Lord's Day Worship - Message: "Is Sunday a Corruption of the Sabbath?"

Good morning, everyone. Ordinarily, we would begin with a song, but this morning I'm gonna invite the elders to come forward. Brother Mike is going to lead us in our corporate prayer for the opening of the service rather than in the middle.

And the reason for that is because of everything that is going on in our world right now. We are watching an unprecedented time. Certainly there have been riots in the past, but we're looking at a time right now where this is the first day I've ever seen where in certain states it would be legal to loot and vandalize, but not legal to go to church.

This is a historic day, not good. So I've asked Brother Mike, he was gonna lead us in corporate worship in the middle of the service. I thought it'd be good for the elders to come forward and we're gonna pray for our nation and pray for our church and pray for our city and ask Brother Mike to lead that.

Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, most gracious heavenly Father, we come before you now knowing that we are, apart from you, we are nothing. It's in you that we live and breathe and we have our being and it's in you that Father, we have breath and have life.

Father God, we come before you now understanding our inability apart from the shed blood of Jesus Christ to come before the throne of grace. Father, we thank you for his intercessory work that he is now at the right hand of the Father ever interceding for the saints.

And Father, right now I wanna lift up our city. Father, your word is very clear that the lawless will be lawless and that in the latter days, men will be lovers of themselves and haters of God. They will be boastful and they will be prideful.

They will be arrogant. They will be haters. They will be violent. And Father, we understand that we are in those last days. Father, from the time your son ascended to now, it's been the last days. And as we await his return, we know that Father, these will be the times, violence and murder, thievery and robbery.

Father God, I pray that you would be with our men and women that are in uniform, that are trying to sustain some type of order. Father, I specifically lift up our own Adam, that God, you would be with him.

You would keep him safe. You would guard him, put your hands of protection around him. And Father, be with Sharon as going through this difficult time already as she is stressed and concerned about his wellbeing.

Father, just be with him. Father, I pray for our leaders. Even though a good amount of them are unregenerate, God, I pray that you would do as your word says, that you will take the heart of the king and turn it wherever you wish.

And Father, I pray that you would give them the wisdom and discernment to give order. And Father, I pray that you would give them the wisdom and discernment to dispense justice where you have given them the power to do so.

Father, I thank you for this country. I thank you for a country in which, even now, we can worship corporately without any fear of someone coming in. But Father, we know that those days could quickly come to an end.

And Father, we pray that you would strengthen the church, that Father, you would use this difficult time to weed out the wheat from the tares, that Father, you would take those false converts and weed them from the body, and that those that are true, faithful in Christ would stand up and be bold, Father, not to pick up arms and fight.

If they were to come, but Father, to pick up the word of God and to preach the power of the gospel. For it's the power of God to salvation to all who believe. Father, we ultimately know that apart from you and you interceding that men's hearts will continue to grow evil and evil and evil.

Father, we know the depravity of man would continue to persecute and punish one another. So God, please intervene, show grace upon grace and mercy upon mercy.

For coming, thank you for standing with us and continue to pray for our church and our nation. Wanna invite the worship team to come forward and invite everyone to stand and sing. And let us take our minds from the things of the world and let us focus our attention on the things of God for this is the reason we've gathered.

Now it's on.

Open the eyes of my heart, Lord Open the eyes of my heart, I want to see your power And we sing heart, Lord, I want to see the light of your glory Pour out your power and love.

In the sixth chapter of Isaiah, Isaiah saw the Lord seated high upon his throne and he saw those animals, those seraphim around him with the six wings. And he said, and they said unto him, holy, holy, holy.

To see you shining in the light of your glory Pour out your power and love as we sing holy, holy, holy To see you high and lifted up in your glory As we sing holy, holy, holy.

You may be seated. Each week we have an opportunity to read from the scriptures and we've been reading through books of the Bible. And so this morning we're going to read the second chapter of the book of Ephesians.

This passage just happens to have some of the most meaty theological truth in all of scripture, particularly in regard to the doctrine of salvation. It tells us our deadness and sin. It tells us that we are saved only by grace through faith.

