The Lord’s Sabbath

You can say what you want, but you won't around me.

Among misfits, a misfit in the trailer park at night.

A misprint with the sixth sense.

Been sick ever since my brother died of an OD.

My two cents never made sense, either to me or anyone else inside of the sheet fence.

My 9th Smith on my right side.

Why you staring at your cop dot sign and my John Hancock on the dotted line?

Tell me what's the bottom line.

The bottom line is I'm not right.

I'm not left, but this elephant won't fight.

There's nothing left but the spotlight.

Hold my hand.

You can say what you want.

You can say what you want, but you won't around me.

You can say what you want, but you won't around me.

I'm wits in the deep end, and I can't find my assigned seat.

To sit in.

My theology don't fit in.

Black sheep of the Reformation sheep pen.

To the reformed, I'm just another Baptist baptized again.

The bastard child of Anabaptists.

Host to child of Reformation society.

We don't need your education.

Give me a Bible and a bookshelf of dead men.

Cigars, bourbons, and beer cans.

Bow ties, tattoos, and bearded men.

Making Reformation great again.

You can say what you want.

You can say what you want, but you won't around me.

All right, ladies and gentlemen, my name is Jeff.

Let me get this set up.

And I'm one of the hosts of Open Air Theology.

I'm also one of the elders at Covenant Reform Baptist Church in Tallahoma, Tennessee.

And if you enjoy that intro music, my new single, Pimps and

Prostitutes, drops July 12th.

Be sure to check that out.

That is Pimps and Prostitutes.

I've been banging it.

I've been sending it to some of my friends to see what they think.

And hopefully, you'll check that out.

And I'm going to pass...

Oh, yeah, and if you're ever in Tallahoma, Tennessee, or if you live in Canadia, Canada, whatever it's

called, right?

And you want to be a part of a good Reform Baptist Church, move to Tallahoma, Tennessee.

We got you covered.

I'm passing it over to my dear brother, Brayden.

Oh, wait, let's do it.

Bam.

Oh, there you go.

Oh, I know.

Hi.

My name is Brayden Patterson.

I am the pastor of Valley Baptist Church in Hagerman, Idaho.

If you live near the area, it'd be a real blessing to see you at church on Sundays.

We're a wonderful, small Baptist congregation here in Southern Idaho.

We meet at 11 a .m. 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.

But I am a co -host of Open Air Theology.

I have a YouTube channel called Reformed Ex -Mormon.

Jeff's new songs that he's talking about, right?

Fantastic.

Jeff, is that new Pimps and Prostitutes song that you came out with?

I've listened to it.

It's great.

I'm also just coming off of a mind boggle from that debate that we just all probably witnessed.

So, yeah.

So there's a lot to be said there.

So I'm gonna pass the mic down to Tom Shepard right there.

Hey guys, I'm Tom Shepard.

I'm a member of Grace Bible Church of Burney, Texas.

I'm a head of the street evangelism ministry out there.

I'm also the co -host of Open Air Theology and the host of Even If None podcast.

Glad to be here.

Very good, very good.

So let's just for a brief second before we

get into this conversation concerning the Lord's Day.

Man, what was that?

Are we?

And I was telling you that, I mean, for the most part, I'm surprised that Biden was

able to go as long as he did, right?

I mean, there was some times of mumbling then there was that meme going around on Facebook.

Let's get ready to mumble.

I mean, all in all, he, I mean, he

stood, he was able to stand the whole time.

So that was pretty good.

This is the best day to talk about the Sabbath because God gave us a rest

and we just have a, you need a rest after watching that.

You need a rest after watching that.

And so it's a great day to talk about the Sabbath, especially in light of that.

Biden did stumble here and there.

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.

It's kind of a, I was disappointed to hear Trump talk about the, that he was okay with

abortion for rape and incest.

And those were the two main one that you said right there, unless I'm missing something else.

Yeah, that was a third one that had to do with the health of the mother.

Yeah, so I was disappointed to hear on that largely.

And then I do agree though, like I'm thankful that Roe v. Wade is not there and it is something that the state,

I tend to agree with that more than doing it federally.

So it's, I was happy to hear that.

It's hard when you got to choose between two evils.

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.

And I'll be honest with you, out of the two evils, I'm going to be voting for Donald Trump.

But I seem like I have to tell people quite often, ladies and gentlemen, Donald Trump is not

our savior.

He is not who we put our hope in.

Jesus Christ is king.

He has all authority in heaven and on earth.

So let's not get it twisted for one second.

Yeah, man.

Some of them take it well, some of them shoot me the bird and I'm fine with either one.

Yeah.

So that's what a 70 year old looks like on Adderall, just staying.

I mean, he hasn't been pumped up and tweaking on Adderall.

That's what a 70 year old looks like when he's tweaking on Adderall.

