Creation Series Day 7

The Sabbath?

Exodus 20:8-11

This study is the 7th part of a series that I have entitled the creation series.  This study covers day 7 by referring to the object lesson that was left behind by God for us. If I am privileged to present the entire week you will have a better understanding of God's Calendar of events.

Q.  Does the Lord have a calendar of events? 
A.  Yes He does.

We shall be discovering what was supposed to happen on day 7. Before we do this however it is needful to revisit our scripture text.

Since we are implored to seek the Holy Spirit guidance when reading God’s word. Let us do so now…

Pray with me

Let us turn to our text of study.

Ex20:8-11

20:8   Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 

  20:9   Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: 

  20:10   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: 

  20:11   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. 

This is one of the most important truths for the Adventist.  

Not the person that is a member of the seventh-day Adventist church but for the true Adventist. That is the person who is genuinely looking forward to the soon coming of Christ Jesus.

If you don’t understand why this is the case, hopefully after this presentation we will have this understanding.

We don’t know who we are

Although this is a precious truth, the sad truth is that not many S.D.A understand ‘the truths’ that are so dear to the definition of who they are.

Some of the questions we will be hoping to answer from this study are

What prophetic event is the commandment of the 7^th day Sabbath speaking to?

&

Was this time period before or after sin?

Disclaimer

Now, what I am about to reveal to you is not something that I have read somewhere. This was revealed to me years ago by God himself.

There has been an attempt to corrupt this pure doctrine, so now, as this information begins to surface all over the world. Others are trying to make the information say what it was not meant to say.

To get back on track, let us answer this question?

Q. According to our scripture reading, who does the Sabbath belongs to? 
A. The Sabbath belongs to the lord!!!!  I'll go a step further to say that the first Sabbath did and every Sabbath thereafter also belongs to the Lord.

Q. But if this is so, why does Mark 2:27 say that the Sabbath was created for man. 
Q. Is the bible contradicting itself here, or  is there a deeper symbolism present here that we are overlooking?

If you consider the sequence of how things were created in the beginning, every new thing made complimented the thing that was made before it. Right?

Light                                - Day 1

Firmament                       - Day 2

Land-vegetation              - Day 3

Sun moon stars               - Day 4

Animals-sea animals       - Day 5

Land animals-man           - Day 6

rest                                   - Day 7

Upon this premise we could easily conclude that the man was made for the Sabbath and not the Sabbath for him. However, Jesus makes the point clear that the Sabbath was made for man (like a suit of clothing) although it was made after him.

It follows, that before we can reconcile this conflict, we must first understand how was the first Sabbath made for man? Also if there are any other Sabbaths, how were they made for man?

Let us begin by looking at……………

The Sabbath of Creation

Ex20:8-11

20:8   Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 

  20:9   Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: 

  20:10   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: 

  20:11   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. 

By mere deduction, we can see that the Sabbath was not for God, but for his creatures.

How you ask?

Well, was there a need for God to rest on the Sabbath (the first 7^th day). 

Can God get tired? 
Then why did he rest? 

According to what we have studied thus far we understand that he was instituting a principle at the foundation of the Earth that was to be perpetually repeated……to his honor and glory.

He, being the master teacher that he is, had to participate by demonstration to his creatures how the Sabbath was to be observed, before He could require it of His creatures.

If it is for his creatures how does it belong to him?

(How is the Sabbath God’s?

Well for starters  Psalm 24:1….the earth is the Lord’s. So in this context the Sabbth belongs to the Lord.

However, it goes a little deeper than this.

Since it was God who had worked the first 6 days, no doubt he was the one, who needed refreshment. Not that He was tired, but he chose a refreshment day. 1) God refreshed himself on the Sabbath. In this context, because He refreshed in the Sabbath it was His.

It follows then, that if the man was to refresh on the Sabbath, especially on the very first one, he had to be invited by the Lord. Man did not meet the requirement to refresh on the very first Sabbath. Only God did.

Note that the first 7th day does not become the sabbath until after God had rested in it. Gen 2:3

So God had done the work, but the man was made to benefit.

Is this point clear? 

The Sabbath is the Lord’s but it was man that was receiving the benefits of it?

Let us look at a secondary application for this truth…….

The Sabbath of Redemption

How was the Sabbath of Redemption God’s, but it was made for man?

What is the Sabbath of redemption?

To answer this question, I shall give you some insights now into day 6.

