Last time we were studying in
Acts 19, verse 23, we saw that Paul's preaching
caused no small stir. After he preached there arose
no small stir about that way." What way? You know, that way,
that way that he preaches, that way that nobody else believes
but that, those people, that way. And you'd be glad in the
community, that's what you'd hear, wouldn't you? Oh, you believe
that way. Nobody believes that way but
just a few. Everywhere he went, he preached
the same message, and it received the same reaction. Just a few
people believed, but the majority of the people rejected it. Now,
the Lord said that. He said, Many are called, but
few are chosen. And you wouldn't have believed
it unless the Lord chose you to believe it. You were made
willing in the day of his power. His power is the gospel. You
rejected it when you first heard it, didn't you? You say, I'll
never believe that way. Well, you do, don't you? And the people rejected it wherever
he went. The majority of the people rejected
it to the point of getting very angry, and Paul's life was in
constant danger. We saw one place in our study
here that they killed him, they stoned him for what he preached. And something is wrong if people
don't. react in this way to our preaching. Our Lord said, Woe is unto you
if men speak well of you, because they killed the prophets, they
killed the apostles, they killed the martyrs, they killed the
Lord. Why? Because they were bad men? No, they were good men. Christ said, For which good work
do you stone me? He said, We're not stoning you
because you're a good man and do good works. We're all in favor
of that. It's because of what you say. We don't like what you're
saying. We don't like them that way. At Ephesus, his preaching caused
a great uproar. Look at verse 1 of chapter 20.
Chapter 20, verse 1, is where we begin tonight. At Ephesus, in chapter 19, there
was a great uproar over his preaching. Verse 1 says, And after the uproar
was ceased, Paul called unto him the disciples, and embraced
them, hugged them all, and departed for to go into Macedonia." Like
I said, the people were in a great uproar because of what Paul preached. One more time, what did he preach
that caused such a great uproar? If you want to turn over there,
you can see his letter that he wrote back to these people, Ephesians
4. I say that Ephesus is where this
uproar started. You remember the people were
worshiping the goddess Diana, and Paul came in and said, That's
no God. That's only one God, one Lord. That's what he said in his letter
back writing to them in verse 5 of Ephesians 4, he said, There
is one Lord. And even though today there are
a lot of people saying that Jesus is Lord and there is one Lord,
they claim to believe in one Lord, but their heart is far
from believing that he is Lord. Right? In the true sense of the
word. They call him Lord, Lord, Lord,
with their lips. Their heart is far from believing
that he is Lord, I mean absolute Sovereign, Ruler, Controller,
Creator, King of Kings, in control of all. That's what it means
to be Lord. And as I pointed out before, you don't make him
Lord. The Lords aren't made, they're born that way. Right? Lords are given their title by
their heritage. Well, he was born King. That's
what the wise men said, wasn't it? Where is he that is born
King? not one you make Lord. God made
him Lord in eternity past. He's Lord. And Paul came preaching
this, one Lord, one absolute, sovereign, reigning, ruler, creator,
Lord, and he's the man Christ Jesus. That's who it is. And
he said to the Ephesians that their God was no God at all. And we have to say the same thing
to our generation, don't we? The people at Ephesus had made
them a God that was in their hands, the God of their own making. Right? This Diana and these other
idols that they had made with their own hands. So in effect,
their gods were in their hands to do with them as they pleased.
Does that sound familiar? It's the same today, isn't it? Small g, the God that men worship
today is in their hands to do with as they please. And we come
saying the same thing, don't we? That's no God at all. That's
a God of your imagination. That's no God at all, capital
G. Our God is in the heavens. He
hath done whatsoever he pleased. And he'll do with you as he pleases,
not vice versa. And they'll get mad at you for
that, too. And it'll cause an uproar. And it did in Ephesus. They loved their gods. Well,
they made them. They made them what they were.
And they loved their religion and their heart, and they loathed
to part with it. And isn't that true of people
in our day? And the leader, besides the religious leader, stood to
lose a lot. Remember that? There were the
people that had made these idols and put them up before the people.
