The Principles Of True Sabbath-Keeping

[00:00:04] We're having some lovely music here, aren't we? God, it's just so good to hear music that thank you that Honours God. I'm afraid today so often what's masquerading as music in our church is really Satan's intrusion into the church.

[00:00:24] And I just love to hear the sweet melodies that really honor God both in Word and in the melodies themselves. Well this morning we've got quite a task and that is to look at the issue of how to be blessed on the Sabbath day.

[00:00:44] You know I'm in the process of thinking about writing an article entitled How to Keep The Law and not Be a Legalist. But there are many people today that think that if you're talking about law keeping your automatically a Legalist.

[00:01:03] Well I'm happy to say that Jesus was a law keeper and he wasn't a Legalist. I was up in Maryland some years ago and a woman had listened to a sermon I'd taken on Roman 7 and 8

[00:01:18] and she said to her friend the preacher can't be right because if we kept the law we wouldn't need a Savior. And the friend came along because you believe what I'd preached that morning and she said what can I say to my friend.

[00:01:39] Well I said the first thing you can say to your friend is you don't need a Savior to continue to sin. You can do that very effectively without a Savior. But I said go to her and read to her, June 24 under him that is,

[00:01:57] I need a Savior to keep me from falling one about you and that's what keeping the law is all about. Now when we come to the Sabbath there are many people today that are very nervous when you start to talk about true Sabbath keeping

[00:02:15] because it sounds like a lot of rules and regulations. Now we're here today not to develop the seventh day Adventist Mishna you know what the Mishna was.

[00:02:26] That was the Jewish rules and regulations that multiply to help keep the law and of course many of them dealt with the Sabbath. What you could do and what you couldn't do on the Sabbath.

[00:02:37] I tell you if you want an interesting exercise read some of those Mishna laws as they recorded in the source book of the FDA commentaries. So you might even laugh a little at what they could do and what they couldn't do.

[00:02:53] It's just an unbelievable set of Yees and Noes for Sabbath keeping. And Jesus said teaching for doctrine what? Commarments of man and he condemned it out of hand. And so the only thing we're going to do here is look to what inspiration is said that sounds reasonable.

[00:03:10] That's not. Now if it's been said in inspiration that's a different thing. But I don't intend to give you that which does not come out of inspiration. One of the brethren last night gave me this statement out of the fourth volume of the Bible commentaries page one.

[00:03:28] One, one, seven, one, 1171 and 1172. I tell you I did. It is a dramatic statement. I think I'll read it to you about the Sabbath and what Satan is seeking to do before we get into the fullness of our theme. It's commenting upon his Zic y'all 2012 and Exodus 31 13.

[00:03:50] You know, the sanctifying by the Sabbath, sign of sanctification. And it says, the Lord has clearly defined the road to the city of God. But the great apostate has changed the signpost. Who changed it?

[00:04:05] Sitting up a false one, a speurius Sabbath. He says, I will work across purposes with God. I will empower my delegate, the man of sin. You know who that is. To take down God's memorial the seventh day Sabbath.

[00:04:21] Thus will I show the world that the day sanctified and blessed by God has been changed. That day shall not live in the minds of the people. I will obliterate the memory of it. I will place in its stead a day bearing not the credentials of heaven.

[00:04:39] A day that cannot be assigned between God and his people. I will lead the people who accept this day to place upon it. The sanctity that God placed upon the seventh day. Through my vice-gerent, I will exalt myself the first day shall be extolled.

[00:04:57] And the Protestant world shall receive this purest Sabbath as genuine. Through the non-observance of the Sabbath, God instituted. And bring his law into contempt. That's happened, hasn't it? The words assign between me and you throughout your generations I will make to serve on the side of my Sabbath.

[00:05:16] Thus the world will become mine. I will be ruler of the earth. Prince of the world. I will so control the minds under my power that God's Sabbath shall be an objective contempt.

[00:05:27] A sign? I will make the observance of the seventh day a sign of disloyalty to the authorities of the earth. Human laws shall be made so stringent that men and women will not dare to observe the seventh day Sabbath.

[00:05:43] For fear of wanting food and clothing they will join with the world in transgressing God's law and the earth will be holy under my dominion. That's strong words, aren't they?

[00:05:55] The man has seen his institute defaults Sabbath and the profess Christian world has adopted this child of the paper he refusing to obey God. The Satan leads men and women in a direction opposed to the city of refuge.

[00:06:08] And by the multitude who follow him, it is demonstrated that Adam and Eve are not the only ones who have accepted the words of the Wiley foe.

[00:06:17] The enemy of all God has turned the sign post surround so that it points in the path of disobedience and the path and as the path of happiness.

[00:06:30] He has insulted your hover by refusing to obey of us, say of the Lord. He has thought to change times and laws. Let's quiet a statement there. Well, keeping the Sabbath. It's only a few hours that the last Sabbath was completed.

[00:06:55] I wonder how many Sabbaths you have kept throughout your life. You know, Ruslan I were born in Sabbath hours right a night and we didn't get the church that Sabbath I might say.

[00:07:14] But my mother is as sure of us at the very next Sabbath we are in church. And I don't think I need all those fingers of the Sabbath that I've missed since then. One or two times I was sick.

[00:07:34] One time I remember missing a Sabbath, not missing the Sabbath you understand but actually worshiping with God's people on the Sabbath. When I was president of Columbia Union College,

[00:07:50] I had, I was going up to pine for Jacobianomy for the weekend on the Friday to take a series of meetings there but I never did make it there. We ran into a blizzard. I'd never been before a sense in a blizzard.

[00:08:04] I didn't know just how treacherous those blizzards were. Talk about a terrifying experience. Being a real blizzard is really something isn't it? And this was a real blizzard. And I never made it. Eventually I found my way to a motelite. We were very,

[00:08:27] Providence or some people died in that blizzard. That night. Cars stop no one to help them. They froze to death. I think God that we preserved us. We eventually found a motelite and found that we could there.

[00:08:45] And I was, of course, I was going to go off early the next morning to get to my appointment. But when I went out there, it was, Are those freeze factors? It was mine as 40 below, far and high. And you try and get your battery to turn over.

