Participants: Pr. David Asscherick
Series Code: DP
Program Code: DP000010
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00:15 Good evening everyone. Let's take out our study
00:19 guides, have a word of prayer and get right into 00:22 our information this evening, we've got an exciting 00:24 message in store for you "The Rock that Simply Will Not Roll" 00:27 "Part 2." So let's begin with a word 00:29 of prayer and we'll dive right in to our message proper. 00:33 Father in heaven, we come before You this evening and we are 00:37 anticipating a blessing. Father, we are coming to You 00:39 because you are a prayer hearing, prayer answering God. 00:43 We know that You will hear, and more than that, You will 00:47 answer. Father, the cry of our heart 00:50 tonight is for Biblical truth. So please tonight, as we open 00:54 Your word, may You send the Spirit that inspired these 00:57 Scriptures to now be the Spirit that instructs in these 01:00 Scriptures. Father, You have promised 01:02 to send the Spirit of truth to guide us into all truth. 01:06 Tonight the yearning, craving desire of our hearts 01:09 is for Biblical truth. So please be with us this 01:12 evening, and may we have an experience, a rich experience 01:16 with You in Your word. We ask this in Jesus' name, 01:19 let everyone say "amen". 01:22 Okay, so let's go right to our study guide, and instead 01:26 of reading that whole, great big long paragraph there 01:28 what I'd like you to do is look down about mid way through, 01:33 it says "We have seen that the dividing issue at the end" 01:36 "of time will be the issue of worship." 01:39 Additionally we have seen that the Antichrist will be 01:42 a subtle religious impostor more than a violent 01:47 political opposer. We have emphasized 01:50 the importance of standing on the rock of Christ, His word, 01:54 and His perfect law of love. Now we are poised to grasp 01:57 one of the issues, the most significant issues in the book 02:00 of Revelation in its larger significance. 02:03 What issue strikes at the heart of worship, Biblical fidelity, 02:07 tradition versus the commandments of God, 02:10 and the subtle religious sophistries of Satan, we will 02:12 answer that important question in this lesson. 02:16 So let's go directly to the screen, how many of you 02:19 remember that old TV show, I think it was called Dragnet, 02:22 where the old fellow would say "Just the facts man," 02:27 "just the facts." Okay, today I'm going to 02:30 give you just the facts, nothing but the facts. 02:33 [text on screen] 02:50 How many of you want Bible truth? 02:53 Very good, let's notice our next slide. 02:55 Notice the top says "truth can hurt", but the bottoms says 02:58 "error can kill", do you see that? 03:02 Truth sometimes hurts, but truth is always better than error. 03:05 Remember the other day we said that the difference between 03:08 a surgeon and butcher is that a butcher cuts to kill 03:12 and a surgeon cuts to heal. God is not a butcher, 03:16 He's a surgeon, and tonight I'm going to perfectly candid 03:18 with you, some of you are going to be cut a little bit, 03:21 but remember, God never sends His truth to hurt us 03:24 or to humiliate us, but to enlighten us so we can be 03:26 faithful and obedient to Him. Listen to this: [text on screen] 03:37 I'm looking across the room at a good friend of mine, 03:40 Al Green, and Al Green does my taxes; I expect Al Green 03:43 to tell me the truth about what I owe the US government 03:46 on my taxes, that's the professional expectation 03:50 that I have of Al Green. Shouldn't we want our preachers 03:53 and teachers to do the same? [Audience] Yes. 03:56 Isn't that right? If we have the expectation 03:58 that our accountant tells us the truth, and our banker tells us 04:02 the truth, and our doctor tells us the truth, and our 04:04 lawyer tells us the truth, we should have the same expectation 04:07 of those who work and who deal with eternal truth. 04:10 So that's what we're going to be doing today. 04:13 [text on screen] 04:25 Open your Bibles to the book of Revelation. 04:28 Revelation 14. 04:34 Here in Revelation 14 we find what is sometimes referred to 04:37 as the 3 angel's messages, and we'll spend more time on this 04:41 in the future. These are 3 very important, 04:44 very significant messages that are given by angels. 04:48 The word "angel" in the Greek simply means "the bearer" 04:51 "of a message", and here there are 3 messages. 04:53 Let's just take a quick look at the first angel's message, 04:57 Revelation 14:6, John says: "Then I saw another" 05:01 "angel flying in the midst of heaven", so this is a heavenly 05:04 message, "having the everlasting gospel to preach to those" 05:09 "who dwell on the earth, to every nation, tribe, tongue" 05:12 "and people", so in other words, this message is for everyone, 05:15 it is a universal message. Verse 7: "Saying with a loud" 05:17 "voice, Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His" 05:21 "judgment has come, and worship Him who made", notice that, 05:28 "worship Him who made the heaven, and the earth," 05:31 "and the sea, and the springs of waters." 05:35 We have said before that there are 404 verses in the book 05:38 of Revelation, and a full 270, at least, of those come 05:43 directly from the Old Testament. That verse that you just 05:46 read there in verse 7 is the single largest quotation 05:51 from the Old Testament in the entire book of Revelation, 05:54 right there in verse 7, I'll read it again. 05:55 It says "And worship Him", and here it is, "who made" 05:59 "the heaven, and the earth, and the seas, and the springs" 06:02 "of waters", that is the single largest verbatim quotation 06:05 in the entire book of Revelation of an Old Testament passage. 06:08 I want you to notice what it has to relate to, it relates 06:12 to worshipping God as the creator of heaven and earth. 06:19 In fact, there are 2 reasons that we worship God. 06:23 Open your Bible to Revelation 4. There are 2 primary reasons 06:29 that we worship God and I'll pick 1 up in Revelation 4:10. 06:35 Here we have this marvelous throne room scene. 06:39 In this marvelous throne room scene there are angels 06:41 and there are elders, and there are these strange looking beasts 06:44 and they are worshipping Him that sits on the throne. 06:47 I'm in verse 10: "The 24 elders fall down before Him", 06:50 "Him" being God, "who sits on the throne and worship Him" 06:54 "who lives for ever and ever, and they cast their crowns" 06:56 "before the throne saying", now watch what they do, 07:00 watch what they say, "You are worthy O Lord to receive" 07:03 "glory, and honor, and power for", or because, "You created" 07:09 "all things and by Your will they exist and were created." 07:14 "We're worshipping You because You're the Creator." 07:17 "We're worshipping You because You made us and You made" 07:20 "everything." Now look in Revelation 5:12. 07:26 Here the Lamb has come into the throne room, He has taken 07:30 the scroll out of the hand of Him who sits on the throne, 07:33 He sits down on that same throne and those that are around 07:37 say in verse 12: "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain," 07:41 "to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength," 07:44 "and honor, and glory." Look at verse 9: 07:47 "You are worthy to take the scroll, to open its seals for" 07:50 "You were slain and You have redeemed us to God by Your" 07:54 "blood out of every tribe, tongue, and people, and nation," 07:57 "and have made us kings and priests to our God, and we" 08:00 "shall reign on the earth for ever." 08:03 Jump down to verse 14: "And the 4 living creatures said," 08:06 "Amen, and the 24 elders fell down and worshipped Him" 08:08 "who lives for ever and ever." So here in Revelation 4 and 5 08:11 we find the 2 primary reasons why God is worshipped. 