They stood to lose their livelihood, their business. They were going
to go out of business. They were going to lose their
jobs. When the people started worshiping the true and living
God, they didn't need an idol. Does that sound familiar? These
preachers don't want you worshiping God, they want you worshiping
them. And Paul preached Christ, too.
He said, one faith. He wrote back and said, there's
one Lord and there's one faith. That faith is not a doctrine
so much as a person. Like John said, if any man transgresseth,
and this is transgressing above all transgressions, abiding not
in the doctrine of Christ, approaching God any other way than Christ
and Christ alone. That's what John said. If any
man transgresseth, and you transgress or you trespass, that's what
transgress means, too, trespass. Who is this that treadeth my
courts, God would say. apart from the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ, bringing your dirty works in here, bringing your
self-righteous rags in here. I smell them. Self-righteous
rags are a stench to me. I smell them. Who is that that
come in here without a wedding garment? He's a thief and a robber. Get him out of here. He's out
to rob me of my glory." So this one faith is a person, the Lord
Jesus Christ. We dare not come to God except
through him, looking to him, believing him. And Paul preached
Christ. Paul also preached that God was
the God of election. God chose a people. He gave eternal
life to as many as the Father had given Christ, election. And
many of those people were Gentiles. Now, the Jews hated that. When
the Jews heard that Gentiles were going to be let in, it made
them mad, because that meant their religion was in vain. Then
Paul preached that Christ and Christ alone, who he is and what
he did and what he does, his imputed righteousness and shed
blood, that's the only thing that gives us acceptance with
the Holy God. That made the Greeks mad, because they thought it
was their learning, their intellect, and so forth. That made them
mad. They said, That's narrow, that's bigoted, that's foolish,
this old bloody religion is too foolish. And Paul preached this,
too. He preached to everybody, Jew
and Greek, that all men were dead in trespasses and sin, that
we were condemned before the law of God unless God Almighty
chose to save us and have mercy upon us and grace upon us and
send Christ to do what he did for us, that we were condemned
to die under the judgment and wrath of God. And that made everybody
mad. And you preach that way today,
and it will make everybody mad, too. Why are you smiling, John? It doesn't make you mad? Good! Some believe, some don't. Blessed are you if you do. This
is what that great mystery that he said in 1 Timothy 3.16, he
said, believed on the world. Some actually believe that way.
The whole world says that we don't believe that way. Nobody
with any sense believes that way. Not worldly sense, but those
with a mind of Christ believe that way, don't they? Those with
really good sense. They've been clothed in the right
mind. So it caused an uproar wherever
Paul went. Paul left this town, he left
Ephesus, read on with me, and he departed to go into Macedonia
Verse 2, when he had gone over those parts, Macedonia was a
large section of Asia there, and when he had gone over those
parts, we looked into some of these places he went to. Bithynia
was there, I believe. Lydia, she was from there. And
when he had gone over these parts and had given them much exhortation,
remember Much exhortation. That means he preached a lot.
He came into Greece. Much exhortation. About what?
He left Ephesus, his preaching calls it up over there, so he
went into Macedonia and he began preaching there. Wherever he
went, he preached. Wouldn't he preach? Well, he got himself
together a political action committee. to fight this local abortion
issue. And he got a petition up and
passed it around in the school so they could insert school prayer.
