The Lord’s Sabbath

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Join us tomorrow as we discuss the Lord’s Sabbath

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You can say what you want, but you won't around me. I sheep among misfits, a misfit in the trailer park at night, a misprint with the sixth sense.
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Been sick ever since my brother died of an O .D. My two cents never made sense, either to me or anyone else inside of the sheep fence.
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My 9th Smith on my right side. Why you staring at your cop dot sign and my
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John Hancock on the dotted line? Tell me what's the bottom line. The bottom line is
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I'm not right. I'm not left, but this elephant won't fight. There's nothing left but the spotlight.
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Hold my beer, you can find me in the moonlight. You can say what you want.
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You can say what you want, but you won't around me. You can say what you want. You can say what you...
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I'm with sin, the deep end, and I can't find my assigned seat to sit in.
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My theology don't fit in. Black sheep of the Reformation sheep pen. To the
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Reformed, I'm just another Baptist baptized again. The bastard child of Anabaptist, host to child of Reformation society.
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We don't need your education. Give me a Bible and a brookshelf of dead men, cigars, bourbons, and beer cans.
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Bow ties, tattoos, and bearded men making Reformation great again.
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You can say what you want. You can say what you want, but you won't around me.
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You can say what you want. All right, ladies and gentlemen, my name is
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Jeff. Let me get this set up. And I'm one of the hosts of Open Air Theology.
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I'm also one of the elders at Covenant Reformed Baptist Church in Tallahoma, Tennessee.
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And if you enjoy that intro music, my new single, Pimps and Prostitutes, drops
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July 12th. Be sure to check that out. That is Pimps and Prostitutes. I've been banging it.
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I've been sending it to some of my friends to see what they think. And hopefully you'll check that out.
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And if you're ever in Tallahoma, Tennessee, or if you live in Canada, whatever it's called, and you want to be a part of a good
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Reformed Baptist church, move to Tallahoma, Tennessee. We've got you covered. I'm passing it over to my dear brother,
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Brayden. Oh, wait. Let's do it. Bam. My name is
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Brayden Patterson. I am the pastor of Valley Baptist Church in Hagerman, Idaho. If you live near the area, it would be a real blessing to see you at church on Sundays.
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We're a wonderful small Baptist congregation here in southern Idaho. We meet at 11 a .m.
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on Sundays. So come see us on the Lord's Day. Let's keep the Sabbath together. That's what we'll get into here in a moment.
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But I am a co -host of Open Air Theology. I have a
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YouTube channel called Reformed Ex -Mormon. Jeff's new songs that he's talking about right there, it's fantastic.
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Jeff, that new Pimps and Prostitutes song that you came out with, I've listened to it. It's great.
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I'm also just coming off of a mind boggle from that debate that we just all probably witnessed.
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Yeah. There's a lot to be said there. I'm going to pass the mic down to Tom Shepard right there.
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Hey, guys. I'm Tom Shepard. I'm a member of Grace Bible Church of Bernie, Texas. I head up the street evangelism ministry out there.
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I'm also the co -host of Open Air Theology and the host of Even If None podcast.
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Glad to be here. Very good. Very good. So. Let's just for a brief second before we get into this conversation concerning the
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Lord's Day. Man, what was that? And I was telling you that, you know,
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I mean, for the most part, I'm surprised that that Biden was able to to go as long as he did.
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Right. I mean, there was some some times of mumbling. Then there was that meme going around on Facebook. Let's get ready to mumble.
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Yeah. I mean, listen, all in all, he I mean, he was able to stand the whole time.
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So that's pretty good. This is the best day to talk about the Sabbath, because God gave us a rest.
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And we just have a you need a rest after watching that. You need a rest after watching that.
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And so it's a great day to talk about the Sabbath, especially in light of that. Biden did stumble here and there.
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It's it's crazy to think that these are the two presidential candidates that we are most likely going to have as the main go to ones.
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It's it's it's kind of a I was disappointed to hear Trump talk about the that he was
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OK with abortion for rape and incest. And those were the two main one that you said right there, unless I'm missing.
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Yeah, that was a third one. It had to do with the health of the mother. Yeah. So I was
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I was disappointed to hear I on on that largely. And then I do agree, though, like I'm thankful that Roe v.
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Wade is is not there. And it is something that the stage. I tend to agree with that more than doing it federally.
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So it's it's I was happy to hear that. It's hard when you got to choose between two evils.
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And I think like one of the things that I like to say when I'm you know, because I preach in the open air here in Tullahoma, Tennessee, and there's a big mega support.
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And and I'll be honest with you, out of the two evils, I'm going to be voting for Donald Trump. But I but I seem like I have to to tell people quite often, ladies and gentlemen,
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Donald Trump is not our savior. He is not. And we put our hope in Jesus Christ is king.
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He has all authority in heaven and on earth. So let's not get it twisted for one second.
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Yeah, man. So I'm taking well, some of them shoot me the bird and I'm fine with either one.
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Yeah. So that's what a 70 year old looks like on Adderall. Just just saying
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I've been pumped up and tweaking on Adderall. That's what a 70 year old looks like when he's tweaking on Adderall.
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And he's a drug dealer, do you think? Nancy Pelosi, Nancy Pelosi and everything.
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He took her dose, too. I mean, look at her. She looks like a she looks like a tweaker for sure.
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But yeah, yeah, that's it's just sad. I was I was also very, very disappointed in Trump regarding abortion.
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He's trying to get votes, but it's no excuse. And it's you know, man, it's it's hard for me because I'm I'm I'm I'm probably not going to vote.
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I'm just probably not going to. Well, I think so. So just ask, can we vote for him with such a weak position on abortion?
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But here's the thing, although it's not a great position, I want to outline that.
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First of all, Biden said he is going to bring back Roe v. Wade. Right.
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And so I said for that reason, I'd rather because we're having a vote for two different evils.
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And so and so I would encourage you to vote because the last thing we don't want is
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Biden back in office. Yeah, I hear what you're saying. I just I just have a hard time checking the box next to his name.
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I have a hard time with it. And I know you do. And I totally get your position. I just I just don't in my conscience.
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I don't know that I could say, yes, I'm going to vote for this man. Yet is he better than Biden? Absolutely. He is.
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But in my conscience is not clear. Voting for a man who who's who's
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OK with it. I mean, the bottom line is he's not a Christian. I don't believe Trump is a Christian. Oh, yeah. I'm either.
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Would he definitely make a better president? One hundred percent. But I know the trajectory that we're on.
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I'm never going to own a house. My kids finally move out and I get to have anything. It's going to be I'm probably going to be living in out of a van, a combo where I live.
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One combo is anywhere from 12 to 15 dollars at a freaking fast food joint. OK, when
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I was in my 20s, my my early and late 20s, I could pay three people, three of my homeboys with 15 dollars.
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All right. There is. I mean, like, it's just it is absolutely ridiculous. And not to mention all these, you know, like like we don't need a
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Trojan horse to sneak into America. We don't even have a border. Right now. I'm just so fed up with it.
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I'm saying what if I weren't a Christian, I would start a militia. So gangbanger would get back going.