08:14 Nr.1- because He's our creator, and Nr.2- because He's our 08:17 Saviour and our Redeemer. 08:20 So here in this first angel's message of Revelation 14 08:23 there's this call: "Fear God and give glory to Him" 08:27 "for the hour of His judgment has come and worship Him", 08:29 and then he quotes from the Old Testament, "who made" 08:32 "the heaven, the earth, the sea, and the springs of waters." 08:35 There is this clarion call to worship God as the creator. 08:41 So far so good everyone? [Audience] Yes. 08:43 Powerful Biblical call, "worship God as creator, worship God" 08:46 "as the Redeemer." If those are the 2 reasons 08:49 that we worship God then Satan, through the Antichrist, is going 08:52 to try and undermine those 2 things so that we won't see 08:55 God as our creator, and we won't see Him as our redeemer, 08:58 and thus won't render to Him the worship that He's due. 09:02 Now look at Revelation 13 again. 09:08 The conflict, as we've already said, will pit true Biblical 09:11 worship against false manmade worship. 09:14 Now let me show you a startling Bible fact, 09:16 an amazing Bible fact, the real issue is worship, 09:20 you'll notice the word "worship" is a contraction of 2 words: 09:23 "worth", "ship", in other words, whatever you worship is what's 09:26 worth the most to you. If your car is worth the most 09:29 to you, that's what you worship, if sports are worth the most 09:32 to you, that's what you worship, if you're family is 09:34 worth the most to you, that's what you worship, 09:37 if God is worth the most to you, that's what you worship. 09:40 [text on screen] 09:49 No book in the Bible contains the word "worship" more than 09:51 the book of Revelation. So consistently here 09:54 worship, worship, worship, worship is the consistent 09:58 reverberating issue in the book of Revelation. 10:02 Now we're in Revelation 13, in fact, I think I've got it 10:05 here on the screen for you, actually, Revelation 12:9, 10:08 we'll quote that one first. It says: [text on screen] 10:13 "Who deceives just a small portion of the world; he was" 10:17 "cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him." 10:20 Is that what it says? [Audience] No. 10:23 It says he deceives half of the world? [Audience] No. 10:25 He deceives 60% of the world? [Audience] No. 10:28 He deceives how much of the world according to that verse? 10:31 - [Audience] All. -All the world, the whole world. 10:34 Notice this, Revelation 13:3: "Half of the world marvelled" 10:37 "and followed the beast"? 70%? [text on screen] 10:40 How about verse 8? [text on screen] 10:46 So we have these 3 texts there, they're right there in your 10:49 study guide, that make it crystal clear to us that this 10:52 idea of all the world being deceived, of all the world 10:55 wondering after the beast is not something that we as Christians, 10:58 should be surprised about. Tonight if we discover that much 11:02 of the world has, in fact, wondered after the beast 11:05 we shouldn't go "What?! I'm so surprised!" 11:07 "I can hardly believe it", we should say "that's exactly" 11:10 "what we would expect because that's what the Bible says." 11:14 In fact, we should be surprised if we found that the world 11:16 wasn't wondering after that beast. 11:19 3 times it says "all the world", so our expectation 11:28 is that we would find the world wondering, in some respect, 11:32 after the beast; and I'm going to maintain tonight that it 11:34 centers around this idea of worship, true Biblical worship 11:39 versus manmade worship. What do these verses 11:42 have in common? There on your study guide: 11:44 They all describe the universality of deception. 11:51 That is to say that it's not just an isolated group here 11:54 and there, but the whole world is depicted as falling under 11:57 the sophistries of Satan and the Antichrist power. 12:00 In this lesson we will learn that many, unknowingly, are 12:02 living under one of the most subtle deceptions of 12:05 the Antichrist, we should not be "surprised", is what you'd 12:09 write there. We should not be surprised 12:12 if we discover that much of the world has unwittingly 12:14 bought into one of the deceptions of the last days. 12:17 In fact, according to Revelation, as we have said, 12:20 we should expect it. Remember, we do not arrive 12:24 at truth by a majority vote, but by the Bible. 12:27 Okay, we're on page Nr.2, we're making very good time. 12:31 I want to present to you right now on the board a claim 12:34 that you are going to find to be, many of you, 12:37 totally shocking, so buckle your safety belts, if there's safety 12:41 belts on those chairs, you want to buckle them right now. 12:43 I'm going to present to you historical claims, and then 12:46 we're going to investigate the truthfulness, or the veracity 12:49 of these historical claims that we put up here on the screen. 12:53 Jesus says in Matthew 28:18: "All authority has been given" 12:59 "to Me in heaven and on earth." That's the claim of Jesus. 13:02 [text on screen] 13:09 Notice, the word "authority" has as its root word the word 13:12 "author", so Jesus has a legitimate authority over us 13:15 because He is our author, that is He's the one who made us, 13:19 are we all clear on that? So let's continue. 13:22 Let's put some of these claims up here, Daniel 7:25, 13:25 one of the identifying characteristics of 13:28 the Antichrist: [text on screen] 13:35 Who's the saints everyone? [Audience] We are. 13:38 You've got it. [continues to read] 13:45 Well let's take a look at a few of these historical claims 13:48 that have been made by the Roman church-state. 13:51 We've looked at this one twice, let's look at it again. 13:54 Lucius Ferraris "Prompta Bibliotheca": [text on screen] 14:11 So the Bible says that one of the identifying characteristics 14:14 of the Antichrist power is that he would think that he had 14:17 the prerogative to change and to modify the very laws of God, 14:20 and the times of God. 14:25 Let me show you, again, historical statements on 14:28 the screen, notice them. First one, from 14:30 the Rev. Peter Geierman from the "Converts Catechism" 14:33 "of Doctrine", page 50. The whole Catechism is set up 14:36 in question and answer format. [text on screen] 14:46 Notice the claim, [continues to read] 14:57 Do you see what he's saying? "What day's the Sabbath?" 15:00 "Saturday's the Sabbath", "Wait a minute, why do we keep" 15:03 "Sunday instead of Saturday?" "Oh, the church changed it." 15:05 Let's show another one, this one's from the Catholic 15:08 encyclopedia, Vol 4, page 153, [text on screen] 15:21 Who made the change according to the claim? 15:24 The church made the claim, remarkable. 15:27 Let's look at another one, "The American Catholic Quarterly" 15:30 "Review", January 1883, [text on screen] 15:43 Let's look at still another one, literally hundreds of these 15:46 could be given, I'm just giving you a few. 15:48 "Canon and Tradition", page 263, [text on screen] 16:07 So here we find this remarkable claim being made by 16:11 the historical Roman church- state, "we changed" 16:14 "the day of worship from the Biblical Sabbath, Saturday," 16:18 "to Sunday, our day." Now, our question today is this, 16:21 it's a very simple question: what is the Bible answer? 