The Seal of the Living God
The Heart of Revelation's Final Crisis
The Revelation of Jesus Christ
Tonight we are going to zero in on the last part of the First Angel's Message in Revelation chapter 14. This will open up a whole new understanding for many of you and will challenge you to have a closer walk with Jesus than you've had.
The First Angel proclaims, "Fear God, and give glory to Him for the hour of His judgment has come, and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water"Revelation 14:7).
Friends, we are called to worship the Creator! This is part of the "everlasting gospel," the good news for the time of the end. At a time when the theory of evolution is so dominant at the college and university level, at a time when so many are searching for purpose and meaning in life, and yes, at a time when the beast power is gaining momentum, the angel announces to the whole world that it is time to worship God our Creator.
John was given a vision of heavenly worship. He was allowed to see into heaven itself and take in the awesome scene. He was beaconed by the angel, "Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this" (Revelation 4:1).
And what he was shown was spectacular! There before him was heaven's throne room. Twenty-four elders sat on thrones in an outer circle, centering their attention on God Himself. A little closer to the throne, four incredible beings stood and suddenly they became a quartet that praised God:
"Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!" (Revelation 4:8).
Whenever the elders hear that, they cast their crowns before the throne and join in: "You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created" (Revelation 4:11).
In another vision, the towering figure of an angel stands before John and takes an oath by�.
"Him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and the things that are in it, the earth and the things that are in it, and the sea and the things that are in it" (Revelation 10:6).
Friends, it is a very distinctive feature of heavenly worship and a very distinctive feature of heaven's activities that God is proclaimed as Creator of all. The first angel's message is the good news that we can join those close to the throne and those sent to earth in the worship and praise of our Creator.
God wants us to be part of heaven's experience. That's why we are called to worship God as our Creator. Doesn't that just draw your heart toward Him? We can say, "Thank you, God, for inviting all of us to be a part of what happens in heaven!"
But you know what? Most people have lost sight of that today. People on this planet have had their attention diverted from this Creator God. He has shrunk in size, shrunk in power. He is no longer worthy of our heart-felt praise and worship. He's only worthy of a quick nod heavenward. A book I read some years ago really sums up people's attitude-"Your God Is Too Small" by J.B. Philips.
Let me tell you about one of the main reasons that has happened. In 1831 a British ship called The Beagle sailed down the western coast of South America. Its mission was to map that part of the world more accurately.
When the ship docked at the Galapagos Islands, the naturalist on board took a keen interest in the animals unique to the islands. He gathered information on a variety of bird species, their different beak shapes, coloring, etc. And his interpretation of that data would change the way most people look at the world and God.
The naturalist was, of course, Charles Darwin. His theory was the origin of life by natural selection. His theory shocked Victorian England. A few observations on the variations in species had apparently eliminated the need for a Creator.
The theory of evolution began to dawn on the minds of the educated and from generation to generation of students it has been passed on in one form or another. God seemed no longer necessary. But God has an answer to the problem of evolution. It is part of His final message for all people. Revelation calls us to "worship Him who made heaven and earth, sea and the springs of water" (Revelation 14:7). How do we worship the Creator of heaven and earth? How does He remind us of His creative power?
All of the books of the Bible meet and end in Revelation. We will only understand the significance of the monumental issues before us if we understand our true origin and roots. Revelation's final call for the entire human race to worship the Creator has its origin in Genesis-the book of beginnings. This theme of true worship-remembering the Creator-is a common thread throughout the Bible. It is one of the most important themes of Scripture.
The heart of Revelation's final crisis is over true and false worship. Worshipping the Creator is at the center of it all. Let's return to our origin so we can understand our destiny. Let's return to the book of beginnings, Genesis, so we can understand the book of endings, Revelation.
The amazingly intricate world as we know it today was created in six literal, contiguous days. Starting with a dark shapeless mass, God dazzled it with light, enveloped it with atmosphere, salted it with seas, brightened it with plants, enlivened it with wild things, day by day looking upon his handiwork and saying, 'It's good!' And then came the crowning act of creation. Turning to the Father, the Creator said: 'Let Us make man in Our image . . . in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them" (Genesis 1:26, 27).
This was the greatest honor given to Man. God could have shown no greater love! The human race is God's masterpiece of creation-the object of His supreme love! And this love was meant to be shared, for God said: 'Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over . . . every living thing that moves on the earth" (Genesis 1:28).
After the creation of Adam and Eve on the sixth day, the Bible says: 'Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished� (Genesis 2:1).
Just six days of work, and creation was done. Such a short time! But not for God! The Bible says: �For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast" (Psalm 33:9).
Can you imagine Adam and Eve taking all this in? They must have wondered at the blazing sun, in all its glory. Then the sun began to slip over the western horizon, ending the sixth day of creation. But the Genesis account of creation does not end there.
The Bible record continues: "On the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested' (Genesis 2:2).