Slide 7

From day 6 we understand that Adam had to sleep, not a regular sleep, but the scripture is emphatic that this was a deep sleep. This was done so that Eve man's bride could be created.

But this is a type, the application is that Christ (the second Adam had to die/sleep deeply) in order for his bride to come forth.

(2^nd application of Sabbath- sleep/rest) The sleep/rest was the Lord’s but this sleep was for Adam's race.

Is the picture getting clearer?

Surely we understand that it was no coincidence that Christ had to die, and it is no coincidence that he rested (that deep sleep in the grave) on the Sabbath. 

This is the reason why this Sabbath is called the Sabbath of Redemption.

Slide 9

In the Levitical system it was established that the day of the atoning offering/sacrifice  was to be a Sabbath, (lev 16:30-31) (Lev 23:8-15)

Lev16:30   For on that day shall [the priest] make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, [that] ye may be clean from all your sins before the LORD. 

  16:31   It [shall be] a sabbath of rest unto you, and ye shall afflict your souls, by a statute for ever. 

Even if the day appointed did not fall on a weekly Sabbath, it was still observed as a Sabbath of rest. 

If the weekly Sabbath and the ceremonial Sabbath met, then that Sabbath was called a high Sabbath.

Birthday example…….

We are born on a particular date of the year, but ever so often the date falls on the actual day of the week that the original event occurred.

This is what happened when Christ died, the ceremonial Sabbath met with the weekly Sabbath.

What happened in this event, was that God had been forewarning Israel about the exact date in the future when the Lamb of God should be slain..

He is till doing the same thing today.

The people knew by type how and when it was going to take place, but for some strange reason, the majority missed it.

Let me introduce you to God. He will not shout from heaven, he speaks to His people in signs and wonders and types.  Acts 2:19.

Q. What is a type? (shadow)
A. an ensample, model or  pattern for imitation.

Q. What is an anti-type? (person)
A.The real thing that was represented earlier by a symbol

Are we leaving in the typical or anti-typical day of atonement?

Here it was that the type had met the anti-type, and the majority, even the disciples had totally missed it.

Even this is a type. We are guilty of the same thing.

Matth21:42

Having this understanding, I now come to the third and final Sabbath application. 

The Sabbath of  the Millennium- 

This is pivotal to our existence post sin.

Some of you might be asking is the millennium (1000 years) spent in heaven really a Sabbath? I am here to tell you yes.  This might be new to some of you, so I am going to spend a little more time here, as I set the stage.

Let us turn our bibles to Acts 2:14-21

2:14   But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all [ye] that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words: 

  2:15   For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is [but] the third hour of the day. 

  2:16   But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel;  (joel 2:28)

  2:17   And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: 

  2:18   And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: 

  2:19   And I will show wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: 

  2:20   The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come: 

  2:21   And it shall come to pass, [that] whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Pentecost

As we consider the words that were spoken of the Day of Pentecost

I am just starting to make the case about the millennium Sabbath…..

We understand that, this was the day of Pentecost-almost 2000 years ago, that Peter spoke, and the whole world knows that he was under the influence of the Holy Ghost. Now the Holy Spirit speaks truth, and the Holy Spirit was definitely influencing Peter’s speech on the day of Pentecost.

So Peter could not have been wrong when he said that “this is the last days.” The Holy Spirit cannot lie. Right!?

But this event happened almost 2000 years ago, so what are we to understand here from this speech made so long ago? 

Have we been living in the last days from Peter's time?

The truth is that this speech given by Peter solidifies the claim that a thousand years is as a day with the Lord. (psalm 90:4) The week of creation, turns out to be actually a time prophecy.

Slide 11

Q. Does God have a calendar of events?

A. Yes He does, and He had revealed it in the very first week of creation, for his creatures to study and know the events of the Earth.

Think I made this up? turn with me to Gen 2:4. Pay keen attention to how the word generation is used.

Slide 12

Generations

Gen2:4 These [are] the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, 

What do you think generations mean here?
Listen to how sis white puts it in (volume 3-spiritual gifts page 90)

Slide 13

God gives us the productions of his work at the close of each literal day. Each day was accounted of him a generation, because every day he generated or produced some new portion of his work. On the seventh day of the first week God rested from his work, and then blessed the day of his rest, and set it apart for the use of man. 