16:25 What we're going to ask is this: [text on screen] 16:38 That's what we're going to discover tonight, so look 16:41 at your study guide there, we're at the top of page 2: 16:44 The Roman church-state has historically made one of 16:47 the most remarkable and disturbing claims known to man, 16:50 namely, they claim that they actually changed the day 16:53 of worship from Sabbath to Sunday. 16:58 You can jump down to the bottom, our question is this: 17:01 is this remarkable claim true, or can the change from 17:04 Sabbath to Sunday be supported from the Bible? 17:09 That's what we're going to ask tonight, so we go to 17:12 the beginning, and that would bring us to the book 17:15 of Genesis, let's go to Genesis 1. 17:19 The question we're asking tonight is: can Sunday 17:22 sacredness be supported from the Bible, or is it a tradition 17:26 and a relic of the Roman church-state? 17:30 We're in Genesis 1:1: "In the beginning God created" 17:34 "the heavens and the earth, the earth was without form" 17:37 "and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep," 17:40 "and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters." 17:43 You have the 6 days of creation, go to verse 31. 17:46 "And God saw everything that He had made and indeed" 17:48 "it was very good. The evening and the morning" 17:52 "were the 6th day." Genesis 2:1: "thus the heavens" 17:56 "and the earth and all the hosts of them were finished." 17:58 Take that word "finished" and hang it on a hook in your mind, 18:01 we're coming back to it. So, it was finished. 18:06 Verse 2: "And on the 7th day, God ended His work" 18:09 "which He had done, and He rested on the 7th day from" 18:12 "all His work which He had done, then God blessed the 7th day" 18:15 "and sanctified it because in it He rested from all His work" 18:18 "which God had created an made." I have a question for you today: 18:21 was God tired? Was God just exhausted 18:24 and fatigued, He came home and He just had to put His feet up 18:27 and take a day of rest? No, but God did take a day 18:30 of rest on that 7th day, and the question would be then: why? 18:33 Why would God do such a thing? The answer is: not because God 18:37 was tired, but because God was setting an example for mankind. 18:42 God doesn't need rest, but do I need rest? 18:47 Do you need rest? Absolutely. 18:50 God did 3 things to the 7th day, we just read it there in those 18:52 verses: [text on screen] 18:56 The word "sanctified" means He set it aside for a holy purpose, 19:00 [continues to read] 19:03 So you'd write that right down on your study guide there. 19:05 God blessed it, God sanctified it and God rested on it. 19:09 Do you see that in the text everyone? 19:12 Now we're in the study guide again: Clearly God wanted 19:15 the Sabbath to be set apart as special, in fact, 19:20 the word "sanctified" means "to set apart for a holy," 19:24 "special purpose." God could have created the earth 19:27 in 1 second, God could have just created the whole thing 19:31 in 1 nanosecond, he could have just thought it and boom, 19:33 it existed, but He did this for a reason, He created for 19:37 a reason: day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4, day 5, day 6, 19:42 resting on the 7th. You think about all of our 19:45 cycles, we have a solar year, and we have a lunar month, 19:49 and we have a solar day, but what phenomenon happens 19:53 out in the stellar heavens every 7 days? 19:57 Does anything happen astrologically 20:00 and cosmologically every 7 days? No; why do we have a 7 day week? 20:05 1 reason: God commanded a 7 day week, 20:08 there's nothing that happens every 7 days, 20:11 at least not in terms of the stellar heavens. 20:13 So, we have a solar day, we have a lunar month, we have a solar 20:16 year, but this weekly cycle was set up by God as an example 20:21 and a pattern. 20:24 Now you're back to your study guide: "Remember Me". 20:27 Open your Bibles to Exodus 20. Exodus is the second book 20:32 of the Old Testament, Exodus 20, and here we find 20:35 the 10 commandments. The last time we were together 20:40 we looked at those 10 commandments, and we saw 20:42 that those 10 commandments were actually written by the finger 20:45 of God on tables of stone, and they were placed in the Ark. 20:50 We discovered that those commandments were actually 20:53 carved out of the very throne, the very sapphire throne 20:56 of God Himself; unchanging, immutable, powerful 21:02 and glorious. Exodus 20, and you will notice 21:04 that there are 10 commandments and 8 of them begin 21:07 with "Thou shalt not". 21:12 8 commandments say "Don't do this behaviour..." 21:15 I like to say it this way: a corpse could keep 8 21:18 of the 10 commandments. A corpse can keep 8 out of 21:20 the 10 because 8 out of the 10 say "don't do a behaviour", 21:24 corpses don't steal, corpses don't kill, corpses don't have 21:27 other gods, but 2 of the commandments are framed 21:29 in the positive, and one of them is found in Exodus 20:8. 21:34 The first word of verse 8 is: "Remember", notice it's not 21:39 "thou shalt not", but it's "Remember the Sabbath day" 21:44 "to keep it holy", very interesting. 21:47 "...6 days shall you labor and do all your work," 21:50 Where did that come from, 6 days and resting on the 7th? 21:53 It came from creation, "but the 7th day is the Sabbath" 21:55 "of the Jews". [Audience] Lord. 21:58 Oh, is that what it says? "The 7th day is the Sabbath" 22:01 "of the Lord your God, in it you shall do no work," 22:04 "you, nor your son, your daughter, your male servant," 22:07 "or your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger" 22:10 "who is within your gates, for in 6 days the Lord made" 22:12 "the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them," 22:15 "and He rested the 7th day, therefore the Lord blessed" 22:18 "the Sabbath day and hallowed it." 22:21 Do you see that there in verse 11 where it says He made 22:24 the heavens, the earth, the sea and all that in them is? 22:26 Earlier, we've already read it, Revelation 15:6, 22:29 remember I told you that this is the largest quotation 22:32 in the entire book of Revelation from the Old Testament. 22:34 "I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven" 22:37 "having the everlasting gospel to preach onto them that dwell" 22:39 "on the earth and to every nation, kindred, tongue" 22:42 "and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God and give glory" 22:45 "to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come," 22:48 "and worship Him that made the heaven, the earth, the sea" 22:50 "and the fountains of waters", that quotation comes directly 22:53 from the 4th commandment, did you know that? 22:56 John was saying "Remember the 4th commandment", well that 22:59 stands to reason because the first word of 23:01 the 4th commandment is the word "remember". 23:03 If my wife says to me "Sweety, on your way out the door" 23:06 "as you're going to the store remember to pick up bread", 23:09 the reason she says "remember to pick up bread" is that she'd 23:12 already told me to pick up the bread, probably 5 times 23:14 knowing my wife, and she's telling me to remember it 23:17 because she thinks I'm going to forget it. 23:20 She could never tell me to remember something she hadn't 23:22 first told me about, so when God here says "remember" 23:25 He's reminding them about creation. 