Introduction: Have you considered that the name
“conservative” means an attitude of conserving things?
Keeping things as they are currently? In the United States
we face a movement trying to erase our history rather than
conserve it. The history reflected in statues and building
names is being erased by tearing down the statues and
renaming buildings. Whether this is good or bad depends on
your view. But this tearing down is nothing new.
Revelation 14:7 tells us to worship our Creator God. Satan has been
tearing down the reminders of our Creator God for some time.
We have considered how he attacked the creation account and
how he is attacking marriage in several ways. This week we
turn our study to how Satan has been attacking the Sabbath,
the weekly reminder of the Creation. Let’s jump into our
study of the Bible and learn more!
I. Worship
A. Read Revelation 14:7 and Revelation 14:9. What are
the opposing calls to worship? (One call is to
worship the Creator God. The other call is to
worship some things called “the beast” and “its
image.”)
B. Read Revelation 13:4-6. Who is the dragon and what
is the dragon’s relationship with the beast? (We
know from Revelation 12:7-9 that the dragon is
Satan. That makes the beast Satan’s agent.)
C. Read Revelation 13:7-8. What does the beast do on
Satan’s behalf? (It makes war against God’s
people. It demands worship.)
1. How important is the decision on who we will
worship? (If we worship the beast, which is
worshiping Satan, then we are lost. Those
whose names are written in the book of life
worship God and not the beast or Satan.)
D. Re-read Revelation 14:9 and read Revelation 14:11.
How can we tell those who worship the beast? (The
beast worshipers receive “a mark on [their]
forehead or on [their] hand.” This mark
represents the name of the beast.)
1. Notice the link between the mark and the name.
How do you understand this connection? (The
mark reflects the character of the beast, who
is the agent of Satan.)
E. Read Revelation 14:12. What does this tell us is
the counterpoint to those who decide to worship
the beast and receive its mark? (The saints have
faith in Jesus for their salvation and take God’s
commandments seriously.)
II. The Sabbath
A. Read Genesis 2:1-3. What does the “seventh day”
represent? (It is a holy memorial to creation.)
1. We just learned that the mark of the beast
reflects the character of Satan’s agent. Does
the Sabbath reflect the character of Jesus?
The character of His creative work?
B. Read Exodus 20:8-11. Again we are told that the
seventh day Sabbath is “holy.” What do you think
the phrase “the seventh day is a Sabbath to the
Lord your God” means?
1. What were the people supposed to do in place
of work? (The day was meant for worship of our
Creator God. This demonstrates why Revelation
14:11-12 makes the connection between
commandment keepers and the issue of receiving
the mark. Those who have faith in Jesus and
keep His commandments (including the fourth)
are worshiping God and not Satan.)
2. Is it reasonable to conclude that the “mark”
of false worship is the day on which a person
worships? (Discussing why we worship on
Sabbath will help to make this clear. We turn
next to the reasons to worship on the seventh
day Sabbath.)
III. Reasons For Sabbath Worship
A. Re-read Exodus 20:11. Why are we told to worship
on Sabbath? (It acknowledges the creative power of
God and His decision to rest.)
B. Read Deuteronomy 5:15. The Ten Commandments are
restated in Deuteronomy 5. What reason is given
here for worshiping on Sabbath? (Freedom from
slavery due to the “mighty hand” of God.)
C. Read Luke 23:54-56. What group do we seeing
observing the Sabbath? (These are the followers of
Jesus at the time of His crucifixion and
entombment.)
D. Read John 19:31-33 and John 20:17. While Jesus’
followers were resting on the Sabbath, these texts
(and their greater context) show that Jesus was
also resting in the grave the seventh day. On
Sunday He explains that He had not yet ascended to
heaven. Why the rest? Why the delay in His
resurrection? Why not fly off the cross in plain
sight of those who killed and mocked Him?
E. We have seen that the Sabbath celebrates the
Creation and it celebrates the defeat of the
Egyptian slave masters. Jesus used it to celebrate
His defeat of sin and the one who claimed to be
the ruler of the earth. See Matthew 4:8-9. Can you
summarize the Biblical reasons to worship on the
seventh-day? (It is about the power of God to
bless us and give us freedom. Jesus turned nothing
into a perfect creation. He defeated the powerful
Egyptians (and their supposed gods) to free His
people. Jesus defeated Satan to free us from sin
and eternal death.)
F. Let’s get back to the “mark” issue that reflects
the character and power of Satan. When you ignore
the Sabbath, what are your actions saying? (That
you reject Jesus’ power of creation, His freedom,
and His salvation. You are allied instead with the
enemy of those things.)
1. Is the foregoing an overstatement?
G. Read Isaiah 66:22-23. Where is this taking place?
(In heaven!)
1. What is the purpose of the Sabbath in heaven?
(Worship! This reinforces the idea that the
Sabbath is central to the issue of worshiping
God.)
2. These people have chosen God. They have not
received the mark of the beast. Isn’t the
Sabbath old history? Something of relevance
only in the past? (Consider this Sabbath
worship in accord with the history of Sabbath
worship. We add to the celebration of the
Creation, freedom from slavery, the defeat of
sin and Satan, the celebration of a new
heaven, a new earth, and the end of sin. Of
course Sabbath is still celebrated in heaven!)
H. Look again at Exodus 20:11. We see the central
idea of rest. Is rest still relevant in heaven?
(We are still resting in the power and the victory
of our God.)
IV. A Hard Look at Counter Arguments
A. If you agree that Satan is frantically tearing
down all memorials to our Creator God, what is
your attitude about substitutions for the
memorials other than the Sabbath? Specifically,
would a belief in same sex marriage be an
acceptable substitute for what God designed in
Eden? Would the view that gender is an arbitrary
label slapped on you at birth be an acceptable
substitute for the binary sex designed by God?
1. If you answered, “no,” to these questions,
then is the substitution of the first day of
the week an acceptable memorial?
B. Nowhere in the Bible is there a command to keep
Sunday. At best the argument is that the specific
day doesn’t matter. Is that true? (If the day
doesn’t matter then the other memorials coming out
of Eden don’t matter either. In fact, only the
Sabbath is specifically given as a memorial to
Creation.)
C. The Council of Laodicea took place 363 to 364 AD.
Canon 29 of that Council specifically states the
change in the day of worship: “Christians must not
judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work
on that day, rather honouring the Lord’s Day; and,
if they can, resting then as Christians. But if
any shall be found to be judaizers, let them be
anathema from Christ.”
1. To my knowledge this is the only written
authority for the change. As you look at it,
on what is it based? (Prejudice against Jews.)
2. If hatred of the Jews is sufficient to change
the Fourth Commandment, what about the rest of
the commandments? Aren’t they also Jewish?
3. If hatred of the Jews is sufficient to ignore
the consistent statements of the Bible on the
Sabbath, what about the other things written
in the gospels? What about the writings of
Paul?
D. Friend, a war is going on over the memorials to
God’s Creation. A war over worship. Will you join
those who stand against erasing the memorials?
Will you stand with those who worship God? Why
not, by the power of the Holy Spirit, take your
stand right now?
V. Next week: A City Called Confusion.
Copr. 2023, Bruce N. Cameron, J.D. Scripture quotations are
from the ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard
Version ), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing
ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All
rights reserved. Suggested answers are found within
parentheses. If you normally receive this lesson by e-mail,
but it is lost one week, you can find it by clicking on this
link: http://www.GoBible.org. Pray for the guidance of the
Holy Spirit as you study.