[00:09:05] That was two o'clock in the afternoon before I could get help. Everyone wanted help. Thousands of people calling for help and few people to give it. So we didn't make it that sabbath. But it always is an unfortunate thing to miss a sabbath.

[00:09:21] But in spite of that, you know, as I look back, it's still not quite 3000 sabbaths. But many of it is not a lot of sabbaths. Think of the millions of sabbaths and billions of sabbaths will keep in the earth made new.

[00:09:43] Going to seem like just a handful here. And even if a person were to live to 100 years of age, He would keep somewhere around 5,000 plus sabbaths. Not a lot of sabbaths. That's if he was taking the church, if he was the first sabbath of his life.

[00:10:07] But of course there's one thing about going to church on sabbath or acknowledging it and keeping it. Now the reason that God wants us to keep the sabbath holy sacred and underfiled is that we might receive the fullness of the blessing that He has for us.

[00:10:26] Nothing legalistic about it. But there is a way that He has designed for us to keep the sabbath. Now there's some people to say, but look, there's nothing in the commandment that says

[00:10:42] that we can't do our own or do pleasure on the sabbath because it just says no work. But of course you know, it's our 58 makes that clear, doesn't it? Doing pleasure on my holy day. And yet the sabbath is to be at the light.

[00:11:05] It is to be a time of great purpose. Now we're coming into the heavy winter months when the sun sets before we almost now it's risen. And this is often a great, great test to sabbath keep us. How to be ready for the sabbath?

[00:11:24] And so I thought I should first talk to this morning about being ready for the sabbath. How to prepare for the sabbath. Now there is one day that is called the preparation day which day is that?

[00:11:48] Well, of course the Bible does talk about the sixth day being the preparation day. And there's no question that is called that. But our sister is of course right in what she said there. But that preparation day commences when? Sun down Thursday doesn't it?

[00:12:10] The preparation day to sixth day commences. Sun down Thursday. You must not forget that. That it's not just Friday, it starts sun down on Thursday. But as our sister has said the preparation for the sabbath ought to be going on right now.

[00:12:30] There are numbers of ways in which we prepare. Have you thought of the spiritual preparation for the sabbath that goes on during the week? I'm not just talking about the physical, but the spiritual.

[00:12:44] This morning I'm sure all of you, I pray that all of you had your private devotions and perhaps some of you in a little group had some devotions this morning. Family groups or fellowship groups.

[00:13:01] If we are not morning and evening, holding up the Lord in our worship group, we are not preparing for the sabbath. What has happened to the morning and evening worship in our homes?

[00:13:20] Way back in the middle late 1970s I was taking weeks of prayer at two different academies. One in the Midwest of the United States and the other on the west coast.

[00:13:34] And in those academies I asked students to indicate whether when they were home in their home they had regular worship. At least once a day, in say twice a day, I should have said twice a day, but at least once a day.

[00:13:50] And neither of those academies had students that reached 15% that had regular worship in their home. Now these are the ones that send it to our academies. Both were between 10 and 15% that said they regularly had worship in their homes. Can you imagine that? That's pathetic, isn't it?

[00:14:12] Prettyful that they could not come up to 15% that regularly had worshiped once a day. I wonder what it would have been if I would have said twice a day.

[00:14:25] I was giving that fact in a divine service I was taking in one of our colleges in the United States. One of the Jerusalem centers large number there was a union officer, a local conference office, big college academy.

[00:14:48] You know a lot of Adventists as they usually is in those areas and I mentioned that, not to the service. The woman came to me and she said I'm the teacher of the sixth grade.

[00:15:01] She said only two weeks ago I asked my 23 year old, 23, 6-year-old sixth grade is about family worship. And she said, you have any idea how many of them regularly had worship?

[00:15:17] She said before you answer it, I want to tell you that about half the children of denominational workers.

[00:15:25] I said sister has to be pretty low because she would have asked me the way you did if it wasn't low. She said yes, it was very low and then she held up the zero sign.

[00:15:35] Can you imagine 23 youngsters about half of them from the denominational workers homes and not one of them in that sixth grade regularly had daily worship? I believe they probably regularly had daily worship at the television set.

[00:15:54] But it was pagan worship rather than the worship of God. She was a creative woman and she said, well look let's all get together and prepare a worship and then go and we'll get out invitations and we'll give them to your parents and your other brothers and sisters.

[00:16:13] And they worked it out for a Friday evening and the children she said came back so excited about what had happened. I believe men especially we are delinquent.

[00:16:25] I think this time in the world's history most of more men are wimps and they've ever been in the history of the world.

[00:16:35] It's true isn't it? I mean we're going to be honest men that many of us are not all of course, are not the spiritual leaders in the home. When did I leave? Yes Friday morning. Now Thursday morning before I left, yes to come over here.

[00:16:56] I called up a home down in Florida and the wife answered the phone and I said is the patriarch there. That's for a loop. Patriarch? So I had to explain to her what I meant. By the way this is not when it's home.

[00:17:18] Well he said as you said, oh when I explain well I suppose he is when I allow him. That's about how it is I think with many of our men.

[00:17:28] Well listen men are called of God to be the spiritual leader, not the bullies of the home but to be the spiritual leaders of their home.

[00:17:38] To bring the family together I was reading not long ago where Ellen White said that husbands are responsible for the spiritual growth of their wives. What about it, man? You concerned about the spiritual growth of your wife.

[00:17:57] I don't mean that wives should be concerned about their own spiritual growth but every morning the father is to call the family together and every evening.

[00:18:09] And you must set aside a time if you want to miss out on worship, have it floating all over the time, it's like when you do that all they can't come.

[00:18:19] I'm cleaning my teeth, I'm taking a shower, I'm eating breakfast or whatever it is. And you can never get the family together and then there's a hassle come on, feel it quickly get out of that shower.

[00:18:29] You know I've got to get to work at all sorts of things get set at time and then you'll revolve the whole of the morning around that time.

[00:18:39] I found it so important when I had students living in my home when I was president plumber union college after that three students.

[00:18:46] And in the end I had to make it so definite, listen I don't care what you do when you do it in the morning but at 630 or whatever the time was.