23:28 So "remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy", go to your 23:30 study guide, there it says: Remember Me. 23:33 In Exodus 20, the chapter containing the 10 commandments, 23:36 God reminds His people about the importance of the Sabbath. 23:38 We can be sure that God was reminding them about the day 23:41 because it begins with the word "remember". 23:44 Don't forget who wrote this law, who wrote it everyone? 23:47 God, with His finger on tables of stone, and it was placed 23:51 in the Ark. God wrote this law on stone 23:54 to show that it did not change. God did not make this day 23:59 holy in Genesis and in Exodus He reminds the people 24:02 about it, it is worth noting that only God can make 24:05 anything holy. 24:08 Who am I to make anything holy? I say "I want this pulpit" 24:11 "to be holy", is that pulpit suddenly holy? 24:14 No, but if God makes something holy, then He can tell me 24:19 to keep it that way. Some people say "Well, I'm just" 24:23 "going to keep only as the Sabbath, Wednesday will be" 24:25 "my Sabbath", but wait a minute, God didn't say "make a day holy" 24:28 He said "keep the day that I already made holy holy", 24:32 does that make sense? He didn't say "make it that way", 24:34 He said "keep it that way". So far so good? 24:37 Let's continue there on page 3, we're making incredible time: 24:43 Consider the following texts, Ezekiel 20, I think I'll just 24:46 put them right up here on the board for you. 24:52 Ezekiel 20:20, God speaking: "And keep the Jews' Sabbaths", 25:00 is that what it says? [text on screen] 25:11 God says "You keep the Sabbath and everyone will know" 25:13 "that I'm the Lord your God." Think about it: Buddhists can 25:16 abstain from murder, Buddhists can abstain from adultery, 25:20 Buddhists can keep 9 of the 10 commandments, but what's 25:23 the 1 commandment that would let someone know who you're 25:26 worshipping? It would be the Sabbath 25:28 commandment because you say "No, I'm going to work 6" 25:31 "and rest on the 7th because I worship the God of the Bible," 25:34 "the God who created in 6 days and rested on the 7th", 25:37 that is the commandment that would let someone know 25:40 which God it is that I'm serving and worshipping. 25:44 If you say "I'm not going to kill", does that make you 25:47 a Christian? No, a Muslim could keep 25:50 that commandment, a Buddhist could keep that commandment, 25:53 anyone could keep that commandment, but if you're 25:56 keeping the 7th day Sabbath because God is the creator 25:59 and God is the redeemer, immediately everyone knows 26:01 "Oh, that's the God he worships, he worships the God of" 26:04 "the Bible, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God" 26:06 "of Jacob, the creator God." Amen? 26:09 - [Audience] Amen. - Powerful. 26:12 So God says "hey, you keep My Sabbaths, that'll be a sign" 26:15 "between Me and you that you may know that I am Jehovah," 26:17 "your God." Verse 12, look at this one: [text on screen] 26:29 The word "sanctifies" means "to set aside for a holy purpose". 26:37 So when you're saved God sanctifies you, He sets you 26:40 aside for a holy purpose. In the Old Testament certain 26:43 articles of furniture were sanctified for the Lord's 26:46 service, they were set aside for a holy purpose, they 26:49 were not to be used for profane purposes, they were sanctified, 26:51 they were set apart for God's own holy purposes, and God 26:55 says "the Sabbath is a sign that I'm the one who sanctifies you." 27:02 Well, let's put modern language on this, what does that mean? 27:05 [text on screen] 27:10 Not one person in this room can make that pulpit holy, 27:13 not one person in this room can make this sign holy, not one 27:16 person in this room can make my shoes holy, not one person in 27:19 this room can make themselves holy! [Audience] Amen. 27:22 The only one that can make you holy is the God who made 27:25 you in the first place, and that's God in heaven. 27:28 The Sabbath is a sign that it is God alone that can make us holy, 27:31 watch this, [text on screen] 27:36 Paul said "I know that in me, that is in my flesh" 27:38 "dwells no good thing", [continues to read] 27:46 So watch this, this is the bombshell, [text on screen] 27:57 ...because the Sabbath is a sign that God's the one 28:00 that makes us holy. So that Sabbath becomes the most 28:04 powerful, potent sign of righteousness by faith. 28:09 In fact, look there at your study guide: The Sabbath is 28:12 a sign of 2 powerful things, as we've already said: 28:15 [text on screen] 28:21 God is our Creator and God is our Redeemer. 28:24 The word "redeemer" means "to purchase", God is the one 28:27 who purchased us when His Son paid the ultimate price for us 28:31 on the cross with His own blood. So, the 2 reasons that God 28:36 is worshipped in Revelation is because He's the Creator, 28:39 and He's the Redeemer, and the Sabbath is a sign 28:42 "Hey, God's the one that created me in 6 days and rested" 28:45 "on the 7th, and He's my Redeemer, God is the one" 28:48 "who paid the price for me", and the Sabbath is a sign of that. 28:54 That's what He says, the Sabbath is a sign of that. 28:56 Now look at this, we're back to our study guides: 28:58 Just as Adam and Eve were called to rest in, and enjoy, 29:02 God's work of creation, so too, we are called to rest in 29:07 and enjoy God's work of Salvation. 29:11 I want you just to imagine, here's Adam, here's Eve, 29:14 they've been created, they're in the Garden, God says 29:17 "Hey, go check it out, go explore, I've got" 29:19 "hippopotamuses out there, and dolphins, and seals, and eels," 29:22 "go see, run along, go see how beautiful it is." 29:25 They run off and they come back and say "Oh, God we saw this" 29:28 "thing with the longest neck we've ever seen, we named it" 29:30 "giraffe, just awesome." They're out there playing 29:33 in this Edenic garden that God has created for them, and then 29:36 I can just imagine in my mind's eye, Adam says 29:39 "You know, it's not good enough for me to enjoy it, I want" 29:42 "to do something myself." So Adam stoops down and he 29:45 picks up a piece of clay and he moulds it into a little puppy 29:47 dog, a Chihuahua, and he says "God, look what I've created". 29:50 And He says "yeah, but it's just a piece of dirt", 29:53 he tries to breathe in it as Adam was breathed into, 29:56 [makes breathing noise], he's blowing on this piece 29:59 of dirt, does it ever come to life? [Audience] No. 30:02 I can just imagine in my mind's eye Jesus saying 30:05 "Adam, you're missing the point", you can't add to this 30:08 work, you can enjoy this work, so too with salvation. 30:11 We're saved and we think "Oh, I'm going to work" 30:13 "my way to heaven, I'm going to add to what God has done," 30:16 "I know God has saved me by grace, but I got something" 30:19 "I've got to do", and God says "Wait, stop trying to work" 30:22 "your way to heaven, enjoy what I have done for you." 30:25 [Audience] Amen. 30:27 Hallelujah. So, it's sign and symbol 30:29 of creation, it's a sign and symbol of redemption. 30:32 Right there at the bottom of that paragraph, what a powerful 30:35 symbol: God is both creator and redeemer, and the Sabbath 30:38 is a powerful sign that God is both of these. 