Who's his drug dealer, do you think?

Nancy Pelosi.

Nancy Pelosi's hooked him up and everything.

He took her dose too.

I mean, look at her.

She looks like a tweaker for sure.

But yeah, it's just sad.

I was also very, very disappointed in Trump regarding abortion.

He's trying to get votes, but it's no excuse.

And it's, you know, man, it's hard for me because

I'm probably not gonna vote.

I'm just probably not going to.

Well, I think so.

So Jared just asked, can we vote for him with such a weak position on abortion?

But here's the thing.

Although it's not a great position, I wanna outline that first of all.

Biden said he is going to bring back Roe v. Wade.

Right.

And so I said, for that reason, I'd rather, because we're having to vote for two different evils.

And so I would encourage you to vote because the last thing we don't want is Biden back in

office.

Yeah.

I hear what you're saying.

I just have a hard time checking the box next to his name.

I have a hard time with it too.

I know you do.

And I totally get your position.

I just don't, in my conscience, I don't know that I could say, yes, I'm gonna vote for this man.

Is he better than Biden?

Absolutely, he is.

But my conscience is not clear voting for a man

who's okay with it.

I mean, the bottom line is he's not a Christian.

I don't believe Trump is a Christian.

Yeah, I'm not either.

Would he definitely make a better president?

100%.

But I know the trajectory that we're on, I'm never gonna own a house when my kids finally move out and I get to have anything it's gonna be.

I'm probably gonna be living out of a van, a combo where I live.

One combo is anywhere from $12 to $15 at a freaking fast food joint, okay?

When I was in my 20s, my early and late 20s, I could feed three people, three of my homeboys

with $15, all right?

There is, I mean, like, it's just, it is absolutely ridiculous.

And not to mention all these, you know, like we don't need a Trojan

horse to sneak into America.

We don't even have a border, right?

Man, I'm just so fed up with it, dude.

I'm telling you what, if I weren't a Christian, I would start a militia so Gangbanger would get back going.

Let me tell you right now.

I'm just being serious.

The only thing keeping me from freaking starting a militia and taking over things is Jesus Christ.

So y 'all, what?

Yeah, no, I hear you.

Yeah, yeah, 86.

I'm sorry, I put 70.

86, yeah.

That's what a person looks like 86 years old on Adderall.

It's definitely a challenging, it is definitely a challenging conversation.

I do think voting is, even if it is lesser of two evils, I know you're still choosing a

lesser of two evils, but I think you only, a no vote is still

a vote.

It's just one that's canceled out by the other side.

Yeah, yeah.

A no vote is a vote for the greater evil.

I don't know.

It is what it is.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, I totally hear what you're saying.

I just, I don't.

I mean, if he gets back in office, man, I mean, how much of my combo is gonna be.

20 bucks?

I mean, those bottles are gonna be about a thousand dollars a piece he sells.

That's right.

I mean, listen, we're barely making it, man.

Like we are barely making it.

Like, I don't know what I'm gonna do.

Anyways, let's talk about the Sabbath.

The Sabbath.

Let's get it going.

Yeah, the Sabbath.

So what had happened was, I made a post on Facebook.

I can't remember the, let me click off on my phone real quick and let me read it.

So I made a post on Facebook and it pissed some people off.

It says, not gathering with the saints on the Lord's day Sabbath

is not exercising Christian liberty, right?

So we would hold to what's called Christian liberty, right?

We would say it's not sinful for a Christian to smoke a cigar.

It's not sinful for a Christian to have a glass of

bourbon or have a beer or whatever it is.

Me, Brayden and Haps did a show, called about Christian liberty.

And one of them was, 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.

Where we had this discussion.

And I just wanted to point out that, like if we tell someone that you need to be in,

you need to go to church on the Lord's day, that's not being legalistic.

Legalism is telling someone to do something that the Bible doesn't call them to do, right?

When the Bible calls you to do something and we tell you that you need to do something, 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.

But because I mentioned the word Sabbath, like a lot of people got their

panties in a bunch.

And so we were initially going to be talking about

types and anti -types concerning covenant theology and us being holding

to 1689 federalism.

We, you know, we hope, you know, types and anti -types is a big

structure in the 1689 federalism idea of covenant theology.

So I tell, so in that I challenged, I challenged one guy to come on here

and let's spar, 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 Sabbath?

And of course y 'all were willing to engage that.

So here we go.

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.

We cannot choose to go to church.

But like you said, you mentioned the word Sabbath and there it went.

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 Sabbath day.

That was the fire that lit this guy's honey on Ben.

Yeah, and you know, I've been struggling with, you know, I mean, not with a Sabbath, just a simple fact,

you know, like as a pastor and stuff like that.

I mean, people, you know, like people wake up and they don't feel good and they, you know, they call out,

you know, they don't come to church.

