The Call of the Faith to Faith

Good afternoon church. Sabbath greetings, Good afternoon church. So just a little

bit of house cleaning before I get going. I noticed that I was called

an elder, and that's literally true, but it's also not true. I

passed by the mirror this morning and you probably can see the amount of grade

that I now have. I mean, it makes me an elder, but

I'm not an elder at the church, so it's a typographical error. It's

wanting to make that clear. Alrighty, thanks to Roberto. That was a

strong song of faith, and it does testify of a circumcised heart. When

the heart is close to God, you can certainly walk through the valley of

the shadow of death and not fear any evil. So today I want to

talk to you about the call of the faith to faith and principally about the

Sabbath. And I want to start by letting you know that God's people his

church, that's you and me writ large, not speaking directly about Adventism,

but the church writ large, has become uncomfortably relaxed at the time it should

employ a heightened sense of vigilance at the time when it should exercise due diligence

about the prophecies about God's promises and about those very important teachings given us from

the beginning, and they persist as true even to this present time, but

is now made relevant and practical as the closing scenes of time and foels bringing

us to the end. These are very serious times, but only for those

with serious intentions and a no nonsense approach to these times. Time makes urgent

Indian missions, and in our urgent work to evangelize India, we confront three

challenges. Brother Christopher shared one with you, and I want to talk about

them a little bit. The present government desires to make and keep India wholly

Hindu. The laws of the country bars proselytizing and they are very serious jail

sentences for violators. So by being in there to do God's work puts us

at risks. I can tell you right now that the Catholic Church they have

people signed documents when they talk to them for that very reason, because if

any local should say that someone tried to convert them could be a troubling experience

for you. Number two. Culturally, the seventh day Sabbath is annexed as

a regular day of the work week, and like most of the world.

India culturally rest on the counterfeit Sabbath. For us, changing what is culturally

innate and religiously unpopular is the most daunting yet the most consequential burden of faith.

This errant practice is so hardwired into the Indian psyche that will take an

act of God to course correct and set India on the path to repentance.

Additionally, we have the burden of limited resources. We do not have the

personnel to service the demand, nor the finances to hire and train additional heads.

We are without a church facade. Brother Christopher shared with you that we

have one church house church and we're looking at a second. So it makes

it difficult to secure and maintain, at least from the outside looking in the

attractiveness and the interests that we're looking for. But he talked about faith,

and Bertha sang about faith. Faith is a mountain mover. See David could

have looked at Goliath and say, I'm going home. Many of us look

at the mountains in our lives and we want to go home, and many

of us do. But this challenge has been unmet and is now being worked

at with this gentleman and his wife, making India free is the great and

now urgent mission God set before the Johnathans. India has a population of about

one point four billion people, making them the largest country on the planet.

Of that population, seventy eight point eight seventy nine point eight percent are Hindus.

Moslim's account for about fourteen point two percent of the population, and Christian

Seeks, Buddhists James make up the remaining six percent. Now, Indian mission

is a big mission because it's a big country with a huge need. It

doesn't belong to Christopher and Shailah. This is God's doing. It's his administration

and as a result, it qualifies under God for discipleship. Therefore, it

also qualifies all of God's people as missionary disciples. The lift is seismic,

but God is faithful. Indian mission is not fun work, but it is

kingdom rewarding, very important and urgent work. So it reminds me of John

eight thirty one and thirty two. Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed

on him. If you continue in my word, then I ye my disciples.

Indeed, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make

you free. See, oftentimes we are scared of truth because truth makes us

uncomfortable. Truth makes us committed, and when we don't want to be uncomfortable

and committed, we run from truth. But we learn from John eighth that

truth manifests when people believe and continue in the study or abide in God's word.

So how do you get some part, if not all, of one

point four billion people circumcised? And that is to subordinate to spiritual governance in

Jesus. How do you do that? Takes faith? Faith is relying on

God. Some say trust. And though trust is employed at the beginning of

your faith walk, it is required to mature as whole reliance in Jesus.

See, we don't often tell people that. We tell people faith is trusting

Jesus. But I trust a lot of people, but I don't rely on

them. Okay, but God wants us to move from a place of trust.