30:42 Who was the creator anyway? That's a good question, 30:45 isn't it? Who was the creator? 30:50 Let me just quote it for you, John 1:1: "In the beginning" 30:53 "was the word, and the word was with God, and the word" 30:56 "was God." Listen carefully, "all things were made by Him" 31:00 "and without Him was nothing made that was made." 31:03 So was the creator? Jesus was the creator, 31:06 God created through Christ Jesus according to 31:09 Colossians 1:17, that's in your study guide right there, 31:11 and this is as old as Christianity itself. 31:14 Notice this from "The Apostolic Creed", you can't get 31:17 more Protestant than "The Apostolic Creed", 31:20 [text on screen] 31:28 God created through Christ Jesus, Jesus was the Creator. 31:34 Powerful. According to the teaching 31:37 of the New Testament Jesus was the one through which God 31:39 created, notice especially, I've given you several verses, 31:42 I quoted one of them for you, John 1, and I eluded 31:45 to Colossians 1:16,17. If Jesus created the air, 31:49 and Jesus created the water, and the grass, and the birds, 31:53 and the lions, and the whales, and the octopi, 31:55 and the hippopotami, then guess what else Jesus created; 31:59 He created the Sabbath. Doesn't that make sense? 32:03 The same God that made the 1st day, the 2nd day, the 3rd day, 32:07 the 4th day, the 5th day, He didn't switch. 32:09 The same God that made the grass, the giraffes, and all 32:12 of the wonderful things in Eden is the same God that rested. 32:16 It was Jesus, and His Father, and the Spirit working together 32:20 in cooperation. So look at this: Note, not only 32:27 was Jesus the creator in Eden, He was the law giver 32:31 on Mount Sinai. Many Christians do not know this 32:35 and it's staggering how few Christians know that the very 32:38 God who was on Mount Sinai's summit, the very God who wrote 32:41 with His own finger on table's of stone, that was Jesus Christ. 32:45 Remember, Moses was walking through the desert in Mideon 32:47 and he saw that burning bush and the burning bush spoke 32:51 and said "Go tell that rascal, Pharaoh, to let My people go". 32:53 He said "They're not going to believe, who shall I say" 32:56 "sent me?" and he said: "I am that I am has sent you." 33:01 Jesus one day was speaking to the religious leaders of His day 33:04 and He said "Why don't you guys just accept Me?" 33:07 "I mean, your father, Abraham, rejoiced to see My day," 33:10 "and he was glad", and they said "What?!" 33:12 "You've got to be kidding, Abraham? You're not even" 33:15 "50 years old, you don't even have any hair on your face," 33:18 "how could You possibly have seen the day of Abraham?" 33:21 He said "You listen to me men, you listen very carefully" 33:24 "to what I'm going to say: before Abraham was I am." 33:28 Did the Jews understand what He was saying? 33:31 Yeah, John 8:59 says they picked up stones, they were going 33:34 to kill Him because they knew He was saying "I'm the God" 33:37 "of the Old Testament, I'm the one who was on Mount Sinai," 33:41 "I'm the one who appeared to Moses, I'm the law giver." 33:47 So powerful, I wish I had time to look more at that, 33:49 but I just don't, so let's continue on. 33:51 This is why Jesus Christ repeatedly affirmed that He 33:55 was Lord of the Sabbath, after all, He's the one 34:00 who invented it, He created it, He commanded it. 34:03 Look at Matthew 12:8: [text on screen] 34:09 Those are the words of Jesus, how about Mark 2:28? 34:12 [text on screen] 34:15 Just like He's Lord of the grass, He's Lord of 34:18 the giraffes, He's Lord of the whales, He's Lord of 34:21 the Sabbath, He made them all. He's also the Lord of man. 34:24 Luke 6:5: [text on screen] 34:27 Jesus says that over and over again. 34:30 Jesus often healed on the Sabbath, we already looked 34:33 at that story in Luke 13, where He healed that woman 34:36 and the man speaks up and says "Whoa, whoa, there are 6 days" 34:38 "on which men ought to labor, come then and be healed" 34:41 "on those days", and Jesus says "You're a hypocrite," 34:44 "you're an actor, everyone of you who has a donkey" 34:47 "or an ox that falls into the ditch, you lift it out." 34:50 "Ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham" 34:53 "whom Satan has bound, be loosed from this, her burden," 34:55 "on the Sabbath?" Jesus used the Sabbath 34:58 to show that the Sabbath was a special day created by God 35:01 for man's uplifting, for his up building, and for his healing 35:04 and recreation, and redemption. 35:06 In fact, one of the things that Jesus came to do was to 35:09 disentangle the Sabbath from all of those pathetic and stifling 35:12 rules that the Pharisees and the scribes had heaped upon it. 35:16 In fact, that's right in your study guide there, it says: 35:19 But how did Jesus relate to the Sabbath when He walked 35:23 as a man on this planet? Look at Luke 4:16. 35:29 You've got your Bibles, third book of the New Testament, 35:32 see if you can keep up with me, Luke 4:16, you're doing a great 35:35 job by the way. 35:37 Luke 4:16, look at this, this is incredible. 35:43 Luke 4:16: "So He came to Nazareth where He had been" 35:50 "brought up, and as His custom was, He went into the synagogue" 35:54 "on the Sabbath day and He stood up to read." 35:59 So if it was Sabbath and you wanted to find Jesus 36:02 where would you go? You'd go to the synagogue, 36:05 that's right, because that's where He was, that was 36:07 His custom. You say: "Oh yeah, I'm looking for the Jesus," 36:10 "have you guys seen Jesus?" "Oh yeah, it's Sabbath" 36:13 "my friend, He's in the synagogue." 36:15 That's His custom, of course that's where He's going to be, 36:18 so Jesus actually, as a man, observed and kept the Sabbath. 36:21 We're continuing on, it says: Note that Jesus performed 36:24 many of His most powerful miracles on the Sabbath. 36:27 This was to show that the Sabbath was for the benefit 36:29 of man, He removed it from all of the traditions that 36:34 the religious leaders, the scribes and the Pharisees, 36:37 had entangled it with. He came to show that it's 36:40 a blessing, that's it a glorious, wonderful day 36:42 for the creation and recreation. By the way, I keep saying 36:45 that word "re-creation", slow it down, "re-creation" 36:48 is recreation, have you ever thought of that before? 36:51 "Recreation" is just 2 words, it's just the re-creation, 36:54 it's a day of renewal and re-creation, God is making you 36:58 into what He is originally created you to be, that's why 37:01 all true creation should draw us closer to God, our Creator. 37:06 Last paragraph: In fact, Jesus, in His death, even kept 37:11 the Sabbath. You say "What? He kept the Sabbath" 37:13 "in His death?" You're still in Luke, look at 37:16 Luke 23. Someone's out there thinking 37:18 "Oh yeah, I see it, I see it plain as the noonday sun." 37:21 but how do you know what day the Sabbath is. 37:24 Listen, I presented this message enough times to know 37:27 that there's at least half of the people in here thinking 37:30 "Well how do you know what day the Sabbath is?" 37:33 "How do we know? How could it possibly be?" 37:35 "How do we know what day it is?" Well, I'll show you how we know, 37:38 Luke 23, I want to give you a Bible answer, 37:40 that's the answer you want anyway, isn't it? 37:43 - [Audience] Yes. - Okay, we're in Luke 23, 37:46 here we find the story of the crucifixion. 