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Should a Christian observe the Sabbath?
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I should have expected this
one would come up too.
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Ah, I thought about this one.
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Is this going to get me in trouble?
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Here's two of them.
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Stu says, "Saturday Sabbath?
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Sunday Sabbath? Or no Sabbath?
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What is it and why?"
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And he's more really asking the question
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because he wants to be informed.
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I think Daniel Graham,
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he comes along with a question -
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I'm not so sure he really
wants an answer to this.
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I think maybe he wants
to set his position forth.
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"Why do most Christians and churches
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go against Exodus 20
in the 10 Commandments
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by not keeping the Sabbath of the Lord
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as He has commanded us?"
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Again, you know what?
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As I was preparing, I just said,
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Lord, I just want to be biblical.
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I don't know everything
from Your Word perfectly.
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I just want to say what Your Word says
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and I don't want to go beyond it.
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You know what I can say?
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I can say this,
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my Bible says this,
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and I think yours does too.
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Colossians 2:16,
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"Therefore, let no one
pass judgment on you
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in questions of food and drink
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or with regard to a festival
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or a new moon or Sabbaths."
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It says, "let no one pass judgment on you
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in questions of... Sabbaths."
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"These are a shadow of the things to come,
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but the substance belongs to Christ."
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Now what I want to emphasize is this:
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You cannot argue -
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nobody can argue this.
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The Apostle Paul was the apostle to who?
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The Gentiles.
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In all of his letters to the Gentiles,
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does he ever once tell them
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that they need to observe a Sabbath?
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Never.
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And you know what?
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These Gentiles didn't
have the Old Testament.
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These Gentiles - they were up in the air.
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Didn't they have to have a
council there at Jerusalem?
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Just to get together and say what is it
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we should even be telling these Gentiles
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who don't know anything?
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Who don't have the Old Testament?
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You know one thing?
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They didn't go tell them:
Keep the Sabbath.
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Paul didn't go out to all
the Gentile churches
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and say keep the Sabbath.
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In fact, the one clear thing
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that he says to the Gentiles churches
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is what?
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Don't let anybody pass judgment
on you concerning the Sabbath.
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Now, I know,
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some Greek theologians are going to
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come along here and say,
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"but it's plural.
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And when it talks about
the weekly Sabbath,
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it's singular."
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Come on.
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You can go to the Old Testament
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and clearly find where the weekly Sabbath
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is spoken about in the plural.
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Repeatedly.
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That just doesn't line up.
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Listen to this.
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Exodus 31:13,
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"You're to speak to the
people of Israel and say,
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'Above all, you shall keep My Sabbaths.'"
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Plural.
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"...For this is the sign
between Me and you
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throughout your generations
that you may know
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that I, the Lord, sanctify you.
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You shall keep the Sabbath
because it is holy for you."
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Now, he uses it right here
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in consecutive verses - Sabbath's plural,
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Sabbath singular,
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but he's not even mincing words.
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He says, "Six days shall work be done.
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The seventh day is a
Sabbath to solemn rest,
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holy to the Lord.
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Whoever does any work on the Sabbath Day
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shall be put to death."
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And he starts out by
saying it in the plural.
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And he's clearly talking
about that weekly Sabbath.
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Listen, folks, this terminology that Paul
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uses in Colossians 2
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is so common to the Old Testament.
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What do I mean?
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Festival - there were three main festivals
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were there not?
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New moons.
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See, the three festivals were yearly.
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Then you have the new moons.
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They were monthly.
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Then you had the Sabbath's.
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They were weekly.
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You have that order
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in the Old Testament, repeatedly
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handed to us.
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Just listen to this.
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1 Chronicles 23.
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"Whenever burnt offerings
are offered to the Lord
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on Sabbaths (plural), new moons,
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and feast days according to the number
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required regularly before the Lord."
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That's the same terminology.
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Paul is drawing straight from
the Old Testament usage
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where these festivals -
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what was the first major festival?
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Passover.
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Anybody remember the second one?
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Pentecost.
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Third one?
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I think it was the Feast of Tabernacles.
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The Day of Atonement
was shortly after there.
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Have all those passed away?
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Do we still observe Passover?
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Pentecost?
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Do we observe them?
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No, they passed away. Why?
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They were shadows.
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Do we still observe the new moons?
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No.
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Do we still observe the Sabbaths?
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They're a shadow of things to come.
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Listen, this plural usage,
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it's used in the Old Testament.
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And it's used weekly, monthly, yearly.
