This message, related to the Sabbath, is a different kind of message than you have ever heard. For several years the Lord has indicated that we will keep the Sabbath in the days of the Kingdom. It is important to realize that prophecies in the Word, especially those of Isaiah, speak of the days of tribulation and judgment, as well as the dedication of the remnant that God is gathering together, to keep the holy Sabbath unto the Lord at that time.
The only way to explain these prophecies is that this Sabbath is related to the Kingdom. According to all the chronology, we are close to the end of six thousand years of God’s dealings with the human race.
Archeologists can talk about all the bones they dig up and how old they are, but that has nothing to do with it. There is nothing in the Word of God that says there has not been a human race or many forms of life here before. I believe the first creation of the earth, was destroyed in the fall of Lucifer. This earth may have gone through many things, but this is the first time that God has created beings in His own image and has been dealing with them, to bring forth many sons to glory. For six thousand years this has been taking place.
Now we come to the great seventh period of a thousand years, or the Sabbath. In other words, the Kingdom of God is being established. Now that we are in the eventide of the sixth day, it is like saying on Friday night at sundown, “I’m going to keep the Sabbath.” The keeping of the Sabbath begins at sundown, and so as we go into the dark period and yet the dawning of a new day, we are open for a Sabbath of faith, a Sabbath of vision that looks forward to what is going to take place in the Lord.
In no way should this be confused with the legalistic approach to the Sabbath. It should rather go back to the pure revelation of the Sabbath that was given from the very beginning. This is the time that the whole struggle of man will cease. He will cease from his labors and enter into His rest, what Hebrews 4 calls the Sabbath rest of the Lord. And it must be that some will enter into it. None have entered into it as yet, but we shall enter into it by faith.
In the coming kingdom age, we will be busy recreating the earth, the earth will be totally devastated, but there will be no warfare, because the devil will be bound for a thousand years, until he is loosed for the testing of those on planet earth.
The government of the Kingdom is a government of rest, not that we will not be busy, but our labor will be a joy and a flow of the Spirit of God in us.
We will consider certain verses in Isaiah, however not in chronological sequence, beginning with the very end of Isaiah.
“And it shall be from new moon to new moon and from sabbath to sabbath, all mankind will come to bow down before Me,” says the Lord. “Then they shall go forth and look on the corpses of the men who have transgressed against Me. For their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched; and they shall be an abhorrence to all mankind.” Isaiah 66:23, 24.
Why should the book of Isaiah end on this particular note? This is going to take place, in the very near future.
It means that when the Kingdom is established, all the people will keep the Sabbath. This first exercise is a brainwashing of all who enter into the Kingdom, that they also go and look with abhorrence on the corpses of the men who have perished under the tribulation judgments that God is bringing on the earth.
A passage that is very real to us now is Isaiah 66:7 and 8: “Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she gave birth to a boy. Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Can a land be born in one day? Can a nation be brought forth all at once? As soon as Zion travailed, she also brought forth her sons.”
The restoration of Zion is to take place, not over a long period of time, but in a day a nation is to be born. The Kingdom of God will not come forth slowly. As this gospel of the Kingdom goes forth, citizens of the Kingdom will be born into it in one day.
God’s Kingdom will begin to come forth in its end-time representation suddenly, quickly. Zion will travail. A nation will be born in a day. A Kingdom will come forth at once.
The end of this age is at hand. What we are looking for will not take place over hundreds of years. We are not being geared for hundreds of years; we are being prepared for the Lord to do a quick work in the earth and to cut it short in righteousness. This God has purposed to do.
As soon as Zion travailed, she also brought forth her sons. In the light of this, what is the most significant thing that is happening?
First, the gospel of the Kingdom is being preached; which is a different commission in Mathew to make disciples of all nations, than in Mark to preach the gospel of the cross to get people saved during the church age. And second, we are dedicated to perpetual intercession, continual prayer day and night in the house of the Lord. 24/7 prayer and worship, as the Lord raises up the tabernacle of David, as the gentiles flow in during the harvest.
The travail of Zion becomes the most important activity we can enter into at this present time, for in the travail of Zion and in her faith she is going to bring forth instantly.
Verse 9: “Shall I bring to the point of birth, and not give delivery?” says the Lord. “Or shall I who gives delivery shut the womb,” says your God.
In other words, “Am I going to bring forth and will that be the end?” No, there will be the prolific birth of many, many sons. He is not going to bring forth and close up the womb, and neither should you close your heart to many who are still in Babylon ( the religious system) as their churches begin to be shaken, many will come out and come into the Kingdom.
