Participants:
Series Code: PU
Program Code: PU000009S
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00:01 What do the mysterious images of Daniel and Revelation mean? When
00:08 will the anti-Christ appear and make his final move? How can I 00:12 be ready for the final events of earth's history? You'll be 00:16 amazed and encouraged by what the Bible reveals. Join us as 00:21 Pastor Brian McMahon leads out in Prophecy Unsealed. 00:28 Welcome again to Prophecy Unsealed and a warm hello to all 00:33 those who are joining us at home as well. Some time ago there 00:37 was a young girl who was watching her mother cook in the 00:41 kitchen preparing evening dinner As she was watching her mother 00:45 she noticed how her mother cut off the back side of a turkey 00:48 before she put it in the oven. And she asked her mother why she 00:52 did that. And her mother said well because my mother has 00:56 always done it that way. I'm sure she had a good reason. I 00:58 assume that's just the way you cook turkeys. Well the young 01:03 girl was quite inquisitive so at a family gathering a little 01:07 while later she saw grandmother there so she went up to 01:09 grandmother. She said, grandmother mother has watched 01:13 you cook turkey and she says you cut off the back side of the 01:16 turkey and I was just wondering why do you do that before you 01:19 cook it? And she said, Well she says I watched my mother. She 01:23 says that's the way she did it. I'm sure there's a good reason 01:24 for it and I assume that's just the way that you cook turkey. 01:26 Well again this is a bright young girl. Around a week later 01:32 she had an opportunity and she was there with great-grandmother 01:33 so she went right up to her and she said great grandmother I 01:36 like to ask you a question. She says mother and grandmother when 01:40 they cook their turkey they cut off the back side of the turkey 01:42 before they put it in the oven and I just want to know why did 01:45 you do it that way. And the great grandmother said, Oh my, 01:49 are they still doing that? She said the only reason I did that 01:52 was because I just had a little short pan.. Well You know could 02:01 it be possible friends that long standing traditions have come 02:06 down through the years even into the Christian church and we 02:10 haven't given them a lot of thought. Things that our 02:13 grandmothers have practiced and our great ancestors have 02:16 practiced and they have come down through the years and 02:20 really haven't examined the foundations for why these things 02:21 took place and really we just found that we've been guarding 02:25 over nothing more than an ancient tradition, something 02:29 that really isn't in the Bible. Our last night together we took 02:34 a look at the fourth commandment the one that says Remember the 02:36 Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do 02:40 all they work: But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord 02:43 thy God: And the question needs to be asked. Have we followed 02:48 our mothers and fathers and grandmothers and grandfathers 02:51 and even beyond that in following a tradition when it 02:56 comes to which day we worship on I mean we really haven't seen it 02:59 from the Bible at all. Well in our study we found out that 03:04 the Sabbath is the seventh day of the week and it's not the 03:07 first day of the week. Someone will always ask well what about 03:09 the millions of people that have lived down through the ages 03:12 that were very sincere and they didn't keep the seventh day 03:16 Sabbath, they kept a different day? Are they all lost? Now 03:19 friends I need to share something with you. We don't 03:22 put ourself in God's position. We don't judge who are saved and 03:26 who are lost. That is God's work to do, Amen? But the question to 03:29 ask is not what will happen to other people with what they did 03:35 The better question is what will we do when God shows us truth? 03:40 That's the question to ask. Look at this beautiful verse from 03:44 Psalm 43 and verse 3: David said O send out thy light and thy 03:49 truth: let them do what friends? lead me; yes. Let them bring me 03:54 unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles. Today everybody's 03:58 saying this is the truth and that is the truth and all of 04:02 this confusion with all the different winds of doctrine that 04:04 are blowing. One thing I love about the Bible friends is the 04:08 Bible makes it simple. So the Bible gives us three primary 04:12 definitions of what truth is. We're going to put them right up 04:15 on the screen here. It says Jesus is the truth and he says, 04:19 I am the way, the truth, and the life. If we follow what Jesus 04:23 said and we practice what Jesus did we know we're going to be 04:27 following truth. And then in John 17:17 it says sanctify them 04:32 through thy truth; thy word is truth. When we let the Bible 04:36 lead us when we have the Bible as the foundation of our faith 04:39 we know we're going to be following truth. And then in 04:42 Psalm 119:142 it says thy righteousness is an everlasting 04:46 righteousness and thy law is the truth. Now once again if we 04:51 are anchored in God's law, and we listen to God's commandments 04:54 He wrote them down in stone. We know we're going to be following 04:58 the truth. 1 Corinthians 16:1 says this to us: Now concerning 05:03 the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the 05:05 churches of Galatia, even so, do ye. Upon the first day of the 05:10 week...now once again that is Sunday in our calendar...let 05:14 every one of you lay by him in store, as God has prospered him, 05:16 that there be no gathering when I come. There are many religious 05:20 teachers that say based on that verse we should now go to church 05:24 on Sunday because they were taking up an offering in church 05:26 on Sunday. Now let's see what it really says. Friends this was a 05:30 collection for the saints. It doesn't say it was a collection 05:34 of the saints. Notice the text. It says let every one of you 05:37 lay by him in store. Now if you lay by in-store are you giving 05:42 a Sunday school collection offering? Of course not. If you 05:46 lay by in store you do exactly what it says. You lay it by and 05:49 you store it up. Some of the more modern Bible versions say 05:52 Let each one of you put on one side and store up at home. The 05:56 NIV says save it up. The NASB Bible says put aside and save. 06:00 It doesn't say you're giving a collection in church. Not at all 06:04 This isn't putting your offering in some kind of collection plate 06:08 that is often interpreted. In fact, Paul doesn't even say when 06:12 he's going to arrive and pick it up. He doesn't say he's going to 06:15 arrive on Sunday. He could have arrived on any day of the week. 06:17 He's simply saying on the first day of the week he's saying to put 06:21 some aside for the saints so that when I come I don't have to 06:25 spend the time going around and trying to gather up this 06:28 offering. So he's basically saying do your bookkeeping, 06:31 figure out how God has prospered you the previous week on the 06:36 first day of the week and then put some aside. And it could be 06:39 more than money. It could be food, it could be clothes, it 06:41 could be a lot of things that were put aside. Paul had written 06:45 several churches telling them that there was a famine. He was 06:48 telling them that the saints in Jerusalem were in need. After 06:52 these things Paul departed from Athens, and came to what city? 06:56 Corinth, he came to Corinth. So what was the practice of the 07:01 church when they were in Corinth Here it says: And he reasoned 07:07 in the synagogue every what? Sabbath, that's right. It was 07:12 the practice of the church to meet on the Sabbath, and it 07:15 wasn't just for the Jews. It said, he persuaded