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Let me tell you right now. I'm just being serious. The only thing keeping me from starting a militia and taking over things is is
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Jesus Christ. So y 'all. Yeah, no, I hear you. Yeah, yeah. I'm sorry.
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I put 70 at 86. Yeah, that's what the person looks like. Eighty six years old on Adderall. Yeah, yeah.
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It's definitely challenging. It is definitely a challenging conversation. I do think voting is is even if it is lesser of two evils,
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I know you're still choosing a lesser of two evils. But I think you only a no vote is still a vote.
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It's just that's canceled out. Yeah. Yeah. A no vote is is a vote for the the greater evil.
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I don't know what it is. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I totally hear what you're saying.
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I just I don't I mean, if he gets back in office, man, I mean, how much of my combo is going to be 20 bucks?
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I mean, those bottles are going to be about a thousand dollars a piece. That's right.
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I mean, listen, we're barely making it, man. Like we are barely making it like I don't know what
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I'm going to do. Yeah. Anyways, let's talk about the Sabbath. Let's get it going.
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Yeah, the Sabbath. So so what happened was I made a post on Facebook.
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I can't remember the let me click off on my phone real quick and let me read it.
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So I made a post on Facebook and it it pissed some people off. It says not gathering with the saints on the
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Lord's Day. Sabbath is not exercising
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Christian liberty. Right. So so so we would hold to what's called Christian liberty.
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Right. We would say it's not sinful for a Christian to smoke a cigar.
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It's not sinful for a Christian to to have a glass of bourbon or have a beer or whatever it is.
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Me, Braden and Hatch did a show called About Christian Liberty. And one of them was
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I think we did two and one of them was called Don't Drink, Don't Smoke and Don't Go with Girls That Do or something like that.
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We had this discussion and I just wanted to point out that, you know, like if like if we tell someone that you need to be in, you need to go to church on the
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Lord's Day, that's not being legalistic. Legalism is telling someone to do something that the
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Bible doesn't call them to do. Right. The Bible calls you to do something and we tell you that you need to do something.
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That's not legalism. And you cannot say, well, I have Christian liberty. So that's what this whole post is supposed to be about.
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But because I mentioned the word Sabbath. Like a lot of people got their panties in a bunch.
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And so we were initially going to be talking about types and antitypes concerning covenant theology.
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And that's been holding to 1689 federalism. We, you know, we hope, you know, types and antitypes is a big structure in the 1689 federalism idea of covenant theology.
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So I so in that I challenge I challenge one guy to come on here and let's spar.
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Let's talk about it. He didn't want to come on here and spar. And so I reached out to you guys and I said, hey, can we change the topic to the
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Sabbath? And of course, y 'all were willing to engage that. So here we go.
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Yeah. One of the things was the main the point of your post was that we are not at liberty to not go to church.
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We cannot choose to go to church. But like you said, you mentioned the word Sabbath and there it went.
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We don't hold to the Christian Sabbath. There's no such thing as a Sabbath anymore. You know, we are not obligated to hold to a
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Sabbath day. That's that was the fire that lit this guy's honey on Ben.
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Yeah. And, you know, I've been struggling with, you know, I mean, I mean, not with a Sabbath. Just just a simple fact, you know, like as a pastor and stuff like that.
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I mean, people, you know, like like people wake up and they don't feel good. And they, you know, they call out, you know, they they don't come to church and I get you don't feel good.
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But but if you can have that same not feeling good and go to work, you're in sin.
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You know, like if you wake up and you don't and your stomach hurts, you got a headache or whatever it is.
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And if you will still go to work for that sickness, but you won't go to church for that sickness.
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Something's wrong, right? Something's wrong. You're not going to grow in holiness like like there's no way outside of being under the means of grace that, you know, to to grow in.
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There's no. So according to my view, there's no way to grow in holiness if you're not a part of a local church.
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And and if you make up an excuse such as that to not be a part of the church that Sunday, you're not part.
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You're not sitting under the preaching of the word. You're not partaking in the Lord's Supper. You know, the things in which
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God has designed for us to grow in holiness. And so I just I get frustrated sometimes, especially and it might be because I'm a pastor whenever, you know, like for the last.
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And listen, my congregation listens to this. And right now,
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I'm just a little fed up and I think it's all good. It needs to be said like if if you'll go to work with the sickness, you need to take your butt to church with the sickness.
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Now, if you're throwing up, if you got diarrhea or whatever it is and you're contagious, that's one thing.
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But just because you woke up, you ain't feeling well. That's no excuse not to be a part of the church. So and I would add on, it's not just to your congregation.
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This is this is a plague that's across the world in the sense of Christians treating the
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Lord's Day as a day of corporate worship to God seeking the fellowship.
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I've been in conversation with another pastor and he said something that I agree with. He said that what what could you imagine that would be better than gathering with God's people on the
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Lord's Day and worshiping God with them? What could you imagine that's better?
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And I think the point of that is, is we as Christians with a new heart that's inside of us should desire that.
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And we live in a world where there's so many people that claim the title of Christian, whether or not they really are or not.
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There's no desire to want to go and fellowship with other Christians on the Lord's Day. And it's almost a sense of God save me and I'm good.
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I don't need to go to the church and salvificly. No, you don't need to go to church for salvation. But if you are saved, you're going to obey
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God's laws. Right. And that's one of his positive laws that we'll see in the New Testament here in a little bit. But not only that,
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I cannot remember who said this. It might have been that pastor I've been talking with, but it might have been somebody else.
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And so I apologize if I'm not giving the proper respect or honor to the quote.
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But they said foregoing church is the mother of all sins.
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Because when somebody starts to do that, then they start producing all these other sins because there's no accountability.
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There's no growth. As Jeff has already said, they're not hearing the means of grace. They're not hearing the preaching, the teaching, the songs, the prayers, all those things that come along with going to your local body and worship those saints.
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You're not doing those things. And so not going to church is the beginning of an avalanche of other sins that will then eventually be tacked on to that.
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Right, because not going to church to worship and celebrate our resurrected
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Lord is a heart issue. That is a heart issue.
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What else would you rather do on the Lord's Day other than going to church, celebrating, singing to our
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Lord, making much of Christ when we don't go and place other duties, whether it's sports.
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I used to do that, man. Before I was a Christian, I mean, it was all about... I requested my games for my children to be on Sunday before I was a
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Christian and expected everybody else. I mean, that's how lightly unbelievers think.
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So are we going to think like the world or are we going to make much of Christ on the Lord's Day? We had a family that recently left our church and their children were in every game that you can think of.
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And if something fell on Sunday, they didn't show up. Yeah.
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I've been going to church. So 2001 is whenever I started reading the
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Bible. Late 2002, probably around the summertime, is when I started going to church. From then to now,
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I doubt I've missed five Lord's Days. And you're not patting yourself on your back.
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I'm not patting myself on the back. No, I'm not patting myself on the back. It's just that that's how serious it is for me.
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I want to be around God's people. Now, of course, if I'm throwing up,
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I'm not going to go. If I'm contagious, I'm not going to go. But just because I wake up and I just don't feel like it.
