Lord's Day Worship - May 24, 2020

Sovereign Grace Family Church

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Let's stand together.

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Lord of all creation, of water, earth, and sky, the heavens are your tabernacle.

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Glory to the Lord on high.

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God of wonders beyond our galaxy, you are holy, holy.

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The universe declares your majesty.

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You are holy, holy.

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Lord of heaven and earth.

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Lord of heaven and earth.

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Early in the morning, I will celebrate the light.

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When I stumble in the darkness, I will call your name by night.

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God of wonders beyond our galaxy, you are holy, holy.

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The universe declares your majesty.

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You are holy, holy.

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Lord of heaven and earth.

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Lord of heaven and earth.

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Hallelujah to the Lord of heaven and earth.

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Hallelujah to the Lord of heaven and earth.

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Hallelujah to the Lord of heaven and earth.

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God of wonders beyond our galaxy, you are holy, holy.

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Precious Lord, reveal your heart to me.

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Father, hold me, hold me.

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The universe declares your majesty.

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You are holy, holy.

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Amen.

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Good morning and you may be seated.

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We're going to invite Brother Andy to come up now.

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We finished the book of Romans last week, so now he's going to take us starting through the book of Ephesians.

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I just encourage us as we read through the book of Ephesians to so many great truths that are revealed to us in the book, but the only thing I want to remind us this morning as we start to read through Ephesians, is that so often in the Paul line letters as he writes to the churches, that the apostle will open it up with great doctrinal truths, and then as he moves through his letters to the churches, he then takes the practical approach of how to apply those doctrines.

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So keep that in mind as we read through Ephesians, how Paul will lay out great doctrinal truths for us in the beginning, and then he'll apply them to us in our lives as we go through.

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So Ephesians 1 this morning.

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Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus and faithful in Christ Jesus.

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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

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Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

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Just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestined us to the adoption as sons by Jesus Christ himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.

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To the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he has made us accepted in the beloved.

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In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace, which he had made to abound towards us in all wisdom and prudence.

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Having made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth in him.

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In whom also we obtain an inheritance being predestined, according to the purpose of him who works all things, according to the counsel of his own will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of his glory.

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In him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also having believed you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of his glory.

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Therefore, I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of him.

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The eyes of your understanding be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling and what are the riches of his glory, of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power towards us who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he worked in Christ, whom he raised from the dead and seated at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, in every name that is named, not only in the age to come, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come, and has put all things under his feet and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

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Amen.

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Praise the Lord.

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What a wonderful chapter.

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We're going to sing now, I sing the mighty power of God.

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This is a hymn that is well over 150 years old.

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It was actually written for children to teach them about the great works of God and creation.

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And I chose this song this week because we are going back to Genesis this week.

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We've taken a bit of a brief interlude because of all that was going on in the world and there were some things that I felt urged to preach on, but now I'm thankful that we're going to go back to where we left off several weeks ago.

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So today we're going to be back to Genesis and we're going to sing about the mighty power of God who made the mountains rise, who spread the flowing seas abroad, and built the lofty skies.

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Let's stand.

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I sing the mighty power of God that made the mountains rise, that spread the flowing seas abroad and built the lofty skies.

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I sing the wisdom that ordained the sun to rule the day.

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The moon shines full at His command and all the stars obey.

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I sing the goodness of the Lord who filled the earth with food, who formed the creatures through the Word and then pronounced them good.

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Lord, how Thy wonders are displayed where'er I turn my eye.

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If I survey the ground, I tread or gaze upon the sky.

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There's not a plant or flower below but makes Thy glories known.

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And clouds arise and tempests flow by order from Thy throne.

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While all that borrows life from Thee is ever in Thy care.

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And everywhere that we can be, Thou, God, art present there.

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Amen.

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I know I didn't tell you, brother, beforehand, but as our newly chosen deacon, I'm gonna have you pray for the offering today.

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We've been taking offering, but we have been forgetting to pray for our offering, and so I'm calling you out.

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Would you mind if we all bowed our heads? Would you just pray from where you are for our offering today? Amen.

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Thank you, brother.

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At this time, we're going to have you come and deliver your offerings.

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Rather than sending the plate to you, we're going to invite you to come.

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There's two plates in the front.

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There's one by the front door back there, and there's one by this back door.

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So you're welcome to come as we sing the Revelation song.

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Worthy is the Lamb who was slain.

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Holy, holy is He.