And I get you don't feel good, but if you can have that same not feeling good and go to work,

you're in sin.

You know, like if you wake up and your stomach hurts, you got a

headache or whatever it is, and if you will still go to work for that sickness, but you

won't go to church for that sickness, something's wrong, something's wrong.

You're not going to grow in holiness.

Like there's no way outside of being under the means of grace that, you

know, to grow in holiness.

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.

And if you make up an excuse such as that to not be a part of the church that Sunday,

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 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, and listen, my congregation listens to this,

and right now I'm just a little fed up, and I think it's all good, it needs to be said.

Like if you'll go to work with the sickness, you need to take your butt to church with

the sickness.

Now, if you're throwing up, if you got diarrhea or whatever it is, and you're contagious, that's one thing.

But just because you woke up and you ain't feeling well, that's no excuse not to be a part of the church.

So, and I would add on it, it's not just to your congregation this is a plague that's across the world in the

sense of Christians treating the Lord's day as a day of corporate worship to God,

seeking the fellowship.

I've been in conversation with another pastor and he said something that I agree with.

He said that, what could you imagine that would be better

than gathering with God's people on the Lord's day and worshiping God

with them?

What could you imagine that's better?

And I think the point of that is we as Christians with a new heart that's inside of us should

desire that.

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, there's no desire to want to go on fellowship with other Christians on the Lord's day.

And it's almost a sense of God saved me and I'm good.

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 gonna obey 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, I cannot remember who said this.

It might've been that pastor I've been talking with, but it might've been somebody else.

And so I apologize if I'm not giving the proper respect or honor to the quote,

but they said, foregoing church

is the mother of all sins because when somebody starts to do that, then they

start producing all these other sins because there's no accountability.

There's no growth.

As Jeff has already said, they're not hearing this, 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.

You're not doing those things.

And so you've not going to church is the beginning of an avalanche of other

sins that will then eventually be tacked onto that.

Right, because not going to church to worship and celebrate our

resurrected Lord is a heart issue.

That is a heart issue.

It's what else would you rather do on the Lord's day other than going to

church, celebrating, singing to our Lord, making much of Christ when we don't go and

place other duties, whether it's sports.

I used to do that, man.

I used to, 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 Christian and expected everybody else.

I mean, that's how lightly unbelievers think it.

So are we going to think like the world or are we going to make much of Christ on the Lord's day?

I mean, we had a family that recently left our church and their children

were in every game that you can think of.

And if something fell on Sunday, they didn't show up.

Yeah, yeah.

You know, like I've been going to church.

So 2002 is when I first, so 2001 is whenever I

started reading the Bible.

Late 2002, probably around the summertime is when I started going to church.

From then to now, I doubt I've missed five Lord's days.

Yeah, and that's not a, you're not patting yourself on your back.

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.

Like I want to be around God's people.

Now, of course, again, if I'm throwing up, yeah, if I'm throwing up, I'm not going to go die.

Like if I'm contagious, I'm not going to go.

But just because I wake up and I just don't feel like it.

Like my children, so my children don't ask me, are we going to church tomorrow?

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.

Someone posted on Facebook that going to church is a decision you make on Saturday.

And I just started laughing out loud and then I wanted to cry.

No, going to church is something that Christians do.

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.

Yeah, so Voddie Bauckham, Voddie Bauckham in his sermon, I think it was the Sabbath before the Sabbath,

where he talked about how the Sabbath command transcends the 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.

And so Voddie'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 onto

him and everything.

So you are thinking highly of it for that point in time.

Why are you now replacing the day?

We aren't obligated.

We don't have an obligation to do that.

We don't have a choice to make that decision.

God determines how we should worship him.

He set aside one day in seven to worship him as we gather in saints.

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 him up and make one day in seven totally

devoted unto him.

Now, so I'm very sure that -.

You said something about being sick real fast.

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?

Call upon the elders.

Yeah.

That was written before we had cell phones.

That meant that you were in fellowship.

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?

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?

Right.

They were seeing them.

They were fellowshipping.

Here's my question to you guys.

Do you think that you would have gotten any pushback on that post

if you would have said 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

Lord's day instead of Sabbath?

So I used to not hold to a Sabbath.

And 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 Sabbath.

But here recently I've been convicted on calling it the Lord's day Sabbath.

Cause I do believe it's the Lord's day, but I believe it's the Lord's day Sabbath.

And I believe that, and I'm willing to argue my position.

I believe that the Sabbath that we see in the old covenant,

right?

That that Sabbath is a type and it's fulfilled in Christ.

And it was not instituted as a day of worship, but the new covenant 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.

So that would be my question.

And that's one of the reasons why I don't like calling it the Sabbath, because

the Sabbath as described in the old Testament doesn't look anything like

the Sabbath other than the one day and seven set apart unto God does not look

like the Sabbath that we celebrate today.