Because you have been brought forth by travail into the revelation of Zion does not mean that those who fail to see the revelation may not be the ones who are born into it today, tomorrow, or the next day. You keep your heart open and continue in travail, because the Lord says, “Shall I bring to birth and shut up the womb? No, I am bringing to birth and I will continue to bring forth.”
Verses 10–12: “Be joyful with Jerusalem and rejoice for her, all you who love her; be exceedingly glad with her, all you who mourn over her; that you may nurse and be satisfied with her comforting breasts; that you may suck and be delighted with her bountiful bosom.” For thus says the Lord, “Behold I extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream.”
I like the language of the Scripture. I think anyone who was bottle fed as a baby has missed something in life. Even though babyhood is apparently beyond the time of conscious memory, a great deal is ministered to a child who nurses at his mother’s breast. I think that more and more mothers and doctors are realizing this fact, and they are again saying that breast-fed babies have something of love ministered to them.
Of all the comforts ever extended to a child, there is perhaps nothing more precious than to be held in the arms of a mother whose breast is swollen with milk, half drowning the little baby as it gurgles delightedly and sucks away.
We can transfer and apply that picture to our churches. The babes are receiving words from the Lord that are just like the flow of a bountiful breast. They are getting that which is fast changing them from babes into children and on to sons.
This is what the Word says: “that you may nurse and be satisfied with her comforting breasts; that you may suck and be delighted with her bountiful bosom.”
God is bringing a day in which Zion is travailing and is bringing forth, and the bountiful flow of the Living Word is supplying all the nutrition that the little spiritual babes need for the glory of God. The restoration of the Living Word is going to cause these babies to grow up fast, right now there is a famine for this kind of Word, but the Lord is raising up his Apostolic Company given to the Ministry of the Living word and prayer.
Step by Step you will receive a wholesome diet of the Word, as it constantly challenges and encourages you to go on into the things of the Lord? And learn how to walk with the Lord until He becomes more real to you than any human being on the earth, because the Kingdom is in another dimension that makes this natural world just seem like a dream in comparison.
Verses 14–16 say of the Lord, …He shall be indignant toward His enemies. For behold, the Lord will come in fire and His chariots like the whirlwind, to render His anger with fury, and His rebuke with flames of fire.
Notice the chronological order. Zion travails to bring forth her children, then comes the bountiful flow of the Living Word to those who have been so brought forth in the Spirit of the Lord, and that is followed by the hours of judgment upon the earth. For the Lord will execute judgment by fire and by His sword on all flesh, and those slain by the Lord will be many.
Verse 18: “For I know their works and their thoughts; the time is coming to gather all nations and tongues. And they shall come and see My glory.” This precedes the concluding verses (23 and 24) which we considered earlier: “And it shall be from new moon to new moon and from sabbath to sabbath, all mankind will come to bow down before Me,” says the Lord. “Then shall they go forth and look on the corpses of the men who have transgressed against Me. For their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched; and they shall be an abhorrence to all mankind.”
This gives us an indication of why we keep the Sabbath. This Sabbath is a commemoration of faith for the time of the complete exaltation of our Lord, when every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess and everyone will come and worship in His holy mountain.
This is faith for the hour that is going to come. When all the world seems to be turning the other way, it is fitting that we keep this Sabbath of faith, believing that in spite of false prophets, false Christs, and antichrists, every knee will bow and all mankind will be submissive to the Lord. The Kingdom shall come. His will shall be done, in earth as it is in heaven.
This it is which we embrace, not a legalistic return to a dispensation that has passed. As a Christian I observe the Sabbath of the Lord.
Colossians 2:16 lays this open when it exhorts, “Don’t judge any man as regarding the new moon or a Sabbath day.” We’re not judging anyone. If the Sabbath, the Saturday, is everything to you, fine. If you say, “No, I can’t accept that; I’m a Sunday worshiper,” that too is all right.
As for me, I follow what Paul said. Some men keep every day alike, and as I enter into the Sabbath rest of the Lord, the Sabbath has not become a particular day to me; it has become a spiritual state.
Christ is my Sabbath rest and I have entered into the Sabbath rest. So I keep every day alike, as the day in which His Sabbath is being manifested. I can find His glorious rest on Monday as well as on Saturday or Sunday or any other day.
There is not a legalism in me pertaining to this, but there is something in my heart now that wants to keep the Sabbath in every way that God sets before me, with the hope and the anticipation of the Kingdom that is coming, of the hours of judgment that are going to purge the earth, of the day just before us when, according to the prophecies, all of these things will take place. This we can accept, and in this walk with God it is an act of faith to our very hearts.
For a short time we may be the ones who are triumphantly proclaiming that Jesus is Lord that every knee will bow, while everyone else is lamenting the fact that the day of the church is over and the world is becoming apostate, filled with witchcraft and all manner of evil, with false Christ’s and antichrists.