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Sing a new song to Him who sits on Heaven's mercy seat.

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Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty who was and is and is to come With all creation I sing praise to the King of kings You are my everything and I will adore you Clothed in rainbows of living color Flashes of lightning, rolls of thunder Blessing and honor, strength and glory and power Be to you the only wise king Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty Who was and is and is to come With all creation I sing praise to the King of kings You are my everything and I will adore you Filled with wonder, awestruck wonder At the mention of your name Jesus, your name is power, breath and living water Such a marvelous mystery Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty Who was and is and is to come With all creation I sing praise to the King of kings You are my everything and I will adore you Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty Who was and is and is to come With all creation I sing praise to the King of kings You are my everything and I will adore you I want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Genesis And we are in Genesis chapter 2 But before we get to our sermon I would like to lead us in a time of prayer Each week a different elder leads us in our time of prayer So this week was my turn And often I'm so anxious to get to the sermon I forget things I'm supposed to do And I'm supposed to pray And so I want to take a step back But you can still be opening up your Bibles Because we'll be there reading it in just a moment We are certainly thankful for the opportunity to pray I've been writing my Wednesday evening lessons And I'm several weeks ahead Because of everything that happened with the COVID and all that It gave me an opportunity to work a little ahead And I'm actually preparing lessons on the doctrine of the church Which is after we finish the doctrine of salvation We're going to look at the doctrine of the church And what is the church And why does it do what it does And how is it supposed to do the things that it does And one of the things that we often don't realize Is that what we do on Sunday morning matters And how we do it matters Worship is not a haphazard conglomeration of things That are thrown together at the last minute But it is a time of sincerely prayed over And thought through moments That we're trying to bring together For what we call corporate worship And so we gather together for the main things Which are praising God And song God wants us to be a singing people He gave us song to praise Him with We gather together to read the word And we have the word of God And that's an amazing and important part Of what we do In fact the center of our whole worship service Is centered around the study of what God has said But another part that is often so neglected Is the time for corporate prayer Even though we do it I think often times we allow our minds to wander In these times And so I want to encourage you That yes you are called to pray on your own Yes you are called to pray in your closet And without anyone watching But you're also called to pray in community You're called to pray as a church And so when we come together We're praying as the church Together, corporately And I know that you have some things On your heart and on your mind That you want to pray for I know I do I know there's people in my life That I want to pray for I'd ask that you pray for my wife I know that some of you may not know this But pretty much everyone has known by now My wife has experienced another miscarriage And so she's at home today Having had to go through this And is now hurting a lot And so we ask that you pray for her I've told enough people I don't feel like it's a secret anymore We want to pray for Jack and Shirley Shirley had to go out of town Because her sister fell and broke her hip This is only weeks after having lost her husband in death And now she's dealing with having broken her hip This is an elderly woman And we know how difficult it can be For an elderly person To break such a vital part of their body And so we need to pray for them We need to pray for Shirley Who is now with her The traveling back and forth And I know we need to continue to pray For Sharon and Adam I was thankful to get to see Sharon this week I was grateful to To just get to share a few moments Of talking with her and Adam And I'm grateful that she's doing so well I just want to pray that she continues to do well So these are all things that are on my mind And I know there may be some things that I'm forgetting I didn't write it down and bring it up here with me I'll tell you one other thing And I'm going to mention this more at the announcement time Tomorrow is Memorial Day We're at a very unique time in our country Where we're facing a lot of struggles That we've never faced before With freedoms And there were a lot of churches in California That were excited they were going to go to church tomorrow Because the president had given them the okay And then the Ninth Circuit Court of California said no So all those churches that said they were going to meet Many of them are now not Because the court said no So I mean there's a lot going on in our world And there are men who have bled and died For the freedoms that we enjoy And there are families that are hurting today Because those men bled and died And those women bled and died For those freedoms So we need to thank God for our freedom And we need to pray for those families that are suffering loss So there's a lot to pray for So I'm going to give you a few minutes to pray on your own And you'll just hear silence Which is such a valuable commodity anymore It's just that silent time And then we'll pray together So let's bow our heads Our Father and our God We are ever grateful to have the opportunity To come into your house To praise your name To be reminded of the blessing of corporate worship To be reminded of the things that we are called to do In corporate worship Lord we are called to sing to you We are called to pray to you We are called to remind one another Of what your word has said to us And to hear from you in your word Lord what a day it is What a wonderful day Sunday is Oh God What a wonderful day it is To call this day the Lord's day This is not our day This is your day And so we are thankful To get to have this day to worship you We are thankful for sacred time For important moments For sacred duties Lord we often think of our lives As so independent and so free And yet Lord you have given us things to do You have called us to good works And one of those works Is the gathering together With the saints To praise you As the