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And we're not doing
injustice to the Scriptures
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to say that this is speaking
of the weekly Sabbath.
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People come along and they
want to undo this thing,
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but the fact is, that's what's said.
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Okay, you know something else?
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It just amazes me!
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There is not a single
word in all the Bible
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that says that the Sabbath changed days.
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You can listen to the theologians.
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You can listen to the reformed guys.
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You can read all the books written on it.
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There is not a single
verse in all the Bible
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that says the Sabbath moved
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from Saturday to Sunday.
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It's not there.
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They can go one with all their theses.
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They can go on with all of their arguments
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and all of their deductions
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and building principles upon principles.
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The fact is there is not a single verse
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in all the Bible that
says that the Sabbath
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moved from the last day to the first day.
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It's not there, folks.
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In fact, the New Testament teaching
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is don't let any man hold you to it.
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What does Romans 14 say?
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If you want to observe a day,
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do it unto the Lord.
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So here's the thing,
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don't let those of us who
take Colossians 2:16
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and feel liberty,
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don't let us condemn the ones
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who are rigid Sabbatarians.
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Don't condemn them.
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If they want to keep it, let them keep it,
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and let them keep it unto the Lord.
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They're going to stand or fall before Him.
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Don't you be their judge.
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And likewise, if you have
stringent convictions
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about the Sabbath,
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don't you dare condemn
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and jump all over and be the judge
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of those who don't
have strong convictions.
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If you're going to have
strong convictions,
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have them unto the Lord.
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If you're going to not observe the day,
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don't observe it unto the Lord.
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But I will say this,
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although the Scriptures definitely -
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the Christian Sabbath -
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there's no Christian
Sabbath that I can see.
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There's nothing specified
in the Scripture.
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There's nothing about the Jewish Sabbath
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being pressed upon the Gentile churches.
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It's not there.
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They're told to let nobody judge you.
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But what is there?
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Well, I can tell you this,
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in the first chapter of Revelation,
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the Apostle John mentions the Lord's Day.
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Now nowhere does it say
it's the Christian Sabbath.
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And it only is mentioned
once in all the Bible.
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The Lord's Day.
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But you know what's very interesting?
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John is writing to the seven churches
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at Asia Minor.
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And he doesn't have to explain Lord's Day,
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which probably means
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that all the Christians he was writing to,
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they readily understood.
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They knew what day the Lord's Day was.
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What day?
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Well, I'll tell you this,
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when you go into the New Testament,
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you find one day that's identified.
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Only one. What day?
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The first day of the week.
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And sometimes it says "eight days later,"
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which by their counting
is the next first day.
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They included the first day
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and then the next days
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all the way to the next first day,
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and that was 8 days.
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So anytime you read "the first day"
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and then again "the eighth day,"
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it's the next first day.
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Those are the only days that
are called out by number
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in all the New Testament.
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No other day. You don't find anything
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about the second day or the third day.
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At least, not in reference to the week
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that's being emphasized.
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But you find the first day.
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And you know what
happened on the first day?
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You know what the New Testament teaches us
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happened on the first day?
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What's the big thing?
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Jesus Christ rose on the first day.
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Can you imagine?
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(incomplete thought)
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You know what else is interesting?
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You guys search this out.
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You want to have an interesting study?
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The only days that we have numbers
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that He appeared to His people
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after His resurrection -
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the first day of the week.
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Count it out.
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We know when the Feast of Pentecost was.
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It was so long after the Passover.
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We know when He went to the cross
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in relationship to the Passover.
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The Spirit of God was given to the church
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on the first day.
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They broke bread on the first day.
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They came together to hear Paul preach
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on the first day.
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Right there in 1 Corinthians,
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it says bring your offerings
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and give them on the first day.
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You know what? The church
met on the first day.
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They met other days as well,
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but the predominant day
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that the early church observed
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was the first day.
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We never see it called a Sabbath,
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but we do, I believe, have good reason
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to believe that that is the Lord's Day.
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I think everything about the
practice of the early church
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would tell us it's so.
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You know what Scripture says?
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Do not forsake the assembling
together of yourselves.
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And unquestionably, they
met on the first day.
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And we shouldn't forsake that assembly.
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And what did they do? They worshiped.
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They praised. They prayed.
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They read Scripture.
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They broke bread.
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Those are things that we can
definitely say has happened.
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Now, I know I'm going
to receive flack for that.
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People are going to say,
"you're denying the 10 commandments."
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We've got to teach the Scriptures, folks.
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We've got to teach the Scriptures;
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not the traditions, but the Scriptures.