[00:18:56] But each quarter we'd sit down and work out at time that everyone agreed to you're here in worship. That worked very well.

[00:19:06] But you need a special time. In fact it's good to have just like we have regular times to eat, regular times to sleep and so on we need a regular time to worship and it doesn't fall through the cracks. And those worships are a preparation for the Sabbath.

[00:19:24] I believe the prayer meeting in the middle of the week is a preparation for the Sabbath. You believe that? Yes. Many of our churches in the states don't any longer have prayer meeting.

[00:19:37] You know well no one would come. I believe we should hold those prayer meetings even if there's only two or three that attend. The only time I could see not holding a prayer meeting if no one turned up and that really happens.

[00:19:56] You need to make those very special times of preparation. It's a kind of a spiritual lift in the middle of the week isn't it? That we all can have. That's the spiritual and of course as we go out and witness that is another preparation for the Sabbath.

[00:20:16] There's something about sharing the faith that makes you eager to get that spiritual lift on the Sabbath day. But then we look at the physical preparation. Yes Friday is a preparation. Let me read you a couple of statements.

[00:20:31] Some of you haven't seen this book Councils for the church just relatively recently put out by the widest state. It was actually first compiled in Australia. I was put out I think about 71. I believe it was 71. It was put out there.

[00:20:53] And it does have some of the test-meas in but it's got a whole lot of material and I found it a very excellent book. It talks about lots of things and you can have a look at it afterwards as 66 different areas.

[00:21:08] The medical work, relation with those not about persuasion, relations to civil rulers and law statin's deceptive work, music. That's an interesting one. Choice of reading, another interesting one. Christian education but this chapter that I'm dealing with here says the observance of God's Holy Sabbath.

[00:21:29] And it's a compilation of many statements here. The observance of God's Holy Sabbath. And I want to read to you some of the suggestions that I'm taking here on the preparation day.

[00:21:53] Now it says before the setting of the sun, when let the members of the family assemble to read God's Word to sing into pray. You don't have sundown worship five minutes out of five minutes after Sabbath is here.

[00:22:11] Sometime before I don't know she doesn't say how far with it might be five minutes before it might be quarter of an hour before.

[00:22:20] I remember when I was into make a one student telling me that an hour before the Sabbath, he's mother used to get the two boys together for opening a Sabbath worship.

[00:22:34] But certainly enough minutes before so that when the Sabbath comes in we're just into the right atmosphere of the Sabbath. That's what it's referring to here. By the way she has some good instruction in the family, a family worship, let the children take a part.

[00:22:52] Let all bring their bibles each read a verse or two. That's the older ones of course. Then let some familiar him be son followed by prayer. She says don't spend too much time so much time that it boars the children.

[00:23:10] The other day when the children says as the sun goes down at the close of the Sabbath let the boys appear in him prays mark the close of the sacred hours.

[00:23:19] You know I have to be honest with you that as a lab, some of those sundown worships were not, especially the one on said day night. I was just anxious to get out and do whatever I wanted to do.

[00:23:37] And I was always saying dad is not time to have sundown worship. My dad wasn't very impressed with that. He always felt his boys were not very respectful of the south. He was right.

[00:23:55] We wanted him to start so early on on said day night that the minute that the moment the Sabbath was out we were free you see.

[00:24:04] We learned eventually not to say anything today because he just seemed to have that habit of going longer if we ever made any statement. And he decided that sundown worship on Friday and Sabbath was the time to read the testimonies.

[00:24:26] I must be honest that the way I love the test Mr. Day I didn't love it then it's a wonder I didn't lose a love for it. And my father believed that worships were not meant to be rushed or hastened.

[00:24:40] And they shouldn't be and yet Ellen White has warning about not making it a time of discouragement for our children.

[00:24:51] But just has to be right we need to have something that's interesting for them. They really need to have the center of the worship so that it fits them at the age in which they are.

[00:25:03] I go now I sat down with my seven year old boy last week or a week and a half ago now and I read him just a little out of this not much couldn't read him the whole lot it would but he was attentive for that little time that I read it.

[00:25:19] You can read some advanced material to youngsters I find if you don't give them too much at once. And I could see that he was listening but then I decided I'd set enough enough for him to think about and to contemplate upon.

[00:25:41] We need to do that. Now I want to read you what the term to the Lord says and this is controversial I hope I don't get the negative reactions.

[00:25:50] I've had in some places to what I'm going to read here. Remember I'm reading the inspired word of God and each one of us has to evaluate it in the light of our own individual not that I believe the word does not stand clear.

[00:26:08] She says, while preparation we're going to come back to this. While preparation for the Sabbath is to be made all through the week. That's what you were saying sister Hopkins. Friday is to be the special preparation day. There is a special preparation day.

[00:26:31] You remember the experience in Exodus 16, 23 the manner experience. That is the first clear indication of the preparation for the Sabbath. You remember that when God gave them the manner in the wilderness he told them very directly you do not pick up more than you need for one day.

[00:26:56] The manner came down and there were some that weren't going to risk what God had said. Remember what they did? They got a pile of it for two or three or as many days as they thought they could get.

[00:27:07] They had a good time the first they made their cakes and their breads or whatever they made. Then the next morning they were up early to do it again and what did they find?

[00:27:18] Oh, tell you. It must have been pretty rink from what you can read in the Bible. No way they could use it. That was featlessness. But suddenly it came the sixth day of the week and God's room Moses said now take double today.

[00:27:38] But after the experience that some of them had had earlier in the week, they still weren't ready to trust God and so they just got enough for Friday. I suppose they didn't want their tent stinking from this food that had gone rink.

[00:28:01] And when they went up a woke up the next morning they went out of their tent to pick up the manner and what happened? It didn't happen did it.

[00:28:11] My guess is that many of the people that took a double portion on Sunday were the same ones that only took one portion on Friday. Faithless people they don't believe the word of God. We have those kind of people today. They cannot trust the word of God.

[00:28:33] Let's see what the servant of the Lord says here on Friday, let the preparation for the Sabbath be completed. Not started. You see, let it be completed.

[00:28:47] See that all the clothing is in readiness and that all the cooking is done. I'm seeing an alarming number of people wanting to do the fine lining, Sabbath morning. I've seen that at camp meetings. Let all the cooking be done. Let the boots be black.