37:49 We'll pick it up in verse 53: "Then he took it down", 37:52 speaking of the body of Jesus...actually, let's pick 37:55 it up in verse 50. "Now behold, there was a man" 37:58 "named Joseph, a council member, a good and a just man," 38:00 "he had not consented to their decision indeed, and he was" 38:03 "from Arimathaea who himself was also waiting for the kingdom" 38:06 "of God. This man went to Pilate and he asked for the body" 38:09 "of Jesus, then he took it down, wrapped it in linen" 38:11 "and he laid it in his tomb that was hewn out of the rock" 38:14 "where no one had ever been lain before. That day was" 38:17 "the preparation and the Sabbath drew near." 38:19 Jesus was crucified on what day of the week? 38:22 As we say "Friday", that's exactly right, Friday, 38:25 "Good Friday", so the preparation day is Friday. 38:28 "The Sabbath drew near", verse 55, "and the women" 38:31 "who had come with him from Galilee followed after," 38:34 "and they observed the tomb and how His body was laid." 38:36 You know how the ladies are, they wanted to make sure 38:39 it was just right, of course they were devastated, 38:42 they were crushed, they were bruised and beaten in their 38:45 souls, but they wanted to make sure that everything was just 38:47 right, watch what happens in the last verse: "Then they returned" 38:50 "and prepared spices and fragrant oils and they rested" 38:53 "on the Sabbath according to the commandment." 38:56 These were the disciples of Jesus, these women were 38:58 the disciples of Jesus. Sometimes you'll hear people 39:01 say "Jesus did away with the Sabbath", wait a minute, 39:04 "Jesus did away with the Sabbath", you won't find that 39:07 anywhere in your Bible, in fact, you find that anywhere 39:10 in your Bible, I'll give you $10,000 cash; no way, 39:12 it's not in there. So these were the very disciples 39:15 of Jesus that come that want to be sure the body is just 39:18 right, and their devastated, "but the Sabbath is coming," 39:21 "we'll come back and finish it after the Sabbath". 39:23 Why? Because they'd been 39:26 the disciples of Jesus for 3 and a half years and they had been 39:29 following His example. So Luke 24:1: 39:31 "Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning" 39:34 "they and certain other women came with them to the tomb," 39:37 "bringing spices and the ointments which they had" 39:39 "prepared", they've come back to finish the job that they 39:42 didn't finish yet, verse 2: "but they found the stone" 39:45 "rolled away from the tomb", someone say "hallelujah". 39:47 - [Audience] Hallelujah. - They went there and the body 39:50 of Jesus wasn't there, He's risen indeed, amen? 39:53 - [Audience] Amen. - Powerful! 39:55 Here's the point: what day did Jesus rise from the dead? 39:58 Sunday, so then the Sabbath would be the day between 40:01 Good Friday and Sunday, that day is Saturday! 40:05 So far so good? No questions? 40:08 I want you to think about something, as we've already 40:11 learned in creation, remember I told you to take the word 40:14 "finish" and hang it on a hook in your mind? 40:16 When everything was created, 1st day, 2nd day, 3rd day, 40:19 4th day, 5th day, 6th day, and all the work was finished, 40:23 then what did He do? He rested. 40:26 John 19:30, Jesus on the cross crying out, His last words 40:32 just after He says "Father, into Your hands I commend" 40:37 "My spirit", and then He cries out with a strong voice 40:40 "It is finished", and then He rests on the Sabbath. 40:47 Just as He rested in creation when the work was finished, 40:51 He rests in redemption when the work was finished, He rested 40:54 in the tomb on the Sabbath. Absolutely powerful. 41:01 Are we all still on our study guides? 41:03 You can write that down just at the bottom of page 3: 41:06 Just as He rested on the day of creation, so He did the same 41:09 in redemption. Hallelujah and hallelujah. 41:14 We're on the back page: But what about the apostles? 41:17 Somebody's bound to say "Oh, wait a minute, the disciples" 41:21 "changed the day David, you missed that part, you forgot" 41:24 "to read the book of Acts", no, I've read the book of Acts 41:27 through dozens of times and I'll tell you again, $10,000, 41:30 cold, hard cash to anyone who can show me any verse 41:34 that even hints at the fact that the day was changed by 41:37 the disciples, and I'm not just whistling dixie. 41:39 $10,000 cash is yours if you can come up with it. 41:42 Jesus Himself had said in Mark 22:27: "The Sabbath was" 41:45 "made for the Jews", sorry, I misread that. 41:50 [text on screen] 41:52 The word "man" there is "anthropos", the study of 41:56 anthropology is the study of man. 42:00 The word there is "The Sabbath was made for mankind, and not" 42:03 "man for the Sabbath". In other words, God made man 42:06 and He had this Sabbath day that He gave, He didn't make this day 42:09 and say "Well, I've got this crummy old day, I better go" 42:12 "find someone to keep it." No, no, no, first He made man 42:14 and then He made that day for him. 42:17 The Sabbath was made for the benefit of man. 42:20 Jesus kept the Sabbath even in His death, He kept it in 42:23 creation, He kept it in redemption. 42:26 [text on screen] 42:30 My wife is Romanian and on Saturday if you want to say 42:34 "Happy Sabbath" you say "Sabat Fericit", "Sabat". 42:39 If I want to say it in Spanish I say "Feliz Sabado". 42:44 In Russian it's what, "Subbota"? Where's Vladimir at? 42:48 Raise your hand, is he in here? Say it in Russian Vladimir? 42:52 Subbota, there you go. 108 language, there's no 42:55 question, in the English language there's a question 42:58 because we say "Saturday" because all of our days, 43:01 by the way, are named after Pagans. 43:03 The "Sunday" was the day of the worship of the sun, 43:06 "Thorday" was the day of the worship for Thor, 43:09 "Saturday" was day of the worship for Saturn, 43:11 "Monday" was the day of the worship for the moon, etc, etc, 43:14 but in every other language "Sabbath" is the day we call 43:17 Saturday, it's a piece of cake for the Spanish, 43:20 it's a piece of cake for others. So let's talk about 43:23 the apostles, I'm on the back page, here we go. 43:25 If you're getting questions in your mind, write those questions 43:28 down because we're going to do our 15-20 minute 43:31 question/answer time right after this, I'll take 43:34 the questions right live from the floor, here we go. 43:36 Not surprisingly, the apostles all kept the Sabbath. 43:39 See for example Acts chapter... and there's so many verses 43:42 here, go to the book of Acts, I'll show you my personal 43:44 favorite, Acts 13. 43:47 Acts 13:13, that's easy to remember, Acts 13:13. 43:52 It says "Now when Paul and his party set sail from Paphos" 43:55 "they came to Perga in Pamphylia and John departing from there," 43:58 "returned to Jerusalem", verse 14: "But when they" 44:01 "departed from Perga they came to Antioch in Pisidia, and they" 44:04 "went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and they" 44:07 "sat down, and after the reading of the law and the prophets," 44:09 "the rulers of the synagogues said to them saying," 44:12 "Men and brethren, if you have any word of exhortation" 44:15 "to the people, stay on." They noticed that Paul 44:18 had walked in, they said "Whoa, that's Paul. Hey Paul, if you" 44:21 "have anything you'd like to say to the congregation," 44:23 "the pulpit's all yours, stand up, teach and preach." 