When you come in and you don't have an experiential relationship with God,

it's difficult to give all up. And God knows that he wants a faith

to mature. He uses the analogy of a mustard seed and a mustar tree.

But we have to get to the port, to the point where it's

not our will but it's his will. In other words, we've got to

give up the governance of self to let God do that for us and in

us. Okay, it is required to mature as reliance on Jesus and reliance

on God is the key operative for growing in our faith relationship. God told

us apart from Him, we can do nothing. So how do you like

that? Apart from God we can do nothing, But we can do all

things through Christ. Okay, you have a chasm here and the bridge,

the bridge between the both points is faith. Thus, the more we rely

on Christ as our providence for all our needs, as our protection against everything

evil, as our teacher instructing us in the light for life, and as

governor over every aspect of our willth This is that faith. It is surrender.

It is a death to what governed you before. Truthfully, all of

us have been given free will. But where did we end with free will?

We ended right at Romans three and twenty three was the scripture say,

for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But God

knew that, so he gave you a prayer. And in that prayer,

what did he say, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done now.

The more we grow in our reliance, the stronger our faith, the less

reliant we are on Jesus, the weaker our faith. Reliance on Jesus,

the one in whom we live and breathe and have our being, is mandatory

in the practice of faith, So you can't escape it. It's either the

faith or the death, because all of who you are is what Christ has

blessed you with. The Bible says faith is the substance of things hoped for,

the evidence of things not seen, or who is the faith? Galatians

Chapter three, Verses twenty two through twenty six. It told us that before

faith came, we were locked up. Who came? So does that make

Christ the faith? It sure does. Before the faith came, he is

the substance that Hebrews eleven one talked about. Look at Colossians two in seventeen.

The substance belongs to Christ. He's a hope first Timothy one one.

You see it. Jesus Christ is our hope, and he is the evidence

of things unseen according to his creation. Romans one and twenty testifies of that.

So do we have no we have no doubt that the faith is Jesus

you know, I told I often tell people you have no faith, and

some Christians don't like hearing that. But when you said, apart from me

you can do nothing, what do you have of any meritorious gain that you

can give to Christ? Okay, when you ask for his will, you're

saying, I'm willing to kill an excise for me what has governed my nature,

even what I thought had married. We are as filthy rags. Now

we have no southficc merit, nor ability to do anything in independence. Therefore,

we must rely on the faith Jesus to do in us, through us,

and for us, that which He has asked of us. This was

the pattern from antiquity, beginning with Abraham and James Chapter two verses to Anyone

through twenty four. Scripture says that a man is not justified by faith,

only he needs works. And that is sadly misunderstood because some people think that

us at Venice we do the law and that's legalistic. I'll talk about that

in the sect. They don't quite understand the richness and the depth of faith

according to God's will. So we must rely unto faith in Jesus to help

us. Abraham him did and that very pattern that God worked with him and

in him. You might remember Abraham asked for a family, and when he

recognized, or when him and his wife recognize that that was not possible by

their doing, they tried to design. It didn't work. This was one

chapter before God calls him, you know, a faithful man. The next

chapter he has Hagar, and two chapters following. In chapter seventeen of Genesis,

God says, walk before me and be perfect. Okay, So God

is showing us that there is no man above what Heaven calls our need for

faith. There's nothing that we can do in independence, and that same pattern

continues today. The desire to believe and to please God should be the continuous

desire of every soul, especially and it proves difficult and challenging. Especially when

it proves difficult and challenging, it's easy to fall on ourselves, it's easy

to rely on what we think, but no one understand that pleasing God requires

faith. These are difficult times, but trials in difficult times are the precious

gift of God. Look at what Philippians one and twenty nine has to say

for unto you, it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only

to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake. That that

doesn't match, It does not square with human logic. You come to Christ

for salvation and for a better life, and you've got to suffer, and

it says it's a gift. So we learn that logic does not equate to

the omniscience of righteousness. We don't know what we don't know, and we

can't pretend we know when we don't know. And the Bible tells us that.