[00:29:19] We'd say probably our shoes polished. Not everyone wears black shoes today, but we get the idea.

[00:29:28] As soon as only a little time to brush your shoes up and put a bit of polish on and shine them up about the similar the Lord under inspiration says let them be black.

[00:29:40] The next one is the one that I've been really attacked on. I don't know why, maybe because I didn't ride it. And the bobs be taken.

[00:29:55] I was at a heartlomb Bible conference down in Norco church in Southern California and not far from Loma Linda, a few miles from Loma Linda.

[00:30:07] I want to tell you two people really came at me when I read that. I tried to explain to them that I was reading what God had said not what I had said.

[00:30:20] Now, there are a lot of arguments on that issue. I read this just as last week in class. One of the students had a great difficulty with it.

[00:30:35] The first statement was that sounds like realism to me. Maybe blacking the shoes sounds like legalism too and maybe getting your clothes iron before Sabbath.

[00:30:51] We got to be very careful on an issue like this. Some say well, because in those days it was pretty hard work getting a bath.

[00:31:01] And it's not like that today we just turn on the faucet. And we got a shower. You see, you're a bath or whatever we want. I'm not here to tell you that I have final answers on this.

[00:31:16] But I know this when I was a student at Avandau College and we just turned on the faucet then in 1950-51. There was no way anyone showed it after the Sabbath hours. It just was never done. Friday afternoon you got in to those showers.

[00:31:43] And if you didn't, you went the church without a shower.

[00:31:47] What God is saying is everything that can possibly be done so that you could have that full day for the fellowship and for the worship and for the study and for whatever else a spiritual uplift should be done beforehand.

[00:32:05] Let me read on a little here in this passage. It is possible to do this if you make it a rule you can do it.

[00:32:13] The Sabbath is not to be given to the repairing of garments, to the cooking of food, to places seeking or any other worldly employment. Now some people also say well look at those days they didn't bath much. I remember reading the Queen Victoria bath every Saturday night.

[00:32:32] That was her bathing night. I think a queen would have the luxury of more baths and that wouldn't you. I was to take the back a few years ago when I was reading in the signs of the times and I'm sorry I don't have the reference here.

[00:32:54] Once we get least CDs and compact discs that are due out about January where you could just put it on. And in no time get that reference I hope you get some of those over here by the way that's going to be invaluable.

[00:33:08] Only 400 are coming out in the initial. It's going to cost, they think just under a thousand US dollars so something like what 700 or something. Pounds. But you're imagine with all that material, you know what I'm talking about with these compact discs, you're all familiar with it.

[00:33:28] The initial is only 400 of them. Heartland's got its order in by the way. We're making sure we're going to get one of those 400. But I would hope that here at Gaze or some of you individually will want to get them too. That 400 doesn't, that 8000 includes the display.

[00:33:49] It's not just a compact disc of our 400 itself. We could find it but you know what took me back when I read this article. It said that men should have saved before service. That really took me back. I thought back and I remembered my great Uncle Oscar.

[00:34:14] Back there in South Australia with all his German ways about him. And I used to note that Uncle Oscar used to shave Friday when I would go there once a year at the Christmas vacation time. And Uncle Oscar used to shave Friday afternoon and didn't shave on Sabbath.

[00:34:39] I used to wonder why, never remember ask him as only a boy at the time. But it made an impact, I remembered it. Why did he only shave Friday afternoon? And Uncle Oscar was the sort of a dark head person.

[00:34:54] You know what happens to dark head people by said day after noon. If they shaved on Friday afternoon, some of them say, hey I've got to shave twice a day. That's how much it comes in. But that was a statement that I might name.

[00:35:11] We could take our shoes before the Sabbath. Now that's what I do now. When I'm having my bath or shower just before Sabbath I'm also doing my Sabbath shaving. Now I don't do that for legalistic merit but I say with the law to set it.

[00:35:32] I want to be on the law side. I'd rather err on here side than on Satan side. That's the reason behind it. Now I know that sometimes this seems a little fanatic though, but I'm just reading what the inspiration says in this matter.

[00:35:50] Some people say, well in those days the average man I'll be shaved every second or third day and maybe true. Almost all the men had beards and therefore they shaved me was just a little bit up here, a little bit around the corner or whatever.

[00:36:05] But again I just read it to you as the servant of the Lord of Sabbath. There is a preparation. Now my wife and I have been talking again. Last weekend I suppose it was about the same here.

[00:36:24] We changed from daylight saving back to normal and suddenly the sun is setting very early as it did last night. It set before almost we realized the afternoon it got underway. And these are the afternoon at a very difficult.

[00:36:42] And if you want to create tension in your home, you can do it over Sabbath preparation. You know hurry up kids get through your bath. There's others waiting and it's soon be Sabbath and the tempest can get I've seen that happen.

[00:36:57] I must admit I've got someone hasty myself on a few occasions in the endeavor to be there for Sabbath. Now I believe there is a planning that each of us can do.

[00:37:10] I believe if we do everything we can before the preparation day, then we don't have that same tension. So as we were talking about it last week my wife and myself for this coming Sabbath the first one we would have with this short constant teen.

[00:37:30] We both agreed we would not go shopping on Friday. We'd do it beforehand maybe Thursday or get it all done. Even though I finish work in the office at lunch time it's not enough time to do all these things.

[00:37:47] So all that shopping needs to be done, not on Friday that's too late to be running to the supermarket. Thursday or maybe Wednesday that can be done beforehand. So we don't have that pressure on us. Why cannot we black and ask Jews on Sunday?

[00:38:11] For example for the Sabbath shoes. Why can't we prepare them anyway beforehand? We don't have to wait till Friday afternoon. Why cannot we have all our clothes washed in iron long before Friday? Yes, Sunday or Monday, you know, it's well before. I'm not specifying specifically a day.

[00:38:35] Why cannot we prepare those roasts and those casseroles if you know many of us have got freezes today haven't we? Just throw them in the freezer. And you don't have to do because Ellen White does say it's nice to have something special on Sabbath.