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My children don't ask me, are we going to church tomorrow?
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They've never asked me that. They know if it's the Lord's Day or if the doors are open, we're going to church.
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Someone posted on Facebook that going to church is a decision you make on Saturday.
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And I just started laughing out loud, and then I wanted to cry. No, going to church is something that Christians do.
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It's not a decision you make. It's something that you do. That's right. It's not something that you take advantage of.
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Yeah, so Votie Bauckham in his sermon, I think it was the
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Sabbath before the Sabbath, where he talks about how the Sabbath command transcends the
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Decalogue. He makes an example out of a couple that would say they're going to go to sports on Sunday, and they'll make the excuse, and they said, well, we went ahead and did our family devotion on Saturday, and we did all these things on Saturday so that we could go play sports on Sunday.
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And so Votie's response to that was, so you recognize that you need to celebrate, that you need to do something different, that you need to devote one day.
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You know, unto Him and everything. So you are thinking highly of it for that point in time.
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Why are you now replacing the day? We aren't obligated. We don't have an obligation to do that.
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We don't have a choice to make that decision. God determines how we should worship
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Him. He set aside one day in seven to worship Him as we gather in saints.
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And so it's not a choice. It's an obligation. It's a duty. It is a command. We are called to be with the saints, to lift
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Him up and make one day in seven totally devoted unto Him. You said something about being sick real fast.
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I did want to say that. One of the Bible verses that we see in God's Word is when you're sick, what are you supposed to do?
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Call upon the elders. That was written before we had cell phones. That meant that you were in fellowship.
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That meant you were seeing these people on a regular basis. How do you call on the elders if you're not plugged in to the local church, if you're not going to church?
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You can't. You don't. I know we live in the 21st century where we got cell phones and it makes a lot easier. But the point of that is in the first century when that text is written, how do you think they were doing that?
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They were seeing them. They were fellowshipping. Here's my question to you guys.
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Do you think that you would have gotten any pushback on that post if you would have said
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Lord's Day? It would have been different pushback. But do you think you would have gotten the same pushback if you would have said
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Lord's Day instead of Sabbath? I used to not hold to a
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Sabbath. I think if we really got down to it, I know me and Braden agree, but Tom, there might be some disagreements between us concerning the
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Sabbath. But here recently, I've been convicted on calling it the
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Lord's Day Sabbath. I do believe it's the Lord's Day, but I believe it's the
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Lord's Day Sabbath. I believe that, and I'm willing to argue my position.
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I believe that the Sabbath that we see in the old covenant, that that Sabbath is a type and it's fulfilled in Christ.
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And it was not instituted as a day of worship. But the new covenant
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Sabbath is instituted as a day of worship. And I'll be happy to walk through that now or a little later whenever we want to get there.
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So that would be my question. And that's one of the reasons why I don't like calling it the
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Sabbath. Because the Sabbath as described in the Old Testament doesn't look anything like the
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Sabbath. Other than the one day and seven set apart unto God does not look like the
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Sabbath that we celebrate today. There are so many things that are better now that I would say that we celebrate the resurrected
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Lord. They didn't do that. Like you had said, it wasn't set apart unto the worship of the
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Lord necessarily. It was we do something different in the new covenant. And so while I agree and I could even
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I would even say that he is our Sabbath rest. But that's tennis.
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I tend not to say that it's the Sabbath because people have the idea that the Sabbath was the
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Sabbath of the Jews. And it's not. It is distinct from that. Yeah. So the Sabbath that's laid out in the new covenant.
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So Matt, Matt, just ask the question. And I know there's a lot of people asking questions and we're probably not going to be able to get all to it.
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And that is a good friend of ours. And he says, you believe that the Lord's Day is the old covenant
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Sabbath answer? No. And that's true. I don't. Simply because the old covenant
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Sabbath is not instituted as a day of worship. It's instituted as a day of rest. Nowhere in the old covenant, the
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Old Testament scriptures are we commanded to worship on the Sabbath. You know,
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I think I would. Are you still going, Jeff? Well, I was. But if you want to interject, go ahead.
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I was going to just say I think it'd be helpful and I'll let you keep on going with what you're saying. We should probably define some terms like what the
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Sabbath mean and all that kind of stuff. Yeah. The word Sabbath means rest. Yeah. Keep on going.
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I'll interject after you're done. No. Yeah. I was just saying like nowhere. I mean, because I mean, because the place where I evangelize that I'm like two blocks from my
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Seventh -day Adventist church. And I evangelize on Saturdays and sometimes
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I get a lot of them that come by and talk to me. And so I needed to really figure out what I believe when it come when it came to this.
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And this is, you know, so this is even before my view has changed concerning the
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Sabbath, because, you know, like a verse that was just pointed out, Hebrews chapter three carried into Hebrews chapter four points out that that Jesus Christ is our rest.
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Yes. So so the Sabbath begins. It's a creational mandate.
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Right. So so God rested on the seventh day and he instituted a day of rest for everyone else.
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And and I believe that we should have a day of rest. Right. If you work if you work for seven days a week, 365 days a year, you're going to kill yourself.
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And it's already been tested before. So there was a I can't remember the nation it was exactly.
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So I read about this. This would have been about 15 years ago where 15 years ago when
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I read about it. But hundreds of years ago, probably when it took place, I can't remember. But but a nation did not want to live under the
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Judaic Christian principle of of of one in six or excuse me, one in seven.
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And so they changed the work week to ten and one. Right. And then their livestock started dying because they was working them too hard.
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Right. And so and so I believe so I don't believe that someone should work seven days a week, 365 days a year, plus the leap year.
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Right. And so and so I want to say that I believe that we need rest. And that Sabbath was instituted as a day of rest.
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And in the old covenant scriptures, it mentions it tells you what it is. You're not to work and you're not to carry a load.
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And if you do, you can be put to death. And it had to do with in the nation of Israel.
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You could not walk into the nation of Israel in the city of Jerusalem and carry a load or you could be put to death.
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All right. I don't believe that's what we're looking at today. So when I say that a person should work six days or work five days and rest one or something like that,
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I'm not pointing to that. I think it's just like circumcision. You don't have to get circumcised, but it's a lot better if you do.
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And when people get circumcised today, it's not to become a jeep. You see what
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I'm saying? So right. So it's so it has no religious principles. However, Paul, when he speaks of circumcision, because I believe that Paul is the writer of Hebrews and he speaks of circumcision in Galatians.
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And how that has ended. So also in Hebrews, he tells us that that that Sabbath rest is fulfilled in Christ.
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And he's not speaking about it as resting from a day's work. He's speaking about it as resting from keeping the law.
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So and so the anti type. So Paul takes the Sabbath principle and he applies it to the law because the old covenant, the covenant of works was do this and live.
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You want to live. You have to keep the law. Paul says, no, he is. We look to the one who kept the law, which is
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Christ. So our rest from the works of the law is found in Christ.
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Right. But it's good. It's a good principle. It's a good it's a good practice to have a day off once a week.
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So if someone made me king of the world, I would institute a
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Sabbath rest. Right. But it would have nothing to do with religious value.