He said, these were the vital issues. Everywhere Paul went,
he preached these things. That wouldn't have caused an
uproar, would it? That wouldn't have caused a bit of problem. Everybody
would have jumped right on the bandwagon, wouldn't they? Well,
he preached the same thing, one message. Paul said in another
place, he said, Woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel. So it was the same gospel, same
message, same exhortation. Then he came into Greece. It
says he left Macedonia and came into Greece, and there, verse
3, he abode three months, stayed there three months. And when
the Jews laid wait for him as he was about to sail into Syria,
He purposed to return into Macedonia, and there accompanied him into
Asia these men, Sopater, Aristarchus, Secundus, Gaius, Timotheus, Tychicus,
and Tropimus. What is that? This was an encouragement to
me, as well as to Paul, when I read this. Paul went on this
missionary journey, and there accompanied him these men. They were a real encouragement
to Paul. See, Paul was in danger. Paul
was alone, except when Timotheus or Luke, I don't know where Luke
got with him or departed or when or what. It doesn't say much
about Luke. But at any rate, these men said,
We're with you, Paul. going to preach down in Macedonia,
or going down to Troas to preach? We're going to go, too. We'll
go with you." Don't you know that was a real encouragement
to Paul, that they followed him along as he went preaching? And
it's been an encouragement to me in the past. I said that before,
that some of you have gone with me down west of Salem on a preaching
trip, and it's an encouragement not only to me, that people that
love this gospel so much, if they're willing to go down and
hear the same man perhaps preach the same message and go a long
way to do it, that's an encouragement to me. But I believe it's an
encouragement to the place that you're going to visit. Is this an encouragement to you,
to have these people here come a long way to hear me, to hear
this gospel? When folks see a group of fellow
believers come in, it encourages you. It inspires you. It invigorates
you. It ought to. It ought to make
you sit up and pay attention. And it confirms the gospel. When people come a long way to
hear the same message you take for granted, perhaps, at times, maybe you take for granted, and
they come a long way to hear it, it ought to make It ought
to confirm the gospel to you, it ought to make it more precious
to you. It's an encouragement to me,
and it was to Paul, too. I'm glad he put this here. I'm
glad he told us about this. Verse 5, read on, it says, Now
these going before tarried for us a Troas, and as we sailed
away from Philippi, verses 6 and 7, let's read those. after we
sailed away from Philippi to the days of unleavened bread,
and came unto them to Troas in five days, where we abode seven
days at Troas." So here at Troas, verse 7 says, "...upon the first
day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread,
Paul preached unto them." He was ready or was going to leave
the next day, ready to depart on the morrow. and continued
his speech until midnight." Now, they met probably about when
we did, at dusk. And Paul preached five hours. This one's not going to. But
nevertheless, I want to dwell first on the first part of this
I told Brother Terry the title of this message was, A Young
Man Alive After So Much Preaching. Still alive after so much preaching.
That's what I said the title was, but I might not get to that
story, and you'll see why. It says in verse 7, Upon the
first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break
bread, Paul preached unto them. Is that significant? You better
believe it is, and we'd better stop right there. The first day
of the week. What day is the first day of
the week? That's right. The first day of
the week was when the disciples of Christ met together in all
the churches everywhere. Now, it is not, wrongly call
it, the first day of the week is not the Christian Sabbath
day. Saturday will always be the Sabbath
day. Remember that. If anybody talks
about Sabbath in reference to a day, it's always Saturday,
always will be a day, a Sabbath day. Sunday is not the Christian
Sabbath. I've even read the old Puritans
that say that. It is not the Christian Sabbath. Sabbath means rest. Sunday is
the day, though, that Christians meet together to worship through
the preaching of the gospel and breaking of bread, like we did
Sunday night. Now, why the change of days? I want to dwell on this Sabbath
a little bit here, and I want you to turn to Hebrews 4. Why the change of days? The people
used to meet or cease from working on the 7th day, on Saturday,
and they would gather together around the tabernacle and worship
on the 7th day. But now, and there's an uproar
about this. One whole denomination is saying,
And I hesitate to bring this up, because I wish that somebody
would give this tape to some of these. They're called Seventh-Day
Adventists. Now, let me say all this as kindly
as I can say it, so as not to offend anyone that might hear
this on tape. But there's one whole denomination
who makes it the issue of all issues this day. this day, Sabbath. And they have
gone so far now as to claim that the mark of the beast, the mark
of the beast, the Antichrist, is the insertion of Sunday as
the Sabbath. And they say all that worship
on Sunday have the mark of the beast on them. Did you know that?