[00:38:52] You read that where she says, but the Sabbath it's nice to have something special on Sabbath. Well usually that which is special takes a little more to prepare. It takes a little longer. Usually not always, but usually it does.

[00:39:07] Why not do all that preparation sometime during the week and just put in the freezer? We got a lot of advantages today where we can do those kind of things. Of course garments being prepared. That's an obvious one that has to be done during the week.

[00:39:28] Don't have to wait the Friday afternoon to get up our car, do we? That surely can be done. You can get the petrol in there, thirsty or something like that. There are different things that we can do. But I believe the preparation for Sabbath is a consciously.

[00:39:46] It becomes a bit you a little after a while. I think we just wait till the last minute on Sabbath. For example, preparation day to do. Now there are some things obviously.

[00:39:58] If you can take your bars, if you can't assure you, if you're going to find all cleaning up and dusting down. We're in the middle of fall now and you know what happens. I was amazed last Sabbath.

[00:40:13] Here, a Sabbath afternoon which swept off all the paths, you know, all the leaves. By Sabbath afternoon you'd wonder that anyone had done any sweeping for a week. A leaves that just come down in such a flurry. But you do all you can.

[00:40:30] Some of those things do have to be kept till Friday afternoon to do. But you keep the least and as much preparation as you can, you do before the Sabbath hours. I would love about God is he's so understanding though.

[00:40:47] It never says that you cannot heat up the food on a cold day. In fact, let's say warm up the food, especially on a cold day. But that's a different thing from preparing it all this day. You do everything you can.

[00:41:07] One of the biggest challenges when you're in an institution, when you're working in an institution. And in an institution, if you're not careful, I've been in institutions where I've raised the alarm on the amount of preparation of food done during the Sabbath hours.

[00:41:28] I'm so grateful for the leadership we have in our cafeteria heart and there's so little minimum work. Even on Sabbath we don't even provide plates for them. So there's no one has to watch the dishes. We just give them paper plates.

[00:41:43] Our Sabbath hour meals are given with throwaways, so that it reduces the amount of work that has to be done. It's a minimal amount of work that we can do so as we can still adequately feed those who will be there.

[00:42:03] I don't believe it's legalism to try to give people a greatest amount of time for spiritual growth and development on the Sabbath day. We need to be careful even in our fellowship dinners.

[00:42:18] There is a tendency for us to send out of two or three other ladies and say you go and prepare it all while the sermon is going on. I must admit that I don't think that that's in the order that God would want for us.

[00:42:34] I think we'd be bedd away to another half hour for our lunch time if necessary. But everyone should have first priority in getting the physical food before the spiritual food before the physical food. These are little things but you know we have become a little careless haven't we?

[00:42:55] And when we're teaching people coming into the church we have to be so careful. When my great grandfather, great grandfather, the standish. You know even though he's got such an English name. My four bears over there in South Australia were mainly German.

[00:43:17] The only reason that we have the English name is because my great great grandfather, Thomas' standish and his brother, he was esconded from the British Army.

[00:43:32] And of course they had to get away fast and Australia was about the place you went when you run away in those days. And they hopped a boat and it so happened that boat was carrying a whole almost complete load of Germans out to Australia.

[00:43:52] In fact, they were the first significant group of Germans ever come to Australia. They lived in Solicia, which is now part of Poland. And they were reformed Lutheran. And they were being very severely persecuted by the State Lutheran church. They're in a part of Germany.

[00:44:29] And under the persecution they decided that they would flee to the land of freedom. By the way, they hadn't thought of Australia as a land of freedom or the United States. They were all destined to go to the Ukraine.

[00:44:46] Remember when Catherine the Great had opened up, great areas that the Ukraine for the Germans who were being persecuted. She really was quite enlightened Catherine the Great in that area.

[00:44:58] Unfortunately, later history was to be devastating to those Germans as you can understand in the first and second world war. But just before they were to leave, their leader passed a cruger, their reform, Lutheran passed a pass to Kruger.

[00:45:19] Came across here to England. I don't know why he came across here to England. Somehow he ran into some James Angus who was the governor of the new colony of South Australia.

[00:45:34] And he was over here desperately trying to encourage Englishmen to go out to South Australia and open up this new colony. And when he spoke to Kruger, he realized that Kruger had all these Germans that were going to go to the Ukraine.

[00:45:49] And he pled with him not to go to the Ukraine but bring them to South Australia. He must have made a pretty good case because Kruger went back and recommended it to the group.

[00:45:59] And most of them agreed to come with Kruger to South Australia. What a change of plans. And it so happened on this boat going out with all these Germans,

[00:46:11] at most of them called in somewhere here in England. And my great grandfather jumped on that boat to go to Australia.

[00:46:19] And of course there were slow trips out there in those days and both he and his brother took a fancy to one of the German girls that was going out there.

[00:46:30] The girls couldn't speak English and they couldn't speak German, but that didn't seem to make too much difference. And they had no special destination in Australia so they hopped off in at late two.

[00:46:43] They married these German girls, learnt German to communicate because you're only amongst Germans, they were no English-speaking people around. And so amongst all these shots and pecks and runfills and rifles and clicks and swathes and cranns and all the other German names that threw around in that group.

[00:47:08] Came the name Stan, he said looked a little bit out of place. Well I want to tell you, my four bears were died in the wool Germans in spite of the fact that they had this English name.

[00:47:19] And my dad as a fourth generation was brought up speaking German as his first language. In that hard-core German community, unfortunately they became the great wine growers of Australia. Cratic situation, but he was a reformed Lutheran.

[00:47:38] And when this message came to great grandfather Samuel Stanischt in 1915, bought by a German, rather buckhars, he didn't have to learn how to keep this abbas. He only had to know that it was a right day because they didn't play on Sabbath.

[00:48:03] They didn't work on Sabbath, they worshiped on Sabbath. These reformed Lutherans really kept Sunday the way that true Adventists keep Sabbath today. So all he had to do was learn the same day. That's not true the day when you go out and talk to people out here.

[00:48:18] When you say keep the Sabbath, you can understand it doesn't have a lot of meaning to many of them because they're not even keeping Sunday. They might get a church for an hour or so on Sunday. And I'll keep it.