So if you have faith, you would accept that truth and recognize your

dependency on Christ. Trials also the church's passport to heavenly citizenship. Trials no

trials, no heaven. If you zoom in and Acts fourteen twenty two,

you would see there it says by much tribulation we enter into the Kingdom of

God. So you've been gifted with trial because God wants you in heaven.

Because trials perfect us. What trials though it ushers us before God to ask

for His will and not ours, because we recognize our impotence. This makes

faith the principle and the quintessential requirement for the believer. Nothing southifect manifest until

and unless becomes foundational in the life. I think it was read this morning.

Faith is a substance. I'm sorry. Without faith, it is impossible

to please God. I think sister John read that earlier this morning. But

he who comes to God must also believe that He's a rewarder of those who

diligently seek him. So faith becomes foundational in the life. Faith is our

armor. He is our bomb, He is our hope. He is our

protection, our help, he is our peace and our sacrifice. But most

importantly, the faith is our savior. This faith never fails, the Bible

tells us because the faith. We know the faith as the Word, and

Isaiah tells us that the word never fails to accomplish what it was purposed after

He's a surety. Therefore, faith is the Lord, and as Lord we

know God with stir hearts and support and providence for Indian missions, For we

serve a faithful God. Ellen White writes and Christ subject Lessons, page three

thirty says, all his biddings are his enabling Okay. In other words,

whenever God asks you to do something, he is literally asking you to ask

Him to do in you and for you what He's asked of you. That

is faith. Indian Missions is the call of faith for all of us and

varying capacities according to or gifting. So pray the faith of God would bless

the Indian Mission and that God would wholly accommodate the financial and work burden before

each of us through His body, through his Church. If you have any

questions about the Indian Missions, you can see. Please see Brother Christopher that

you saw this morning. Man, if you know him, His wife Shilah

is sitting to the back. She's a very humble lady, but she's everything

in India or a doctor or mother or nurse or everything. Chilotte, wave

your hands so people can know who you are. You can talk to her,

or you can see me. They're leaving for India in a short time,

and as brother said earlier, they welcome your prayers and support and God

willing, this will be our second trip this year. Pray for me also,

as I will be joining them in a few weeks now. The work

of God the Church is called to complete beginning now will become the testimonial of

our faithfulness. Revelation fourteen thirteen tells us that James tells us faith must have

works. The time has now a ride for us to more faithfully and dutifully

investigate our deeds in order to maintain our relationship with Jesus, complete the ministration

appointed us and reduce the risk of confusion in preparation for the Second Advent.

This is a big deal. The devil right now has employed a more concentrated

effort to mislead and destroy the Church, especially Adventism. Everyone knows that where

in his cross is The Bible tells us at the Revelation twelve seventeen that the

dragon was wroth or angry with the woman and when to make war with the

remnants of her seed lest God's commandment keeping people once with the testimony of Jesus

Christ, the Church cannot afford to be lackadaisical nor asleep at the wheel like

Paul. We should have no desire for the blood of men to be on

our hands. All lives should be demonstrative of the faith purposed in every disciple.

The faith should bear marked distinction and exemption from spiritual confusion. The faithful

believer was never purposed to be confused, and confusion is a product of faithlessness

wrought by misunderstanding. Confusion is the weapon of evil. It postures leadership,

but it's void of knowledge. Its purpose is sin, its end death confusion.

Who among us would elect to be operated on by the confused doctor,

or fly with a confused pilot, or eat from the confused kitchen? Said

differently, we cannot optimally conduct, lead or contribute to god ministry when we

are confused. Sad to say, but we have a testimonial from heaven in

a warning which reveals the church's stature Revelation Chapter eighteen, versus one through four,

but specifically verse four, And I heard another voice from Heaven saying,

come out of her my people, that ye may be you'd be not partakes

of her sins, and that you receive not of her plagues. Come out

of her? How many believe that we are confused? See most people that

I know that are Christians. Everybody think they got it right. But God

is saying, come out of her my people. Does he exempt any denomination?