There are so many things that are better now that I would say that we celebrate the

resurrected Lord.

They didn't do that.

Like you had said, it wasn't set apart unto the worship of the Lord necessarily.

It was, we do something different in the new covenant.

And so while I agree and I could even, I would even say that he is our Sabbath

rest, but that's, I tend not to say that it's the

Sabbath because people have the idea that the Sabbath was the 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, so Matt just

asked the question and I know there's a lot of people asking questions and we're probably not gonna be able to get all to it.

And Matt is a good friend of ours.

And he says, you believe that the Lord's day is the old covenant

Sabbath?

Answer, no.

And that's true, I don't.

Simply because the old covenant Sabbath is not instituted as a day of worship.

It's instituted as a day of rest.

Nowhere in the old covenant, the Old Testament scriptures are we commanded to

worship on the Sabbath.

You know, I think I would, are you still going Jeff?

Well, I was, but if you wanna interject, go ahead.

I was gonna 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 does Sabbath mean and all that kind of stuff.

Yeah, the word Sabbath means rest.

Yeah, keep on going on, I'll interject after you're done.

No, yeah, I was just saying like nowhere, I mean, because the place where I

evangelize at, I'm like two blocks from my Seventh -day Adventist church and

I evangelize on Saturdays.

And sometimes 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 came to this.

And this is, you know, so this is even before my view has changed concerning

the Sabbath, because, you know, like a verse that was just pointed out, Hebrews chapter three carried into

Hebrews chapter four points out that Jesus Christ is our rest.

Yes.

So the Sabbath begins, it's a creational mandate, right?

So God rested on the seventh day and he instituted a day of rest for everyone else.

And I believe that we should have a day of rest, right?

If you work for seven days a week, 365 days a year, you're

gonna kill yourself.

And it's already been tested before.

So there was, I can't remember the nation it was exactly.

So I read about this.

This would have been about 15 years ago where, 15 years ago when I

read about it, but hundreds of years ago, probably when it took place, I can't remember.

But a nation did not wanna live under the Judaic Christian principle

of one in six, or excuse me, one in seven.

And so they changed the work week to 10 and one, right?

And then their livestock started dying because they was working them too hard.

Right.

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, right?

And so I wanna say that I believe that we need rest and that Sabbath was instituted as a day of rest.

And then the old covenant scriptures, it tells you what it is.

You're not to work and you're not to carry a load.

And if you do, you can be put to death.

And it had to do within the nation of Israel.

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.

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, 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.

And when people get circumcised today, it's not to become a Jew.

You see what I'm saying?

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

and how that has ended.

So also in Hebrews, he tells us that that Sabbath rest is fulfilled

in Christ.

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.

And so the anti -type, so Paul takes the Sabbath principles and he applies it to the

law because the old covenant, the covenant of works was do this and live.

If 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

Christ.

So our rest from the works of the law is found in Christ.

But it's a good principle.

It's a good practice to have a day off once a week.

So if someone made me king of the world, I would institute a

Sabbath rest.

Right?

But it would have nothing to do with religious value.

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, but we believe that the Sabbath is rooted in creation and it is binding upon all

people for history.

Why?

Because this is shown and given in the Decalogue that it preceded the Decalogue, that the Decalogue

is a republication of God's moral law.

And that we are under the law of Adam and everybody, because it's a creation ordinance,

everybody's obligated to hold to that one day in seven.

Would you agree with that?

Well, I don't think they're obligated in the same way that it's instituted to the Jews, because the obligation had to

be that they couldn't do nothing inside the principles of that city.

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.

We're talking about the moral law and you're talking about the penalties of law, which were judicial laws.

Yeah.

I mean, I do think that people should take a break.

And I think there's a natural result from it.

See, God has instituted a natural result to take place if you don't take a day off.

And that is, you're going to work yourself to death.

So -.

If you're going to die quick, don't take a day off.

I would argue that Sabbath keeping.

In the sense of one day in seven, just like all other moral law.

And when I say other moral law, I'm referring to a transcendent law that existed

just from the character of God.

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.

But I don't think God is just a fool or just randomly creates things, right?

He creates man on the sixth day.

And then right after that, he then rests on the seventh.

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,

those things were existing out of God's character.

It's then given to Adam as a transcendent law that gave reason to obey God's

other positive laws, like do not eat of the tree.

On all men's hearts, correct?

Yep, yep.

So I would say that today we have stone hearts that reflect even what the Decalogue was, the stone

tablets.

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, aka self -righteous ways to try and make yourself holy and make yourself

into God, right?

But in this, Jesus, when he's accused by the Pharisees, when he's healing people, that

he is working on the Sabbath day, Jesus says something that I think is very remarkable.