the Jews and 07:19 the who else? The Greeks. So Paul was preaching Jesus and 07:24 leading people to an understanding of truth as they 07:27 met together on the Sabbath. And here he's in Corinth. Now 07:32 he's writing back to the church in Corinth, the book of 07:36 1 Corinthians. He knows they're keeping the Sabbath. He kept it 07:41 with them. And now he's saying on the first day of the week the 07:44 first day you go back to work He says now you can go back to 07:49 your regular work and your bookkeeping and you can see how 07:52 God has prospered them. So rather that this passage showing 07:55 that there's some kind of sanctity to Sunday it shows just 07:58 opposite and they used it for a day when they were basically 08:01 doing their financial bookkeeping. The Bible clearly 08:04 tells us this was not anything to do with a sanctification 08:07 of Sunday. Well let's go on and look at the next text that 08:11 mentions the first day of the week Acts chapter 20 verse 6: 08:14 And we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened 08:17 bread, and came unto them to Troas in five days; where we 08:20 abode seven days. And upon the first day of the week, when the 08:24 disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, 08:26 ready to depart on the morrow; and he continued his speech until 08:30 what time? Midnight. Now some will say see Paul preached on 08:34 the first day of the week. So I guess we should keep Sunday. 08:36 Now if preaching alone made a day holy it would be something 08:41 to take note of. But does preaching alone make something 08:44 holy? It says in Acts 5 and verse 42. And daily in the 08:48 temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and to what? 08:52 Preach Jesus Christ. So they taught and they preached about 08:57 Jesus every day. It wasn't something that makes a day holy. 09:01 I mean we're preaching here a number of days a week aren't we? 09:03 And yet it doesn't mean that those days are holy. So it's not 09:05 preaching that makes a day holy. Remember it's an act of God 09:09 or God's presence in something that makes it holy. So it says 09:13 that they broke bread. And they'll say well see they were 09:17 having a communion service and they were you know celebrating the 09:20 communion on Sunday. Well again, let's go to Acts chapter 2 and 09:24 here in verse 46 we read this. And they, meaning the saints, 09:28 continuing how often? Daily with one accord in the temple, 09:32 and breaking bread from house to house did eat their meat, which 09:35 means their food, with gladness and singleness of heart. So, 09:38 there is some question whether this expression breaking bread 09:41 is the communion service, celebrating the Lord's supper 09:44 whether it was just sharing a meal. Usually, we would 09:46 understand it as being a meal. 09:48 They said let's eat today It was an expression, Let's 09:51 break bread together. But even if they want to consider it to 09:53 be the Lord's supper the first time Jesus celebrated the Lord's 09:56 supper was on a Thursday evening and there's no churches that say 10:00 that's a holy day. So it's not that act of breaking bread that 10:04 makes the day holy at all. Let's go back to the story and pick up 10:08 some more information here. It says in verse 8: And there were 10:10 many lights in the upper chamber where they were gathered 10:13 together. So this was the dark part or the evening of the day. 10:17 We've learned already that when the sun sets the new day begins 10:22 Biblically. Where do we get that from? Genesis 1 verse 5: And God 10:25 called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And 10:29 the evening and the morning were the first day. There's every 10:31 church that understands that biblically the day begins when 10:35 the sun has set. So the sun has set already today so biblically 10:40 the next day of the week has begun. The evening and the 10:43 morning are the first day, the evening and the morning were the 10:45 second day. God wisely chose to put the dark part before the 10:49 light part and Dr. Luke tells us that it is the dark part of the 10:52 day so what we're looking at here from the commentary on Acts 10:56 from a Bible scholar, page 329 and 330 it says the Jews 11:00 reckoned from evening to morning and on that principle the 11:05 evening of the first day of the week would be our Saturday night 11:07 It says the apostle held his last religious service on 11:12 Saturday evening, and consequently resumed his 11:15 journey on Sunday morning. So this was not a Sunday morning 11:18 church service here. This was a Saturday evening service. Some 11:22 of the other Bible translations for Acts 20 and verse 7, it says: 11:26 On Saturday evening we gathered together...And the Phillips 11:28 Modern English, on Saturday we were assembled for 11:30 the breaking of bread. New English Bible on 11:33 Saturday night and so on. It is saying here 11:35 that they met on a Saturday evening. So Dr. Luke here is 11:40 actually writing about a Saturday evening service. Verse 11:43 9. And there sat in a window a certain young man named Eutychus 11:47 being fallen into a deep sleep: and as Paul was long preaching, 11:51 he sunk down with sleep, and fell down from the third loft, 11:53 and was taken up dead. Wow. Here's a warning against long 11:58 winded preachers there, Amen? And not falling asleep 12:00 in church either 12:02 I'm sure. But nevertheless this is probably why or one of the 12:05 two reasons why this story is even in here because it had a 12:08 miraculous resurrection for this young man. Verse 10: And Paul 12:11 went down, and fell on him, and embracing him said, Trouble not 12:14 yourselves; for his life is in him. So this young man was 12:18 raised up and verse 11 says: When he therefore come up 12:21 again, and had broken bread, and eaten, and talked a long while, 12:23 even till break of day, so he departed. This was Paul's third 12:28 and last missionary journey. It was the last time these people 12:31 were ever going to see Paulk again. So he was spending this 12:36 extra time with them. All through the Sabbath they were 12:38 meeting together, I'm sure, and then into the Saturday night and 12:41 that wasn't enough, they had this young man fall down and 12:46 this miraculous resurrection. They ate 12:47 together, they talked all through the night and it was 12:51 still within the hours that we would call Sunday. It says: When 12:55 he therefore was come up again, and broken bread and eaten and 12:57 talked a long while, even till the break of day, so he departed 13:01 Now let's look at this graph here. This is a 24-hour period 13:05 of time that we would call Sunday or the first day of the 13:07 week. Within it, we have a midnight, a sunrise, and a noon. 13:10 So here the dark part of the first day of the week has come, 13:14 in the confines of Sunday. They speak until midnight, this 13:18 miraculous even takes place and they talk all through the night. 13:21 So sunrise, we're still within the hours of Sunday now and Paul 13:26 leaves and he goes on foot for 20 miles approximately to meet 13:30 the ship on the other side of the peninsula there. Now this 13:35 tells us rather than Sunday being a sacred day or considered 13:39 sacred by them it actually says he thought the opposite. Because 13:43 Paul used this day as a day of secular travel, it proved beyond 13:47 any shadow of a doubt that they did not consider it to be sacred. 13:50 Because it wasn't their practice to use the Sabbath to go on such 13:54 a journey at all. So does it say anything here that Sunday is 14:00 sacred? No. Does it say anything here that the Sabbath was 14:03 changed from Saturday to Sunday? No not at all. It proved the 14:07 exact opposite because Paul was going on his regular journey 14:09 that Sunday morning. Let's go on to Luke chapter 24. Now these 14:14 next verses will go rather quickly because they're all 14:16 dealing with the same series of events revolving around the 14:19 crucifixion and the entombment and the resurrection of Jesus. 