Does he exempt any church? So we are into my people. If

you believe that you are God's people, And if you are into my people,

you can fused es what God says and you cannot lie. So how

can the church make disciples when it is confused or worse yet, whose disciples

is she making? God beckons his church to immediately exit the confusion and error

she has adopted. The times are growing more confusing, threatening even the salvation

of God's elect Heightened evils is on the rise and threatens the sanctity of the

church. Evil actors are continually seeking for covert and stealthy governance over the will

of faithful souls. Now is not the time for dolefulness. We must now

contend with the onslaught of worldly attacks, sense you a living, gender,

dysmorphia, Hollywood culture, homosexuality, addictions, alcoholism, racism, crime,

gun violence, politics into denominational feuding, disparate doctrine and dogma, anti gnomianism,

atheism, ecumenical apologists, atal It's a big list. And culturally,

these now not only inhabit the church, they are also on the verge of

being normalized. Has the Church grown overtly comfortable, disinterested and lazy? Have

we all, somewhere and at some time unwittingly normalized questionable behavior? Are we

still proving all things and holding only to what is good? Somewhere we made

a wrong turn, Somewhere we lost our footing somewhere we lost sight of the

faith. Darkness have become us. The Church is called to be as light

and salt to the world. We are not to become them. However,

the Church now enjoys a harmonious relationship with the world. We're making ourselves easy

targets for darkness. If our faithfulness does not provoke persecution, then there is

no salvation to make manifest our hope. Trials and persecutions are intended to test

the faith and to distinguish and differentiate the Church from the world. Trials and

persecutions we saw our gifts of grace intended to perfect faithful souls. That's what

James tells us. Count it all joy Why because when you are in trial.

Just a few months ago we talked about we studied in the Sabbagh School

quarterly about the crucible. God is perfecting you. It's the amphysis of logic.

Don't expect things to unfold according to your finite mind, but the righteousness

of omniscience. That infinite mind knows more than you can ask or think or

imagine. Now, trials and persecution gets God God's work done, and all

you have to do is ask Jesus he has been our pattern an example.

You know what he did to save us. And if he is your patent

an example, and you are his body, you are not exempted from the

suffering that he patterned for us. So what are we confuse about? Confused?

We should never be victory and trial should ever be as praise in our

lips. And this would have been this should have been our continuous testimony.

Instead we have a warning which indicts us for error. Jesus is of victory,

the Bible teaches, Jesus is the culture we normalize. So why now,

in these final days, are we recognize as confused and commanded to exit

confusion. Here's what Ellen White had to say on this matter. There is

another and more important question that should engage the attention of the churches of today.

The apostle Paul declares that all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall

suffer persecution. Why is it then that persecution seems in a great degree to

slumber. The only reason is that the Church has conformed to the world's standards

and therefore awakens no opposition. You know, we can sit and feel pious,

but God is saying there is no difference between you and what I'm trying

to save you from. The religion which is current in our day is not

of the pure and holy character that mark the Christian faith in the days of

Christ and his disciples. It is only because of the spirit of compromise with

sin, because the great truths of the Word of God are so indifferently regarded,

because there is so little vital godliness in the Church, that Christianity is

apparently so popular with the world. Isn't that a sad indictment that the reason

you are popular with the world is because of how you manifest your lifestyle.

Let there be a revival of the faith and power of the early Church,

and the spirit of persecution will be revived and the fires of persecution will be

rekindled. Here's what I believe the challenge is. It is keeping faith,

which has always been our Achilles heal. Faith is the sin slayer and that

lone architect of salvation. This is Jesus. When we are told we are

confused, we should understand we drop the ball. The Bible tells us we

cannot do anything apart from God. We cannot please God if we don't have

faith. Faith, therefore, is the principal thing. It never fails.

Therefore, when we are told to exit confusion, we are then made to

understand our failure. It is hard for the pious to believe that that's an

indictment upon their piety, But faith tells us we got to get out now.

It's easy to assume Revelation eighteen is not directed at us, and can

it be because we are the confirmed target of Satan's wrath. That's not where

our focus ought to be. The word which lights the path is Jesus.

Confusion cannot exist in those whose eyes remain fixed on the light. That's Jesus.