[00:48:28] We have to really train our new converts of why the Sabbath is so important. What it has to do with our sanctification, without ceiling, without test of loyalty to God and why the keeping of the Sabbath is so important.

[00:48:46] Now, I read last night this day at least quoted. We should, jellously, guard the edges of the Sabbath. Remember that every moment is consecrated holy time. Whenever it is possible, employees should give their workers the hours from Friday noon until the beginning of the Sabbath.

[00:49:15] That's one of the difficult things that many face today. They say, I can't work on Sabbath. And so, five or ten minutes before Sabbath, they've arranged with their employer to take Sabbath off. They take to stop work. Some have worked that hour.

[00:49:35] But you know, true Sabbath keep in canning and be taken place that way. She says, whereas fire is possible, work should be stopped and we should not. And if we're employers, we should do that.

[00:49:52] I know even sometimes in our own institutions, we like to go as far as closest possible and still think we're keeping the Sabbath. But they need to be time for people to get home. They need to be time for them to get ready for Sabbath. Very important considerations.

[00:50:11] The elsewhere here, oh yes, here is another spiritual preparation that talks about on this day. All differences between brethren whether in the family or in the church should be put away.

[00:50:30] Now, once you come to the worship of God in the Sabbath day with hard feelings and bitterness towards fellow believers. How can you really enjoy the Sabbath under those circumstances?

[00:50:44] Now, one of the other councils that's given here is upon the Sabbath, they should be a solemn dedication of the family to God. Every Sabbath is should be a special dedication of the family to God.

[00:51:10] The commandment includes all within our gate, all the inmates of the house are to lay aside worldly business and employ the sacred hours in devotion. That's quite a challenge isn't it sometimes?

[00:51:31] All it is necessary that the people of God are assembled to talk of Him, to interchange thoughts and ideas in regard to the truth-conclaimed in His Word, and to devote a portion of time to appropriate prayer.

[00:51:47] Never think that you can be a Christian and yet withdraw yourself within yourselves. Each one is a part of a great web of humanity and the experience of each will be largely determined by the experience of His associates.

[00:52:03] Now, here is another area on Traveller on Sabbath. This is something very important. What is God's plan in traveling on the Sabbath during the Sabbath hours? That's even more important today now that we're going in trains and aeroplanes and buses and so on, or even in our cars.

[00:52:39] Here's the Council from God. I fear that we often travel on this day when it might be avoided.

[00:52:48] In harmony with the light which the Lord has given in regard to the observance of the Sabbath, we should be more careful about traveling on the boats or cars that was at trains. I think, well maybe the trams, maybe she's referring to trams, on this day.

[00:53:09] When compelled to travel on the Sabbath, and she in the case that there are times, for example, to go to preacher to witness, when compelled to travel on the Sabbath we should try to avoid the company of those who would draw our attention to worldly things.

[00:53:27] We should keep our minds stayed upon God and commune with Him. This is not a time to get with the person sitting next to you. This is not something that you regularly do, you understand, unless it's to get the church or something of that nature.

[00:53:42] She says further in these matters we should set a right example before our children are muting. In order to reach the churches that need our help and to give them the message that God desires Him to hear, it may be necessary for us to travel on the Sabbath.

[00:54:00] But so far as possible we should secure our tickets and make all necessary arrangements on some other day. When starting on a journey, we should make every possible effort to plan so as to avoid reaching our destination on Sabbath.

[00:54:20] Now, as you guys suppose, we're talking about some of these long boat trips that she took over here to Europe across to Australia and so on. Try to get on a boat that will not be scheduled to arrive on Sabbath.

[00:54:34] You see, while the boats going and keeping your little cabin on the Sabbath day and keep away from the worldly goings on, but if the boat arrives on Sabbath you imagine that that's very difficult.

[00:54:48] I suppose all of you are like me that if you have to fly, you make sure that you pick times outside the Sabbath hours to fly. I remember an experience I had where I unwittingly was on a plane on Sabbath.

[00:55:07] You might say, how could you be unwittingly on a plane on Sabbath? Well it happened. I believe it was 1973 or thereabouts. No, it was late in that and it was 1978. And I had been in Australia and I preached that Sabbath.

[00:55:31] A nine o'clock approximately Sunday morning I left Australia five plane for the United States. We stopped in Nandi in Fiji. And not too long after leaving Fiji the captain said we're now crossing the international date line. I looked out the window and the sun was still up.

[00:55:53] That meant we were back in Sabbath hours. It was an interesting experience. It hadn't even thought about it because I was leaving night at Clark Sunday morning, but I remember putting aside everything. And just getting out I forget where there was a Bible on my spiritual books.

[00:56:20] It was only about another half hour before the sun set. But I was back in Sacred Time. We get some little awkwardness this day and this jet age that we live in today. But deliberately we would not do those kind of things.

[00:56:40] Unless it was absolutely essential for some essential purpose. Sabbath is not a time for unnecessary travel. There are other issues on Sabbath. What do you do for children and youth in those hours that are not occupied with services and other activities?

[00:57:08] I think I look back. I had it easy as a boy for Sabbath keeping. We didn't have to fight with daylight saying, well we did when I was a little lab because the war was on. But after I was 11 years of age or 12 when the war ended,

[00:57:24] I didn't have to worry about it. Because the sun, the latest sun set in Newcastle where I lived in Australia, was 710. And there was no daylight saving to make that 810. Now that's not that late. Of course when you get to the equator it's even more equitable.

[00:57:53] But nevertheless I found those late Sabbath afternoons are really boring times. But we had something. I would go back 2-3 in the afternoon, J.M.Vs. 3-30 M.Vs.

[00:58:12] We had a couple of meetings in the afternoon and in the middle of winter when the sun was setting just after 5 o'clock. We often would wait and close Sabbath there at the church. And then walk home in the dusk, 6 blocks from the church.

[00:58:30] But in the summer, 710 was a little long. I have sympathy for our children and youth today in America where there is no such thing as MVs for at least for the white churches. Nothing in the afternoon. After 12 or 12 or 15 or whatever time people leave church,

[00:58:54] the rest of the afternoon is blank. It is Satan's plan in my mind to make the Sabbath a real chore to our children and youth. I mean, to fill in from there to late 30 at night when the sun sets under daylight saving.