14:23 Luke 24 verse 1: Now upon the first day of the week very early 14:27 in the morning, they came unto the sepulcher bringing the spices 14:29 which they had prepared, and certain others with them. Does 14:32 Luke say anything here that the Sabbath is now only for the Jews 14:35 and that Sunday is now the new Sabbath for the Christians? Does 14:39 Luke say that? Of course not. In fact, if you back up one 14:43 verse in the preceding chapter it says in Luke 23 and verse 56 14:47 And they returned and prepared spices and ointments; and rested 14:51 the Sabbath day according to the what? Commandment. 14:55 Evidently, these disciples knew nothing from Jesus that the 14:59 Sabbath was going to be changed at all because they rested the 15:04 day after Jesus died as they normally would have. There's no 15:08 way that Sunday could be the Sabbath because the day before 15:10 Sunday the Bible says was the Sabbath according to the 15:14 commandment and keep in mind that Luke did not write this 15:17 the day or the week or the month or the year after it happened. 15:20 He wrote this decades after it happened and then when he writes 15:24 back on it he doesn't say on the day that used to be the Sabbath. 15:27 He just simply says and on the Sabbath. So Mark 16 verse 1, we 15:32 go on to our next one here: And when the Sabbath was past, Mary 15:36 Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Salome, had bought 15:40 sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him. He didn't 15:42 say the old Sabbath was past. He doesn't say the Jewish Sabbath 15:46 was past. He doesn't say, in fact the Bible never says we've 15:51 seen this in a previous time with the Prophecy Unsealed 15:54 Seminar. It never says anywhere in the scriptures that it's 15:57 called the Jewish Sabbath. It always says it's the Sabbath of 15:59 the Lord thy God. It's God's Sabbath, Amen. If the Bible 16:03 writer thought that there was a change in the Sabbath wouldn't 16:05 he mention it here? Wouldn't he tell us about it here. And very 16:09 early in the morning of the first day of the week, they came 16:12 unto the sepulcher at the rising of the sun. When Mark recorded 16:16 his gospel did he already know that Jesus had risen from the 16:19 grave on the first day. Absolutely he did. Did the fact 16:22 that he knew what caused the church to worship on the first 16:27 day of the week? No not at all. They kept the Sabbath as they 16:30 always would. If they didn't change it then why would we do 16:35 it now? Think about it, friend. Let's look now. The next time we 16:38 find Sunday mentioned is in the same chapter, just a little 16:41 later on in it, verse 9. Now when Jesus was risen early the 16:44 first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene 16:46 out of whom he had cast seven devils. Mary was the first to 16:50 talk to the risen Jesus wasn't she? He doesn't tell her they 16:53 should now keep Sunday. He doesn't say anything like that 16:56 her. He doesn't say Sunday's a holy day. We've only got two 16:59 texts to go out of all eight texts in the New Testament. John 17:03 20 verse 1: The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early 17:07 when it was yet dark, unto the sepulcher and seeth the stone 17:09 taken away from the sepulcher. It's just repeating the same 17:12 series of events that we've been through over and over here. No 17:17 change of the Sabbath, no mention that Sunday's sacred. It 17:19 simply says that Jesus rose on the first day of the week. John 17:23 wrote his gospel some 60 years 60 years after the crucifixion. 17:30 In fact, it is said that he wrote his gospel after he wrote 17:34 down the book of Revelation and why would that be important? 17:36 Because in the book of Revelation, we saw this in a 17:40 previous time. He says in Revelation 1:10 that I was in 17:44 the Spirit on the Lord's day. So in Revelation, he said there 17:48 still was a day that was called the Lord's day. But here when 17:51 when he wrote his gospel afterwards he doesn't say that 17:54 that was Sunday. Not at all. He simply says it was the first day 17:59 of the week. He certainly would have called it the Lord's day if 18:02 he really meant Sunday to be the Lord's day. But he didn't. Here 18:07 it is. Matthew 28 verse 1: In the end of the Sabbath as it 18:10 began to dawn toward the first day of the week came Mary 18:13 Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulcher. Now notice 18:16 what day of the week did Jesus rise on, once again? He rose on 18:19 the first day of the week. We know it in our English as Sunday 18:22 don't we? So Matthew records that the morning of the first 18:24 day of the week the women came to finish the burial process. It 18:29 was now after the Sabbath. The Sabbath had passed or ended when 18:34 the first day of the week had come. So God didn't want us 18:37 getting confused did he? He didn't want us getting mixed up 18:40 on this. So he specifically said the Sabbath had come to an end 18:43 when the first day of the week had arrived. This shows crystal 18:49 clear there's nothing sacred about Sunday at all in the Bible 18:52 The events surrounding the crucifixion and the burial of 18:56 Jesus and the rising at the grave of Jesus pinpoints in 19:01 scripture which day is the Sabbath day. It is the day that 19:05 comes between Friday and Sunday and we know that in our English 19:08 as Saturday. So we go back to our definitions of truth here. 19:12 Right? Jesus is the truth, the Word is the truth and the law 19:16 is the truth. What did Jesus do in regards to this. Luke 4:16: 19:21 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as 19:24 his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, 19:28 and stood up to read. Jesus went to corporate worship on the 19:33 Sabbath day. And if Jesus did it then we probably should too, 19:37 Amen. Because remember now Christianity is not following a 19:41 church, Christianity is not following a popular speaker 19:44 Christianity is following Jesus. Would you give that an Amen? 19:47 All right. So what did Jesus teach about the future after he 19:50 ascended back to heaven. Would he change it then? Matthew 24 19:54 verse 20 is our answer. He said to his disciples: But pray that 19:58 your flight be not in the winter neither on the what day? The 20:03 Sabbath day. Why would Jesus be instructing his disciples to 20:06 keep on praying that they wouldn't have to flee from 20:10 Jerusalem when the Roman armies came if the Sabbath wasn't 20:16 sacred anymore? If it wasn't important to be kept anymore? 20:19 That it had been changed to a different day. Obviously, Jesus 20:24 expected it to still be kept. What about the disciples? We 20:27 want to find out what they did as well. A little bit of a 20:29 review here. It says in Acts 13 and verse 42: And when the Jews 20:33 were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these 20:35 words might be preached to them the next Sabbath. Now when the 20:39 congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and religious 20:41 proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas: who speaking to them, 20:45 persuaded them to continue in the grace of God. In other 20:48 words Christians that were keeping the Sabbath were walking 20:52 in the grace of God. Paul exhorted them to continue in the 20:55 grace of God, verse 44, and the next Sabbath day came almost the 20:59 whole city together to hear the word of God. Amen! In other 21:06 words, they weren't keeping a different day. It wasn't a 21:07 divided church some going on Sabbath and some of the first day 21:09 of the week. They were all keeping the Sabbath. It wasn't 21:11 even up for dispute. Acts 16 verse 13: And on the Sabbath we 21:16 went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to 21:18 be made. People sometimes wonder folks why there isn't 21:22 more said about the Sabbath in the New Testament. Now once 21:27 again the reason why there was no controversy about it. The 21:29 church was united in it. There was no question about the day. 21:32 They all understood that when God wrote those commandments 21:36 in stone, nobody was to change them. Now there's a controversy 21:40 now but that controversy didn't come in till about 300 or 400 21:43 years into the New Testament era At the time the scriptures were 21:47 written down in the New Testament there was absolutely 21:49 no quarrel about it. Everybody knew that the Sabbath was still 21:53 the seventh day as it always had been. Harold Lindsell, in 21:56 Christianity Today...he was a former editor of this famous 21:59 Christianity Today magazine. He wrote: There is nothing in 22:01 in Scripture that requires us to keep Sunday rather than 22:06 Saturday as a holy day. 22:08 Now him being a Baptist that's a very candid admission. 