When he says you're confused, is because you are, we cannot claim

faithfulness and when we're told, when we're told to exit in error. So

the answer to these questions must be in the return to faith. Just as

God warned the church at Ephesus to return to her first love. You might

remember that the Revelation chapter two, we have the faithful yet imminent responsibility to

prove all things and to hold to what is good in repentance. Self examination

is God's ask a church, especially because of evils amplified deceptive activity. Today,

self examination is God's ask of his church, especially because of evils amplified

deceptive activity. It's not part of our culture. We don't want to hear

that because if I, if I am speaking against behavior, it causes them

to be angry. But we must speak the truth in love. Okay.

Evil will be deceptively neighborly and will be very seductive and quick to indict the

false accusations. Bearing indictment from within the church upon the church has a singular

purpose, and that is to make or to turn congregants into wolves and therefore

as imps of Satan, to interrupt and destroy faithfulness and souls. Some say,

and many believe God's commandment keeping people is a cult based on legalism.

I don't know about you, but I listen to Waiver and there's a continuous

assault on God's moral law and especially on Sabbath. Brothers and sisters know and

understand. Legalism can only exist where there is no faith. Okay, let

me tell you why if you if you see me as a legalist, you

don't understand that the faith is God working in me to do in me what

He's asked of me. You're looking at it which you're limited, exhausted understanding

and you're leveling an indictment. And where there is faith, there is made

the pattern of godliness. I'm not trying to judge, but I'm saying that's

what we should expect. If Christ is working in you, you should be

producing and making manifests the works of God. That's the whole purpose. Romans

chapter eight says, what the law could not do, weak as it was

in the flesh, God send his son in the likeness of sinful flesh,

and for sin to condemn sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the

Law would be fulfilled in you. So, if you're going to church,

if you claim to be a believer, if you claim Jesus, why don't

you want to exhibit the righteousness of faith according to the good works of the

law. But instead you indict those who keep the law. Do not allow

what they say about you, what they ask that you do, or what

they bearest threats, even what they call you. Don't let that destroy the

word of God in you. Popular culture is in the habit of attacking and

destroying the things of God. And that's what the Church has become. Popular

and destructive, denying the existence, the necessity, and the purpose the imperatives

of the imperatives of God's law. We are behaving more like the world and

patenting our behaviors after our fleshly subscriptions to the extent some desire their errant apostate

practices become accepted and integrated into the church. This is a grave threat to

our youth and the church's culture. Strangely enough, some of these worldly enticements

have found home in our midst these behaviors. These behavioral patterns shrouded in covert

enticements have been sown amidst commandment keepers. We see pattern tardiness for Sabbath services,

and that's just about normalized. Many have patterned early departure prior to the

benediction, patent absence from Sabbath school, patent apathy from ministerial responsibilities, patent

indolence for Bible study, patent disinterest doing Sabbath service. In other words,

we have become good at patenting questionable behavior. We, oftentime blur the lines

of work and labor as church activity on the seventh day Sabbath with our potlocks.

The Bible permits making ready of food on the Sabbath in Exodus, chapter

twelve and verse sixteen. However, we spend an inordinate amount of time hours

preparing and cleaning on the Sabbath. This is confusion. We allow counterfeit Sunday

worship on the very holy altar we use to praise the Lord of the Sabbath.

King Josiah had those removed. It's in your by and it's in mind

now. This is not attack on our church. This is presently what's happening.

This is present truth, and we have to examine ourselves. As I

shared earlier, dolefulness is not part of our Christianity. We have to hold

each other accountable for doing what God has asked of us. Josiah recognized the

filthiness of Israel's behavior and purpose repentance, destruction, and removal of every contaminant

from God's holy temple. So should we. This is confusion. The practice

a beginning Sabbath worship after sundown on day six is also confusion. If the

Church has desire to exit confusion, these matters must be faith fully, dutifully

and prayerfully addressed. However, I want to take the remainder of the time

that I have to address the matter of Sabbath worship, for it is our

challenge in India and more so here today. You know God's seventh day Sabbath

as listed in Exodus chapter twenty that the young men read today. Now it's

become comfortable to say for us, especially as ad ventice, but I don't

know how much we really think about it. So let me take a few

minutes to tell you why I believe that we need to examine how we conduct

ourselves on the Sabbath. Creation Week signs are signals the Gospel and its fulfillment.