He says, my father has been working even until now.

So even after the six day creations, Jesus is saying, my father's

always been at work.

My father's 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?

And I think some different ways that we could look at it is that that's the first creation.

And we see that the new creation, we see that in the new Testament.

We see that in Christ, right?

So there's just some things working here, right?

So God obviously is the one that sustains the world.

That's obviously a work.

We see, so the father has been working until now.

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.

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.

And so those things, when I referenced Sabbath, prior to Moses, prior to

Moses receiving those laws to give to Israel in those judicial and ceremonial laws,

there was no, if you carry this load inside the Israel boundaries, you're gonna 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.

However, everybody knows that they need to rest.

They need to set one day aside to follow 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.

Hey, hold on one second.

Matt, before you get off, don't make assertions without listening to the whole argument.

You're stepping into the beginning, my friend.

So the questions that you're asking will be answered as we get through here.

So yeah, so the point of where I'm going with this is actually exactly to answer that.

At the time of the resurrection, 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, they were good,

and 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 and in such doing such, he has sat down at the

right hand of the father as fulfilling the Davidic throne promises in the Old Testament.

Christ's rest took place at the resurrection and that was on the

Lord's day.

And so Sundays, the eighth day, the first day, whatever, however you wanna try to argue this,

that is now the day, just like in the Old Testament, how we would look at the seventh day, that's when God

rested, that's when he finished his work.

Christ finished his work, the resurrection, that's now the day that we celebrate in the New Testament

is the Lord's day, Sundays.

So you can -.

Whenever you look at it, so I'll mention this to you, when Jesus was on the cross, he said, it

is finished.

Yeah.

Right, however, whenever you say what was finished, was everything finished?

And the answer is no, but the sacrifice for sins was finished.

Book of Hebrews tells us that he went into the holy place and he

sprinkles his blood on the altar.

And I wanna read to you real quick, Isaiah chapter 53, just two verses,

so the other night I was reading this and me and Brayden has been talking about this view of the Sabbath for a

while and the work of Christ.

And then I read this in Isaiah chapter 53 the other night and I started crying, I'm

not a crier, okay?

And it says, verse nine it says, 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, verse 10,

yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him.

He has put him to grief.

When his soul makes an offering for guilt, 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, 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, speaking of the resurrection.

Prolong his days.

Prolong his days, talk about the resurrection.

And then also in Hebrews, it says that he goes into the holy of holies and he sits down.

Acts chapter two lets us know that when he sat down, it was on the throne of David, when he

resurrected, his resurrection is him sitting on the throne of David, there was no literal throne there for him

to sit on, his resurrection is the throne of David.

When he rose, he is finished from his work.

Speaking of the new creation, right?

And so we worship the one who accomplished the law for us.

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.

Old covenant wasn't about worship, it was about rest.

Old covenant, 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.

He lived the life we could not live.

And so we worship the one who gives us salvation on the Lord's day.

That's right.

Sabbath.

That's Sabbath.

So when we say Sabbath, we're saying rest.

There's still, I'm arguing and let me be clear in also saying this, there are

anti -Sabbatarians that do go to church and it's usually based off of the reason that this is

historically the day that the church is picked.

So we'll just continue to do it.

They would have no issue with changing the church day to a Monday or a Tuesday or a Wednesday.

That's just that nationally.

And then historically, this is the day that we've set aside.

But also I would say that Christians that don't attend church for the most part are also anti

-Sabbatarians.

And so it leans towards where Jeff already

addressed it, where people might say, well, we're being legalistic.

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 God as Christians.

The other side of that barrier is antinomianism.

And so if we just say, let's just, it's church really isn't that important or the Lord's day really isn't that

important.

Sundays really aren't that important.

Sabbath isn't really that important.

Every day is a Sabbath for me.

Well, and I asked Jeff that -.

Just come when you can. Just come.

Every day is a Sabbath day for me.

Jeff, if I went to your church on a Monday, am I gonna see anybody there?

No.

What about at the Friday?

No.

No.

What day of the week can I come and worship God?

Hear preaching, sit under the authority of a pastor, sing songs,

pray, all those things that we would expect.

What day can I do that on?

On the Lord's day Sabbath.

First day of the week.

First day of the week.

First day of the week.

Yeah.

And that's where I wanna get to it because you're making a distinction of the day.

It's not like other days.

Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely.

This is the day that we see in scripture from the New Testament that they gather together

to worship the Lord corporately.

So I think -.

I was talking, go ahead.

This is where I think that we need to make so people understand.

There was a distinction of the day in the Old Testament.

There was one day in seven that God's covenant people, Israel, rested.

Rested, not worshiped.

Right, rested, right.

At the same time, we would also say because that transcends the Sabbath was given before

the Decalogue, before that was given to the covenant people, Israel, there was still

one day in seven that was set apart to set.