That's what they're saying now. That you're Antichrist. I'm telling
you that it is the opposite, that they that worship the seventh
day are anti-Christ. I'm going to show you that. Why the change of day? As I said,
Sunday is not the Christian Sabbath, as some call it. I saw somebody
mouth these words. Christ is our Sabbath. A person
is our resting place and resting day. Christ is our rest, crybath,
that the believer enters into by faith, his rest. And this is what all of Hebrews
4 is talking about, his rest. Now, let's read it, Hebrews 4,
verse 1. Let us, therefore, fear lest the promise be left us of
entering into his rest. Christ's rest, God's rest in
Christ. He said, Let us fear, therefore,
lest the promise being left us of entering into his rest, any
of you should seem to come short of it. Let me read that to you
in the Amplified Bible. It's real good. Excellent. And
this will lay the groundwork for all we're about to say here.
Therefore, while the promise of his rest still holds true
today, it's still there, rest, still to be had, let us be afraid
not to trust in Christ, lest any of you should think he's
come too late and has come short of reaching it." Now, you remember
that. When he talks about a day all
the way through here, today, and he goes on to quote the scriptures
that say, today, in Psalm 1 at 95. Today, what that means is
a period of time. Today is the day of salvation.
It's still the day of salvation. The gospel is still being preached.
This is the day of salvation. This is the time of salvation.
The day of grace, right? It's been a day of grace from
the very beginning. The time of salvation. And people can
come to Christ and be saved by Christ. Not by keeping the Sabbath,
but by coming to Christ. It's always been that way now,
and it always will be that way, until that day he gets off his
throne and comes down here and says, No more mercy, no more
grace. Today is over with. The day is
over. Now is not the day of salvation,
now is the day of judgment. You see? So all the way down
through here, as we read, he's talking about a time of salvation
that still rests to be had. Let us fear lest a promise be
left out. It's a promise that everybody
that comes to God by Christ can enter into his rest, lest any
of you think, well, it's too late for me. No, it's not. It's
a day's day of salvation. It's not too late. Remember that. Let's read on. All right? Unto us was the gospel preached
as well as unto them. What does the gospel say? Come
unto me, all ye that labor, heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Worship on Saturday and you'll
get rest. No, that's not what he said.
Worship on Sunday and you'll get rest. No, that's not what
he said. Come unto me and I'll give you rest. That's the gospel. And under them the gospel was
preached. You see that? In Hebrews 4-2, under the Old
Testament saints, the same gospel was preached. What? Come to Christ,
about whom all the types and symbols and sacrifices speak
of, the Messiah of God, and he'll give you rest. You're hard at
work trying to keep the Sabbath, aren't you? Yeah, we can't keep
it. Come to him, he'll give you rest. Do you see, that's the
key verse, isn't it? Under us was the gospel preached
as well as under them, but the word preached did not profit
them. Why? Not being mixed with faith in
them that heard. Faith in what? Faith in Christ. What is faith? One Lord, one faith in Christ. Not in day, not in the ordinances,
not faith in the ordinances, not faith in ten commandments,
not faith in works, faith in the person. Do you see that? But we which have believed do
enter into rest, as he said, as I have sworn in my wrath,
if they shall enter into my rest." Believers enter into rest. What
rest is that? A day? No, a person. Christ is our resting
place. Our resting place, our tabernacle,
our high priest, our everything, my rest. Read on, verses 4 and
5. He spoke in a certain place of
the seventh day on this while. God did rest the seventh day
from all his work, and in this place again he said, they shall
enter into my rest, a certain time in the Old Testament. This
was the Old Covenant under the law. God ordained the day. Why? Why did God ordain Saturday
for men to quit working, put their works aside, and come and
be seated around the tabernacle of the temple and so forth? Why?