In other words, Creation week is the prophetic rendition of the Gospel.

It is the mirror of God's sanctuary and of Time. The seventh day Sabbath

as the crowning star of Creation week, is the light and the law at

the end of God's ministration during Time's first week, which offers and presents for

acceptance, deliverance and rest for the creation. The sab Sabbath Salvation excuse me,

The Sabbath as the crowning star of Salvation week is the light at the

end of God's ministration during Salvation week, which awards deliverance and rest to the

new Creation. So you might not have noticed the difference, but what we

have is the seventh day Sabbath as the crowning star of creation week, and

we have the Sabbath as the crowning star of salvation week. There's a difference

here. The law of which the Sabbath is, the Fourth Commandments describes God,

and the Bible tells us God is love. The law is summed us

love. But the Sabbath is the faith. He personifies the description. See,

if you have the law and you don't have a lawgiver, you have

nothing. So behind the law you have the Jesus. So we have to

learn these these distinctions. Now that rest that Jesus gave us is rest from

work, the work which became the toil and trials of time cursed upon the

earth at the fall. So work is tied to sin. Okay, work

is tied to sin. What does he ask at revel excuse me at Extradus

Chapter twenty. No one should work, not even your animals or your height.

No one should work. That's a categorical statement. Adam's sin and removal

from Eden was on account of sin. He was punished with a need to

toil to keep his physical body fed and thus alive, and that was predicated

on hard work. By the sweat of his space. So he went from

a place of pleasure called eden right what he was to dress and keep,

and he went from there to toil by the sweat of his brow keep himself

alive. And that has been the paradigm for the last six thousand years of

human history. The solution to stop work caused heaven dearly. Anybody here looking

to go to work in heaven? Does the Bible teach you that, anybody,

are you looking for a nice job in heaven? No work is an

indictment on your separation from God. And God died on account of man's sin

to deliver a man from work, that is, from toil and death to

rest and life. That's the Sabbath. It's deliverance from toil and death to

rest and life. This deliverance is in Jesus. So when time ends,

God gave Sabbath as for rest from toil and trials of time, just as

he does with the seventh day Sabbath. Each week. Each week you rest

from toil on the seventh day Sabbath. The seventh day Sabbath is the sign.

It is as the shadow of things to come. But the substance is

who it's Jesus right, So we have to learn that distinction. What God

is doing with us is preparing us by practicing heavenly living. To every Sabbath

when you come to worship, you come before God to learn what being in

his presence requires. There's not going to be any training classes in heaven.

You've got to get it right here. So when we work on the Sabbath,

we're doing a grave disservice. The Sabbath is the practicum for heavenly living.

Jesus actualizes the Sabbath. He literally avails his presence for our worship and

rest on Sabbath. When we work on the seventh day Sabbath, we tell

God we have no interests in sin. Excuse me, we have more interest

in sin than his deliverance. That his deliverance from work to rest, from

death to life is not our desire. We signal the Babylon of Genesis eleven

have become our mentors, our pattern, an example for life. We are

happy governing our natures and have no desire for the practice of His law.

This is God's adamant requirement, the absolute stoppage of work on the seventh day

Sabbath. It says, it's an insult to the cross and to grace to

work on God's sabbath. This is a matter of life and death. Now,

I think it's interesting that each day is designed to remind the creation of

the creator God. An evening and morning was the first day. First there

was darkness evening before there was light morning. On that first day, there

was time, which is darkness, before there was light, which is God

and God's law. There was night before there was day. God came into

time as the light part of the day. I want you to hear me

clearly on this, okay, because I believe that we really need to examine

the worship beginning on the sundown of Day seven. There was night before there

was day. God came into time as the light part of the day.

Genesis one three, God says, let there be light, and the Bible

tells us that this light does not mingle with darkness. A Genesis one four,

God saw that the light that it was good, and God divided the

light from the darkness. We understand that the light and darkness are divided.