Let them make their appearance for a little while. It may seem to be imposing, but we keep a Sabbath of faith that all of this shall change. All of this will pass, and part of that Kingdom will be to go and observe the corpses of those who have fought against God. For the worm will not die and the fire will not be quenched. It is kind of a bloodthirsty thought, isn’t it?
Isaiah 56:1–8 contains more prophecies concerning this. Thus says the Lord, “Preserve justice, and do righteousness, for My salvation is about to come (get ready; it’s about to happen) and My righteousness to be revealed. How blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who takes hold of it; who keeps from profaning the sabbath, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.”
Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say, “The Lord will separate me from His people.” Neither let the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.” For thus says the Lord, “To the eunuchs who keep My sabbaths…
What is a eunuch? This move is characterized, first of all, by the castration of the old-order efforts—the creative human initiative that people have to run out and put on a program, to promote this plan or that plan, and then ask God to bless it.
That day is over. One of the first things that God did for all of us who came into this Walk with God was to make spiritual eunuchs of us, until we do not produce after the old order of things. Are you glad that you are not part of the promotional system, that old creative thing that is born of the flesh and therefore has to be castrated? We have to become eunuchs unto God.
For thus says the Lord, “To the eunuchs who keep My sabbaths, and choose what pleases Me, and hold fast My covenant, to them I will give in My house and within My walls a memorial, and a name better than that of sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name which shall not be cut off. Also the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to Him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants, everyone who keeps from profaning the sabbath, and holds fast My covenant….
Why is this thought about profaning the Sabbath important? Because the coming Kingdom will be without defilement. This great seventh thousand years that is to come will not be profaned. We keep the Sabbath, not out of a rigorous, religious discipline of legalism, but remembering the purity of the Kingdom that is coming.
…even those I will bring to My holy mountain (speaking about Zion), and make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on My altar; for My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples.”
Now we see the significance of intercession and prayer. Hebrews 10:25 emphasizes the importance of not neglecting the assembling of ourselves together, and especially so much the more as we see the day of the Lord approaching.
There will be frequent services, in kingdom churches . “Oh,” you say, “this is a rigid discipline. I’m getting too much church.” You cannot get too much. You cannot assemble too much, especially in connection with the exercise of corporate prayer, the holy remnant keeping faith, becoming the house of prayer.
There would be great value if any building that we use for a meeting place, even if it is a home, could have a designated room where people could come and constantly pray and seek the face of the Lord. It is to be a house of prayer.
The Lord God, who gathers the dispersed of Israel, declares, “Yet others I will gather to them, to those already gathered.”
That is the same thought as expressed in Isaiah 66, “Shall I bring forth and shut up the womb? No, I am going to bring forth others just as I brought you forth.”
We are the beginning of a procession of sons who will come to glory. We are the beginning.
Some will come forth, then others will come forth, and more and more will come forth. Don’t think, “We are the ones whom God has blessed. He brought us into this Walk with God and that’s it.” Oh, no, no. Your concern should be to hurry and get out of the womb of Zion because the next one will be kicking you out.
More will be coming forth. Zion is travailing. She will bring forth and the womb will not be shut up. “Yet others I will gather to them, to those already gathered,” is the promise in the Word.
Basically the Sabbath is a very spiritual thing. It is an expression of faith. It is not even an obedience to some legalistic letter of a past dispensation, any more than our keeping of the Passover follows the literal rules of the Old Testament Passover.
In no case do we keep the Feast according to the letter of the Old Testament. We do not kill a little lamb and put the blood on the door. Today we do none of those things that were commanded in the first Passover.
Why don’t we? It would be sin. There is no more sacrifice. Christ once for all became the sacrifice, and for anyone to go back and follow that old ritual would be a despising of the perfection of what Christ has done. That we cannot do.
Likewise, we don’t observe the Feast of Pentecost with the waving of the sheaves, nor do we build a little booth and live in it so many days at the Feast of Tabernacles.
These feasts have their fulfillment on the spiritual plane. Neither do we keep the Sabbath as the Old Testament laws described in Leviticus. We are recognizing that everything that has been prophesied in the Old Testament is focusing right into Christ.
Christ is my Passover. Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us. (I Corinthians 5:7). He is everything to me. He is my circumcision. He is my Passover. He is my Sabbath, for I have entered into rest by Him. He is all of these things, but this does not mean that we should not observe these days all the more and make the spiritual application.
What a great lesson the Lord has taught, as things have changed their form. We literally keep the Passover every time we eat the body and the blood of the Lord at the Communion Table, for the Passover of the Old Testament gave way to the spiritual reality of the Holy Communion Table.