So that men would worship a day? Huh? So that men would highly
esteem and venerate and make a whole denomination out of a
day? Worship a day? Isn't this worshiping the creature
rather than the Creator? Huh? A day? No, it's a good and practical
command from God Almighty. Yes, a practical command for
the benefit of the people. The people began in slavery now,
and they were working seven days a week. Seven days a week. And God Almighty said, we're
going to rest. I'm going to give you some rest
from your work. So it's a good and practical
benefit of the people, right? Listen to the words of the lawgiver
himself. Here's the one that wrote the
law. Here's the one that wrote the commandment, the fourth commandment. Jesus Christ. He's a lawgiver,
isn't he? Didn't he write the word? Didn't
he write the Ten Commandments? Listen to him. And anybody listening
to this, if I tell you, you listen to what the one that wrote that
commandment said. He said man was not made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath was made for
man. Right? The Sabbath was made for
man, a good and practical command from God for the benefit of the
people. And they were mighty thankful for it, a day of rest
from their work. the chief purpose for this day,
and I'm not going to get to the boy going to sleep. Maybe that's just as well, because
I see some sleeping. This is important. This is mighty
important, because there are people missing this. They're
missing it. This is chiefly assembled. God Almighty gave this chiefly
as a symbol, a picture of God resting from his works, right? Did God rest from his works?
No, he didn't. Is God still working? Does God
quit on Saturday? If he does, we're goners. It's
symbolic, purely symbolic, right? He rested from creating the world. There was no more to create.
Nothing left to be done. It was whole, it was complete,
nothing left to add to it. Right? It didn't need anything. It was perfect, complete. God rested from his creative
work. And resting in Christ is the
believer resting in Christ, resting from his works. saying that Christ
is complete, Christ is all I need, that I'm ceasing from my own
labors to try to get to God, and I'm resting in Christ and
Christ alone. God rested from his works, and
that's what it said. Read on down. Let's read it all. It says, If Jesus, that's Joshua, had
given them true rest or a place of rest down in the Promised
Land, he would not afterward have spoken of another day or
time. There remained therefore a rest
to the people of God. No, look at verse 10. For he
that is entered into his rest, God's rest, God's Christ, our
Savior, he also, that person who has entered into that rest,
who truly trusts and looks to Christ, he also has ceased from
his works as God did his. He said, there's nothing to add
to this. What can I add? It's whole, it's complete. I'm
complete in Christ. He's my all in all. I don't need
a thing. I don't need to do a thing for
my salvation. He's done it all. I don't lift
a hand to the altar. God's the one that made it. He's
the stones made ready. The blood's perfect. Christ is
perfect. His work is perfect. I don't
add anything to it. It's symbolic. Symbolic. Now, the Jews, listen to me,
the Jews, it says in verse 6, they didn't enter in because
of unbelief. Because they didn't keep the
Sabbath? Huh? Are you with me, Mindy? The Jews didn't enter in the
promised land because they didn't keep the Sabbath day? No, they
were strict about it. Weren't they? Careful about it. They were worshiping the day. Do you remember in Isaiah 1,
God said, Get these Sabbath days out of my nose. Remember that? They were snatched from my nostrils.
Remember that? Your new moon and your Sabbath?
Away with them, he said. Why? Drawing near with their
lips on the Sabbath, on Saturday, careful to wash their hands,
not pick up sticks and do all this, and wear their beards so
long and their hats a certain way. And God said, Get out of
my presence. You're not here to worship me.
You're here to show everybody how religious you are. They didn't worship God in spirit
and truth. They were keepers of the Sabbath,
though, not God's Sabbath they weren't. You see how important
this is? True keepers of the Sabbath,
true worshipers of God, are those who worship God in spirit, like
Paul said in Philippians 3. True worshipers worship the Father
and worship God in spirit and truth. What's the truth? You
can't worship him apart from the gospel. Without shedding
the blood, there's no remission. Man gets, you've come in vain,
right? God didn't accept that message,
Mike. You dare not come before the Lord without blood, without
faith in Christ. True worshipers worship the Father
in spirit. They rejoice in Christ Jesus,
not in their works, not in the Sabbath. in his work, his person, resting
in his righteousness and his blood, ceasing from their dead
works. Paul said, we're going to have
to lay again, and there in Hebrews 5, we're going to have to lay
again this thing of repentance from dead works. Remember that?
Dead works! These works that, you know, dead
things are a stench, a stench to God, and dead, they'll kill
you dead. They'll slay you before God Almighty. give you life. The law was never
given to give life, right? Christ said, I am come that they
might have life. I am the sabbath that they might
have rest. Not a day! Oh, it's just so important. And
they put no confidence in the flesh, John. Worship God in the
Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, his person. Put no confidence
in the flesh. What's that? Anything that has
to do with outward religion. no confidence in it. Sad is that. Turn over Colossians 2 with me.