God rested! Why? Not because He was weary, for the prophet Isaiah tells us that God never gets weary (Isaiah 40:28). The Creator of the universe permitted Himself the satisfaction of enjoying His completed creation. And then, pleased with His accomplishments over Earth's first six days, God did something especially significant:
"Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work of creating" (Genesis 2:3).
A Reminder of Our Roots
Notice what God did with the seventh day. He set it apart as a holy day, a special time every seven days to continually remind us of our beginnings-our roots! As long as you and I set aside the seventh day to worship our Creator, we will never lose sight of who we are, where we came from, or what our eternal destiny is. Every seventh day, we are forever linked with our Creator.
But Bible history reveals the sad truth that by the time of Moses, God's people, who were in Egyptian bondage, had forgotten their roots and God's special day of fellowship. But God had a plan to remind His people of His special day. See Exodus 5:5; 33:14.
As Moses led the Israelites from Egypt to the promised land, food rations ran out in the Sinai desert. Here, God miraculously provided bread from heaven, called �manna,� for forty years. But the story is about more than receiving a daily bread supply for forty years! The manna appeared on the ground only six days a week-the first through the sixth! But on the sixth day, the Israelites were instructed to gather up enough manna for the seventh day! The manna never fell on the seventh day, and if extra was gathered in advance on any day other than the sixth, it would spoil. Why? God wanted His people to know that the One who had led them out of Egypt was also their Creator. God wanted to point His creatures back to their creation. Through the way He supplied the manna, God wanted His people to know that His day was very special-that it had in no way faded in significance with the passing of time. God linked the manna experience with the Sabbath of creation:
"Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, there will be none" (Exodus 16:26).
But some refused to follow God's instructions. They went out on the Sabbath to gather manna. But they did not find any. And our patient Lord asked:
'How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws' (Exodus 16:28)?
From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible speaks with one voice regarding the importance of the weekly Sabbath. Several weeks after the beginning of the manna experience, God again came close to men and women when He wrote the great eternal commandments with His own finger. The fourth commandment reads:
'Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work . . . for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it" (Exodus 20:8-10, KJV).
These are the eternal words of God. He calls men and women to remember the weekly memorial of creation-the seventh-day Sabbath. And He promises His people many blessings in connection with this special day (See Isaiah 56:6-7).
The High Cost of Forgetting
Had men and women always remembered this memorial of God's creation, the problems so prevalent today-lack of meaning in life, identity crises, loss of self-worth-would never have arisen. The influence of evolutionists, skeptics, and agnostics would be zero!
Nowhere in the Bible is the Sabbath called "The Sabbath of the Jews." Jesus made it clear that it was a day for all mankind when He said:
"The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath" (Mark 2:27).
Jesus also said that He is:
'Lord even of the Sabbath" (Matthew 12:8).
And its meaning goes even deeper than a memorial. The creative power used in sanctifying the Sabbath is the same power God uses today in sanctifying sinful men and women. That promise means that our Creator is also our Savior:
"Moreover I also gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between them and Me, that they might know that I am the LORD who sanctifies them" (Ezekiel 20:12).
To observe the Sabbath is to recognize and receive God's creative, sanctifying power in our lives today.
Throughout the New Testament we find that Jesus did not forget this special memorial of creation while He was on this earth. Luke tells us:
"So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read" (Luke 4:16).
Jesus' custom, then, was to go to the synagogue on Sabbath. But, you might ask, which day is the Sabbath? How can we be certain on which day Jesus worshipped? How do we know that somewhere between the time of Moses and Jesus, God might have changed the day? Think about it for a moment. If the day had been changed or forgotten between Adam's time and Moses' time, God would have rectified it when He wrote the Ten Commandments at Sinai. If the Sabbath day had been lost between Moses' time and Jesus' time, Christ would surely have set the record straight.
If God were to make such a major change involving one of His eternal commandments, then we should be able to find some record of it in the Bible! The issue of which day was the Sabbath never arose while Jesus was on Earth. The only controversy arose over how He kept it.
Piling on the Rules
Ever since their return from captivity in Babylon, Jewish leaders were determined that never again would their nation forget their Lord or the importance of the weekly Sabbath. In this dedication to "remembering" the Sabbath day to "keep it holy," Jewish leaders, in spite of their good intentions, made the Sabbath a cruel burden. They distorted Sabbath observance by heaping on it stern, burdensome regulations.
For example, they would not allow a man to spit on the Sabbath, for fear he would irrigate the grass! A man could not travel more than a certain number of miles from his home on the Sabbath. If he had plans to do so, he could travel part way the day before and leave some token-a handkerchief, a piece of cloth-to set up a temporary "home' and thus justify the additional miles.
The common people had no spiritual rest or fulfillment because their minds were preoccupied with making sure they got it right. That led Jesus to say:
'Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30).
Now notice what day Jesus said this on (See Matthew 12:1).
Jesus tried to eliminate such meaningless man-made requirements and show the true beauty and significance of Sabbath observance. When He was accused of breaking the Sabbath because He healed people on that day, He answered:
"It is lawful to do good on the Sabbath" (Matthew 12:12).