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And that would be the reason why is because we would believe all three of us here would believe. Correct me if I'm wrong, if you would disagree with this.
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But we believe that the Sabbath is rooted in creation and it is binding upon all people for history.
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Why? Because this is shown and given in the Decalogue that it preceded the
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Decalogue, that the Decalogue is a republication of God's moral law and that that we are under the law of Adam and everybody.
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Because it's a creation ordinance, everybody's obligated to to hold to that one day in seven.
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Would you agree with that? Well, I don't think they're obligated in the same way that it's instituted to the
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Jews, because the obligation had to be that they couldn't do nothing inside the principles of that city.
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Right. So if someone breaks the Sabbath, they're not going to be put to death with stones. So we're talking about two different laws.
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We're talking about the moral law and you're talking about the penalties of law, which were judicial laws.
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Yeah. I mean, I do think that people should should take a break. And I think there's a natural result from it if you don't.
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See, God has instituted a natural result to take place if you don't take a day off.
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And that is you're going to work yourself to death. So don't take a day off.
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I would argue that that Sabbath keeping in the sense of one day in seven, just like all other moral law.
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And when I say other moral law, I'm referring to transcendent law that existed just from the character of God.
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So I would say that the seventh day mandate is existing prior to creation in the sense that it's part of God's character.
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But I don't think God is just a fool or just randomly creates things. He creates man on the sixth day and then right after that, he then rests on the seventh.
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That was God's design, correct? That's God's design. So it's written in there. So I would also argue that to not murder, to not steal, to not lie, to not covet.
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Those things were existing out of God's character. It's then given to Adam as a transcendent law that gave reason to obey
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God's other positive laws like do not eat of the tree. Written on all men's hearts, correct?
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Yep. Yep. So I would say that today we have stone hearts that reflect even what the Decalogue was, the stone tablets.
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And because we have stone hearts, we're unable to keep that law. But we desire to keep it to make ourselves righteous before God, self righteous ways to try and make yourself holy and make yourself into God.
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Right. But in this, Jesus, when he's accused by the
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Pharisees, when he's healing people that he is working on the Sabbath day, Jesus says something that I think is very remarkable.
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He says, my father has been working even until now. So even even after the six day creations,
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Jesus is saying, my father has always been at work. My father has been working this whole time. So the question is, what distinguishes the seventh day rest that God is still working in from his particular six days of creation?
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And I think some different ways that we could look at it is is is that that's the first creation.
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And we see that the new creation, we see that in the New Testament. We see that in Christ. Right.
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You. So there's just some things working here. Right. So God obviously is the one that sustains the world.
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That's obviously a work we see. So so the father has been working until now.
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So where I'm going with this is when we see that one day in seven is meant to be holy, it's meant to be set aside and different than other days.
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When it's given to the nation of Israel, it has additional positive law that's given to them as a nation with additional penalties, the judicial and ceremonial laws.
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Right. And and so those things, when we when we when I referenced Sabbath prior to Moses, prior to Moses receiving those laws to give to Israel and those judicial and ceremonial laws, there was no if you carry this load inside the
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Israel boundaries, you're going to be put to death because it had not been given. It wasn't a positive. It was a positive law. No one would have known not to do that at that time.
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However, everybody knows that they need to rest. They need to set one day aside to to to follow
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God's creation mandate in that way. I do think that when we come to the New Testament, we see Jesus as the new creation.
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Hold on one second, Matt, before you get off, don't make assertions without listening to the whole argument.
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You're stepping into the beginning, my friend. So the questions that your answer asking will be answered as we get through here.
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So the point of where I'm going with this is actually exactly to answer that at the time of the resurrection.
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So so God in the creation finishes his work of six days and then he rests and that rest demonstrates that those six days were complete.
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They were good and they they they were accomplished in the way that God had desired for them to do. So in Acts chapter two, it says that Jesus rose from the grave.
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And in such doing such, he is sat down at the right hand of the father as fulfilling the Davidic throne promises in the
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Old Testament. Christ's rest took place at the resurrection, and that was on the
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Lord's Day. And so Sundays, the eighth day, the first day, whatever, whatever, however you want to try to argue this.
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That is now the day, just like in the Old Testament, how we would look at the seventh day.
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That's when God rested. That's when he finished his work. Christ finished his work, the resurrection.
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That's now the day that we celebrate the New Testament is the Lord's Day Sundays. So whenever you look at it.
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So so I mentioned this to you when Jesus was on the cross, he said it is finished.
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Yeah. Right. However. What when you whenever you say what was finished, was everything finished?
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And the answer is no. But the sacrifice for sins was finished. The book of Hebrews tells us that that he went into the holy place and he sprinkles his blood on the altar.
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And I want to read to you real quick. Isaiah chapter fifty three, just two verses.
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So the other night I was reading this and me and Brayden has been talking about this. This view of the
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Sabbath for a while and the work of Christ. And then I read this in Isaiah chapter fifty three the other night and I started crying.
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I'm not I'm not a crier. Okay. And it says. Verse nine, it says.
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And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth.
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Verse 10. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief when he see right here.
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When when his soul makes an offering for guilt.
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So this is whenever he's in the holy of holies as the high priest sprinkling what he accomplished on that cross when his soul.
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So he's in the tomb when his soul makes an offering for guilt. He, speaking of God, the father shall see his offspring and shall prolong his days.
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Speaking of the resurrection, prolong his days, prolong his days.
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Talk about the resurrection. And then also in Hebrews, it says that he goes into the holy of holies and he sits down.
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Acts chapter two lets us know that when he sat down, it was on the throne of David when he resurrected.
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His resurrection is him sitting on the throne of David. There was no literal throne there for him to sit on.
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His resurrection is the throne of David. When he rose, he is finished from his work.
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Speaking of the new creation. Right. And so we worship the one who accomplished the law for us.
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He lived the life that we could not live. He took upon himself the punishment that we deserve. The Lord's Day Sabbath principle is about worship.
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It wasn't about worship. It was about rest. New covenant is about worshiping the one who rested on that day and allows us to rest from the works of the law because of the great exchange.
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He lived the life we could not live. And so we worship the one who gives us salvation on the
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Lord's Day. That's right. Sabbath. That's Sabbath. So when we say Sabbath, we're saying rest.
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There's still I'm arguing. And let me be clear in also saying this. There are anti -Sabbatarians that do go to church.
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And it's usually based off of the reason that this is historically the day that the church is picked.
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So we'll just continue to do it. They would have no issue with changing the church day to a Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday. It's just that nationally and historically, this is the day that we've set aside.
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But also, I would say that Christians that don't attend church for the most part are also anti -Sabbatarians.
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And so it leans. It leans towards where Jeff already addressed it, where people might say, well, we're being legalistic.
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We're not because we're using scripture and saying this is a command of God to follow and obey, not for salvation, but as honoring
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God as Christians. The other side of that barrier is antinomianism.
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And so if we just say church really isn't that important or the Lord's Day really isn't that important.