This will put this thing to rest. Colossians 2. Oh, that people
would search the scriptures to see if these things be so. Oh,
you noble Bereans, blessed are you, who are searching the scripture.
Rick, they cannot. They could not. People could
not have read Colossians 2. who worship and venerate a day,
could they? More than Christ? Colossians
2, look at this. It says, verse 14, that Christ,
verse 13, has forgiven you all trespasses, verse 14, blotted
out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us. What ordinance
is that? It's a law. Which law? All of it is against us, John.
If it was meant to give life, what was it meant to do? Make
us guilty before God. Right? The law was given because
of transgressions. And whatsoever things the law
saith, it saith to them that under the law that every mouth
might be stopped, and all the world become what? Guilty before
God. And it's against us, the law
says you have not loved the Lord thy God with all your mind, heart,
soul, and strength. You have taken his name in vain,
haven't you? You've worshipped other gods. Covetousness is idolatry. Guilty! Everybody in here from
the preacher on down is guilty of idolatry, right? Paul says,
Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy. What? Christ, having
venerated him and exalted and sanctified him at all times,
kept him as holy. Huh? We've broken it all. Loved
our neighbor. We've broken it all. The law
says, Guilty. It's against you, Nancy Park.
It's against you. The books that were written against
you. So what are you going to do? Stand back and see the salvation
of the Lord. Look up there on that cross.
Right above the head of that man hanging on that cross, there's
a big book nailed to the cross. And your name's in it, and it
says, Blotted Out. With blood, big red blood blots
all over the book against you. It brought it up, things that
were contrary to us. The law is not for us, it's contrary
to us. The strength of sin is the law,
is it not? Take this dry reformed brethren.
The strength of sin is the law, not the strength of sanctification. Christ is the strength of sanctification. Huh? He'll begin in the flesh
in the Spirit and be made perfect by the flesh. He'll begin in
the Spirit and be made perfect by the Spirit. Contrary to us, he took it out
of the way, thank God, fulfilled it, nailed it to the cross, having
spoiled principalities and powers that would make us think that
you've got to keep the law. Made a show of them over in the
tribe and over there, and look at verse 16. Therefore, brethren,
believers, those of you who know the truth that sets you free,
let no man judge you. I don't care if they come to
your door with pamphlets, tell you you've got the mark on you.
Hallowed I can say, I left the market to blood all over me. Let no man, therefore, judge
you in meat and drink, or introspective and holy day." You mean y'all
don't observe Christmas here? What kind of pagans are you? We celebrate his birth every
time we get together, but we celebrate more his death and
his burial and his resurrection, his ascension. More than his
birth, he's not a baby anymore. That's another sermon. And the
Holy Day, are we in the new moon or what? What does it say? Read
it out loud with me. Or of the Sabbath. Read it again. Or of the Sabbath. Is that what Colossians 2 verse
16 says? Verse 17 says, which are what?
A shadow of things to come, but the body. is Christ. My wife walks by me and there's
a shadow. What am I going to do? Love on
the shadow? Huh? Oh, I love that shadow. Huh? Take the shadow in my arms. There's no want there, is there?
There's no love there. There's no comfort there. Huh? I'd rather have the person. Wouldn't
you? Didn't he say that Sabbath was
a shatter? And all they're doing, he goes
on to say, is worshiping their own will, vainly puffed up, don't
know what they're talking about. That's what verse 18 says. They
don't have the slightest idea. They're intruding into those
things which they have not seen, vainly puffed up by their fleshly
mind. I said I was going to try to
say it kindly, but that's the Word of God. That's the word
of God, isn't it? The word of God doesn't mince
words. It tells it like it is. And I've
got to quit. Put no confidence in the flesh.