The weekly cycle of seven literal days, six for labor, and the seventh for rest, which has been preserved and brought down through Bible history, originated in the great facts of the first seven days (volume 3-spiritual gifts page 90)

This is how things would continue, the scripture is saying.  But it is way deeper than what we often allude.

Slide 14

let us now look at two more uses of the word.

Gen 5:1

Gen  5:1   This [is] the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;

Then the book goes on to name the sons/descendants  of Adam.

Slide 15

Gen 6:9   These [are] the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man [and] perfect in his generations, [and] Noah walked with God.

In other words, this is the summary of the matter. 

That is how the word ‘generations’ is to be interpreted in these texts. Surely Adam had other sons, surely there was more to be said about Noah; but this thing that is mentioned is the pinnacle of them all.

It is in the same way that we are to understand gen 2:4…..There were more things…but this that is mentioned is the pinnacle of them all. I hope this is clear.

A day equals a thousand years

We know the prophecy about the little horn to reign time, times and the dividing of times, right? 

This is found in Daniel 7:25

Slide 16

We get 31/2 times…because

Time                                        =          1

Times  (without a qualifier)     =          2

and

Dividing of times                    =          ½

Total                                        =          3 ½     

Slide text

Let us go back to our text in Acts 2:17

 2:17   And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: 

The Holy Spirit through Peter is using the same method to let us know in the book of Acts that there are only two more days left to work; or put another way the effects of sin only has two more thousand years to run on this Earth, before God steps in and brings the theater of sin to a close.

What am I saying?

Sin would have a reign of 6000 years on this Earth during which time God would be working to recreate man, and then the Sabbath would come when God would cease to work

This is not some new doctrine; as I will show you in a minute, but this has been a truth that God’s people have always held dear. Sin has been allotted 6000 years and then the 1000 years that is to be spent in heaven is actually a jubilee to the Earth….or said another way the Earth was to enjoy a Sabbath.

Do you remember that song in the old hymnal? Welcome #654

God had worked in the beginning and He is working again

Some of you might disagree with me that God is working now. So let me address this.

Turn your bible with me to

John 5:16-19

  5:16   And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the sabbath day. 

  5:17   But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. 

  5:18   Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God. 

  5:19   Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. 

Chrsit is here making the claim here that His father is working.

Is He contradicting what was said in Gen2:1-3?

2:1   Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 

  2:2   And on 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. 

  2:3   And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. 

Can’t be…..then how do reconcile this?

After God had worked 6 days he rested on the Sabbath.  (the scripture is emphatic, not from some of his work…but ALL of his work) The first Sabbath was His Sabbath for He was the only one who had worked. Only He was deserving of rest and not Adam.

But here is where we get a clear understanding that in order for man to enjoy the Sabbath with God, he had to be invited. Adam was extended an invitation to join the Lord in His rest/Sabbath.

So…when man sinned God started to work again. This work commenced with the cursing of the serpent, the woman and the man and the Earth Gen 3:14-18 and the creative power continues as a sinner comes to Christ

2 Cor 5:17   Therefore if any man [be] in Christ, [he is] a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 

This work began then and has and will continue until the 6000 years are complete. Then He shall enjoy his Sabbath again with the Sons of God and the Stars of heaven as it was in the beginning. (job 38:7)

I hope the picture is becoming clearer still.

Is the devil totally oblivious of the fact that sin only has 6000 years?

Turn with me to  Rev12:12

Devil knows he has but a short time Rev12:12

When Christ arrived on the scene the Earth had seen 4000 years of sin. 

We get this from day 4, i.e. when God created the sun moon and the stars. Christ the light of the world had come, and John clearly makes this known in john chapter 1.

If we are to apply the 1000 years to a day principle, then this meant that there were 2000 years left for work to be done, after Christ left the Earth, and this is exactly what Peter was saying on the day of Pentecost.

Now picture this with me, if someone gave you six days to accomplish a task and 4 days have passed and you are no closer to accomplishing it than when you had begun wouldn’t two days be a short time? 

This is exactly what has happened to the devil, and as a result, he is taking out his wrath on God’s people,  because he can not pour it out on God.

Bear with me as I make my case…

Now what do you think is the significance of this text Rev.

rev 12:10   And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. 

  12:11   And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. 

  12:12   Therefore rejoice, [ye] heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.

