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Amazing Facts

Bricks Without Straw

Doug Batchelor

01 Bricks Without Straw

This presentation is brought to you by the Friends of the Amazing Facts Ministry.

If you've ever been to Arlington National Cemetery, you have probably seen a sharp-looking sentinel guarding the tomb of the unknown soldier.

Every detail of this honor guard service is flawlessly executed and it's filled with symbolism too.

Only a fraction of soldiers who try out for this position are accepted.

Candidates must meet strict qualifications and pass both written and proficiency tests.

Those who make the cut are held to a very high standard.

The guards, which are changed every 30 minutes in the summer and every hour in the winter, have been patrolling the tomb 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, continuously, since April 6, 1948, in all kinds of weather, including hurricanes.

For them, guarding the tomb is not just an assignment, it's the highest honor a service person can receive.

Did you know the Bible teaches that God has a memorial to be remembered in His Word?

It's found in the fourth commandment and it memorializes God's creative and sanctifying power honoring Him as our creator and redeemer.

Let's take a few minutes now and explore from the Bible this memorial found in God's word.

I want to welcome those who may be not only here but those who are watching the panorama of prophecy.

We're starting to get into some of the very crucial Bible prophecy subjects.

Our study tonight is dealing with the subject of bricks without straw.

The story of the Bible is the story of a people that God calls out of slavery into the promised land.

We remember where It tells us in the book of Exodus that Moses was a little baby, you know, he was adopted by the Pharaoh's princess and it looks like he was in line to be a prime minister but he recognized his people were the Hebrews and they were being persecuted When he tried to deliver the Hebrew people, when he was a young man about 40 years of age, he ended up murdering 1 of their taskmasters that was beating a Hebrew and he had to leave the country.

Moses spent 40 years in the wilderness taking care of the sheep of Jethro, turned out being his father-in-law.

Then God called him at the burning bush and said, I want you to go back and now you're ready.

I want you to lead the people out of Egypt.

God said, I'll give you my power, trust me.

So Moses went and he met up with his brother Aaron, and before he went to the Pharaoh, he was instructed first to gather together the elders, the leaders of Israel, and tell them God was about to visit you and do many wonders and signs to deliver you.

But since they'd been living in Egypt, they had drifted from God.

See, Abraham, the Bible tells us, he obeyed God's commandments and laws and precepts.

But his people in Egypt had begun to compromise with the Egyptians.

Egypt was full of idols, you still see that today.

They started to get involved in idolatry and some of the promiscuity and other problems.

And among the things that happened is they had stopped remembering God's holy time, because the Pharaoh had them working 7 days a week.

Then Moses and Aaron went and they gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel.

And afterward, Moses and Aaron went in and they told the Pharaoh, thus says the Lord God of Israel, let my people go." Pharaoh said, who is the Lord that I should let Israel go?

The Pharaoh said, look, the people of the land are many.

Pharaoh had his spies out there and he knew the taskmasters were watching when Moses and Aaron met with the leaders, and he said, the people are many, and you make them rest from their labor, because they had started keeping the Sabbath again.

And the word there, even the Pharaoh uses this word, you make them Shabbat.

You're making them rest from their labor.

Thus said the Pharaoh, I will not give you straw.

Go out and find straw where you can find it.

And he said, I'm going to basically increase your workload.

Therefore, go now and work, for no straw will be given you." It says you're idle and you're listening to senseless words.

Pharaoh knew that they had been listening to Moses and Aaron.

And he figured if I could keep them working, working, working, They won't think about worshiping their God.

Just get them too busy to think about freedom.

Now if I was going to tell you tonight, friends, I've got good news for you.

At the conclusion of our presentation tonight, you have the opportunity to have joy, to be blessed, to have peace, to have rest, would you say, hey, I'm all in for that.

That's the result of what I want to share with you tonight.

I want to talk to you about something where God wants you to be blessed, and a lot of people have been the devil's got them working themselves to death like the Pharaoh making bricks without straw empty distractions with the cares and worries of the world Jesus said when it comes to the second coming he said take heed beware lest your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and the cares of this life so that day overtakes you as a thief.

The devil wants us to be so busy with the cares of this life.

Have we ever had a culture that is busier than what's going on in the world today?

You know, partly because of Thomas Edison.

Used to be when the Sun went down, people went to bed.

It was expensive to keep oil lamps burning all night long.

Had to kill a lot of whales back then to do that.

According to the American Psychological Association, stress is linked to the 6 leading causes of death in the United States.

Heart disease, cancer, lung ailments, accidents, cirrhosis of the liver, and suicide.

And the Bible's got a prescription for that kind of stress.

We're living in the age of stress, due largely to laptop computers, smartphones, email.

The concept of leaving work at home has almost become obsolete.

Look, Karen, I've got a place way up in the hills.

But years ago I figured out, hey I can get satellite reception up here and have internet.

And now even when I go out of town on vacation, I find myself checking my emails to find out what work has been left undone.

And Carol said, come on Doug, we're out here.

Let's go take a walk or work in the garden.

How many of you have emailed your spouse or texted them and they're still in the house with you.

I could tell by the laugh that some of you are guilty.

But we're living in an age where people are working to death and churches used to know about that day every week that was called the day of rest.

So we're going to study that subject because it is not only a blessing, it is a commandment of God.

And what the devil is going to do in the last days is try to get people to disobey God's commandments.

1 time there was a, you know the story about the talking donkey and Balaam?

God protected his people, Balaam wanted to curse them, he tried to curse them and blessings came out, Balaam went back to the king of Moab and said, look, if you want me to curse Israel, he says, I can't just curse him.