22:11 There's nothing in the Bible that says Sunday's sacred. In 22:14 his book arguing for Sunday worship, D.A. Carlson admits, 22:17 There is no hint anywhere in the ministry of Jesus that the first 22:20 day of the week is to take on the character of the Sabbath and 22:25 replace it. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and 22:29 Ecclesiastical Literature, Volume 9, p. 196 says: It must 22:32 be confessed that there is no law in the New Testament 22:35 concerning the first day. Very plain isn't it? These people, 22:41 they're just being honest and candid as they review the Bible. 22:45 They know there's nothing in there in the New Testament that 22:47 says we should keep Sunday. In fact, in Revelation 14 verse 7 22:52 it says...we are to worship him that made heaven, and earth 22:55 and the sea, and the fountains of waters. Revelation is 22:58 quoting from the fourth Commandment. So right at the end 23:03 of time God is even bringing out this fact that there still is to 23:07 be an acknowledgment of the Creator and God gave that 23:11 special fourth commandment for us to do so. This question is 23:14 one I think we'd want to answer. What about in heaven? Are the 23:18 commandments still important there? Well it would say so if 23:21 they're the foundation of the government of God. And the 23:23 government of God is never to end we should be able to see the 23:26 Sabbath there and we do friends. In Isaiah 66 and verse 22 it 23:29 says: For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make 23:34 future tense shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so 23:36 shall your seed and your name remain. Now verse 23: And it 23:45 shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and 23:47 from one what? Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to 23:51 worship before me, saith the Lord. How long a time was the 23:55 Sabbath made for. The answer is this. It was made for as long 23:58 as man needs for which it was created, are there. As long as 24:05 we need it, God had it for us. And isn't it always necessary 24:08 that we'll acknowledge God as the Creator? Isn't it always 24:11 necessary that we need to have time with him. So God has 24:14 designed the Sabbath, so keep in mind friends, the Sabbath was 24:17 given in the Garden of Eden before sin existed in this world 24:22 And so there's nothing wrong with the Sabbath because it was 24:25 given in the perfection of the world. If we needed the Sabbath 24:30 even when the world was perfect how much more do we need it now 24:34 as fallen human beings, right? So God made the Sabbath 24:39 beautiful in the beginning and there it is in the end. I love 24:41 this next slide folks. I call it Sabbath facts in the book of 24:45 Acts. So here it is. As Paul started his missionary journey 24:49 notice how he set up Sabbath keeping churches wherever he 24:53 went. There they were in Antioch. And it says, the next 24:57 Sabbath they were continued in the grace of God and they all 25:00 came together. There in Philippi on the Sabbath, they went out by 25:03 a river and there they worshiped It says in Acts 17: Three 25:06 Sabbaths they came together the Greek and a great multitude. 25:09 Again all kinds of believers there worshiping on the Sabbath 25:12 And there in Corinth, it says again, they met together on the 25:15 Sabbath, both Jews and Greeks. So, Paul went about setting 25:21 up not Sunday-keeping churches, but Sabbath-keeping churches. 25:25 Sunday is called the first day in the Bible. Eight times it's 25:28 mentioned in the New Testament. Never set aside in honor of the 25:32 resurrection. Never called the Lord's day, not once, And it's 25:35 never even mentioned by Jesus! Never mentioned. Once again, if 25:44 it's not part of the worship that Jesus gave us it's not part 25:47 of Christian worship. Jesus kept the seventh day. He said he's 25:55 the Lord of the Sabbath. It's the only day he ever said he was 25:57 Lord of. And his followers rested on the Sabbath day 25:59 according to the commandment after the cross! Very Important. 26:03 And it was kept in the book of Acts by both Jews and Gentiles. 26:08 When did Sunday keeping come into effect. Some'll say. Sunday 26:14 morning. That's not true. Does it matter? Some will say 30 years 26:17 later. Not true again but it doesn't matter. Some will say 26:19 300 years later. Now you're getting closer to the truth. Now 26:23 but it doesn't matter if it's 300 years later or 30 years 26:27 later or three years later or three days later. If it came in 26:32 after Jesus died you can't add it to the Christian faith 26:38 because it came after the death of the testator. No man can 26:42 disannul or add thereto. Why did Jesus give us the Lord's supper 26:46 on Friday evening or Thursday evening, that would be Friday. 26:50 Why did he give it to us? Because he wanted that part of 26:54 the Christian faith. He wanted that part of Christian teaching. 26:57 He wanted it part of Christian doctrine. So he added it before 27:00 he died. In the New Testament Jesus said I will send the Holy 27:04 Spirit and he will bring back to your remembrance of all things 27:06 whatsoever I have taught you. He didn't say and you will go on 27:10 and make up new doctrine. He didn't say that. No, he said the 27:13 Holy Spirit will come, he will bring back the things I taught 27:17 you. So Sunday keeping came three days too late. Amen? I 27:23 said it came three days late. It came about 300 years later but 27:26 there are some that say it came on the third day. The Bible is 27:29 clear friends. We're to keep the same Sabbath day that Jesus 27:33 kept, that the disciples kept, that Matthew, Mark, Luke and 27:36 John kept, that Isaiah kept, that Daniel kept, that they all 27:40 kept. All 66 books are written by seventh-day Sabbath keepers. 27:45 That's why and I'm going to say it again folks that's why Sunday 27:48 can never properly be called the Lord's day or the Christian 27:51 Sabbath because it wasn't kept by Jesus. Question: How did the 27:55 the change from the seventh to the first day come into so many 27:59 of the Christian churches today? In Acts 20 and verse 30 it says 28:06 this friends: Also of your own selves, that means within the 28:09 Christian community, shall men arise, speaking perverse things, 28:13 to draw away disciples after them. Paul predicted an 28:17 apostasy within the Christian church. In ancient times the 28:26 Egyptians, the Babylonians, many cultures worshipped the sun. In 28:32 fact this is brought out in modern-day writings. Webster's 28:35 Dictionary it says: Sunday, so called because this day was 28:38 anciently dedicated to the sun, or to its what? Worship. The 28:43 first day of the week. So they're saying Sunday was once 28:46 anciently dedicated to sun worship. Chambers College 28:49 Dictionary: It says: Sunday, the first day of the week, called 28:52 this because in ancient times it was a day for worship of the 28:57 what friends? Sun. Again this is well known. One more source. 