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Sundays really aren't that important. Sabbath isn't really that important. Every day is a
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Sabbath for me. Well, and I asked Jeff that. Just come when you can. Every day is a
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Sabbath day for me. Jeff, if I went to your church on a Monday, am I going to see anybody there? No.
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What about at the Friday? No. No. What day of the week can
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I come and worship God, hear preaching, sit under the authority of a pastor, sing songs, pray, all those things that we would expect?
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What day can I do that on? On the Lord's Day Sabbath. That's right. First day of the week.
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First day of the week. And that's where I want to get to it because you're making a distinction of the day.
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It's not like other days. Yeah, absolutely. This is the day that we see in Scripture from the
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New Testament that they gather together to worship the Lord corporately. So I think—
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Go ahead. This is where I think that we need to make—so people understand. There was a distinction of the day in the
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Old Testament. There was one day in seven that God's covenant people,
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Israel, rested. Rested, not worshiped. Right. Rested. Right.
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At the same time, we would also say because that transcends, the Sabbath was given before the
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Decalogue, before that was given to the covenant people, Israel, there was still one day in seven that was set apart to set—and
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I don't think it was just merely to rest. I think that celebrated God's creation.
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That's when He established it in Genesis. I know, but is there any scriptural proof?
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I got books. Let me show you. I spent three and a half years doing nothing but studying
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Jewish history. Right. This right here tells you basically anything you want to know concerning Jewish history.
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There is no mandate for worship because here's why.
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They worship every day. I'm not saying it's worship. I'm asking what was it—
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But here's the thing. The Old Covenant worship was not the worship of the
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New Testament. It was checking the box. Totally agree. Totally agree. That's not where I'm going. I'm saying what else?
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It's not just resting to rest your body. It was more than that.
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It wasn't just to rest your body. It was to contemplate and meditate on what
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God has done. This is the design that He had given us and everything to think about the six -day creation that He created the world in six days, and He rested on the seventh.
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Yes, is there benefits to us? Yes, but we also are called to set this day apart, to rest, to do what?
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Not to do what you want to do, not to do the things that you set out to do, but to take one day and think about your
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God. I think there is continuity in that because when we transfer that to the
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New Testament, now what's different about the creation? It's no longer just that He created the world.
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Something else happened that was even better than that, that was more marvelous than that.
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That was the resurrection of Christ on the first day of the week. Something significant had to have happened in the
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New Covenant to change the one day and seven from the seventh day to the first day.
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What was that? It was that Christ resurrected, that it is finished. He resurrected on the first day of the week and we celebrate that.
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That's what we celebrate and that's the marvelous thing. It's a better Sabbath, it's a better day.
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That's where I think I wanted to make a distinction there, that it's completely different.
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Same, but different, different, but same. Does that make sense? All three of us are all millennialist too.
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We have the view that already not yet. We're already not yet new heaven, new earth.
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We're already there, but not yet. We're still waiting for the King to come back and consummate things. Since we're in a already not yet, there is still work to be done.
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There's still things we got to do in this world to live and all that kind of stuff. Right now, our
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King has won and our King has rested and that's the new creation. You think about that.
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It's pointing to something else even you're saying. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. It's hard to have this conversation without really diving into the type anti -type.
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Because the Sabbath in one sense is a type anti -type. Because the anti -type is what
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Christ done by keeping the law for us and our rest is in him. Rest from what there?
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Define what rest is right there. Well, Paul, like I would say, it's the covenant of words.
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It's that we do not have to keep the law in order to live. That we have life eternal.
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In Christ because he kept the law and took our punishment in his death.
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Not only taking our punishment but delivering us from the power of sin.
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In the future, pointing to… That's what
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I was going to talk about because you have the two -tier typology. Two -tier typology would be the whole idea that it's rest from work, first tier.
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Second tier rest from the works of the law. Both physical and temporary, correct?
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Absolutely. Yes. And there's going to be a rest that's different than physical and temporary, right?
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Yes, so let's look at something real quick. So just take the Pascal lamb. So once a year they would offer us a sacrifice.
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They would take a lamb. They would consume the lamb. Slaughter the lamb. Consume the lamb. Put the blood of the lamb on the lintel and the doorpost.
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Now some people would say that the fulfillment of that is the Lord's Supper. And I say wrong.
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John the Baptist makes it clear. He sees Jesus. He says, Behold the Lamb of God. He takes away the sin of the world.
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So that lamb is a type. Jesus is the anti -type. Now from the anti -type, he gives us a new meal and that is the
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Lord's Supper. And so I would say the same thing takes place here with the Sabbath. He's the fulfillment of the
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Sabbath because our rest is in him. However, and so I would say that the new covenant
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Sabbath principle is not the anti -type of the old covenant. It founds its fulfillment in Christ, and I'll get to that in a second.
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So Christ gives us a new mandate. And that new mandate is to worship the one who gave us rest from the law.
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And it's in spirit and truth. It's not checking boxes, right? It's not, you know, making a sacrifice.
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It's not not doing something. It's not doing something. But it's partaking in what he has done for us as we gather together with the saints.
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So if you take 1st John, turn with me to 1st John. 1st John chapter two.
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Let me get out my quad right here. But my body is bigger than you guys.
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Because I got a lot of extra books in here. I bet I got more Bibles than you, though.
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I bet you do. Yeah, we don't want to have that contest. 1st
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John, you said? I'll take that on with anybody. 1st John chapter two. Look at verse three.
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It says, and by this we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments.
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Whoever says I know him but does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him.
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But whoever keeps his word in him, truly the love of God is perfected.
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By this we know that we have come to know him. Whoever says that he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.
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So this is not saying this is how you come to know him. You don't keep the law to know him. However, if you know him, this is how you know that you have come to know him.
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You keep his law. And so the question is, OK, well, what is this law that we're supposed to keep?
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Turn over to chapter three. Chapter three. Let's look. I normally begin in verse twenty, twenty three.
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But let's begin in verse. Let's begin in verse 19. It says by this we shall know we are of the truth.
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Hold on. I got. Hold on. By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our hearts before him.
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For whenever our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts and he knows everything.
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Beloved, if our hearts does not, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God.
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And whatever we ask, we receive from him because we keep his commandments and do what is pleasing to him.
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Right here. Verse twenty three. And this is his commandment. So you go over to chapter two, beginning of verse three.
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We have to keep us. This is how we know that we've come to know him. If we keep his commandments. Verse twenty three. And this is his commandments that we believe in the name of his son,
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Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he has commanded us.
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Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us by the spirit whom he has given to us.
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All right. So the ten commandments are broken down into two tablets. And I would argue that the first tablet is commandments one through four.
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And that's fulfilled by loving God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.
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How do we do that? By believing in the name of Jesus Christ. Guess what those who believe in the name of Jesus Christ do?
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Keep his commandments. Worship the Lord. Yeah. Yeah. They worship the Lord. Right.
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Our gathering together on the Lord's Sabbath is a part of believing in Jesus Christ.
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Yes. Show me the Christian. Show me someone that claims Christianity but doesn't go to church. He's not believing in the name of the son,
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Jesus Christ. And it tells us to love one another as ourselves. Commandments five through ten. Right. Have to do it with our love for neighbor.