[00:59:12] And worse in some parts if you went up to Scotland and be worse in that. It's a pretty difficult thing and that's a long time for youth and ensuring to be occupied in isn't it?

[00:59:24] We're trying to think of some things to do at heart and for our children and youth so that they have some worthwhile activities on the Sabbath afternoon. LMY does have some counsel to the parents upon this if I can find it here.

[00:59:52] You must be back here a little. Yes, here's what she suggests here. I should put it this way. The Sabbath school and the meeting for worship occupy one part of the Sabbath.

[01:00:08] The portion remaining to the family may be made the most sacred and precious season of all the Sabbath hours, much of this time parents should spend with their children. In many families the younger children are left to themselves to find entertainment as best they can.

[01:00:27] Left alone the children soon become restless and begin to play or engage in some kind of mischief. Have I seen that with my children? Thus the Sabbath has to them no sacred significance. All right, here are some positive suggestions.

[01:00:45] In pleasant weather let parents walk with their children in the fields and grows. I mean the beautiful things of nature tell them the reason for the institution of Sabbath.

[01:00:55] And that's a bit more difficult sometimes when we're living in the city and of course the time is come friends just as the seat to get out of the city as fast as we can. That's God's counsel. No doubt about it.

[01:01:11] Well I suppose we can find sometimes find a park where we can take them to even in the city. Tell them, describe to them God's great work of creation. Tell them that when the earth came from his hand it was wholly and beautiful.

[01:01:30] Every flower, every shrub, every tree ants of the purpose of its creator. Everything upon which the eye rested was lovely and filled the mind with thoughts of the love of God. Every sound was music and harmony with a voice of God.

[01:01:45] Show them it was sin which my God's perfect work, the thorns of thistles. Soro and pain and death all are the result of disobedience to God. Bit them see how the earth, though mud with a curse of sin still reveals God's goodness.

[01:02:00] A greenfields, a lofty tree, a glass, sunshine, the clouds of dew. Solum stillness of the night, the glory of the starry heavens and the moon in its beauty. All bear witness to the creator, not a drop of rain falls, not a rain so on.

[01:02:15] Tell them of the way of salvation. But the secret seems to be that our young people are to be kept much with the family. I noticed that when children are just left with other children the service is soon, desecrated.

[01:02:35] It's very difficult because children will bring other children down, even if they come from dedicated Adventist homes. And therefore it's important. The parents to fellowship together, one of the toughest thing is when you invite a family to your home.

[01:02:54] They have children, you've got children and you get it talking to the adults and where are the children? What are they doing? I believe the parents have to keep. And at least one of the parents says, well look, you carry on talking.

[01:03:09] I'll take the children for a walk or while they do such and such. I think it's important to do that because their eternal destiny is at stake. The Sabbath is to be a delight, but it is to be sacred.

[01:03:26] Well perhaps we've only touched some of the issues here in their bread and sisters. But when we keep the Sabbath as God has ordained it, not with the additional legalism that the Jews put into it, you know, if you walk this far,

[01:03:40] you keep the Sabbath. You go one step further, you're broken the Sabbath. The Sabbath day is journey as it was called in the Bible. No, that's not the issue but we must keep it sacred and holy. In our institutions, you recall what God has said there.

[01:04:02] That in our hospitals, in our sanitariums, there is not to be the same work done on Sabbath as there is during the week. A central work, the care of the sick, yes. And emergency operations, yes but not routine operations.

[01:04:20] Not elective surgery is not to be done on God's Sabbath day. Some of our nurses and doctors think that they can do just that kind of thing, because it happens to be medical.

[01:04:37] That's not true. In the book Medical Ministry, it says any fees that are received on the Sabbath. You know what she says about it? She says it should be given for the poor and needy. It should never be kept.

[01:05:01] Now, I am greatly alarmed and I've raised this issue that there are many today, and then they especially represent nurses. I don't know where that happens in this country, but it certainly happens in the United States,

[01:05:19] where because of family needs and that's a good reason, but the results are not good. They will take a 36 hours, since at the weekend, Friday, 7th and Sunday, 12 hours shifts. Get a four weeks pay for it. That's very common amongst nurses in the States, especially Adventist nurses.

[01:05:46] I want to tell you, you cannot take money that has been earned for yourself on Holy Day, on God's Holy Day.

[01:05:53] Many ministry makes that clear. I don't have the chapter and verse for it here, but you can easily find it because it's talking about keeping the Sabbath in our institutions. It's a chapter dealing with keeping the Sabbath. That's what we must do. Yes.

[01:06:11] What to do in the case, and anybody has a post? Hostel. Yes. Well, the same thing I don't know much about hostels, but I tell you anything that feeds that come into us in respect of the Sabbath must never be used for personal purposes.

[01:06:29] That's clear from the council of the Lord. You remember the experience that my brother Russell had when he became president of Bangkok Adventist Hospital? How many remember that situation? He was a ghost, and so were some of the other physicians.

[01:06:46] They were running this hospital on Sabbath about the same way they ran it on Thursday or Friday or any other day. And when they tried to do something about it, there was great resistance.

[01:06:58] Anyway, not long after that my brother was voted to be the administrator of that hospital. And immediately he called everyone and said from this Sabbath, there's going to be only the most necessary work done. We are not going to as far as possible. We will not release patients.

[01:07:17] And if they have to be released on Sabbath, then we'll ask them to pay their fees before Sabbath on the Friday.

[01:07:25] So there's no. And if people come into the emergency room, they go down a little receipt and on the back of it in English and entire, it said this is God's Holy Sacred 7th, 7th day, which we honor in this hospital.

[01:07:40] You will be happy to know that we do not keep any of the fees that are charged today, but all is used for charity work here in Thailand. And they just did it. Or there were some that opposed it, you know, there were Buddhists.

[01:08:01] But the very next day for the first time in years they had 100% sensors in that hospital. You think God was working? They were talking about what they could ever keep it going much longer because it was breaking down. They never did have a failing month after that.

[01:08:16] That hospital is a rock solid financially. God bless them financially as well as that way that was written up in the review and herald.