But if you can tempt them to disobey 1 of God's commandments, then God will withdraw his protection and they'll suffer.

So they sent a bunch of women in, enticed them into idolatry and adultery, and a curse fell on Israel.

The devil tries to get us to disobey because sin hurts us and it hurts God.

That's what happened in Daniel chapter 3.

Those who do not pray to the image will be thrown in the furnace.

He tries to get God's people to compromise.

Daniel chapter, that's the second commandment.

Daniel chapter 6 tries to get Daniel to pray to the king instead of to God.

And in the last days he's also going to focus on the fourth commandment.

But so many Christians have basically skipped over this commandment.

First question, did God make the Sabbath rest only for Israelites?

I often hear people say, well yeah, that's a Jewish law.

And when we interview people, they say, oh yeah, well that's for the Jews.

Jesus said, Mark chapter 2, verse 27, and he said the Sabbath was made for, what's it say?

That word there, man, in the Greek is, like I said, anthropos.

02 Bricks Without Straw

In 1629, the Emperor of India, Shah Jahan, went on a military campaign to crush a rebellion in his kingdom.

Even though she was ill and pregnant, his wife joined him on the grueling journey.

On the way, she collapsed, gave birth to their daughter, and then died.

The beautiful empress was only 39 years old.

Beside himself with grief, the emperor carried his wife's body home and constantly wore white robes of mourning.

When he finally came out of seclusion, he ordered that a beautiful palace be built for his beloved wife.

It was to be called by the Indian word, Mahal, meaning palace.

The palace that the Emperor built is 1 of the most breathtaking structures ever built, a dazzling wonder of marble and jewels known today as the Taj Mahal.

This majestic tomb is an abiding memorial of the Emperor's love for his wife.

Did you know that God has also given believers an eternal memorial of His creative power of love?

It's built not in marble, but in time, and it can change your life.

So let's dive in together now and explore this important and fascinating subject.

Well, you know, I'm not going to tell you the whole story of the 10 plagues.

You know, what happened then is Moses said, Pharaoh, if you don't let them go, it's going to be really bad.

Finally the tenth plague firstborn died except for those who had the the lamb's blood on their homes.

Then after that, they began their journey out of the Promised Land.

They're on their way, not to, they're not going right to Israel.

They're going to Mount Sinai because God said, you're not prepared to go to the promised land until we go to Mount Sinai and I give you my law.

Notice God did not give them the law to save them.

After they're saved by the Lamb, He brings them to the law.

We are not saved by keeping the law, we are saved by the Lamb, the blood of the Lamb.

But then when you are saved, God says, if you love me, here's my commandments.

First Commandments says, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

If you love me, here's my law." Those who trusted and loved the Lord made it to the promised land.

So as They're going into the wilderness on the way to Mount Sinai.

God said, I'm going to rain bread down from heaven for you.

He said, I'm going to rain bread down from heaven 6 days a week.

On The sixth day, gather twice as much for the Sabbath day.

Now, they hadn't been to Mount Sinai yet.

He says, you got twice as much here on the sixth day of the week.

And for today is, eat what you collected the day before, for today is the Sabbath to the Lord.

Today you're not gonna find it in the field.

The whole time they were in the wilderness, that manna fell 6 days a week, and none fell on the seventh day.

All right, let's go into our questions here.

In North America, when the pilgrims came over, there was no confusion about whether or not people should keep a Sabbath.

So let's go and find out what the Bible says.

And you can read in Genesis chapter 2 verse 2, now we just quoted part of this a minute ago but I want to emphasize something, and on the seventh day God ended his work which he had done and he rested on the what day?

The seventh day from all his work which he had done, then God blessed the seventh day and he sanctified it.

You notice a number that keeps coming up?

Here in the very beginning of the Bible, you find the first time a number is mentioned 3 times, 777.

When you go to the end of the Bible, 7 is the day of God, God's rest.

When you get to the end of the Bible, you get 666.

At the other end of the Bible, and it's about man-made worship.

And you realize that the whole battle through the Bible is about, who do we worship?

How has God demonstrated the importance of His Holy Sabbath?

Well, you can read in Exodus chapter 20, this is from the 10 Commandments.

By the way, you find it also in Deuteronomy chapter 5.

Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

The Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

The Bible tells us that God rested on the seventh day, He blessed it, and He sanctified it.

Now you know I think it's interesting that when I share this message I often have pastors that will sometimes come to programs like this and I'll visit with them and I remember I was doing a seminar like this 1 time and the pastor didn't wait until after the program.

He saw some of his members were coming and he was a little concerned that they were going to start asking him too many questions and he said, Pastor Doug, and just shouted out from the audience, said you're putting these people under the bondage of works.

I said, alright brother Why do you say that?

He says, you're putting them under the bondage of legalism.

I said, I'm telling them to keep the Sabbath day, I'm telling them to rest.

You're telling them not to, you're telling them to work.

And I said, do you think God wants us to keep the 10 commandments?

Several of his members turned and looked at him like...

But he knew that would include the fourth, and he said, 9 of them!

And I said, so you're telling me and the people here that the 1 commandment you think we ought to forget about is the only commandment that begins with the word remember.

You know 1 reason that I came to believe the Sabbath truth is because when I talk to pastors, If I asked 10 pastors, I got 11 different answers on this subject.

I talked to 1 pastor, I said, why don't we keep the Sabbath anymore?

Well because we don't keep it on the seventh day anymore because it's not mentioned again in the New Testament.

So I did a study and I found out there is 1 commandment that's not repeated in the New Testament.

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