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Like I said, a heart issue. This is a heart issue. What are we placing? Do we love
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Jesus enough to worship him, to place him as a priority in our lives to worship him on the
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Lord's day? It is a command, like you had said. You just didn't read from the
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King James Version. So I don't know if I can trust anything you just said right there. So a couple things.
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When we turn to Acts 2, right, and we don't need to right here, but when we turn to Acts 2, the day of Pentecost, that's on a
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Sunday, right? It's on a Lord's day. So very first church service, essentially, where guess what it says that they did?
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They said, what must we do to be saved? And they continually devoted themselves to the teachings of the apostles.
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Right. So. Absolutely. The day of Pentecost. So Jesus rose on a Sunday and the day of Pentecost at that time was on the
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Lord's day. Yeah. So. So what's remarkable. So Lord's day, Lord's day. Right. So we see a pattern already being established in God's word with this.
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We then see Lord's day referenced again in Chapter 20. And then we see Lord's day referenced in the book of Revelation, which, as I already mentioned,
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I wanted to tie this back together back to something I said earlier. Already not yet principle.
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Right. What is the book of Revelation speaking about? It's giving hope to a persecuted churches.
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Right. A downtrodden ride of Christ. But it is reassuring her that Christ will ultimately he already has one where the conquerors in him.
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And that that in the end, Christ is going to come back and vindicate us. Right. That's the main central theme,
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I would argue, with the book of Revelation in some form or another. What day does he receive those revelations on?
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The Lord's day. And what is it that it's that it's primarily speaking of in every single recapitulation, which is just a retelling of the story, and we can see it very clearly in the last chapter.
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Christ coming back, new heavens, new earth. So an already not yet that's being pictured there on the day.
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That's particularly set aside as a demonstration of what is already and not yet.
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The day that we gather for corporate worship. A perpetual eternal worship.
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Yes, absolutely. Yep. Yep. I just see it over and over and over again in Scripture that this is the way that God has orchestrated it to be is it's teaching us something theological when it says that it went from the seventh day to the first day.
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Right. And that theology is that we have something better in Christ than fallen creation.
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Right. But we still do a one day and seven because that's a principle that God established in creation.
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And he gives it to us in the Decalogue, part of the part of his transcendent moral law. And what we have in Christ is far better.
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Something I did want to read from. I think, Jeff, you read this earlier or you said this earlier when
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I was talking to you on the phone. And it just won't you ask me the question. What did
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I ask? I can't even remember. I asked you. You asked me, OK, because this is kind of like the whole reason why
55:46
I posted what I posted. Because people will tell me that they don't believe that they have to to go to church to be a
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Christian or whatever. And I was like, well, you and Jesus don't have your own thing going right.
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Like there's that old country song. Me and Jesus got our own thing going like growing up at church at our church.
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My dad and everyone else would sing this song all the time. I'll save you the punishment of your ears hurting by by saying, well, let's do it.
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But but he asked me, he says, so you're saying that a person could not worship
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God by themselves. Yeah. And then my answer to that was it's kind of hard now that I'm kind of reconstructing our conversation.
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Right. But I said that there's no way because the Bible tells us how to worship
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God. And it's that we are to be actually 42. It says that we are to let me just read it right now.
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Whenever you got the camera on you, you kind of forget what you're going to say. Right. Yeah. I think the context to this, though, is that I said, what would you say to the person that says that they can worship
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God, celebrate his rest every single day? Monday through Sunday. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's what it was.
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And I would say that it's not biblical. It's not biblical because God has prescribed how we are to worship him.
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And it's by devoting ourselves to the teachings of the apostles, the fellowship, the breaking of bread and prayers.
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And so and so you would have to be sitting under every day.
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You have to sit under someone teaching you the scriptures. You would be having to partake in the Lord's Supper.
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You would have a partake in fellowship and with other believers and prayer. And you would also be having to speak to one another.
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And some him spiritual song singing and make a melody in your heart. And I would also if we're not doing that, you're not doing that.
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You're not worshiping God like like reading your Bible and praying. That's a good thing.
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But that's not the prescribed worship that scripture gives us. Scripture gives us the prescription of worship.
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And it is that we devote ourselves to the teachings of the apostles. We partake those who are baptized because the verse right above it has three thousand people getting baptized.
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And it says, speaking of them, they devoted themselves to the teachings of the apostles, fellowship, the breaking of bread, the
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Lord's Supper and prayer. Right. And then and then Braden's response was, are you reading from the 1689?
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And I said, no. And then he read from the 1689. Right. And now please read from it. Yes. The elements of religious worship of God include reading the scripture, preaching and hearing the word of God, teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in our hearts to the
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Lord, as well as the administration of baptism in the Lord's Supper. They must be performed out of obedience to him with understanding, faith, reverence and godly fear.
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Also, purposeful acts of humbling with fasting and times of Thanksgiving should be observed on special occasions in a holy and religious manner.
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And so what's being done? Do we celebrate the rest of Christ every single day in the sense that we have salvation in Christ?
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Yes. Absolutely. Right. And none of us are denying that. Right. But there is a...
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Do we follow these commands that are given to us in Scripture or these ways that God has shown us that this is how the church behaves in the
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New Testament post -cross? Do we do those things every single day, Monday through Sunday?
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No. Why do we do those things every single day? And there's a reason too. We're commanded to work and take care of our families six days and rest for one day devoted unto
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Him. That's right. We are not at liberty to do whatever we want to do on our own time.
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It's not my day. It's the Lord's day. Also, if you take this prescription and you do it every day, you're worse than an unbeliever.
01:00:03
That means you're not going to have a job. You're not going to be able to provide for your family. Yeah. Right. Now, I don't know about you and your
01:00:09
Lord's day. I'm just joking. Our service isn't an hour.
01:00:17
Yeah. Right. Our service is an all -day service. Yeah. I preach for an hour every
01:00:24
Lord's day. Our service is an all -day service. If you were to do what we do every day, the
01:00:32
Bible says you're going to be worse than an unbeliever because that means you're not providing for your family. Right. Now, again,
01:00:37
I want to emphasize, I think, the way that we communicate with God is the same. I'm communicating with you two right now.
01:00:45
I'm speaking. You're listening. You speak. I listen. When I read,
01:00:50
I'm listening to God. When I pray, I'm speaking to God. This is something that we should be doing every day.
01:00:57
Absolutely. Daily, yeah. However, on the Lord's day, we are receiving.
01:01:04
I would argue that even the preacher himself is sitting under the teachings of the apostles.
01:01:10
Absolutely. Yes. It's worship. It's worship. Yeah. You can be preaching. That's worship. Yeah. Absolutely.
01:01:18
And that can't, again, that is not going to be done every day. God has prescribed a way in which we are to worship, and I would argue that he has prescribed a day in which we are to do this.
01:01:29
The New Testament tells us they gather together on the Lord's day, the first day of the week.
01:01:35
Right. And so I would say that that is our Sabbath rest. Not that, not in the same mandate as the old covenant, not to carry a load and not to work or anything like that, which
01:01:51
I don't think that we should work. However, it is that we are looking to the one who kept the law for us.