body of Christ in the world The local church When Jesus Christ was on the earth He said I will build my church And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it And Lord we have seen We have seen down through the ages When it seemed as if hell was having its way We have seen down through the ages Where it seemed as if the church was waning In her power and in her influence And then there was revival Lord after the dark ages Was the reformation Out of the difficulty Of coming into the United States There was the great awakening And Lord even around the world As we are praying this morning There are pockets of revival That are breaking out in places Where the gospel had before now Never even been heard And Lord what a great thing it is to consider What it is that you are doing As the God who created all things The one who made heaven and earth You are bringing people to yourself You are saving your elect And you will not lose one For whom Christ died And so Lord we have great confidence in you We have great confidence in what you are doing And what you will do And Lord we know that you have promised That you will cause all things to work together For the good of those who love you And are called according to your purpose Therefore We come to you today And we lay at your feet those who are hurting Lord there is great struggle and pain Even in our midst There are those who are battling loss There are those who are battling sickness There are those who are caring for their family Who have fallen and hurt themselves And Lord there are many others Who too numerous to name Are struggling with Issues of the heart, issues of the mind And Lord I pray to you I pray your mercy be upon us I pray Lord that day by day Every day and step by step You will lead us And that you will not let us wander And Father for those who are sick We do pray for healing At the same time knowing God that you are sovereign And it is not always your will to heal But it is always your will To do right by your people So Lord give us confidence in your will Give us confidence in your word Give us confidence in what you are doing in our midst Lord I believe that you are working here I see you working in people's lives I see you working in the struggling I see you working in the pain I see you working in the prosperity Lord I see you working in all of it Lord I also see those who are resisting you And I pray that you would break the hard hearts That resist you Lord And that you would open them up there And Lord that you would give them a spirit of repentance And Lord where my heart is resistant Pray that you would give me a soft heart Lord I am thankful that you have called me here I am thankful for everyone that is here And that everyone that belongs to this church I pray that you will continue to draw us closer to you Lord make our church a biblical church Give us a desire to do what the Bible says to do To trust in your word To trust in your will Lord as we turn our attention now to the preaching of the word I pray that you would keep me from error For Lord I am a fallible man And I am capable of preaching error And I don't want to preach error For your sake and for the sake of your great name And for the sake of your people And for the sake of my conscience And Lord I pray that you would open the hearts of the people today Especially Lord those who might be obstinate Lord open the hearts to hear the word May your spirit be the teacher today May I decrease and may Christ increase And may the Holy Spirit of God be the one Who applies the word of God to the hearts of God's people Lord may it be Lord be with me As I preach in Jesus name Amen I am thankful this morning to be back in the book of Genesis We have We spent several months examining chapter 1 We have examined creation in that chapter We have seen that it teaches that God created the world in 6 days On the first 3 days God formed the world He formed light and darkness on day 1 He formed the sky and the seas on day 2 And He formed dry ground and vegetation on day 3 Those were the forming days And then on days 4, 5, and 6 God spent filling that which He had formed On day 4 He filled the heavens with the light bearing objects The sun, the moon, and the stars On day 5 He filled the sky with birds And He filled the sea with fish and other creatures On day 6 He took that dry ground that He had made And He created beasts to live on that ground And He created man as the crowning achievement of His creation Man who would be the only one of His creation to be formed In the way that He was formed The only one that it would say that God breathed into Him the breath of life And the only one that it would say that bore God's image Then on day 7 God rested And this is where we left off And we spent several months breaking down chapter 1 And we got sidetracked as soon as we did the first sermon in chapter 2 So today we're picking up where we left off On the day that God rested And I want to remind you of something before we read the text I want to remind you of what we learned in our last lesson Because I know it's been two months now So I imagine many of you have maybe allowed it to go out of your mind But remember this The last time we met and talked about verses 1 to 3 We asked the question, why did God rest? And the answer is that God did not rest because He was fatigued But God rested because He was finished God did not rest because He was tired God rested because He was through Creation, as God had established creation Had been completed And therefore God rests Let's stand and read the text Genesis chapter 2 beginning at verse 1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all of the host of them And on the seventh day God finished His work that He had done And He rested on the seventh day from all His work that He had done 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 May God add His blessing to the reading and to the hearing of His word And write its eternal truths on our heart You may be seated The title of today's message is God's Holiday God's Holiday The dictionary defines holiday as a day of festivity A day of recreation A day when no work is done It's often interesting if you ever watch a film from over in Europe I sometimes will watch movies and it will have someone speaking And I remember as a kid I would hear somebody from overseas talk about going on holiday And I didn't know what that meant To them that means going on vacation And for me I never heard it said that way You know when I was a kid we didn't go on holiday We went on vacation But the idea was the same It was the day that there was no work Right? The reason why you go on vacation is you're getting away from it all Right? No one goes on vacation and gets a job You go on vacation to take a...