29:01 Bible Encyclopedia: Sabbath...A Hebrew word signifying rest... 29:04 Sunday was a name given by the heathens to the first day of the 29:07 week. Why? Because it was the day on which they worshipped the 29:12 what again? The sun. This is well known. The heathens 29:16 worshipped the sun. Satan turned their hearts from the true God 29:21 of heaven to something of the creation. And there the sun was 29:25 so prominent it was easy for them to look upon it. Here we 29:28 find in Ezekiel 8 and verse 14: Then he brought me to the door 29:31 of the gate of the Lord's house which was toward the north; and, 29:33 behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz...which was a 29:36 practice of the heathen, it was a false worship...at the door of 29:39 the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar were 29:42 about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of 29:45 the Lord, and their faces toward the east and they worshipped the 29:49 sun toward the east. There has always been a straight line of 29:52 false worship, sun worship, coming all the way down from 29:55 ancient times right on into the New Testament era and right down 29:59 to our very day friends. Now thankfully and fortunately there 30:02 has always been a straight line of Sabbath-keeping worship too. 30:05 It's come down from the original time that God established it 30:10 there way back in the time of the Garden of Eden. It's come 30:12 all down through history, crossing the time of the flood 30:15 down to the Old Testament days into the New Testament and now 30:18 times have been few but still God held onto that understanding 30:23 of his commandments that's come also down into our time as well. 30:25 The originator of sun worship is Satan the great deceiver or the 30:29 counterfeiter. And the pagans in ancient times they worshipped 30:33 the sun. It was prominent, it was bright, it gave warmth, it 30:37 caused crops to grow and Satan confused them and caused them to 30:43 give it worship. Ezekiel 20 and verse 20. God had an answer, he 30:46 had a solution. He had a truth against false worship and he 30:52 says here: And hallow my Sabbaths...that means keep them 30:54 holy...and they shall be a what folks? Sign between me and you, 30:58 that ye might know that I am the Lord your God...not these other 31:03 false things that are being worshipped. Because if you want 31:05 it for all time to remember that I am the true God of heaven that 31:10 I am the Creator then keep the Sabbath holy. Then how did sun 31:15 worship enter the church? Take another. History of Civilization 31:18 Vol. 1, p. 188. It says: Pagan ceremonies were established in 31:22 Christian churches...until it goes one...Christianity 31:26 exhibited so grotesque and hideous a form, that it's best 31:29 were lost, and...its early loveliness altogether destroyed. 31:33 Very sad even to read that. It says in Wharey's Church History 31:37 p. 54. Christianity had now become so popular, and a large 31:42 proportion, perhaps a large majority of those who embraced 31:45 it only assumed the name. So friends they were Christian in 31:50 title but not in practice. Far from it. The Catholic World 31:53 Magazine said: The sun was a foremost god with heathendom... 31:55 There is, in truth, something royal, kingly about the sun, 31:59 making it a fit emblem of Jesus, the Sun of Justice. Hence the 32:03 Church in these countries would seem to have said, Keep the old 32:07 pagan name. It shall remain consecrated, sanctified, and 32:11 thus pagan Sunday, dedicated to Balder...Balder was the god of 32:15 light...became the Christian Sunday, sacred to Jesus. So here 32:19 we find again, they took something that the pagans were 32:21 doing and they simply gave a Christian meaning to it and they 32:25 brought it right on into the church. It was a form of 32:27 evangelism. Do what the pagans are doing, watch what they're 32:29 doing and rename it, make it acceptable to them and bring 32:32 them on into the church. In the days of Rome when Rome started 32:38 to weaken and start to fall apart there was an emperor by 32:41 the name of Constantine. Now Constantine had hoped to unite 32:44 the empire back together again. And there were problems though 32:47 that Constantine had. The early Christians were keeping the 32:50 Seventh-day Sabbath. Because they were keeping the seventh 32:54 day Sabbath they were getting confused with the Jews who were 32:56 also keeping the seventh day Sabbath. And Constantine, he had 33:01 a plan to overcome this. Because he knew his empire was weakening 33:06 he said, okay I've got these problems now. The Jews are 33:10 constantly revolting against Rome, so they're causing this 33:12 big problem. They are enemies of the empire. Christians they were 33:18 worshipping on the same Sabbath so again they were getting mixed 33:19 up and confused with the Jews. And the heathens they were 33:22 keeping the first day of the week. He says how can I unite 33:25 my empire so that everybody comes together? He came up with 33:29 a plan. If Christians would stop worshipping on the Sabbath and 33:33 they would start worshipping on Sunday they would then 33:37 disassociate themselves from the Jews. The heathens were already 33:40 keeping the first day of the week. They wouldn't have any 33:42 problem with that because they wouldn't have to change. So if 33:45 the Christians just accepted Sunday then we'll just give a 33:49 reason for it, let's just say it is in honor of the resurrection 33:50 well then we might just bring all these sided together. And so 33:54 he made a law. This is very, very well known. It's called 33:59 Constantine's law and it said in AD 321, keep in mind this is the 34:04 fourth century now we're in and it says: On the venerable Day of 34:07 The sun...that's what we would call Sunday. Let the magistrates 34:10 and people residing in cities rest, and let all the workshops 34:13 be closed. He said, On the first day of the week we're going to 34:20 rest. The rest of the days will be working days. Please keep in 34:24 mind, this is the fourth century The very fact that he had to 34:26 make a law mandating that they rest on Sunday tells us that 34:32 they weren't honoring Sunday previous to that. Is that clear? 34:35 The fact that he had to make that law shows that they didn't 34:39 keep Sunday before that, the Christians didn't. Chambers 34:42 Encyclopedia, article on the Sabbath said: Unquestionably the 34:45 first law, either ecclesiastical or civil, by which the 34:49 Sabbatical of that day is known to have been ordained, is the 34:54 edict of Constantine in AD 321. This is the first sign that they 34:59 made this law regarding Sunday. History of Christianity, Bk. 2, 35:03 pp. 138 and 139 it says: It was openly asserted that the worship 35:07 of the sun...was to supersede all other worship. If we may 35:12 believe the biographies in the Augustan history, a more 35:16 ambitious scheme of a universal religion had dawned upon the 35:19 mind of the emperor. So he did, he's got a plan and his plan is 35:24 to bring all of these groups together and he's going to give 35:27 honor to the sun. He claims to have been a Christian. 35:29 Constantine claimed to convert but most people believe it was 35:32 for political purposes. He marched his army through a river 35:34 and said they were all baptized. But it's believed that basically 35:38 he did it to keep the empire together. You know what is so 35:42 tragic about this friends? Is that the church leaders accepted 35:44 it. Not all but many of the leaders did and the council of 35:50 Laodicea which followed soon after had said Christians shall 35:53 not Judaize...which means continue to keep the seventh 35:54 day Sabbath...and be idle on Saturday, but shall work on that 35:58 day. Now once again what does this tell us? This is the fourth 36:02 century. They were telling the Christians not to keep the 36:05 seventh day Sabbath anymore but to start honoring Sunday. 