THE CREATION SABBATH
GENESIS 2:2, 3
A. IT IS NOTEWORTHY AND THOUGHT PROVOKING
1. That God chose to create this world in:
a. Six evening and morning days - Gen. 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31
b. The creation days were from even unto even - Lev. 23:32; from sunset to sunset - Mark 1:32; Deut. 16:6
2. How God created this world:
a. The theory of evolution.
b. He spoke this world into being - Ps. 3:6, 9; Gen. 1:3, 6, 9,11, 14, 15, 20, 24, 26; Ps. 148:5
B. THE CREATION WEEK
1. Why did God choose to create the world in six evening and morning days?
a. He could have spoken the world into being in a moment - in the twinkling of an eye.
b. But he took six twenty-four-hour days to complete creation.
c. He, who knows the end from the beginning, for known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world - Acts 15:18 - chose to measure time in this manner.
2. God created the world in six days and He rested on the seventh day:
a. Thus setting an eternal precedent to be followed by men - Ex. 20:8-11; Heb. 4:9, 10
b. That fact alone makes the seventh day of the week God’s rest day forever - Eccl. 3:14
c. The rest of the Creator on the seventh day marks the beginning of our perpetual weekly cycle. This is a fact to keep in mind as we study the creation Sabbath.
d. The week is measured by the Sabbath - Compare Ex. 16:3-28 with Ezek. 46:1; Ex. 20:8-11
e. This measurement of time has been recognized by men since the very beginning of civilization.
C. THE CREATION SABBATH
1. The creation Sabbath has its origin in a threefold act of the Creator:
a. He rested on the seventh day from all His work and was refreshed - Gen. 2:3; Ex. 31:17
b. That fact, alone, makes the seventh day of the week God’s holy Sabbath day forever - Eccl. 3:14
c. He blessed the seventh day because that in it He had rested from all His works, which God created and made.
d. God’s bestowal of His blessing on the seventh day Sabbath gives the lie to the theory that the Sabbath is a burden to those who seek to keep it Compare Gen. 2:3 with 1 Chron. 17:27; Num. 23:20
e. He hallowed, set aside the seventh day Sabbath, by his own example - Ex. 20:11
2. God’s act when bringing the weekly Sabbath into being at the beginning of creation:
a. Is Biblical proof that the weekly Sabbath predates sin in this world, and shows that it cannot be nationalized or localized as some would have us think.
b. It predates the Jewish race by over twenty-four hundred years.
3. Let us note, carefully, why God made the weekly Sabbath:
a. It was made for man - the human race - Mark 2:27
b. Note, please, "the Sabbath was made", that fact excludes it from the Sabbaths that came into being in the early history of the children of Israel - Lev. 23:4-37. It was made, they were appointed.
c. It was made for man - Adam - the human race - Mark 2:27. That fact makes it a universal institution dating back to creation.
d. We shall learn later for what purpose God made the seventh day Sabbath.