And that it tells us that our salvation is not that we would go and live our lives in any way that we would want, but that we have been saved for those things that are pleasing to God, saved unto good works.

So let's read. And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we also once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved. And raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages, he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

For by grace, you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not of works so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Therefore, remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands. Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenant of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the laws of commandments expressed in ordinances that he might create in himself one new man in the place of the two, so making peace and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

And he came and preached peace to those who were far off and peace to those who were near, for through him we both have access in one spirit to the Father. So then we are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets.

Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him, you also are being built together in a dwelling place for God by the spirit.

May God add his blessing to the reading and to the hearing of his word. What a wonderful word it is. What a wonderful reason for us to have hope today that our hope is not in our goodness, but our hope is in the grace of almighty God.

Beloved, if you're here today and you think that you have contributed in any way to God's saving of your soul, I pray that you would repent of that and I pray that you would understand and recognize that it is only his grace that saves you and his grace is enough.

Let's stand.

Great is your faithfulness, O God You wrestle with the sinner's heart Lead us by still waters into mercy And nothing can keep us apart So remember your people, remember your children Remember your promise, O God Your grace is enough, your grace is enough Your grace is enough for me Great is your love and justice, God Who's the weak to lead the strong.

Lead us in the song of your salvation And all your people sing along So remember your people, remember your children Remember your promise, O God Your grace is enough, your grace is enough Reaching down to us, your grace is enough for me God, I see your grace is enough in your love

And at this time, we're gonna take a moment to receive the offering. And instead of passing the plate, we're going to do as we've been doing. We're going to invite you to bring your offerings forward.

While we bring the offerings forward, we're going to be singing a song called All in All. In this song, there's going to be a part where the ladies sing something different than the men. The song is called Around.

It means that when one is singing one part, the other is gonna sing the other part. You'll see it on the screen. You'll know when you're supposed to sing the part that you're supposed to sing. So please just be ready for that part and be watching the screen when that happens.

For our offering today, I'd like to ask one of our deacons to pray over the offering. And since Brother Chris is right here in the front, I'm gonna ask you, brother, to pray for the offering before we sing.

You are my strength when I am weak You are the treasure that I seek You as a precious jewel Lord, to give up, I'd be a fool You are my all Word is good Taking my sin, my cross, my shame

Rising again, I bless your name

You are my all When I fall down, you pick me up Lord, to give up Sing the last line again, one more time.

This would ordinarily be the time for corporate prayer. But since we started this morning with corporate prayer, I'd like to do something else at this moment. Last week, I began to preach on the subject of the seventh day.

And we talked about the seventh day as the day that God made holy. And I said that today I wanted to focus on the fact that we no longer worship on the seventh day, but we worship on the first day of the week.

We worship on Sunday, the Lord's day. And so this week I sent a message out and I asked several pastors that I know to tell me what it was that was their favorite thing about the Lord's day. And I got several responses, I mean, pages full of pastors who just wrote.

And I said, keep it to one or two sentences. And if you know pastors, you know that didn't happen. But I just wanna read a few of the things I went through and I highlighted just a few things that they wrote.

One of the ones said that it said, the reason why he loves the Lord's day is that it's a buffet of grace. He said he comes for words of encouragement, reproof and rebuke for his sin, testimonies of how God is working in other people's lives, showing that he's still active and mighty.

Even if we're not seeing him in our own life, we know he's still working. Another said he loves to come so that he might hear the voices of the church family singing the gospel together. What a wonderful truth that is.

What a wonderful thing and what a thing that is being missed by so many today who cannot gather or are not gathering for whatever reason. They're not hearing the corporate voices of the church this morning.

Another just simply said it is a joy to see my fellow believers. Another quoted Psalm 84 .10. He says, for a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my Lord than dwell in the tents of wickedness.

Another said it's an opportunity to proclaim the riches of Christ to hungry sheep and the gospel of grace to needy sinners. Aaron, my friend, our former worship leader, now the pastor of Redeemer Church, he said this.