Abundant evidence

Although I am trying to establish here that the 1000 years to be spent in Heaven during the second phase of the investigative judgment is a Sabbath unto the Earth. There might be some you still thinking that I am stretching it, or this is my own doctrine. But I assure you this was common knowledge during the time of Christ.  Let us look at a text to solidify this.

Turn with me to

2 Peter 3:1-9

  3:1  This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in [both] which I stir up your p

  3:2   That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour: 

  3:3   Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, 

  3:4   And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as [they were] from the beginning of the creation. 

  3:5   For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: 

  3:6   Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: 

  3:7   But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. 

  3:8   But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day [is] with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 

  3:9   The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

If that was not clear let us look carefully at verse 10.

Slide 18-19

3:10   But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, (evening) and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.(morning)

The day of the Lord---evening and the morning

As students of the bible how many years pass between the second coming and third coming of Christ?

 This time is called the day of the Lord. Is this coincidence?

Rev 20:1-7-thousand years (if you don’t know where this is found)

 Rev 20:1   And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. 

  20:2   And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, 

  20:3   And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season. 

  `                     20:4   And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and [I saw] the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received [his] mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. 

  20:5   But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This [is] the first resurrection. 

  20:6   Blessed and holy [is] he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. 

  20:7   And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, 

The Word of God cannot return to him void= Is 55:11

Now let us look at another interesting fact.  We just read that the Lord is not slack concerning his promises and from Is55:11 we know that the word of God cannot return to Him void. But what happened when Adam ate the fruit?

God promised

In the day that thou eatest of the fruit gen 2:17…………..you shall die…………

Q. Did Adam die the same day he ate of the fruit? 
A---no!

We have been educated to explain this by saying, the plan of salvation retarded, Adam's death. But if we really think about it, if this is true, then that part of the word of God returned to Him void, and the scripture is not true

How do we reconcile this?

At what age did Adam die…….(930- gen 5:5)

Based on our study, if a day equals a thousand years then Adam did not live to complete a day…..did he? The word  of God is true. It did not return to Him void.  Let us read 2 peter 3:8-9 again

  3:8   But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day [is] with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 

  3:9   The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

Dis sis white pen this?

E-G-White Commentary

Although it should not be the case, there are some people that no matter how you show it to them in scripture, their conscience will not be put at ease unless they see it in Mrs White’s Writings.

So did the Servant of the Lord catch this, or did she have anything to say about this, or am I still trying to come up with a new doctrine?

Early Writings is a book that most sda should have, so this is the source of my first quote.

“The sky opened and shut and was in commotion. The mountains shook like a reed in the wind and cast out ragged rocks all around. The sea boiled like a pot and cast out stones upon the land. And as God spoke the day and the hour of Jesus' coming and delivered the everlasting covenant to His people, He spoke one sentence, and then paused, while the words were rolling through the earth. The Israel of God stood with their eyes fixed upward, listening to

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the words as they came from the mouth of Jehovah and rolled through the earth like peals of loudest thunder. It was awfully solemn. At the end of every sentence the saints shouted, "Glory! Hallelujah!" Their countenances were lighted up with the glory of God, and they shone with glory as did the face of Moses when he came down from Sinai. The wicked could not look upon them for the glory. And when the never-ending blessing was pronounced on those who had honored God in keeping His Sabbath holy, there was a mighty shout of victory over the beast and over his image.  {EW 285.2}

Then commenced the jubilee, when the land should rest. I saw the pious slave rise in victory and triumph, and shake off the chains that bound him, while his wicked master was in confusion and knew not what to do; for the wicked could not understand the words of the voice of God.  {EW 286.1}”

There are quite a number of them in the Great controversy let me just read one.

4) great controversy

The law of God is set aside, the Spirit of grace despised, the blood of the covenant counted an unholy thing. The spirits deny the divinity of Christ, and place even the Creator on a level with themselves. Thus under a new disguise the great rebel still carries forward his warfare against God, begun in Heaven, and for nearly six thousand years continued upon the earth.

a)For six thousand years, Satan's work of rebellion has "made the earth to tremble." He has "made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof." And "he opened not the house of his prisoners." For six thousand years his prison-house has received God's people, and he would have held them captive forever, but Christ has broken his bonds, and set the prisoners free.  {GC88 659.3}

