"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall work but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work." Exodus 20:8-10

 "For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a Sabbath of complete rest, a holy convocation." Leviticus 23:3

 "There remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. . .therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest." Hebrews 4:9-11

 "Hey Fred, Becky and I are going on a vacation, would you do me a favor and keep my dog while we’re gone? If you can’t keep her at your house, do you think you could remember to check in on her here to make sure she has enough food and water?". . . "What you do you mean John? You guys don’t even have a dog!" 

 Of course Fred could not keep his friend’s dog if he didn’t have one. But what if John’s dog was only an imaginary dog? Well, to humor his friend, Fred may agree to remember to care for an imaginary dog, but he certainly wouldn’t take the job seriously. After all, just because John had the delusion that he had a dog, Fred knows that this is not really true.

 Our texts for today teach us that in the beginning God created the first six days for common work but the seventh day as a day for rest and for a holy convocation. God made this seventh day of creation holy and gave the commandment that we should remember to keep it holy.

We keep the Sabbath holy by resting from our work and by assembling as a holy convocation to worship the Lord. Our N.T. text reminds us that the Sabbath rest remains for the people of God and that we should be diligent to enter into it.

 Though it was only the seventh day that was made holy by God, many Christians have come to believe that they can keep the first day holy. But you can only keep holy what is already holy. To be holy is to be separated and the seventh day was separated from the other six days.

Trying to keep holy a day that God made a common work day is like trying to keep an imaginary dog. You can pretend that it really exists and even try to convince others that it is real, but in the end only the truth of God’s Word will matter. It seems that some are under the grand delusion that they have the power to make holy what they choose to, rather than gratefully receive and honor what God has already done and declared. But God has not called us to lead Him but to follow Him.

 While holding crusades in Africa I met many wonderful men of God. One day while in Nakuru, Kenya, Robert Mukotha, Pastor of a Disciples of Christ congregation came to visit with me. While having sweet fellowship together,

Robert suddenly said, -"You keep Sabbath - we keep Sunday!" He was trying to say that this was the only real difference between us. But then I asked him if his Church really kept Sunday. I told him that I had seen many coming from Sunday services to open their shops and asked if his members did this. He looked sad as he quietly said, "yes."

I told that my experience has been with non-Sabbatarians, is that they don’t really try to keep any day. They go to services but do whatever they want the rest of the day. Not that it really matters since it is a work day. I explained that you can only keep holy what is already holy- something Sunday has never been.

 As a result of our discussion, Pastor Mukotha studied the Sabbath question and his congregation later received it with gratitude. Afterwards a number of Pastors from Kenya and Uganda joined Robert in his study and also went from the imaginary to the real.