He says, it is the visible, tangible reminder that we are the body of the resurrected Christ to include not only those who gather in our covenant community, but the entire covenant people worldwide. See, when we gather on Sunday, we're gathering as a church, but we're gathering with the church universal as well that are gathering all around the world today.

Some in hiding, some in fear, but yet still gathered because it is the Lord's day. Another said it is the unity of God's people around the word and the gospel. And another said it's the opportunity to collectively worship.

So I asked you this morning, what is your favorite thing about the Lord's day? What is it that you look forward to most about this day as opposed to other days in the week? What makes this day special in your heart?

Maybe take a moment this week and write down that answer. I'd love to hear it. Why is the Lord's day important to you? As I said, and we're gonna move now into the time for the sermon. Last week, we looked at how the seventh day that God created the seventh day and he sanctified it.

He made it holy. He made it different from other days. And we noted it was the first time that the word holy is used in the Bible is in Genesis chapter two, verse three. We showed how this seventh day established a pattern of work and rest for man's flourishing.

And we showed how God would later use that day as a sign of the covenant that he made with Israel through Moses. And we showed last week that it typified the rest that we have in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Well, today, I wanna follow that message with a question. And it's this question. Since God hallowed the seventh day, why do we worship on the first day? Does the fact that we worship on the first day indicate some kind of failure on our part to observe that which is holy, which God calls holy?

As the question on the board says, is Sunday a corruption of the Sabbath? Let's stand together and we're gonna read two verses of scripture. We're gonna read one in the beginning of the Bible, one at the end of the Bible.

One at Genesis chapter two, verse three, and then we're gonna jump all the way to the end to Revelation chapter one and verse 10. Genesis chapter two, verse three. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it, God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.

And now way over to Revelation chapter one and verse 10. This is John as he is receiving his revelation on the Isle of Patmos. And he says in Revelation chapter one and verse 10, I was in the spirit on the Lord's day and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches.

And he names those churches. He says to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamum, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea. Father in heaven, I thank you for your word. Father, as we study the word of God today, I pray that you would keep me from error.

For Lord God, I am a fallible man and I'm capable of preaching error and for the sake of your name and for the sake of your holiness, for the sake of your people and for the sake of my own heart and conscience, Lord, I pray that you would keep me from that.

I pray that the words that go out today would be truthful and honoring to you. For Lord, all truth is your truth. And I pray, Lord, that your Holy Spirit would go and that he would open the hearts to believe, that he would open the eyes to see, open the ears to hear the word of God.

And Lord, that we would be moved by the word of God toward closer conformity to our Lord Jesus Christ. And help us to understand that while we discuss the subjects of Sabbath today and while we discuss the subject of the Lord's day and while we discuss these things that might seem to some just theological, small and inconsequential things, they are actually very, Lord, important because it helps us to focus on what matters to you.

And Lord, we want to be pleasing in your sight. We want to do what you have called us to do. So Lord, help us to be faithful to the word today as we study it.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Many people today, if not most, in the world and around the world and especially in the United States, see Sunday as church day. Relatively little thought goes into that. It's just the way it's always been for most of us.

Sunday was the day you went to church. In fact, there used to be a phrase for a certain article of clothing that you kept either in your dresser or your closet and you called it what? You called it your church clothes.

Remember church clothes? Sunday best. You know, I remember when I first started preaching, I wouldn't stand behind this pulpit if I weren't wearing a suit. I know some of y 'all wish that were still the case.

But today, we're not talking about clothes. But you remember church clothes. You remember when you were a kid and you wore your church clothes. If you wore it on a non-church day, mom said, no, go get out of those church clothes, put on your play clothes, right?

There was a time not too long ago when everything was closed on Sunday. Even today, there are businesses like Chick-fil-A and Hobby Lobby that close on Sunday. Did you know that Chick-fil-A recently, it was announced they were the second largest fast food restaurant?