44:26 So Paul stands up and preaches a powerful sermon on 44:29 the resurrection of Jesus Christ, here's just a few 44:32 choice verses, look at verse 30: "But God raised Him from" 44:34 "the dead", verse 34, "...and that He raised Him" 44:37 "from the dead", you see that? Acts 13:37, "But He whom God" 44:44 "raised up saw no corruption", verse 38, "Therefore let it be" 44:48 "known to you brethren that through this man is preached" 44:52 "the forgiveness of sins." Look at what he's preaching, 44:55 he's preaching the resurrection, he's preaching the forgiveness 44:57 of sins, verse 39: "...and by Him, Jesus Christ, everyone" 45:01 "who believes is justified from all things from which" 45:05 "they could not be justified by the law of Moses." 45:07 So look at what he's preaching, he's preaching the resurrection, 45:10 he's preaching forgiveness, he's preaching justification. 45:14 Was Paul a New Testament Christian? 45:17 Sure he was, he believed in grace, now jump down to 45:20 verse 42; the sermon must have been a good one because 45:22 in verse 42 it says: "When the Jews went out of the synagogue" 45:25 "the Gentiles", my version says "begged", look at that, 45:29 "the Gentiles begged that these words might be preached" 45:32 "to them on the next Sabbath." They came and said 45:37 "Whoa, Paul, we were listening and we never heard" 45:40 "words like that before, will you please, please, please," 45:42 "we want to hear these great truths, you just preached" 45:45 "next Sabbath". This would have been the perfect 45:48 day for Paul to say "You know what? You don't have" 45:51 "to do that because the day has been changed, in fact, the new" 45:54 "Christian day of day or worship is actually tomorrow," 45:56 "so you don't have to wait all the way until next week," 45:59 "I'll see you tomorrow right here on the new Christian" 46:02 "day of worship." That doesn't happen at all. 46:05 In fact, look what does happen, verse 43: "Now when" 46:07 "the congregation had broken up many of the Jews and devout" 46:10 "proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas speaking to them," 46:13 "persuaded them to continue in the grace of God", 46:16 verse 44: "and on the next Sabbath almost the whole city" 46:19 "came together to hear the word of God." 46:21 I've given you many other verse that you can go look up 46:24 on your own, but it is plain as the noonday sun that every one 46:27 of Jesus' disciples kept the Sabbath. 46:30 Why wouldn't they? After all, every single true 46:33 follower of God - I'm on the study guide now: 46:36 Every single true follower of God from Adam to Abraham, 46:40 and from Abraham to Moses, and from Moses to Jesus, 46:43 and from Jesus to the apostles kept that special day 46:47 as a memorial of creation and redemption. 46:50 You can't name one follower of God in the Bible that didn't 46:52 keep the Sabbath. There's not one of them, 46:56 every single person in the Bible that was a follower of the true 47:01 God was a Sabbath keeper, isn't that powerful? 47:04 So hey, how many of you today want to be followers 47:07 of the true God? Then you're in good company 47:10 if you chose to keep the Sabbath as well. 47:13 Look at this, "Wow, I didn't know that", study guide: 47:16 The Sabbath is all about Jesus Christ and our relationship 47:20 with Him, that's what it's all about. 47:24 It's all about our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, 47:27 yet despite the overwhelming evidence many Christians still 47:30 believe that the Bible teaches Sunday observance, they base 47:33 this on 3 main texts. [text on screen] 47:44 Despite the overwhelming evidence that we presented 47:47 here, and by the way, I'm not just whistling dixie, I'm not 47:49 just kidding about this $10,000 thing, I make that as a solemn 47:52 promise to you before the Lord, you find me any text 47:55 that indicates even at all that the Sabbath has been changed, 47:58 first come first serve, $10,000 is yours, I'm not just 48:01 whistling dixie. Despite the overwhelming 48:03 evidence some people say "No, no, surely it's in there" 48:06 "somewhere", and there are 3 verses that are used to prove 48:09 Sunday observance, these are the 3 verses; some of you 48:12 are thinking "I never heard this before, I'm going to go back" 48:15 "and ask my pastor", nothing wrong with asking your pastor, 48:18 especially if he's a good man, a Godly man that you trust, 48:20 but let me just give you one word of advice: we should go 48:23 to the Bible and be checking our pastors out with the Bible, 48:26 not the Bible out with our pastors. 48:29 Listen, nobody believes in going to spiritual leaders 48:31 and spiritual mentors more than me, but I want to tell you 48:34 something: if you came up to me and you showed me 48:37 a plain "...thus sayeth the Lord", and I was like 48:40 "Well, I'm not going to follow it", then you should say 48:42 "Hey listen, I'm going somewhere else." 48:45 Nothing wrong with having a Godly spiritual mentor, we need 48:48 more Godly spiritual mentors, but just because many of you, 48:50 I know, are thinking "I can't wait to ask my pastor" 48:53 "about this", listen, ask your pastor about it, but let me 48:56 just be honest with you about something: we need to be 48:59 in the habit of checking our pastors out by the word, 49:02 and not the word out by our pastors; that applies to me, 49:04 by the way, in fact, that applies to me first and 49:07 foremost because I'm speaking to you so frankly and so boldly. 49:10 These are the 3 verses that you're going to find: 49:13 go with me very quickly to John 20. 49:16 These are the verse you're going to find people are going to say: 49:19 "Oh no, I'll show you, they kept Sunday in the New Testament", 49:22 John 20. Jesus has been crucified 49:24 and the disciples are deadly afraid they've heard that 49:28 the body has turned up missing, they're deadly afraid that 49:30 they're going to be charged, so in John 20:19, 49:34 I want everyone there, John 20;19: "Then the same day" 49:39 "at evening, being the first day of the week", which is? 49:44 Sunday, so Sunday...they say "There it is, there it is" 49:47 "right there, see, Sunday worship." 49:49 Well, keep watching, "...when the doors were shut" 49:52 "the disciples were assembled", there it is, there's a worship 49:55 service, see? Except the problem is 49:57 that there's a comma, not a period, the comma, 50:00 and then it says "...they were assembled for fear" 50:03 "of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst of them" 50:05 "and said, Peace be with you." Beloved, they didn't even yet 50:08 believe in the resurrection when they're in that room, 50:11 they're afraid that they're going to be charged with 50:13 the missing body of Jesus, and they're in that room 50:16 just afraid for fear of the Jews, there's no worship 50:19 service going on there, they're hiding, they're deadly afraid. 50:23 So there's no Sunday worship there. 50:25 Acts 20, you can go to that one, no worship service there, 50:28 1 Corinthians 16 is the only time, the ONLY time 50:33 the apostle Paul in all of his voluminous writings: 50:35 Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 50:38 Thessalonians, Romans, Corinthians, all of Paul's 50:41 voluminous writings, that's the only place he ever mentions 50:43 the first day of the week, and all he says about it is: 50:46 "Hey listen, when I come through town I'm on my way" 50:49 "to Jerusalem, there's a famine in Jerusalem," 50:52 "and I want to take up an offering for those who are" 50:55 "going through difficult times, get all your offerings together" 50:57 "so I can pick it up on the first day of the week" 51:00 "when I'm on my way through." That's it, 51:03 those are the texts. 