01:02:00
And how do we look to him? In worship, being under the teachings of the apostles, breaking bread, fellowshipping, and praying with one another, speaking to one another in psalm hymns, spiritual songs, singing to make a melody in our heart.
01:02:16
That's right. And I would also add that this shouldn't be burdensome. This is a joy to go and be with God's people.
01:02:25
It is gladness in our heart that we are excited to look forward to this one day in seven to be able to worship
01:02:32
God. It is celebrating His resurrection. Yeah, it is celebrating the victory that we have in Christ.
01:02:38
It is celebrating the triumph over sin. This should be our joy, our delight, our love, and not just simply a burdensome duty that we can't wait to get through the day and go watch a football game or go fishing afterwards or et cetera.
01:02:56
What about work? What about going to restaurants and stuff like that? So at our church, we have a full meal after every service.
01:03:06
So we take Acts 2 .42 and we see that as the Lord's Supper. But at that time, it was that and more.
01:03:14
Like when you read 1 Corinthians chapter 15, they wasn't just partaking in a piece of bread or a cracker or whatever you want to do and then a small cup of wine.
01:03:25
They were feasting together. And so immediately after we at our church, CRBC in Tallahoma, Tennessee, immediately after we partake in the
01:03:35
Lord's Supper, we move over to our fellowship area and we have a feast.
01:03:44
So we don't go to restaurants on Sundays. Right. What about so and because I think a lot of people will say, well, you're just going to be applied to judicial laws.
01:03:56
Don't do this. Don't do this on this on the Sabbath day that the that the Jews did in the Christian Sabbath.
01:04:02
We're not saying that at all. Right. We're just saying set apart one day devoted unto
01:04:08
God, devoted unto God with God's people. That's what we're saying. There's not sanctions, but that we should joyfully do it in our heart.
01:04:18
And I don't think if someone messes church, I don't think that we should go stone them or immediately put them under church discipline or anything like that.
01:04:26
Right. I think eventually, you know, if it keeps carrying on, you know, something, a conversation would have to take place.
01:04:34
And I know that there's some conversations that I'm eventually going to have to have if it keeps taking place.
01:04:39
And I'm dreading it because, you know, I love my people at my church.
01:04:46
I love them dearly. However, as a pastor, eventually I'm going to have to address this.
01:04:53
And because of the whole covid deal, I've been letting a lot of things get by or whatever because, you know, people feel like they don't want to come and spread anything.
01:05:03
But however, if you will go to work with that sickness. Yeah. There's a problem.
01:05:09
Yeah. There's a big problem. I mean, I'm in that pulpit. I preached with a kidney stone moving.
01:05:17
Now, it's one thing to have a kidney. I have a kidney stone right now. It's just not moving. When it moves, it feels like a claw hammer on the inside of your body scraping.
01:05:29
Do you guys think that since covid, a lot of people are taking more liberty to worship at home via TV?
01:05:36
Yes, absolutely. That's what I'm saying. Listen, if you're truly sick, please don't.
01:05:44
If you're contagious, please don't come. But if you can go to work and if it's a sickness that you would normally go to work with.
01:05:54
Or go shopping. Or go shopping or do anything with when you refuse to go to church that day.
01:06:00
My dear brother or sister, you're sinning. You're not being obedient to the command to worship.
01:06:05
You're not understanding what Paul in Hebrews is. Take this video right here and apply it with what's taking place in Hebrews where it tells us to stir one another up.
01:06:19
All this video that I posted, it was to stir you up to love and good works.
01:06:28
I would even echo though, even in the case if you are sick, you should call upon the elders.
01:06:37
Have the elders come out and bless you and come out and pray with you and read
01:06:43
Bible verses with you. Even on the Lord's Day when you're sick. I know if somebody in my church called me up and said, hey, pastor,
01:06:50
I'm deathly ill right now. I need you to come pray for me. And guess what I'm doing after church?
01:06:56
I'm going over there to pray with them. That's the way we operate.
01:07:02
And that's what God's word tells us how to operate. But listen. So we're all a part of either
01:07:11
Reformed Baptist or, you know. So you go to, it's more
01:07:17
MacArthurist if I'm not mistaken, right? Yes. All right. But still a sensationist church for the most part.
01:07:26
Right. And for some reason within our circles, which I hate, by the way.
01:07:34
People refuse because of the whole gimmick that's taken place in the prosperity movement.
01:07:42
They refuse to show any weakness to the elders to ask for prayer.
01:07:50
Listen, come to my pulpit. I keep a vow of oil on top of my pulpit.
01:07:58
It's almost never used because the people who are sick do not call upon the elders for prayer.
01:08:06
And you might say, well, what's that oil going to do? Well, probably nothing. But the Bible says to anoint with oil.
01:08:12
And it's just one way that I'm being obedient. It says for the elder to anoint with oil.
01:08:18
So I keep oil on the pulpit. And I also keep some here at the house in case
01:08:24
I have to leave here and don't pray for somebody. I'm going to be faithful to what the Scripture says. I almost called my co -elder this week being sick.
01:08:32
I felt I was down in the dirt. I almost called my co -elder to come and bless me. Well, you should have.
01:08:38
I should have. I really should have. I was real close to doing it. I seriously talked to Emily about it. I was like, I don't feel very good.
01:08:46
Right. Yeah, I mean, I've had the opportunity, the blessing to go and do that, whether in the hospital or somebody that's on their deathbed or something along those lines in their homes and whatnot.
01:08:58
It's an important thing that the church neglects to do today, I think. So, and I think the bottom line is what you're saying,
01:09:07
Jeff, and what I hear you saying, and I see it too. Not a lot. I mean, we have a good church, and most of the people there attend.
01:09:14
As a matter of fact, not only just attend, but show up a half hour before the fellowship and all that.
01:09:20
But there are some people who will make, it doesn't take much for them to make an excuse not to go to church.
01:09:28
Absolutely. And that's got to change. How many people at your church? How many people at your church? So, we have 130 members.
01:09:37
We have roughly about 200 people attend. And when we go to church, our church, let's say, starts at 9 o 'clock, and we have people there at 830.
01:09:46
I mean, a lot of people. Is there any way to know that everyone is there at the same time?
01:09:53
Like, is there any way to know that? They, yeah, you can pretty much tell the ones that are missing.
01:10:01
Yeah. So, our church is small. Right. And it's been over a year since every member has been there together.
01:10:10
Right. And we're small. Yeah, because of our numbers. I mean, I don't think that we've ever had every member there at the same time.
01:10:18
Just because when you have 200 people, somebody's going to go missing one day or another. But we'll definitely be able to tell if somebody's making a pattern or a habit to stay away from a church for some reason or the other.
01:10:31
And they'll show grace. Of course, we'll show grace. The elders will show grace for a period of time.
01:10:39
But, hey, are you guys okay? Did something happen? You're saying you're not able to go to church, but you were able to go shopping at the
01:10:49
HEB not too long ago. I saw you there. Or somebody stole your lawn. I'm going to wait three weeks before I start barking at them.