That they have moved to that level and that is amazing because they take off 52 days a year that other businesses don't take off. It's an amazing reality that that happens. So with such history surrounding Sunday, it might make one think that the fact that Christians observe this day is really an indisputable thing.

However, it might surprise you and maybe it will to learn that over the years, many years being here in the ministry, one of the things that has been most contested with people who come from the outside, not within the church, but from people from the outside, is the issue of Sunday and Saturday and the issue of the Sabbath and the Lord's Day.

Last year, Rob Hamm and I debated whether or not Sunday constituted a Sabbath, but one of the things we agreed on, we both agreed we should worship on Sunday. And every letter, every response, every negative comment I have received about that debate has been something in the vein of you're both wrong because you're both saying we should worship on Sunday.

You should worship on Saturday because Saturday is the Sabbath. In fact, just yesterday, I could prove it to you, I almost printed it out and brought it with me. My wife knows because I texted her. I got an email just yesterday from a person who was saying Rob and I were so ignorant and so wrong and didn't know our Bibles because we both believed that you should worship on Sunday.

And I was like, hey, Jennifer, isn't this great? I was like, this is literally what I'm preaching on tomorrow and this person reminded me how it's still relevant. And I say it's relevant because not only about the debate, but you'd be surprised how much this comes up.

Currently, there is a letter on my desk from an inmate from the Florida State Prison in Rayford. Five pages, handwritten letter that he wrote me to question me about my position on the Sabbath. You might wonder how he came to know who I am or why he would even care about me, but that's a longer story.

But the point is, that's how important it is to some people. Last year at Set Free, there was a man who, he would get angry every time I would preach and every time I'd preach, he'd come wanting to talk to me after because he was a Torah observer.

Torah observer is a person who believes their responsibility in Christ is to keep the old covenant laws, including the dietary laws, the food laws, the circumcision laws and the Sabbath laws. And he would get upset and he would come and wanna challenge me every time I'd preach.

And I'd be ready every time because I knew it was coming. Anytime the word, the law of God would come up in a message, I knew, well, giddy up, here it comes. Two weeks ago, I went to get a haircut. As I was sitting, getting my haircut.

The lady who was cutting my hair wanted to argue with me about the Sabbath. I didn't bring it up. I didn't wanna argue it. In fact, let me give you a little piece of advice. When someone's cutting your hair, agree with them.

I look like you, brother. We've even had families leave the church, at least one that I could remember in the last 10 years or so, because they became convinced that the Seventh-day Sabbath was necessary.

They wouldn't hear otherwise. And so they left our church to go to the Seventh-day Adventist church. And someone might say, well, that's fine. Seventh-day Adventist is just another denomination. And while I do believe there are saved people in the denomination, I don't believe the denomination is founded on right principles because it's founded on the teachings of Ellen G. White.

And Ellen G. White was herself a proclaimed prophetess. And the prophetess Ellen G. White made many false prophecies, thereby demonstrating she was not, in fact, a prophet of God. And I have two quotes from her this morning.

Number one, the observance of the Lord's memorial, the Sabbath instituted in Eden, the Seventh-day Sabbath is the test of our loyalty to God. She said that. And then she also said, the sign or seal of God's, excuse me, the sign or seal of God is revealed in the observance of the Seventh-day Sabbath, the Lord's memorial of creation.

The mark of the beast is the opposite of this, the observance of the first day of the week. Did you know that's one of the things that you have to believe and accept if you become a Seventh-day Adventist?

That is, if you worship on Sunday, you have accepted the mark of the beast. So you see, for some, this is no small issue. For those in the Seventh-day Adventist movement, the Hebrew Roots movement, and other Sabbath, Seventh-day Sabbath keepers, there is no liberty here.

There is no opportunity for the variation of opinion. You either keep the Sabbath day or you are in league with the devil himself. My hope to show you this morning is that just ain't so. I hope to show you this morning that not only are Christians allowed to worship on Sunday, but we are encouraged to by the Bible and by history.

