and strength and intimate fellowship with God?

Is it possible that God is calling us to something deeper, broader, higher, something larger than we ever imagined? Is it possible that God longs for us to see a new depth of meaning in the Sabbath? Is it possible that God yearns for us to experience a genuine heart revival this week? Do you hear Jesus speaking to you, speaking to your heart today? "Come unto me all you that labor and are heavy laden, all you that are burdened, and I'll give you rest."

Why not open your heart to Him right now? Why not plead with Him to satisfy the hidden hunger of your soul? Why not ask him right now to give you a foretaste of eternity this Sabbath? Why not right now ask him to open your eyes and to see new beauty in the day that he has created, the day he set aside? Let's pray.

Oh my Father in heaven, thank you for the glorious opportunity to worship you as creator. You created us. You died for us. You're coming again for us. One day in heaven we'll worship around your throne, worshipping you as creator on your Sabbath. May it begin for each of us here. May the joy of Jesus, the peace of Jesus, and the abundance of his life flow into our lives. In Christ's name, Amen.

Announcer (Female): You've been listening to HopeLives365 with Pastor Mark Finley. We hope you've enjoyed today's message and remind you that you can find more in our many ministry resources at HopeLives365.com. And you can support this ministry by going to HopeLives365.com/donate. And now, a final thought from Pastor Mark.

Mark Finley: Why not right now ask him to open your eyes and to see new beauty in the day that he has created, the day he set aside? Let's pray. Oh my Father in heaven, thank you for the glorious opportunity to worship you as creator. You created us. You died for us. You're coming again for us. One day in heaven we'll worship around your throne, worshipping you as creator on your Sabbath. May it begin for each of us here. May the joy of Jesus, the peace of Jesus, and the abundance of his life flow into our lives. In Christ's name, Amen.