The two are eternally separated. The daylight, therefore, is a representation of

God. I want you to get there. The daylight is a representation of

God. God remains. Let me back up here for a second, because

I can see your eyes. In the beginning, God created the heaven and

the earth, the Bible says, and the earth was without form and void,

and darkness was upon the face of the lead deep. Do we have

any light? Yet? Then God said, let there be light. And

God saw that the light was good, and he divided the light from the

darkness. Right, and then evening and morning or the first day. So

God the light that came in. If you don't know the Hebrew word,

there is o r pronounced orie. There's an ear at the end. The

transliterated word all right. That is the same light used at Proverb six twenty

three tells us that the commandment is the lamp and the light is law.

So what came in was the law giver, the light of law for instruction.

Now, light and darkness are eternally separated. The daylight represent God,

and God remains determined to keep separate the darkness and the light. I want

you to understand that at the beginning of creation at Genesis six five, you

knew that the earth grew dark. No head preached for a lengthy period,

and men failed to come to Christ but eight after all, their substance was

dark. We know from Genesis chapter two and verse seven that man was taken

from the dust of the ground. Is that light Scarcely God sent light at

Genesis six fourteen, and that light was in the arc that eight people bored

in and were saved. It contains instructions for life. Now that was a

symbolic representation of the arc in which is born the Ten Commandments, and in

the ark we have instructions for light. Noah was a preacher. He had

God's word to instruct a world, an antediluvian world that paid no attention to

the truth of God's word. At the time of the end, the creation

again grows dark, as at the beginning Revelation nineteen verses nineteen twenty one.

It tells us there the state of the world following after counterfeit, work,

worship, and once again the law is presented, just as it was at

the beginning of Revelation nineteen ten. So God is continually showing us there's a

cadence and a separation that exists. In that cadence where light does not integrate

with darkness. He destroyed the wickeds at the end, and his light remains

forever. Everybody knows that Revelation twenty two five. There there's no night there.

So Jesus or God is and was always the light of the world,

the light of man, which has never compromised its purity with darkness. The

word yam is the Hebrew word for day and is used to reference the time

that bound by evenings and mornings. That same word is used to represent the

light's part of the day. Men have conflated the two, which I believe

leads to the confusion about Sabbath works worship. The light Jesus was called day.

Look at Genesis one five. Okay, it was dark before the light

came, and God's separated the law from the darkness, and it was called

day. Notice at second Peter one in nineteen. Peter's reference to light that

shine it in a dark place is speaking directly on addressing what we just discussed

at Genesis chapter one. However, it's punctuated with the following, we have

a more shore word of prophecy. He's literally telling us a second Peter one

nineteen. When we look at Genesis one three, we have the word Jesus

as the light that shine it in a dark place. Remember, the earth

was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep.

So we have confirmation that it is Jesus. Jesus is the light of

the world. He tells us that at John A twelve he is the bright

and morning star which shone in the dark world into the dark waters. Jesus

came into a sin sick, sin ridden people of the world as instruction and

illumination for salvation. He is the bright and morning star visa vie, the

day star, and it does not become the mid day star or the evening

star. These suggests the star fades the sunset. The bright and morning star

remains bright eternally, and we should otherwise understand. Second Peter one nineteen Genesis

one three, as Genesis one three explained. Now you probably ask I'm wondering,

Derek, why are you telling us all this. I'll get to the

point. God always appears from the east, the Bible tells us. Ezekiel

forty six, Verses one and two tells us that God opens the gates to

his presence on Sabbath. Only on Sabbath. Now you can worship any day,

but the Lord specified a day for worship. He gave you six to

work in, and he gave you one for worship. A working day is

the light part of the day, when work is purpose. Most people work

during the light path, the light part of the day. You look at

John chapter eleven, Jesus hand said, are there not twelve hours in the

day? Is that? Is that wrong? If any man walk in the

day, he stumbleth not because he seeth the light of this world so light.