Saturday Sabbath was under the law. Listen to this. I've always
liked this ever since I read it. Matthew Henry said, you know,
under the law, the law said, this do and then live, or this
do and then rest. Work six days, then rest. He
said the believer rests first, and then he goes to work. Isn't
that good? A believer doesn't work first,
and then he gets rest and is rewarded for it. No, he rests
first and goes to work willingly, thankful for that rest. Willingly. Under the law, six days' work
didn't rest. Under the law, work was never
really done. But in Christ, a new creature,
a new beginning, we're dead to the law, we're alive in Christ
as Christ arose from the dead on the first day of the week,
didn't he? A new, to give newness of life
to us, free from the law. We're free from the law when
he arose from the grave. We're free from the law, right?
Huh? And he met with his disciples
on that first day of the week, didn't he? It says he was known
of them and breaking of bread on that road to Emmaus when he
went in and dwelt with them a little while, and it said he was known
unto them and breaking of bread what day? Sunday. First day of the week. Now, I'm
not venerating today, I'm just saying this is symbolic, too. Say, we're not worshiping Sunday.
There's people going to that extreme, aren't there, Stan?
They've turned right around and made Sunday a Christian Sabbath.
If you mow your lawn, you're unsafe. Right? They've gone that far.
There's first-day Adventists everywhere. Let me ask a question
here. Why did Christ never speak of
the Sabbath, except when he said, Sabbath's
not made for man, Sabbath's made for man? If it's so important, huh? When they asked him the whole
full film of the law, and asked him, they said, what is the greatest
law? And he said, love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind,
soul, and strength, and thy neighbor. On these two laws hinges all
the law. Why didn't he say something about the Sabbath? Huh? Have you ever thought about
that? Paul and the apostles, they don't say anything about
the Sabbath? Huh? He won't find it. in the epistles.
Hebrews 4, they try to judge that out of there so bad, don't
they? Are you ready for yourself? That's not talking about a day.
It's talking about his rest. When you turn back there, I wanted
to point this out to you, something I saw for the first time. This
is the reason you can't not take things out of context. You need
to read on. I've always just stopped at verse
11 and thought, well, it's going on to a new thought there. No,
it's not. No, it's not. And let me ask you this, too.
Not only did Christ not talk about the Sabbath, they accused
him of breaking it all the time, every time. Why did he do that? Why did he purposely walk through
the corn and so forth on the Sabbath? He knew what was in
them. He knew they were worshiping
a day and not the living Lord. And he did that purposely to
get at those Pharisees. And he derided them about their
keeping of the Sabbath and not keeping his words. He said, if
you keep my words, you'll be saved. If you keep the Sabbath,
you go to hell. Right? Here's another question. Why
did Christ arise on the first day of the week? Why didn't he
do it on the seventh and hallow that day? Huh? Why didn't he
arise on the seventh day? You ever think about that? Seventh? Day of rest? Why didn't he arise?
God faced his work. Why didn't Christ arise on the
seventh day? Day on Thursday and rise on Saturday? Yeah. Why did he arise on the
first? There must be something to it,
mustn't there? He arose in newness of life, and it's symbolic for
us, too, that we're not under the law any more. We're under
grace, under grace. Hebrews 4, I said, dear, not
stop. Read on. It says, verse 11, Now
let us labor, therefore, to enter into Sunday rest, Saturday rest. Let's work real hard to make
sure we're not working on Saturday or Sunday. Is that what that's
talking about? That's absolute foolishness,
isn't it, to read that in such a way? Absolutely foolish. Let us label, John, you'd better
work real hard to find you a job where you don't have to work
on Sunday. Is that what that's talking about?
That rest, what rest? Verse 10, his rest. Whose rest? Verse 5, my rest! What rest? Verse 1. His rest.
His, my, his, my, that, what, who? Christ. That's what. Not day, it's a person. That
rest. Why? Lest any man fall at the
same example of unbelief. What? The Old Testament Jews
who were worshiping a day and not a person. Now, read on. I used to think it stopped there.