[01:08:26] Wherever we honor God, we can't say we can't do this. We can't do that because it's not appropriate or we can't survive. This leave that to God.

[01:08:39] It's important for us to follow God's Holy Sacred Day. I remember as a boy I'd go down to Varunga where our headquarters are in Australia to the Sydney Sanitarium.

[01:08:52] I'd go to church there in the old Varunga church and there in Sabis School would be all these training nurses in their uniform. They had a skeleton staff on in the hospital. I mean, that couldn't sound good, did it?

[01:09:10] But they had a minimal staff. That sounds better in the hospital. But at the break between Sabis School and church, these nurses would go up and take over and the other ones would come down. Everyone would get either Sabis School or church every Sabbath.

[01:09:32] There was a real definite effort to make sure everyone had the privilege of some aspect of corporate worship on Sabis. And the only minimal amount of necessary work was done during the Sabbath hours. I wish I could say that was happening today.

[01:09:52] I remember going into one of our hospitals for emergency needs on a Friday night and a tiny waiting room and there was a television blasting out at me.

[01:10:09] And there was nowhere else to go. You got to get any attention. I was on the board of that hospital and I certainly raised Ruckus on it at the next board meeting. But the best of all my knowledge they didn't change anything.

[01:10:23] On another occasion, I had a student in that hospital that was getting psychiatric treatment. When I up to visit her with my wife on Sabbath afternoon, I only defined her playing table tennis with the one of the Adventist Ordlies there in that hospital.

[01:10:41] Sabbath afternoon is basically part of a therapy. I tell you it's a very sad situation when you see guards, holy sacred, Sabbath day treated with such distinct in those institutions that are meant to be a great witness to God and his power and his love.

[01:11:01] Well, brethren, I insist as I hope that each one of us will keep in mind the joy, the angels saying, the sons of God, shouted and saying for joy when they go into Job 387, when creation took place to Sabbath.

[01:11:19] And I believe that we should be joyful and happy on his Sabbath day. Well, we're going to have a break but I want to share a little. Some of you have indicated to me that it's helpful to know more about what's in the books that are here.

[01:11:40] You know, this would be a golden opportunity for you to fill in your whole series of the Advent Books. There are seven of them. I haven't got five of them here.

[01:11:55] There are seven books in the Advent series. One of them is this book here. I'm so delighted. There's five copies of this here. There's not one in the United States. We don't have one back there. I was delighted when I saw Richard still had five copies.

[01:12:14] Now, many of fell this is the most powerful book that Russ and I have written. For some things, some other books are the most powerful. This is the book on education.

[01:12:26] Dealing with why if we cannot come back to education, we cannot finish the work of God. That takes up the issues straight up. Now, some people say, well, I am grandparent. I don't need it. Listen, the great grandparents need that book.

[01:12:41] Elamite says in the higher sense of work of education and redemption of one. If you're not in the middle of it, education, in the middle of redemption.

[01:12:50] I was pleased recently. I got a letter from one of our educators in Brazil. He said that is such an important book. Many of our teachers cannot read English. Would you give us permission to translate into the Portuguese language?

[01:13:07] Of course, I was happy to do that. He wants to distribute to all our teachers and there's huge numbers in Brazil of our teachers.

[01:13:16] I was thrilled to learn two that one of the professors at Andrés in the Education Department requires this to be read in his class by his graduate students. So we are about to publish a second edition or another edition of this, but there are five copies here.

[01:13:38] And I know that there's more than five people that will need it. But at least five families will have the opportunity here. Adventus am imperiled. And we are imperiled today, aren't we? We're in peril and we're in peril.

[01:13:55] This book here, Adventism Jepadized. If I was speaking on this topic, you'd have solved these out of sight. But we haven't been talking about the Christian home, the Christian family, mental health. My brother and I wrote this, the mental health from a truly Christian perspective.

[01:14:20] Most no help. Now if I'm many of our people are really struggling with emotional security. As you know, my doctorates in psychology and my brother also did psychology, get honors in psychology too before he went into medicine.

[01:14:40] And he's writing from the medical perspective and I'm writing from the educational and psychological perspective in here. But you know, both of us put aside everything that we'd learned at the University of Sydney. We decide to write it from the Bible perspective. That's the only true perspective.

[01:15:00] Ellen White says, the true principles of psychology are to be found in Holy Scripture. Do you believe it? I believe that. And this book has been a blessing to many, many people. It's an ugly cover. That's why people turn aside from it.

[01:15:17] We will get out in a new edition. Eventually we'll have a nice cover on it, but don't judge it but buy it's cover they say. But you use the cell and buy the cover.

[01:15:30] There's quite a few of those there. I think there'd be enough for everyone that's interested in it. A filling you gap, so seven books. I believe are critical reading. Russell and I start to write Adventism vindicated. That was our flagship.

[01:15:45] I don't have a copy of it here, but that's the red one. And Adventism vindicated. We start to write that because we certainly saw all this new theology and no one seemed to be writing anything to counter it.

[01:15:58] So we had no idea of going into the authorship. That's what's kind of started. But you know that book has been printed in Indonesian. Oh, you've got it there. Yes, thanks.

[01:16:12] Bring up the blue one too. The Adventism proclaimed. There's only a few of them left about four of them proclaimed left. I know quite a few you got them yesterday, but there's about four of them left.

[01:16:23] Not that we can't get more over here, but we're going to try and get them. But this weekend certainly we won't have them.

[01:16:33] This one we wrote for that now. We've got people translating into Spanish into Portuguese. I've been asked about a German translation. It's gone into the Russian language by the way.

[01:16:49] Elder Looney, when his vice president of the general conference he got two of these into Russia. When the leaders read they said, our all our people need to read it. We're going to put into the Russian language.

[01:17:00] So we're pleased about that. That is really a flagship. We've saw more of that than any of the books I suppose you could see. Hold the one.

[01:17:12] These two for how many of you have the two volumes of Adventism challenge? How many of preps I should say, how many have read them? Are they essential reading for anyone that wants to know where this church has gone in this direction?

[01:17:36] I tell you they are two of the most powerful books there. Don't pull them apart because their A and B. The first part has a subtitle, the gathering storm in the second one, the storm bursts.