Not because Sunday is the new Sabbath, but because Sunday is the Lord's day. It is the day the Lord was raised. It is a celebration of the new covenant instituted in Christ, and it commemorates the unique event of the death, burial, and resurrection of our Savior.

Sunday, as D .A. Carson said, and if you don't know who D .A. Carson is, you should. He's one of the preeminent New Testament scholars alive today. And D .A. Carson said this in his book, Sabbath to the Lord's Day.

He said, Sunday is a new day of worship that was chosen to commemorate the unique salvation historical event of the death and resurrection of Christ, rather than merely being another day for celebrating the Sabbath.

You see, we haven't changed the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. The Sabbath has been fulfilled in Christ, and now we celebrate Christ's finished work. The first day of the week is a celebration of what Christ has accomplished in becoming our Sabbath.

In Him, we have our rest. So here's what we're gonna look at today. Three points, if you will. They're rather long, so might not wanna try to write this down, but at least you know the direction that we're heading.

Number one,.

I wanna look at the biblical and historical evidence that the New Testament church observed the first day of the week. I think that's necessary. We have to see that it's biblical and historical, that what we're doing.

Number two, we're gonna see the continuity and discontinuity between the Sabbath day and the Lord's day. There are some things in which they are similar, and there's some ways in which they're dissimilar.

And finally, we're gonna look at the liberty and responsibility that all Christians have in the regardence of holy days. And that's a lot to get to in one message. But if you promise to keep up, I'll get through it in one sitting.

That way, we're not talking about the Sabbath for another three weeks. All right, so let's look at number one. Let's look at the biblical and historical evidence that the New Testament church, or the New Covenant church, observed the first day of the week.

Turn in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 28 and verse one. While you're turning, I wanna make mention of this. The Bible does not use the days of the week like we do. The Bible doesn't say Saturday or Sunday, though some of your translations might.

In general, what you see is first day of the week. That is the phrase that's used. The words Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, did you know all of those words have pagan backgrounds? Sunday is the day of the sun.

Monday is the day of the moon. Tuesday is actually the day of Mars because that is one of the ways that Mars is represented by Tuo, the god Tuo, and then you have Woden Day, which is Wednesday, Thor's Day, which is Thursday, Saturn Day, which is Saturday.

All of those days are named after pagan deities or celestial bodies. So the Bible doesn't use that language. The Bible uses the language of the Sabbath and it makes the Sabbath the marker. So let's look at Matthew 28, verse one.

Now after the Sabbath, which is what day? Saturday, okay. So after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the Mian Sabaton, that's the Greek there, literally means the first of the Sabbath, and what's the first of the Sabbath?

The first day of the week because the Sabbath is the marker, right? The Sabbath is the marking post. So if you say the first of the Sabbath, you're saying the first day after. If you said the second of the Sabbath, it'd be the second day after, the third of the Sabbath.

So Mian Sabaton is the first of the Sabbath. So it says the day after the Sabbath is Mian Sabaton or the first of the Sabbath. Okay, we see that? And what happened on the first of the Sabbath? Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb and what did they find?

An empty tomb. Now, I don't want you to have to turn to all of these, but just so you understand, Mark chapter 16 and verse two says the same thing. Very early on the first day of the week when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb.

Luke 24, but on the first day of the week at early dawn, they went to the tomb. John chapter 20 and verse one. Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early while it was still dark.

So every one of them references the first day of the week. This is one of those places, one of those glorious places where all four of the gospels say it the exact same way. There is no disagreement in the gospels about what day Jesus rose from the dead.

There's no disagreement about the fact that the women came. There's no disagreement about when they came. They came early on the first day of the week and it's designated as the first day of the week.

This is, you may think I'm beating a dead horse here, but I tell you what, it's important because it designates for us a unique time and that all the gospel writers made a point to tell us about this unique time that it was the first day of the week.

Now, in John chapter 20, verse 19, it says on the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples, where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, peace be with you.

What is this? This is Jesus appearing to his disciples. When does he appear to his disciples? The first day of the week. So not only did he raise on the first day of the week, but he also appears to his disciples on the first day of the week.