It says the word of God now is quick, powerful, sharper than
two edges of a sword. even to the divineness under
soul and spirit, the joints and marrow, the discerner of the
thoughts and intents of the hearts. Now know that God knows why you
are here. I see God, thou, Lord, seest
me. And the word of God, it already
tonight, has laid this thing to rest. To me it has. It has
nailed it down as sure as ever. And neither is there any creature
that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and
open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do." Everything he said, everything
we have to do, he whom we have to do it before sees us. Do you see what he is saying
there? Everything we have to do to be set, this do and live,
whom we have to do it before in perfection, he sees us. Look at verse 14. See, look in,
that we have a great high priest who did it for us, who has passed
into the heavens. Jesus, the Son of God, let us
hold fast our profession of Saturday worship. Christ, we don't have a high
priest which cannot be touched with the feet of our infirmities,
who is in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin.
Let us pray that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help
in the time of need." You bunch of Sabbath breakers, you. Your
Lord knows they accuse him of the same thing. He said, Come
to me, I'll give you all the Sabbath. I ain't planning it. Oh, my. Do you see that? I thought that
was important. I thought we needed to dwell
there for a little while. On the first day of the week,
and the scriptures, God is careful to print that, to record that
for us, many times, the disciples met. Our Lord not only rose from
the grave on the first day of the week, but the disciples met
together on the first day of the week to break bread. Yes,
Paul, when Paul went and buried, he went into a Jewish synagogue.
Why? That's where the Jews were. He knew he'd find them there.
He went in there and preached the gospel. Disciples of Christ, when they
got together, when did they meet? On the first day of the week.
Right? Why? Because that's when Christ
met with them. And it's symbolic, too. There's
nothing holy about it, but it's symbolic of Christ who rose and
Christ our rest. And we arise with him, we're
seated with him, we're resting in his supply. All things have
passed away, and all things have become new. Right? Brand new. He's blotted out all these handwriting
and boards. And those that desire to be under
the law, Sabbath day, Seventh-day worship, those that desire to
be under that law, they don't have the foggiest idea of what
is involved on the Sabbath day. If they would study it carefully,
Sammy, if they would study the Sabbath day keeping and the Old
Testament, you couldn't cook, you couldn't draw water, you
couldn't pick up sticks to warm a fire to get your family warm.
You just couldn't do nothing but sit there. You couldn't take
a journey. You couldn't do nothing. Why?
Even with the Sabbath. What's that? Is that God being
evil and cruel on me? It's symbolic. Symbolic. Where God says, don't add anything
to my perfect salvation. There's nothing you can do to
add to that. You just come. You just come and worship. You
see that? Isn't it very clear to you, Nancy?
Clear to you all. Blessed are your eyes, they say.
Your ears, they've heard it. Your eyes, they've read it. Everybody
doesn't have this blessing. I encourage you, if you don't
think it's too hard, to take this tape and give it to some
of our Seventh-day Adventist friends, or anybody for that
matter, our First-day Adventist friends. Give it to them, because
Christ is every believer's Savior. Monday's the day the Lord hath
made, I'll rejoice and be glad in it. Tuesday's the day the
Lord hath made, I'll rejoice and be glad in it. Thursday's
the day the Lord hath made, I'll worship him. Friday's the day
the Lord hath made, I'll worship him on that day. Saturday, I'm
worshiping him on Saturday, praying without ceasing, hopefully. Sunday,
God's people get together, and we really worship together. But every day's a day, the Lord's
day, is it not? All right, I hope that's been
helpful to you. Stand with me, and I'm going
to ask Brother Vincent Kane if he'll dismiss us in prayer. Would
you, Brother Ben? My Father, we thank you tonight
that we've had this privilege to meet with our people around
our world. Call each one of us, Lord, to
look to Christ. For He is our all and all. Call His Lord and stay on the
Lord. Because we know that that's who
He speaks to. And that is where your salvation
will be revealed unto you. I always like to give this church
here, these people, to get us to the fountain of time, and
in fact, it stands before us. That's what we'd like to ask
the Lord, that's called to enroll in the grace and the knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We just have to stand at the
fountain of time and just speak that word of that. We pray Lord
that you would fill him with thy Spirit, give him the very
Word that you have in his spirit. We ask these blessings, in Jesus'
name, amen.