As we look at Calvary, the true meaning of Sabbath observance is demonstrated by the devoted followers of Jesus. On Friday, the day before the Sabbath, the disciples' hopes in Jesus had been crushed. They witnessed Him dying a cruel death on the cross. Their dreams and hopes lay in a darkened tomb.
As a last act of devotion, they wanted to anoint His dead body. But first they paused to give honor and glory to God during the Sabbath hours. Under the shadow of the world's greatest crisis, Jesus' friends rested according to God's command. Note carefully the sequence of events in these texts:
"That day was the Preparation, and the Sabbath drew near. And the women who had come with Him from Galilee followed after, and they observed the tomb and how His body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and fragrant oils. And they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment. Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they, and certain other women with them, came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared" (Luke 23:54-24:1).
Let us review the order of events:
Friends, just as a side note, in 108 languages of the world, the word for the seventh day of the week is "Sabbath." For example, in Spanish it's "Sabado."
The closer we get to the cross today, the more we realize that just any day in seven will not do! To tamper with the Sabbath is to tamper with creation, Sinai, and Calvary itself!
Our Creator asks us to "remember!" Yet so many have forgotten! This blurring of God's commandment also blurs our relationship with our Creator. Jesus expected that Christians would keep the Sabbath for all time. Note His words of instruction given on an earlier occasion, referring to events yet to come to the Jewish people after He had departed:
"And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath" (Matthew 24:20).
Jesus expected that about forty years after His death, when Jerusalem was destroyed, Christians would still be keeping the Sabbath.
The New Testament reveals that Jesus' followers did keep the Sabbath after the resurrection. In fact, the book of Acts records eighty-four meetings that Paul held on the Sabbath. For example, on one occasion, as Paul preached in the synagogue, a group of gentile visitors approached him and requested that he speak the following Sabbath:
"The Gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath . . . And the next Sabbath almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God" (Acts 13:42, 44).
On another occasion, Paul and his companions met with a group who gathered for prayer on the Sabbath:
"And on the Sabbath day we went out of the city to the riverside where prayer was customarily made; and we sat down and spoke to the women who met there" (Acts 16:13).
And on another occasion, we see Paul's practice of observing the Sabbath:
"They came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures" (Acts 17:1, 2).
When John wrote Revelation on the Island of Patmos it was approximately 64 A.D. And this is what he wrote: "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day". What day was it? It was the Lord's Day. According to Jesus, which day is that? Here's a solid conclusion you can make: The Sabbath of the Creator God in Genesis, is the Lord's Day of Revelation!
The Prophetic Clincher
We have seen the Sabbath from Genesis to Revelation. The first angel's message calls us to worship "Him who made heaven and earth, the sea, and the springs of water" (Revelation 14:7).
This is an urgent call friends. The proclamation of the Three Angel's Messages go to all the world in God's judgment hour. Since the prophecies of Daniel 8 and 9 point us to the year 1844 as the time these angels begin their work, the Sabbath comes to light at a very crucial time.
Charles Darwin took his trip on the Beagle in 1831. Guess what happened in 1844, the very year Bible prophecy points us to the worship of the Creator? Darwin finished what is called the "1844 Sketch of the Origin of the Species."
Does God have perfect timing or what!? And I would like to make one more crucial point about evolution. Many folks try and bring Creation and Evolution together in one theory of origins. They do that in a variety of ways, but I would like to make one rock-solid point:
Evolution says that life evolved from simple to complex life forms over a very long span of time. During that span of time, life and death occurred. The Genesis story tells us that God created in six literal, contiguous days and some time after that man sinned and the result was death.
Friends, evolution says death is the natural result of the process, Genesis tells us that death is the result of sin. You can't have it both ways! The Bible teaches us that there is a �causal connection� between sin and death. Evolution says there isn't. Death is natural. The Bible teaches us that we need a Savior from sin. Evolution says we don't need Jesus because nothing can save us from death.
Evolution and Creation are incompatible!
A Golden Thread
The Sabbath runs like a golden thread from Genesis to Revelation. The book of Revelation describes those who are prepared to meet Jesus when He comes:
"Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus" (Revelation 14:12).
And one of those commandments tells us to "remember" the Sabbath day-a sign between God and man forever! This Biblical truth about the Sabbath may be new to you. You may never have realized before that God's Sabbath is for all mankind. But we all have an appointment with God each Sabbath day, every week. Established at creation, given in the heart of the Ten Commandments, kept by Jesus, and honored by the disciples, the Sabbath is God's sign of eternal loyalty. See Isaiah 66:22,23. He personally invites you to experience the benefits of Sabbath-keeping.
The Sabbath provides rich opportunities for spiritual renewal, physical rejuvenation, and mental relaxation. It Is God's own treasure. It is a precious, priceless gift which He has given to us.
Jesus makes an appeal to each of us. In this age of evolution, at a time of stress and tension, with nerves jangling, God is calling us to discover the hidden treasure of the Sabbath. You can find a new peace, joy and meaning in your life as you open your heart to follow Him.