And I don't think it was just merely to rest.

I think that celebrated God's creation.

That's when he established it in Genesis.

He had said - I know, but is there any scriptural proof?

Because other -.

Okay, I got books.

Let me show you.

I spent three and a half years doing nothing but studying Jewish history.

Like this right here tells you basically anything you wanna know concerning Jewish history.

There is no mandate for worship because here's why.

They worship every day.

This is what God's for.

I'm asking what was it -.

But here's the thing.

The old covenant worship was not the worship of the New Testament.

It was checking the box.

Totally agree, totally agree.

That's not where I'm going.

I'm saying what else just -.

It's not just resting to rest your body.

It was more than that.

It wasn't just to rest your body.

It was to contemplate and meditate on what 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.

Yes, is there benefits to us?

Yes, but we also are called to set this day apart, to rest, to do what?

Not to do what you wanna do, not to do the things that you set out to do, but to take

one day and think about your God.

I think there is continuity in that because when we transfer that to the New Testament,

now what's different about the creation?

It's no longer just that he created the world.

Something else happened that was even better than that, that was more marvelous than that.

And that was the resurrection of Christ on the first day of the week.

And so something significant had to have happened in the new covenant to change

the one day and seven from the seventh day to the first day.

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.

That's what we celebrate and that's the marvelous thing.

It's a better Sabbath, it's a better day.

And that's where I think I wanted to make a distinction there, that it's completely different.

Same, but different, different, but same.

Does that make sense?

Yeah, we also, so as we're all three of us are all millennialist too, right?

So we have the view that already not yet.

So we're already not yet new kingdom or new heaven, new earth, right?

We're already there, but not yet.

We're still waiting for the king to come back and consummate things.

And so since we're in a already not yet, there is still work to be done,

right?

So there's still things we got to do in this world to live and all that kind of stuff.

But right now our king has won and our king has rested and that's the new creation, right?

You think about that.

So it's pointing to something else even you're saying.

Yes, absolutely.

Absolutely.

There's always, yeah.

Like it's hard to have this conversation without really diving into the type anti -type, right?

Because the Sabbath in one sense is a type anti -type, right?

Because the anti -type is what Christ done by keeping the law for us and our rest is in him,

right?

Rest from what there?

Define what rest is right there.

Well, Paul, like I would say it's the covenant of words.

It's that we do not have to keep the law in order to live.

Okay.

Yeah.

That we have life eternal.

And now that -.

In Christ.

Because he kept the law and took our punishment in his death.

And so not only taking our punishment, but delivering us from the power of sin and in the

future, pointing to the

Yeah, so that's what I was gonna talk about because you have the two -tier typology.

Right.

So two -tier typology would be the whole idea that is rest from work, first

tier, second tier, rest from the works of the law.

Both physical and temporary, correct?

Absolutely.

Yes.

Yeah.

And there's gonna be a rest that's different than physical and temporary, right?

Yeah.

Yeah, so let's look at something real quick.

So just take the Pascal lamb, right?

So once a year, they would offer us a sacrifice.

They would take a lamb.

They would consume the lambs, slaughter the lamb, consume the lamb, put the blood of the lamb on the lintel and the doorpost.

All right, now, some people would say that the fulfillment of that is the Lord's supper.

And I say, wrong.

John the Baptist makes it clear.

He sees Jesus.

He says, behold, the lamb of God.

He takes away the sin of the world.

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 Lord's supper.

And so I would say the same thing takes place here with the Sabbath.

He's the fulfillment of the Sabbath because our rest is in him.

However, and so I would say that the new covenant 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.

So Christ gives us a new mandate, and that new mandate is to worship the one who

gave us rest from the law.

And it's in spirit and truth.

It's not checking boxes, right?

It's not making a sacrifice.

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.

So if you take 1 John, turn with me to 1 John.

1 John chapter two.

Let me get out my quad right here.

Bet my body's bigger than you guys.

Because I got a lot of extra books in here.

I bet I got more Bibles than you, though.

I bet you do.

Yeah, we don't wanna have that contest.

1 John, you said?

I'll take that on with anybody.

1 John chapter two.

Look at verse three.

It says, and by this, we know that we have come to know him if

we keep his commandments.

Whoever says, I know him, but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth

is not in him.

But whoever keeps his word in him, truly the love of God is perfected.

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.

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.

You keep his law.

And so the question is, okay, well, what is this law that we're supposed to keep?

Turn over to chapter three.

Chapter three, let's look at, I normally begin in verse 23,

but let's begin in verse 19.

It says, by this, we shall know we are of the truth.

Hold on, I got, hold on.

By this, we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our hearts before him.

For whenever our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts, and he knows

everything.

Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before

God.