Even the wicked are now placed beyond the power of

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Satan; and alone with his evil angels he remains to realize the effect of the curse which sin has brought. "The kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house [the grave]. But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch. . . . Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land, and slain thy people." [ISA. 14:18-20.]  {GC88 659.4}

b) Satan's work of ruin is forever ended. For six thousand years he has wrought his will, filling the earth with woe, and causing grief throughout the universe. The whole creation has groaned and travailed together in pain. Now God's creatures are forever delivered from his presence and temptations. "The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet; they [the righteous] break forth into singing." [ISA. 14:7.] And a shout of praise and triumph ascends from the whole loyal universe. "The voice of a great multitude," "as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings," is heard, saying, "Alleluia; for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth."  {GC88 673.2}

While the earth was wrapped in the fire of destruction, the righteous abode safely in the holy city. Upon those that had part in the first resurrection, the second death has no power. [REV. 20:6; PS. 84:11.] While God is to the wicked a consuming fire, he is to his people both a sun and a shield. [REV. 20:6; PS. 84:11.]  {GC88 673.3}

"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first

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heaven and the first earth were passed away." [REV. 21:1.] The fire that consumes the wicked purifies the earth. Every trace of the curse is swept away. No eternally burning hell will keep before the ransomed the fearful consequences of sin.  {GC88 673.4}

two other qoutes

2)faith I live by

In the cleansing flames the wicked are at last destroyed, root and branch--Satan the root, his followers the branches. The full penalty of the law has been visited; the demands of justice have been met; and heaven and earth, beholding, declare the righteousness of Jehovah.  {FLB 72.7}

Satan's work of ruin is forever ended. For six thousand years he has wrought his will, filling the earth with woe, and causing grief throughout the universe. The whole creation has groaned and travailed together in pain. Now God's creatures are forever delivered from his presence and temptations.  {FLB 72.8}

3)gods amazing grace

The great plan of redemption results in fully bringing back the world into God's favor. All that was lost by sin is restored. Not only man but the earth is redeemed, to be the eternal abode of the obedient. For six thousand years, Satan has struggled to maintain possession of the earth. Now God's original purpose in its creation is accomplished. "The saints of the most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever" (Dan. 7:18).  {AG 370.2}

Questions

Now that we have established that the 7^th day Sabbath actually points to the time that is to be spent in heaven, and the commencement of the Eden restored, let us move on now to ask some more questions that will deepen our understanding of the Sabbath.

Slide 20

Slide 23

Was there a Sabbath in heaven prior to the existence of this earth?

Slide 24

No.

How do we know this? Let us turn to Gen2:2-3. this established that the sabbath came to being after God rested in it. Also Mark 2:27  the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. If man did not exist before and it was made for him, it therefore follows that it could not have pre-existed him. 

Jesus is just clarifying here that had it not been for man, there would be no Sabbath. God did not need a Sabbath, He was not tired. But the plan of salvation was put in place, as a part of the very fiber of the earth at creation. 

The invitation has been re-issued!

Will you join the Lord in his rest?

Your answer to that question depends largely on how you treat the Earthly Sabbath.

Let us read a text that solidifies this.

Heb4:1-11

4:1   Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left [us] of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. 

  4:2   For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard [it]. 

  4:3   For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. 

  4:4   For he spake in a certain place of the seventh [day] on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works. 

  4:5   And in this [place] again, If they shall enter into my rest. 

  4:6   Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief: 

  4:7   Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. 

  4:8   For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. 

  4:9   There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. 

  4:10   For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God [did] from his. 

  4:11   Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

Conclusion- and appeal

I want to join the Lord in His Rest Don’t you?

Adam and Eve were given conditional immortality; if they had passed the test they would have been allowed to live eternally in God’s presence; with him sustaining them throughout eternity.

If Adam and Eve had passed the test they would have been allowed to be forever with God in His Eternal Sabbath. The Sabbath of creation does not have a evening and a morning because it refers to the eternal Sabbath to be spent with the Lord in Heaven. Because of the introduction of sin into the world, God came out of his Sabbath rest and started to work again.

He did not have to, but he did anyway and the good news is that through Jesus Christ, the invitation has been re-extended to man.

We are now living in the closing moments of the anti-typical preparation day, it is now that you make preparation to be with The Lord in His Sabbath, because after the sun sets, and the Sabbath is here, there remains no more time to prepare. 

No more time to prepare meals, no more time to prepare clothes, no more time to prepare your heart, just no more time. The jubilee would have commenced. Won’t you get ready to join him in His Eternal Sabbath Celebration?

Is there one here who would like to say, I want to join the Lord in His rest.