51:05 I'm telling you right now in the fear of God and in the sight 51:08 of God, there's not 1 scintilla of a hint of an idea 51:11 of a suggestion of anything like Sunday keeping in one 51:14 of those verses. Nothing, nothing, nothing! 51:17 So let's continue then. You notice there on your study 51:20 guide it says: Yet these texts, when read in context, 51:28 always read your Bible in context because there's 51:32 a danger that you're going to be in such a hurry, you're going 51:35 to say "Oh Lord, I'm in a hurry today, I just need You to speak" 51:38 "to me, I need you to speak to me out of Your word," 51:41 "and here we go", and it says "and Judas hung himself." 51:44 You think "Well, that's not really what I was looking for," 51:47 "let's try that again". [Audience laughs] 51:49 "Lord, I need a word from You today." 51:52 "...go thou and do likewise". [Audience laughs] 51:55 "Whoa, that's not what I was looking for", so we say 51:58 "Alright Lord, come on now, I need another word," 52:01 "I need..." [points at Bible verse], "...what thou doest" 52:04 "do quickly". [Audience laughs] 52:06 Beloved, that's not an appropriate way to study 52:09 your Bible, amen? [Audience] Amen. 52:12 You can study the Bible that way, you can make the Bible 52:15 say any old thing you want it to say, but if you want 52:18 to study your Bible responsibly you study it in context. 52:20 So you go look at every one of these verses. 52:23 Listen, that could be $30,000 for you right there, you go 52:26 look at those verses in context, you get every one of those, 52:29 that's $30,000, $10,000 per verse. 52:31 Jesus Christ is pointing us to His holy Sabbath. 52:34 So we ask the question here: "So then who did it?" 52:37 "What happened? I never heard this before," 52:42 "slow down pastor David, what happened?" 52:46 The answer, as we saw at the beginning is this: 52:49 who changed it? God didn't do it, 52:51 "I am the Lord, I change not." In fact, He carved those 52:54 10 commandments out of stone, blue sapphire stone, taken 52:59 from His own throne. We know God didn't do it, 53:03 "I am the Lord, I change not." "Jesus Christ, the same" 53:07 "yesterday, today and forever." Jesus didn't do it. 53:11 "Think not that I am come to destroy the law or" 53:14 "the prophets, I came not to destroy, but to fulfil." 53:16 "For verily I say unto you, until heaven and earth pass" 53:19 "away not one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from" 53:22 "the law." It wasn't Jesus. 53:24 The disciples didn't do it, the disciples were keeping 53:27 the Sabbath all the way through, in fact the Bible says 53:30 in Revelation 1:10, John says "I was in the Spirit" 53:32 "on the Lord's day." Somebody says "there it is," 53:35 "the Lord's day", no, there's only 1 Lord's day in the whole 53:38 Bible, the Lord's day is the day that Jesus is the Lord of, 53:41 and we've already read that, "Therefore the Son of man" 53:44 "is Lord of the Sabbath day." So the Lord's day is His day. 53:47 It's the only day that's the Lord's day in all the Bible, 53:50 so you've got John keeping the Sabbath, you have Jesus 53:53 in Matthew 24:20 says: "Pray that your flight be neither" 53:55 "in the winter nor on the Sabbath day." 53:58 Jesus knew that His crucifixion was just in a few short days 54:01 and when He said that He knew that that destruction 54:04 of Jerusalem would come in 70 AD. 54:07 Jesus was crucified in 31 AD, the destruction of Jerusalem 54:10 was in 70 AD, that's 39 years later, and Jesus says 54:12 "Hey, 39 years later from now when you're keeping the Sabbath" 54:15 "pray that you don't have to flee on that day." 54:18 Jesus knew His disciples would be keeping the Sabbath, 54:20 is that clear? [Audience] Yes. 54:23 Well then who did it? There's our answer: 54:25 [text on screen] 54:32 Who's times? God's times. Who's laws? God's laws. 54:37 That's exactly right, we should have expected that. 54:40 That's exactly what we were told. 54:42 Jesus says "All power is given to Me in heaven and on earth." 54:46 All power, Rome versus Christ, that was the decision 54:49 that the people had to make outside of Pontius' judgment 54:52 hall, they said "Give us Barabbas", their choice was 54:55 "who do you want, do you want Rome or do you want Jesus?" 54:58 They said "We have no king but Caesar". 55:00 The same choice comes down to us today: Is it Rome or Jesus? 55:04 Like I told you, I'm just providing you with the facts, 55:07 what you do with the facts is between you and your Lord, 55:10 but you need to have the facts. A doctor gives you the facts, 55:13 you make your own decisions. According to the book 55:16 of Revelation there will be how many calls to worship? 55:19 2 calls to worship. How many claims on authority? 55:21 2 calls. Okay, there's a slide I want 55:24 to get to, and this is it right here... 55:27 This is right on your study guide, concerning the Sabbath, 55:30 here it is: [text on screen] 56:02 Somebody says to me "Hey, why do you keep the Sabbath?" 56:05 "You trying to be a legalist?" Are you kidding me? 56:07 I'm no legalist, I love the Lord Jesus Christ with all 56:10 my heart and want to do whatever He asks me to do, 56:13 not in order to be saved, but because He's already saved me 56:16 by His grace. 56:18 Somebody says "Hey, why do you keep the Sabbath?" 56:21 I say "If it's good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for me." 56:24 "That's why I keep the Sabbath, because I love the Lord." 56:27 Jesus said in John 14:15: "If you love Me, keep My" 56:30 "commandments." Beloved, tonight you've been 56:32 given information, I want you to know that I believe with every 56:35 ounce of my heart that the infrmation that's been given 56:38 to you tonight is true and Biblical, but I'm just a man 56:41 and men can be wrong, so that's why I challenge you 56:43 to go home, to study it out for yourself to see if what I've 56:46 said is true, and if it is true, by the grace of God, 56:49 say with Joshua "as for and my house, we will serve the Lord." 56:58 2 questions, Nr.1: was tonight's presentation clear? 57:01 [Audience] Yes. And Nr.2: Will you go and check it 57:04 out for yourself? [Audience] Yes. 57:06 Let's pray. Father in heaven, tonight 57:13 we present ourselves to You, Father. 57:16 If this is true we want to live it, we want to know it, 57:19 we want to love it, so Father, give us a sense from Your word, 57:23 not from a feeling, not from some church, not from some 57:26 tradition, from Your word what's truth. 57:30 We thank You for Your goodness to us God, You are good, 57:33 we're nothing, You're good, we're dust, You're good. 57:37 You are our creator and redeemer and we turn our lives 57:39 over to You. You made us, You manufactured 57:42 us, You love us, You redeemed us, we're Yours, everything 57:45 we have is Yours, our money is Yours, our check book 57:48 is Yours, our cars are Yours, are children are Yours, 57:50 everything is Yours. God, teach us how to render 57:53 to you what is already Yours. Soften and transform our hearts 58:00 to Your glory, in Jesus name, amen. |
Revised 2014-12-17