And whatever we ask, we receive from him because we keep

his commandments and do what is pleasing to him.

Right here, verse 23.

And this is his commandment.

So you go over to chapter two, beginning in verse three, we have to keep his, this is how we know that we've come to know him.

If we keep his commandments, verse 23, and this is his commandments, that we believe in the name

of his son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he has

commanded us.

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.

All right, so the 10 commandments are broken down into two tablets.

And I would argue that the first tablet is commandments one through four.

And that's fulfilled by loving God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your

strength.

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?

Keep his commandments.

Worship the Lord.

Yeah.

Yeah, they worship the Lord.

Right.

Our gathering together on the Lord's Sabbath is a part of

believing in Jesus Christ.

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, Jesus Christ.

And it tells us to love one another as ourselves, commandments five through 10.

Right.

Have to do it in our love for neighbor.

Like I said, a heart issue.

This is a heart issue.

What are we placing?

Do we love Jesus enough to worship him, to place him as a priority in our lives, to

worship him on the Lord's day?

It is a command, like you had said.

You just didn't read from the King James version.

So I don't know if I could trust anything.

You just said right there.

Oh my Lord.

So a couple of things, when we turn to Acts two, right?

And we don't need to right here, but when we turn to Acts two, the day of Pentecost, that's on a Sunday, right?

It's on a Lord's day.

So very first church service, essentially, where guess what it says that they did?

They said, what must we do to be saved?

And they continually devoted themselves to the teachings of the apostles, right?

So.

Yeah, absolutely.

Because the day of Pentecost, so Jesus rose on a Sunday and the day of Pentecost at that time was

on the Lord's day.

Yeah.

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.

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 made mention, I wanted to tie this back together, back

to something I said earlier, already not yet principle, right?

What is the book of Revelation speaking about?

It's giving hope to a persecuted churches, right?

A downtrodden bride of Christ, but it is reassuring her that Christ will,

ultimately, he already has one, we're more like conquerors in him.

And that in the end, Christ is going to come back and vindicate us, right?

That's the main central theme, I would argue with the book of Revelation in some form or another.

What day does he receive those revelations on?

The Lord's day.

And what is it 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.

Christ coming back, new heavens, new earth.

So an already not yet that's being pictured there on the day that's particularly set aside

as a demonstration of what is already and not yet.

It's the day that we gather for corporate worship.

In a perpetual, eternal worship.

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, right?

And that theology is that we have something better in Christ than fallen creation,

right?

But we still do a one day in seven because that's a principle that God established in creation and he gives it to us in the

Decalogue, part of his transcendent moral law.

And what we have in Christ is far better.

Something I did wanna read from, I think, Jeff, you read this earlier, or you said this earlier when I was

talking to you on the phone and it just

Why won't you ask me the question?

What did I ask you?

I can't even remember I asked you.

Yeah.

You asked me, okay, because this is kind of like the whole reason why

I posted what I posted, right?

Because people will tell me that they don't believe that they have to go to church to be a Christian

or whatever.

And I was like, well, you and Jesus don't have your own thing going, right?

Like there's that old country song, me and Jesus got our own thing going.

Like growing up at church, at our church, my dad and everyone else would sing this song, all the time.

I'll save you the punishment of your ears hurting by saying,

well, let's do it.

No, I'm just playing.

But he asked me, he says, so you're saying that a person could not

worship God by themselves?

Yep.

And then my answer to that was,

it's kind of hard now that I'm kind of reconstructing our conversation, right?

But I said that there's no way because the Bible tells us how to worship God.

And it's that we are to be, Acts 2 42, it says that we are to,

here, let me just read it right now.

Whenever you got the camera on you, you kind of forget what you're gonna say, right?

Yeah, it changes everything.

I think the context to this though, is that I said, what would you say to the person that says that they can

worship God, celebrate his rest every single day, Monday through Sunday?

Oh yeah, yeah, that's what it was.

And I would say that it's not biblical.

It's not biblical because God has prescribed how we are to worship him.

And it's by devoting ourselves to the teachings of the apostles, the fellowship, the breaking of bread and prayers.

And so you would have to be sitting under every day, you'd have to sit under

someone teaching you the scriptures.

You would be having to partake in the Lord's supper.

You would have a partake in fellowshipping with other believers and prayer.

And you would also be having to speak to one another in psalm, hymns, spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart.

And I would also add, without distraction.

Yeah, without distraction.

If you're not doing that, you're not worshiping God.

Like reading your Bible and praying, that's a good thing, but that's not the prescribed worship that scripture

gives us.

Scripture gives us the prescription of worship.

And it is that we devote ourselves to the teachings of the apostles.

Those who are baptized, because the verse right above it has 3 ,000 people getting baptized.

