Preached from the creation account, this message contrasts the number six, tied to the forming of man and the number of the beast in Revelation 13:18, with the number seven, the day God blessed and sanctified after resting from his work, using this six versus seven framework to describe the difference between a natural, sense-ruled life and a life that has entered into the rest of the Holy Spirit.
Scripture Reference
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
Key Points: Living in the Sixth Day or the Seventh
- The number six is tied to man, formed from the dust in the likeness of the animal creation, while seven is presented as the day God uniquely blessed and sanctified after resting from his work.
- Revelation 13:18’s mark of the beast, the number of a man, is presented as pointing to man’s own nature and effort rather than only a future figure, since a number repeated three times is treated here as representing a complete, fully developed system apart from the Spirit.
- A man without the Holy Spirit is described as living by the five natural senses alone, said to leave him no better off, and in some cases worse off, than an animal.
- The warning in Hebrews about Israel failing to enter God’s rest because of unbelief is applied to entering the seventh day, described as the rest of the Holy Spirit that is available now rather than only after death.
- An illustration of a frog gradually adjusting to slowly heating water instead of jumping out is used to picture how compromise gradually numbs discernment until wrong is no longer recognized as wrong.
- The message closes by asking listeners to examine whether they are comfortable resting in the sixth day or are pressing into the seventh, tying that question to the sighing and crying of those distressed by the sin around them