Understanding this, keep yourselves away from legalism. We’ve had many critics who said, “It’s unscriptural for you to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.” They are trying to insist that we are going back and keeping a legalistic fulfillment of the feast. We never have done that, and we never will do it. It is the spiritual application that we are striving for. And that is what we want in this Sabbath.
Times are different. If you were restricted, as they were in Bible times, to traveling only the distance of a Sabbath day’s journey (about seven-tenths of a mile) on the Sabbath, you would never get to the service.
We are looking at something different now—something of the spirit that far surpasses the observance in the Old Testament times, or even in New Testament times when they still tried to observe the Sabbath as the law had taught them.
Paul told the Galatians, “You observe the Sabbath and new moons. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed labor upon you in vain” (Galatians 4:10, 11). To go back to those legalistic observances is only to find that all the teaching of the grace of God and the mercy of the Lord was in vain. We go on to a fulfillment that God is laying before us. Let us have faith for what is coming.
Isaiah 58, the famous chapter on the fast that the Lord has chosen, also has something significant to say about the Sabbath. Verses 13 and 14: If because of the sabbath, you turn your foot, from doing your own pleasure (just seeking your own gratification) on My holy day (it’s not how you regiment yourself and make yourself miserable; for even the Jews themselves found it a grievous thing they couldn’t keep and did not want to keep), and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord honorable, and shall honor it, desisting from your own ways, from seeking your own pleasure, and speaking your own word.…
What is the Sabbath significant of? Coming to the end of flesh and coming into the fullness of the Lord. It is speaking of the coming Kingdom. If you keep the Sabbath this way, then you will take delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
Isaiah 58:9–12: …If you remove the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger (or condemnation) and speaking wickedness, and if you give yourself to the hungry, and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness, and your gloom will become like midday. And the Lord will continually guide you, and satisfy your desire in scorched places, and give strength to your bones; and you will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail. And those from among you will rebuild the ancient ruins; you will raise up the age-old foundations; and you will be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of the streets in which to dwell. This is the message of the restoration. The restoration of the Sabbath is not for an age past; it is for an age to come.
What are we to believe for? We should prophesy with faith, believing for the exalting of the Lord. He is to be Lord. He is going to take over. We are renouncing the lordship of our own life, from going our own way, speaking our own words, going about our own pleasures and gratification. We are getting rid of that emphasis and we are coming to the place where we will be led of the Lord. He is going to be the Lord. We bow before Him with all of our hearts. Sabbath then becomes symbolic of faith, because we are believing for so much. Would you like to get rid of that fleshly nature that takes over in your heart? Would you like to be one of the Lord’s eunuchs, not creating or bringing forth after the flesh, but having God give you a name and a heritage in His house? All of this dovetails together.
This is probably the only pure revelation of the Sabbath that has come so far in this Walk with God, and there will be many more messages of this kind. What will they do to us? Bring us under law? or will they actually help us by faith to project ourselves into the Kingdom? For a long time we’ve known that there was no great urgency on it, but that God was going to bring the Sabbath revelation again. I believe today is a landmark, as we have received this word.
I feel that we will become more dedicated to the Sabbath than anyone who has been observing the Sabbath in a strictly legalistic way. It has meant a lot to them, but it will mean even more to us. We are to be more diligent about it. God will have to direct us as to how we shall have a Sabbath service. We prepare our hearts for it, and say, “Lord, You be glorified.”
We need now to be exhorted to enter into it with all of our heart. This has been a revelation to us, but revelations mean only as much as we are dedicated for them to mean. We can hear the word of the Lord and be a forgetful hearer. We can receive this word, and only be intrigued with it for the moment, or it can become the entire foundation of our lives.
If we hear the word and we obey it, it is like building upon a rock. When the floods come and the winds blow, it will stand because it is built on a rock.
Obedience is very necessary, not from a legalistic standpoint, but that obedience which reaches out to God and says, “I believe this word; therefore I take a step in the Lord. I shall be faithful to this word. I shall not turn away from it. With all my heart I cleave to what God has revealed to my heart and forsake it not.”
Let the children of the Lord who have received the word of the Lord delight in it, for the word of the Lord is a delight to thy heart. Then shall the Lord make thy way fruitful, and He shall make it blessed indeed. And even if thine understanding failed to perceive all that the Lord has spoken, yet thy heart hath embraced it, and with thy heart thou shalt believe. With thy mouth thou shalt confess it. Thy deliverance shall spring forth. And the Lord shall assure thee of a walk with Him that is on a plane higher than thou hast known to this point. If thou hast been a seeker after the Lord, then give full diligence, even as it is written in the second chapter of John, “Whatsoever He sayeth unto you, do it.”