36:09 The fact that they had to tell them that shows us they were 36:12 honoring the fourth commandment. It said: But the Lord's day they 36:17 shall especially honor, and as being Christians, shall if 36:19 possible do no work on that day. They were telling them to stop 36:22 on honoring the Sabbath, start honoring Sunday. They gave it 36:25 the title, the Lord's day to try to give it an air of 36:28 sanctity. The Bible doesn't give it that title. Here we are in 36:34 the book called Concerning the Instruction of the Clergymen, 36:35 bk. 2 Ch. 46. It says: Sylvester ...Sylvester was the leader of 36:38 Rome at this time...decreed that the rest of the Sabbath should 36:42 be transferred rather to the Lord's day, in order that on 36:45 that day we should rest from worldly works. So here you find 36:49 one of the church leaders of that time in the fourth century 36:52 said okay we're just going to transfer it over. In the work 36:55 Sunday, p. 157 it says: Until well into the second century 36:59 (a hundred years after Christ) we do not find the slightest 37:02 indication in our sources that Christians marked Sunday by any 37:07 kind of abstention from work. In the book Sunday a Sabbath, 37:11 p. 163 it says: Even after this council, many Christians paid 37:15 very little attention to its decree for several hundred years 37:17 In fact, it didn't happen that day or year that Christians 37:21 all started to keep Sunday. It took a long, long time, 37:23 generations after generations But people who are born who 37:26 don't have easy access to the Bible, they get taught that 37:29 Sunday's a holy day, they start keeping it and folks since the 37:33 Council of Laodicea when they decreed that we should now keep 37:37 Sunday instead of the Sabbath it has been history's greatest 37:41 religious cover-up to try to show the people some kind of reason 37:47 why Sunday is sacred. Because it has passed on down through the 37:50 generations of the Dark Ages. Once again they did not have the 37:53 Bible as we do tonight to see the truth on this matter and so 37:56 people started keeping it. Churches popped up. They all 37:59 started to honor Sunday as the first day of the week and when 38:02 those early explorers came over to north and south America they 38:05 brought, in those boats, they brought the keeping of Sunday 38:09 with them in those boats. And now basically we're all in the 38:13 same boat. Amen? So here we find today these churches throughout 38:18 the land keeping Sunday because it's been passed down as a 38:21 tradition from parent to child, parent to child and generation 38:25 to generation all down through centuries of time since the 38:28 Council of Laodicea decreed that it should be so but it is not in 38:32 the scriptures. Speaking of the Catholic it says: The...church 38:35 made a sacred day of Sunday... largely because it was the weekly 38:38 festival of the sun: for it was a definite policy...listen 38:42 carefully...to take over the pagan festivals endeared to the 38:46 people by tradition...by what... tradition, and give them a 38:50 Christian significance. Folks you really can hardly get more 38:54 plain than that. It said: That which the heathens did by 38:58 tradition and the pagans were following we simply now brought 39:01 it into the church and gave it a Christian significance Gradually 39:04 over the centuries Sunday was accepted in place of the Bible 39:08 Sabbath. But there was a prophecy: Daniel 7 and verse 25 39:12 What did we read previously in the Prophecy Unsealed seminar? 39:15 that there was coming forward to come along to power that would 39:19 seek to change times and what else? Laws. Absolutely. 39:22 James Cardinal Gibbons, one of most famous cardinals in 39:26 Catholic history: He said in the Catholic Mirror publication: The 39:29 Catholic church for over one thousand years before the 39:32 existence of a Protestant, by virtue of her divine mission, 39:36 changed the day from Saturday to Sunday. The Protestant world 39:42 at its birth found the Christian Sabbath too strongly entrenched 39:45 to run counter to its existence ...by the Christian Sabbath he 39:48 means Sunday...it was therefore placed under the necessity of 39:51 acquiescing...which means going along with...in the arrangement. 39:54 thus implying the Church's right to change the day, for over 39:58 three hundred years. He's simply saying because Sunday was so 40:02 entrenched in society they basically couldn't change it so 40:04 they just went along with it. Right. Wow! Amazing. Again he 40:10 says: The Christian Sabbath is therefore to this day, the 40:13 acknowledge offspring of the Catholic Church as a spouse of 40:17 the Holy Ghost, without a word of remonstrance from the 40:20 Protestant World. Remonstrance of course, means forceful protest 40:23 They're saying we're going along with tradition here, it's not in 40:26 the Bible and yet the Protestant church is not even protesting it 40:30 because it's so deeply entrenched in society. 40:33 Canon and Tradition, p. 263 it says: The authority of the 40:37 church could therefore not be bound to the authority of the 40:39 Scriptures because the church had changed the Sabbath into 40:42 Sunday,...not by a command of Christ, but by its own authority 40:48 Listen carefully Bible students and friends. This is significant 40:51 It's saying that the church is not bound to the Bible speaking 40:55 the Catholic church because it changed the day and because 40:58 people are going along with it it shows it has authority. 41:03 Sunday is founded, not on scripture, but on tradition, and 41:06 is distinctly a Catholic institution. As there is no 41:10 scripture for the transfer of the day of rest from the last 41:12 to the first day of the week, Protestants ought to keep their 41:15 Sabbath on Saturday and thus leave Catholics in full 41:19 possession of Sunday. Saying if you want to go by the Bible 41:22 then you would keep Sabbath on Saturday as it always has been. 41:26 From the beginning to the end of scripture there is not a single 41:29 passage that warrants the transfer of weekly public 41:32 worship from the last day of the week to the first. It says: 41:35 There is but one church on the face of the earth which has the 41:37 power, or claims power, to make laws binding on the conscience 41:40 binding before God, binding under the penalty of hellfire. 41:44 For instance,...she says...the institution of Sunday. What 41:46 right has any other church to keep this day? You answer by 41:49 virtue of the third commandment (The Papacy changed the fourth 41:52 and called it the third), which says, Remember that thou keep 41:55 holy Sabbath day. But Sunday is not the Sabbath...he says...Any 41:58 schoolboy knows that Sunday is the first day of the week. I 42:01 have repeatedly offered a thousand dollars to anyone who 42:05 can prove by the Bible alone that Sunday is the day we are 42:08 bound to keep, and no one has called for the money...He goes 42:11 on and says...It was the holy Catholic Church that changed the 42:14 day of rest from Saturday, the seventh day, to Sunday, the 42:18 first day of the week. In the book, Papal Controversy p. 179 42:24 the author says: From this same Catholic Church you have 42:29 accepted your Sunday, and that Sunday, as the Lord's day, she 42:31 has handed down as a tradition; and the entire Protestant world 42:34 has accepted it as tradition, be it, not an iota of 42:37 Scripture to establish it. Friends this author is very 42:40 clear. He said Sunday keeping is only a what? Tradition. It's not 42:45 in the Bible. You've seed verse after verse, you've seen quote 42:49 after quote, you've seen historian after historian and 42:51 you've seen the authorities of the Catholic church all agree 42:55 Sunday is nothing more than a tradition. He says: Therefore 42:59 that which you have accepted as your fuel of faith, inadequate 43:01 as of course, it is, as well as your Sunday, you have accepted 43:04 on the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. Now you might 43:07 say well what about the Protestants? What do they have 43:09 to say? Here is a quote from the author of the Baptist Manual. 