Though the word yam is used to use to bookend and evening in the

morning, it is also the same word used for the light part of the

day. Now, the walk that we see in these verses here signals God's

desire for the conduct of all lives. That's the Greek word patil, and

that's what it's looking at. How do we conduct alive? Because it says

that if any man walk in the day, he stumbled it not. So

the conduct of your life is a testament of your walk the Sabbath, as

the light of the Law demands, we worship the Light before his presence,

in the light and not in the darkness. Isaiah sixty six, twenty two

and twenty three and God tells us there that all flesh shall come before him

under Sabbath. Now, if God says that all flesh is going to come

before him under sabbath, and Jesus is the light part of the day,

what part of the day do you think is sabbath? It got to be

the light part of the day. The Sabbath reference is Jesus. He is

the light without darkness. God separated them at the beginning. Jesus personifies the

Sabbath. The Sabbath decry him. So Jesus is as the daylight and not

the night. First John Ward and five says, this, then is the

message we have heard of him, and declare unto you that God is light

and in him is no darkness at all. Jesus illuminated the world with instruction

and righteousness for the practice of faith every day of man's life. He is

the light which shone in the beginning and which still shines in the pathway of

life. Thus the law Jesus provides is light and instruction which illuminates man's heart

to keep man away from the darkness of night. This light, this law

manifests as Jesus. So Sabbath is not time time is dark and time ends.

The Sabbath is light, which is eternal. You might notice in your

bibles that every day is bound by an evening and a morning, except for

the Sabbath day. It has no evening and it has no mourning. And

it cannot be because it describes an eternal God. It is his name,

it's the seal of his name. Even finite unbelieving minds understand this. The

first law of thermodynamic states energy can never be created or destroyed. You know,

the study this week is on the exalted power of God, that eternal

God. He exemplifies the first law of thermodynamics. God's light is that great

eternal source of power. If the Sabbath is the eternal light, and we

are of the light, what then is the reason for beginning worshiped in darkness

on sundown? After day six, darkness ends. It's temporal. Heaven is

a place of light, which one of us would believe that God wants us

worshiping in darkness. Jesus worshiped in the day Luke four sixteen. We have

no record of Jesus celebrating Sabbath in darkness. He wrought deliverance in the darkness

of the tomb, just as He delivered Israel from Egypt in the darkness of

night. And you know that the same did he for the virgins at Matthew

twenty five. This again will he do at the end of time, when

he delivers man from the darkness of time to the light of eternity. And

everybody has seen in Revelation twenty two five there's no night. There, there's

no night. What merit has night? Sabbath is not bound by evenings and

mornings, as it's time for the Sabbath without evenings and morning. It is

not as a day of time. The daylight of the seventh day signals the

Sabbath in time. The daylight of the seventh day signals the Sabbath in time.

However, it is just the shadow the substance the body is of Christ.

If you accept that the daylight signals Christ, but then it's just the

substance that the body is Christ. Would you expect darkness in Christ? None

of us. It's a silly question. None of us would expect that.

So it's a testimonial to the fact that the light is what we should be

after. In other words, Jesus is your Sabbath. He is the light

of the day. He is the day star. He delivers us from the

darkness of time to the light of eternity. He did it in antiquity for

his people, and we'll do it again for believers. President Sisters, now

is the time, at the last hour, for the church to walk in

sacrificial love, following after Jesus. Leave the past behind and follow not after

the doctrine of men. You've been made children of light, so turn from

the confusion and darkness that we have become. Be careful to maintain your vigilance,

for evil will always lay temptations before you walk by faith, giving all

your decisions over to God. It is your victory. Find and belong to

faithful communities, and practice the love of God before God in worship in the

daylight on the Sabbath, and have love for others. Reflect by faith on

the union that is God. The Church will not fulfill hismission in this unity.

Those who seek not for unity by faith will have exercised their belongingness from

the family. Unity avails the power of God and the vestments for battle and

for victory. The seal of the Holy Spirit of Promise is God's guarantee until

deliverance on Sabbath in Jesus, by Jesus, for Jesus, in the light

that is Jesus, the eternal Light, the eternal Sabbath. He is the

Faith, He is the eternal rest. God. Bless you.