01:10:57
Right. I'm giving you a phone call. I would say every time I see somebody that's in our church that doesn't come and worship with us on the
01:11:05
Lord's Day. And I don't have any issue right now with people purposely skipping church, in my opinion, from what
01:11:12
I see. I hurt when
01:11:20
I don't see somebody at church. I don't know how you feel, Pastor Jeff. Man, I want to see those that are in my fold, those that I pastor, those that during the week as I'm preparing the message and I'm thinking about, okay, this is the exegesis of this text.
01:11:39
I'm preparing it to edify these individuals, these people that God has put me over. It hurts when someone's not there.
01:11:46
And I'm not saying like when they're sick or when they're out of town or something along those lines. It hurts.
01:11:52
I like to worship God with those that God has put with me.
01:12:00
How well could you preach if I cut your hand off and threw it outside of the church?
01:12:07
So good. It'd be a great message. My hands against me and Jeff threw it out the door for me.
01:12:13
Yeah. Well, okay. We are the body of Christ, but locally in the church, we are the body of Christ.
01:12:21
This is what makes up our small body, right? And so when I'm in there, listen, man,
01:12:28
I know a lot of people can relate to this. A lot of people can't because we just talked about the whole idea of how being a bi -locational pastor.
01:12:35
Right. And I'm staying up sometimes to one o 'clock in the morning preparing these messages. I'm in my office studying real hard.
01:12:42
I'm going over my sermon notes two times before I get up in the pulpit to preach.
01:12:47
And I get a text message. Someone's not coming. There went that hand. And they say, oh, another one.
01:12:52
Someone else is not coming. There went that other hand. And I have to stand in that pulpit and act like it doesn't bother me. And brother, it does.
01:12:59
It absolutely does. And I would say that the root cause of that and more than likely is, I mean, if people are staying away from the church, more than likely it's because it's a sin issue.
01:13:09
More than likely it stems from a guilty conscience, guilty sin issue that they're staying away from church.
01:13:16
I mean, otherwise, why else wouldn't you want to be around the people of God? And I would say that for people who make it a habit of not going to church, there's some sin in their life that they're not dealing with.
01:13:32
And they don't want to be around the preaching. They want to be able to be free to sin their sin.
01:13:38
And so they stay away. They're going to stay away from the people of God. They're going to stay away from the people that are going to hold them accountable.
01:13:44
They're going to stay away from hearing the scripture that's going to hold them accountable. It's a sin issue. It's a sin issue to miss church.
01:13:54
Absolutely. Again, I'm not going to back over 20 years of being a
01:13:59
Christian, over 20 years of being a Christian. And I doubt if I've missed five Lord's days simply because I know
01:14:07
I need to be around the people of God. I know I need to be under the teaching of God's word. And listen,
01:14:14
I want to be there. Yeah. It's not burdensome.
01:14:19
It's not. Even when I was driving 50 minutes to an hour away to get to church because Reformed Baptist churches are far and few.
01:14:28
It was a joy. Yeah. We drive 50 miles. We drive 50 miles to church.
01:14:36
And it's worth it. I mean, it is. I was going to say something and I just missed it.
01:14:46
I'm going to have to think about it. Say something else. I got to get off here in a second. I think we got to end it.
01:14:52
Go ahead. Oh, it's already an hour and 15. I can't remember what I was going to say. Golly.
01:14:59
Say something else. It'll come back. I know I'm going to regret it. I was just talking about how
01:15:04
I deeply want to be a part. Listen, my highlight of my week is the fellowship with the saints.
01:15:15
It's the highlight of my week. Yeah. It's the highlight.
01:15:21
It would take something very serious to happen to me for me to not be there. Yeah. And I'm just perplexed that people can just not be there and not mess with them.
01:15:35
I don't know how to feel about it. This is a struggle that I'm going through.
01:15:42
And again, I'm not doing this, but I'm so because for many years,
01:15:49
I set myself in the pool in the pew and set it behind the pool pit because of some convictions that I had whenever I was first ordained as an assemblies of God.
01:16:01
I'm so glad like I'm glad that I wasn't the hand chopped off of my pastor.
01:16:08
I got it. I got what it was. If you are missing church and God is not disciplining you for missing church, you're in trouble.
01:16:19
You're in trouble. God is not going to allow his children to live any old way they want to live.
01:16:27
He's going to discipline. If you're not being disciplined, if he's giving you over to the desires of your flesh to miss church, you're in trouble.
01:16:37
God better be disciplining you. He better be doing something in your heart. A strong conviction will break your leg.
01:16:44
Absolutely. That's what I was going to say. Anyway, so let's just give a quick recap.
01:16:53
So we believe. So, Tom, do you believe in the Lord's Sabbath or it's the
01:16:59
Lord's day for you? I do. I mean, I do. I think the one day in seven. And I do think that that is a
01:17:05
Sabbath rest. Absolutely. Yeah, I think that it's misdefined a lot, but defined properly.
01:17:12
Yes, I do. And it's a perpetual arrest and it's going to point to the perpetual rest.
01:17:19
Yeah. Yeah. And it's pointing. We're worshipping the one who kept the law in our place so that we can live.
01:17:26
It is a mandate. Yeah. Yeah. Being a part of the local body, gathering together week after week.
01:17:34
It is a mandate. It is a positive command. So so it's time out commands earlier was talking about, you know, keeping the
01:17:44
Sabbath in the sense of the new covenant is a form of believing in Jesus.
01:17:52
All right. Now, when you read the book of Acts and stuff like that, it seems to be addressed as a positive command, a plus command that they gather together to do this.
01:18:03
And we are to commit. We are to if we love him, we'll keep his commands.
01:18:10
This is how we know that we have come to know him. If we keep his commands, gathering together with the local body week after week on the
01:18:18
Lord's Sabbath is a command. And if you don't do that, you're sinning.
01:18:24
You're sinning. Yeah. Should be a joy. It should be joy to worship our king, to hear what he has to say from his word, to apply it to our lives so we could know that we can live a life pleasing unto him.
01:18:38
When you can't worship every day, not the way scripture prescribes.
01:18:44
Go ahead, Brian. I can't remember who said it to you, but it's a glimpse into what heaven will be like.
01:18:50
Yeah. Right. And so again, that already, not yet. We are coming together to celebrate that new heavens, new earth in what
01:18:58
Christ has done in the resurrection. Right. That's what we're doing on the Lord's day is we're celebrating the resurrection of Christ, which is what is the resurrection, the rest, the finished, the completed work of Christ.
01:19:11
So what are we doing on that day? We're celebrating the finished work, which is the rest of, you see what
01:19:17
I'm saying? Like it's right there. Is he worthy? Is he worthy?
01:19:23
Absolutely. Absolutely. He's worthy of our worship. He's worthy of our worship and spirit and truth.
01:19:30
It's not just going to check the boxes. It's going to partake in the means of grace by which the
01:19:38
Lord is going to conform you to the image of his son, Jesus Christ. Amen. Yeah.
01:19:44
Amen. All right. That's it.
01:19:50
Last words. Hallelujah. Are you taking my stuff? I love that.