43:14 You'd think that the author of the Baptist Manual would be an 43:17 authority on what the Protestants would say 43:19 and here is what he said: Edward T. Hiscox said: There was and is 43:25 ...I'm glad he said is...a commandment to keep holy the 43:28 Sabbath day, but that Sabbath was not Sunday. It will be said 43:32 however with some show of triumph that the Sabbath was 43:35 transferred from the seventh to the first day of the week... 43:39 Earnestly desiring information on this subject, which I have 43:40 studied for many years, I ask, where an the record of such a 43:43 be found? Not in the New Testament, absolutely not. There 43:47 is no scriptural evidence of the change of the Sabbath 43:49 institution from the seventh to the first day of the week...He 43:51 goes on...Of course, I well know that Sunday did come into use in 43:56 early Christian history as a religious day, as we learn from 43:59 the Christian fathers and other sources. But what a pity that it 44:02 comes branded with the mark of Paganism, and christened with 44:05 the name of the sun god, when adopted and sanctioned by the 44:09 apostasy and bequeathed as a sacred legacy to Protestantism! 44:14 Wow! Now those of you who remember back in the mid-1990s 44:17 you might remember this headline It says: Pope accepts evolution 44:21 creates furor. In other words this is in the time of Pope John 44:25 Paul II and he came out and openly accepted Darwinian 44:30 evolution. I love the title here Vatican Thinking Evolves, a 44:34 little play on words there. But US News and World Report says 44:38 In his message to a meeting of the Pontifical Academy of 44:40 Sciences which had taken the origin of life as its theme... 44:45 statement by John Paul reflects the church's acceptance of 44:47 evolution. This statement is unlikely to influence Catholic 44:50 schools, where evolution has been taught since the 1950's. 44:52 Indeed reading the entire Bible literally has not been a 44:56 dominant practice among Catholics through much of the 44:58 20th century. Now I was raised Catholic and I agree that this 45:04 is true because we never read the Bible in my home and I had 45:07 not even seen a Bible and my friends and relatives that were 45:11 Catholic were not Bible readers either and so I understand this 45:13 quote very well. TIME Magazine at the same time printed their 45:18 own article on it and they said: Did God create mankind in his 45:20 image, as the Bible says, or did humans evolve from animals, as 45:24 Darwin theorized nearly 150 years ago? According to Pope 45:28 John Paul II, evolution may be a better explanation. Wow! Now 45:34 that was back in the time of Pope John Paul II. Let's go 45:40 forward in time to Pope Benedict XVI the former pope before this 45:44 one. It says here, this is 2011, it says: Pope Benedict XVI 45:49 marked the holiest night of the year for Christians by stressing 45:53 that humanity isn't a random product of evolution. Now you 45:57 might think he's going the other way but hold on. Benedict 46:02 emphasized the Biblical account of creation in his Easter Vigil 46:06 homily Saturday, saying it is wrong to think at some point in 46:10 some tiny corner of the cosmos there evolved randomly some 46:13 species of living being...If man were a product of evolution in 46:18 some place on the margins of the margins of the universe, then 46:19 his life would make no sense or might even be a chance of nature 46:22 he said. But no. Reason is there at the beginning: creative 46:27 divine reason. Okay you might think well he seems to believe 46:31 the Bible, right? Hold on. He spoke on: The church teaching 46:36 holds that Roman Catholicism and evolutionary theory are 46:40 not necessarily at odds: Now he's showing his true colors. A 46:45 Christian can, for example, accept the theory of evolution 46:47 to help explain developments... I got to pause here. Isn't it an 46:52 interesting word for how we got this magnificent body called the 46:55 human species, he calls it a development. Right? All right. 46:59 Folks when God made man on that sixth day of the world man was a 47:05 miracle of creation. Amen? I mean without going into all the 47:09 science of it and the complexity of the human species, it's more 47:13 that just a development. But let's keep reading...but is 47:16 taught to believe that God, not random chance is the origin of 47:19 the world. The Vatican, however, warns against creationism, or 47:24 the overly literal interpretation of the 47:26 Biblical account of creation. What does the Bible teach in 47:31 Genesis. It teaches creationism it teaches that God created the 47:35 world in six days and he rested on the seventh day. But now he's 47:40 saying Oh God is the creator but we can still believe in 47:43 evolution. In other words. God started the first little spark 47:48 of life, that first little DNA strand way back billions of 47:52 years ago, right? And over those eons and eons of time eventually 47:55 we here. I think that's the only way you can marry the two 47:59 statements. But he's saying this idea of Adam and Eve and all of 48:03 that stuff about creation, don't get involved in that. We have to 48:07 warn you against that. Folks listen very carefully. Darwinian 48:13 evolution, the idea that we went from the slime of the ocean to 48:19 sprout wings and legs and you know crawl about trees and 48:23 eventually, we'd become a human species we call that the goo to 48:26 the zoo to your theory, right? That idea folks, is 180 48:34 degrees opposite to what the Bible teaches. Can you say Amen? 48:37 There is nothing at all in the Bible that will support this 48:42 idea of Darwinian evolution. So we have a question now. What are 48:47 we going to believe? Are we going to believe the church or 48:49 are we going to believe what the Bible has to say. What is going 48:53 to be our authority? Jesus spoke out about this. He says: Howbeit 48:56 in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the 48:58 commandments of men. Now I missed something there 49:01 previously and I'm not going to miss it. 49:03 I've got to go back. Why did I even tell you 49:05 about all that stuff on evolution? The reason is 49:08 folks because when you change the day you lose the meaning 49:14 behind the day. That's the important point Those Christians 49:18 that have left off understanding the Sabbath and the keeping of 49:21 the Sabbath that God is the creator of this world and he 49:24 made the world in six days and he rested on the seventh day. 49:27 Once they left that they had no guard against evolution. So many 49:33 millions of sincere Christians believe in this long process 49:38 of Darwinian evolution. And yet it goes exactly against the 49:42 Bible. So once again when you change it you lose the meaning 49:46 behind the day. Jesus said in Mark 7 verse 9: And he said unto 49:52 them, Full well you reject the commandment of God, that you may 49:54 keep your own what? Tradition. Jesus didn't have any good thing 49:58 to say about tradition when it came to opposing the commandment 50:01 of God. So we go back to our three primary definitions of 50:04 truth: Jesus is the truth, the word of God is the truth, and 50:08 the law is the truth. We find now that