And then we move over. And again, you can write these down. You can try to keep up if you want. I've got a lot of scripture to get through. But Acts chapter 20 and verse seven, this tells us about the early church.

Now, remember by Acts chapter 20, this is several years, even decades into the history of the church and what is happening after the resurrection of the Lord. But it says in Acts chapter 20, verse seven, it says on the first day of the week when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day.

And he prolonged his speech until midnight. So we see here, they gathered on the first day of the week. They gathered together to break bread. That's biblical language for the participation in the agape feast, which was accompanied by the taking of the Lord's supper.

This was a biblical worship time and it was done on the first day of the week. And Paul preached. And Paul preached until midnight. Y 'all ready?

You don't even wonder.

We can make it happen. I'll just rotate out with Mike and Andy and we'll keep it going. So Acts chapter 20 and verse seven, it doesn't give us a command. It's not an imperative, but it gives us an example.

It's an indicative. It tells us what happened. And what happened is that the early church, when they were meeting, were meeting on the first day of the week. Now in 1 Corinthians chapter 16, we have another reference to the first day of the week.

1 Corinthians chapter 16 and verse two. This one is kind of interesting because a lot of people argue and say, well, it doesn't say they gathered, but listen to the passage and listen to what Paul says and consider what I'm gonna say in regard to it.

Acts six, or excuse me, 1 Corinthians 16 verse two. On the first day of the week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up. So right there, there is an imperative. But the imperative is not gathering.

The imperative is offering, okay? He says, on the first day of the week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up as he may prosper so that there will be no collecting when I come. Why is it that Paul would designate the first day of the week as the day when offerings were to be gathered?

Could it be? And I don't think it's a stretch to imagine that the reason why it was that day that he pointed out to do, because it was that day that the church was gathering to come together and worship.

And so Paul is saying, when you come together, collect an offering so that when I get there, we don't have to do a massive collection, but you've already collected. And here's the thing. Some people say, no, Paul isn't saying gather.

Paul is saying keep it in your house. But that's not what it says. And if that's what it said, why would he designate a day of the week? You can store up things any day of the week. You could put things in your closet or in your piggy bank or wherever, any day you wanted to.

But the fact that he designates it on a certain day of the week tells us that the early church was already meeting on that day. Therefore, Paul says, when you meet, essentially, store up an offering so that we won't have to make a big collection when I arrive.

Another important event. By the way, today is Pentecost. The traditional liturgical color for Pentecost is red. But I didn't know that until I got here and Pat told me. I forgot. But it just so happens fortuitously that I wore a nice big red polo shirt.

Today is Pentecost Sunday. Pentecost was on a Sunday. What happened on Pentecost? The giving of the Holy Spirit of God. So Jesus rose on the first day of the week. Jesus appeared to the disciples on the first day of the week.

The Holy Spirit fell on the first day of the week. The early church was meeting on the first day of the week.

By the book of Acts.

And Paul referenced the first day of the week in the book of 1 Corinthians. So I think we see a pattern here developing. But I think for me, what really convinced me, and I'll give you just a little bit of a history on this because I used to wonder about this.

I used to say, boy, are we wrong worshiping on Sunday? And really, again, all of us have to go through times of learning and things. And there was a time when I was really, this many, many, over 10 years ago, I was really thinking about this.

This was the passage that really got me, and it was Revelation 1 .10. Because Revelation 1 .10, which we've already read, says something, and it uses a unique phrase that is not used anywhere else in the New Testament.

It uses the phrase, the Lord's day. And it says that John was in the Spirit on the Lord's day. And you say, well, wait a minute. How do we know what day that is? God sanctified the Sabbath. That must be the Lord's day.

Oh, nay, nay. And here's why. Because even though the Bible is the only infallible source that we have for truth, the Bible is not the only historical record that we have from the time period. Therefore, if we have a unique phrase in the New Covenant, the phrase, the Lord's day, and so we have no other place in the New Testament to compare that language, we would go outside the New Testament simply to see how other people in the same time period were using that language, right?