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I don't want to say...

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Brother Mike is so funny because he works so hard And yes you're going to be an object lesson in today's message just so you know I didn't clear it with you but with a smile on your face I'm assuming it's going to be okay But even you brother you go on a cruise You don't expect to work You might want to be the captain of the ship But you expect somebody else to do the work for you When you go on holiday The idea is you're ceasing with your normal routine You're ceasing with your normal schedule The word holiday as you probably know Comes from the combination of the words holy day Holiday is just the English derivative of the word holy day It is a day that is set apart It is a day that is dedicated It is a day that is consecrated In the simplest terms the word holy means different In fact I would encourage you to remember that When we talk about the attributes of almighty God The one attribute that should always challenge us is the holiness of God People think God is like us God is not like us The Bible clearly says God is not like man He is different He is unique He is holy He is as R.C.

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Sproul said He is other Everything else is different than he Everything else is other than God God is holy God is unique He says in Isaiah 46 I am God and there is no other I am God and there is none like me So when you refer to something as holy What you're referring You're saying it's not like the other ones God is holy He's not like anyone else And God has the power to make things holy God has the power to make things special We call it holy communion Why? Because this bread and cup is different than all the rest of the bread and cup that we eat all week long Right? And so when we talk about things that are holy Sometimes we use the word sanctify To sanctify means to set apart To set apart something for God's purposes We're making it different We're making it holy We're setting it apart and making it unique So when we talk about a holiday We're talking about a day that is different And we celebrate holidays all year long For many of us in the Christian church There are two great holidays of the year And what's interesting It's Christmas and Easter as you know What's interesting about those two holidays Is they're not biblical holidays The Bible doesn't command us to celebrate the birth of Jesus And there's really no example in the Bible Of anyone celebrating the birth of Jesus I'm not saying it's wrong I'm just saying it's not something that we see in the Bible The Bible tells us about the birth of Jesus But we don't see the early church having an annual Christmas celebration And the other thing would be We celebrate Resurrection Sunday Which is sometimes referred to as Easter But actually in the early church They didn't celebrate that once a year But the whole reason why the church gathered On the first day of the week every week Was because every Sunday was the Lord's Day Every Sunday was Resurrection Day The whole reason for gathering on the first day of the week Was because Jesus rose from the first day of the week In fact part of what I'm going to talk about Probably going to be next week Because there's no way I'm going to get to it today I'm going to talk about why we should worship on Sunday Because some people look at Genesis 2 and verse 3 And they say because God sanctified the seventh day Which is not Sunday Some people look at that and they say We should still be celebrating Saturday You've heard of the seventh day Adventists? Did you know that Ellen G.

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White The woman most responsible for the teachings Of the Seventh Day Adventist Church Herself a false prophetess Said that the mark of the true church Was worshiping on Saturday And the mark of the false church Was to worship on Sunday The mark of the beast Is the worshiping on Sunday So I do want to challenge that And I realize we're getting a little bit away From the text here But I think it's important Because this is the first holiday in the Bible y'all Think about it In fact this is the first time The word holy is used We've gone through the whole first chapter Of Genesis The word holy has not been used We are now in chapter 2 And the word holy is used And you might think That because God is holy The first time the word holy is used It would be used to apply to God But it's not The first time the word holy is used It's used to apply to a day The day that God rested It says in the text In verse 3 God blessed the seventh day And made it holy In his book Holiness of God Dr.

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R.C.

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Sproul Made a good point I remember reading this years ago And it really stuck out to me And by the way If you've never read the Holiness of God I've got a copy for you I keep copies of it to give you Because it's such a wonderful book The Holiness of God by R.C.