Sunday is not kept in 50:15 the word of God, never kept by the Lord Jesus, not found in 50:19 God's holy Law. It cannot be the truth. What about the seventh- 50:23 day Sabbath: Found throughout the Bible, Old Testament, New 50:25 Testament well over 140 times, Honored by the Lord Jesus in 50:28 life and his teaching and anchored in God's Holy Law. 50:32 And that's the naked truth. Satan deceived Adam and Eve in 50:36 the Garden of Eden and he's deceiving people today in 50:39 various ways including the idea that Sunday is now the sacred day 50:44 for worship. Satan is trying to put traditions in place of the 50:50 Bible. He's trying to put human substitutes in place of Divine 50:54 command. Basically, he's trying to put man's way in place of 50:57 God's way. You might say, Pastor Brian, I've been going to church 51:00 on Sunday for a long time. I've given God my heart and my life. 51:03 I've worshipped God in all sincerity. How does God relate 51:07 to this. I want to give you some good news. God knows your 51:11 sincere heart. He knows that you've given him all that you 51:15 know is right. But in Acts 17 and verse 30 it says: And the 51:18 times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth 51:21 all men everywhere to repent: He says in the times of the past 51:24 when you didn't know better, he says, I overlooked it because I 51:30 knew that you were sincere. But he says now he commands all men 51:34 to repent. Why because knowledge 51:36 is coming and when God brings us 51:38 knowledge, he brings us knowledge for a reason. 51:39 God never brings us truth so we can remain living as we once did 51:43 God always brings us truth so we can come in accordance with 51:46 his will. What do you say? James 4 verse 17 says: Therefore to 51:53 him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. 51:56 So the answer simply is, Do we know what's right? Do we want to 51:59 do what's right? Or are we wanting to go our own way in 52:03 spite of what is right? Multitudes of people today will 52:06 make the argument, well there's so many people going to church 52:09 on the first day of the week. How could it be wrong when the 52:12 masses of people are doing it? All we have to do friends is go 52:14 back to the days of Noah. Jesus said as it was in the days of 52:17 Noah so it shall be also before he comes. Back in the days of 52:20 Noah, we don't know how many people on the face of the earth. 52:22 But given their lifespan and how many children and great, great, 52:27 great-grandchildren they could have had and so on it could have 52:28 been multiplied millions of people on the face of the earth. 52:32 I've heard up to two billion could have lived at the time of 52:34 the flood. Let's not take two billion. Let's take a lower 52:36 number, how about a hundred million. If we could have a 52:40 hundred million people on earth at the time of the flood and 52:44 eight went into the ark. Let's make a fraction out of that 52:47 shall we? That's 8/100,000,000. How big 52:52 of a fraction is that? That's 52:54 infinitesimal, right. So small you can hardly believe eight 52:58 over 100 million. Did God change his principles for the sake of 53:02 numbers. He said eight is all I have, then eight is what I'll 53:06 take. Now we've read it already in Malachi, it says I am the 53:09 Lord. I change not. So if God didn't change then folks he's 53:15 not going to change for numbers' sake today. If you want to 53:18 understand carefully how God looks at issues like this 53:22 Remember this passage right here in John 3 and verses 19-21. Jesus 53:28 said: And this is the condemnation, that light is come 53:31 into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, 53:33 because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil 53:36 hates the light, neither comes to the light, lest his deeds be 53:39 reproved...Now that's the one side. I believe this next verse 53:42 describes all of you and you watching at home. It says: But 53:45 that does truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be 53:49 manifest, that they are wrought in God. The true, sincere truth 53:55 seeking person wants to know what's right. They want to come 53:59 to the Bible. They want to say Lord is there anything in my 54:02 life that is not quite right help me to see it Lord so I can 54:05 change. Amen? I want you to know something that...I'll tell you a 54:14 little story to conclude tonight Babe Ruth was the most popular 54:23 baseball player that ever lived. And baseball loves statistics. 54:27 And one of the greatest statistics about baseball is who 54:32 hit the most home runs over a career. And Babe Ruth had set 54:36 that record at 714. That record stood for decades. But finally a 54:41 man came along in the 60s and 70s hitting homeruns at a rapid 54:44 pace and he set a new record. Babe Ruth had 714. He managed to 54:50 hit 755 homeruns. He was the new homerun king. And that 54:56 record stood for a good number of years. Then along more recent 54:59 years another man came along. And he started hitting home runs 55:03 at a record pace. And as he got closer and closer to the record 55:07 not only the baseball world but the whole sporting world took 55:13 careful note was this record eventually going to be broken? 55:15 He hit 753, 754, he finally hit homerun 755 and then the night 55:25 came 756. He hit the homerun that broke the record. Now you 55:30 and I can go down to a sporting goods store and we can buy a 55:35 baseball probably for five dollars. Maybe a fancy one for 55:38 10 dollars. I haven't been there lately but probably 10 dollars. 55:40 You can buy a baseball for about 10 dollars. When he hit that 55:48 record setting home run number 756 some person grabbed that 55:52 baseball and sold it at auction for over three-quarters of a 55:58 million dollars. It was a regular baseball. Now if you had bought 56:06 your baseball for 10 dollars and went running up to him and said 56:08 hey I'll switch do you think he'd give up his baseball? It 56:13 may have looked just like your baseball. Same weight, same size 56:17 roughly the exact same baseball but he's not going to switch. 56:22 Why? Because his baseball represented something very, very 56:27 important to the sporting world. You wouldn't have paid three 56:30 quarters of a million dollars even if you had three-quarters 56:32 of a million dollars to pay it. You wouldn't have paid it but 56:35 some person did. Why? Because of what it represented. It can be 56:40 beautiful sunshine on Saturday, there can be beautiful sunshine 56:43 on Sunday or any other day of the week. They look the same 56:46 on the outside. But why is one very different than the others? 56:51 The answer is the same as the baseball. Because of what it 56:57 represents. God said that that seventh is sanctified, it is 57:04 holy, it is special to God and because it's special to God it 57:09 should be special to us too. Today everywhere I go I find 57:16 people saying I want to get away from tradition. I want to get 57:20 away from opinion. I want to get back to what the Bible really 57:27 says. And God knew that all of you here tonight and those of 57:31 you watching at home in this entire area. He knew that you 57:36 would learn this very teaching at this time. Some of you for 57:41 the very first time. I want you to remember that this is not so 57:46 much a day versus a day as it is a way, the way of obedience 57:51 through the love of God. If you've never kept the Sabbath before, 57:55 if you've never put aside a day every week, give God a chance. 57:59 Taste and see that the Lord is good. Come aside from the 58:02 business of life, come aside from all of the stress-filled 58:06 week that you've had and put the seventh-day Sabbath aside 58:08 as God asked us to and see that it will be the greatest 58:12 delight that you've ever had. 58:16 ♪ ♪ |
Revised 2025-06-16