And it says, speaking of them, they devoted themselves to the teachings of the apostles, fellowship,

the breaking of bread, that's the Lord's supper and prayer, right?

And then Braden's response was, are you reading from the 1699?

And I said, no.

And then he read from the 1699, 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 Lord,

as well as the administration of baptism and the Lord's supper.

They must be performed out of obedience to Him with understanding, faith, reverence, and godly fear.

Also purposeful acts of humbling with fasting and times of Thanksgiving should be observed on

special occasions in a holy and religious manner.

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?

Yes.

Absolutely, right?

And none of us are denying that.

Right.

But there is, 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 New Testament post -cross?

Do we do those things every single day,.

Monday through Sunday?

When 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 one day devoted

unto Him.

That's right.

We are not at liberty to do whatever we want to do on our own time.

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.

That means you're not gonna have a job.

You're not gonna be able to provide for your family.

Right, now I don't know about you and your Lord's day.

I'm just, I'm just joking.

Yeah, well, you know, like our service isn't an hour.

Yeah.

Right.

Like our service is an all day service.

Yeah.

I preach for an hour every Lord's day.

Our service is an all day service.

If you were to do what we do every day, the Bible says you're gonna be worse than a believer because that means you're not providing for your

family.

Right.

Now, again, I want to emphasize, I think the way that we communicate with God is the same.

And so I'm communicating with you two right now.

I'm speaking, you're listening.

You speak, I listen.

When I read, I'm listening to God.

When I pray, I'm speaking to God.

Like this is something that we should be doing every day.

Absolutely.

Daily, yeah.

However, on the Lord's day, we are receiving, I would argue that even

the preacher himself is sitting under the teachings of the apostles.

Absolutely.

Yes, it's worship.

It's worship.

You can be preaching, that's worship.

Yeah, absolutely.

And that can't, again, that is not gonna 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.

The New Testament tells us they gather together on the Lord's day, the first day of the week.

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 I don't think that

we should work.

However, it is that we are, we're looking to the one who

kept the law for us.

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, hymn, spiritual song, singing to make a melody in our heart.

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.

It is gladness in our heart that we are excited to look forward to this one day in seven

to be able to worship God.

It is celebrating his resurrection.

Yeah, it is celebrating the victory that we have in Christ.

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.

What about work?

What about going to restaurants and stuff like that?

So at our church, we have a full meal after every service.

So we take Acts 2 42 and we see that as the Lord's supper.

But at that time, it was that and more.

Like when you read 1 Corinthians 15, they wasn't just partaking in a

piece of bread or a cracker or whatever you wanna do and then a small cup of wine.

They were feasting together.

And so immediately after we at our church, CRBC in Tullahoma, Tennessee, immediately after we

partake in the Lord's supper, we move over to our fellowship area and we have a

feast.

Right.

Right.

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 gonna be, apply the

judicial laws.

Don't do this, don't do this on the Sabbath day that the Jews did and the Christian Sabbath.

We're not saying that at all, right?

We're just saying set apart one day, devoted unto 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.

Yeah, and I don't think if someone misses church, I don't think that we should go stone them or immediately put them under church discipline

or anything like that.

Right.

I think eventually, if it keeps carrying on, something, a

conversation would have to take place.

And I know that there's some conversations that I'm eventually gonna have to have if it keeps taking place.

And I'm dreading it, because I love my people at my

church.

I love them dearly.

However, as a pastor, eventually I'm gonna have to address this.

And because of the whole COVID deal, I've been letting a lot of things get by or whatever, because

people feel like they don't wanna come and spread anything.

But however, if you will go to work with that sickness, there's a problem.

Yeah.

There's a big problem.

I mean, I've been in that pulpit.

I preached with a kidney stone moving.

Now, it's one thing to have a kidney stone.

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.

Do you guys think that since COVID, a lot of people are taking more liberty to

worship at home via TV and

Yes, absolutely.

That's what I'm saying.

Listen, if you're truly sick, please don't.

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

Or go shopping.

Or go shopping or do anything with, when you refuse to go to church that day, my dear brother or sister, you're

sinning.

You're not being obedient to the command to worship.

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.

All this video that I post and I posted, it was to stir you up to love

and good works.

I would even echo though,.

Even in the case if you are sick, you should call upon the elders.

Yeah.

Have the elders come out and bless you and come out and pray with you and

read Bible verses with you, even on the Lord's day when you're sick.

And I know if somebody in my church called me up and said, hey, pastor, I'm deathly ill right now.

I need you to come pray for me.

Guess what I'm doing after church?

I'm going over there to pray with them, right?

Like that's the way we operate.

And that's what God's word tells us how to operate.

But listen, so we're all a part of either

reformed Baptist or, you know, so you go to, it's more

MacArthurish if I'm not mistaken, right?

Yes.

All right, but still a sensationist church for the most part, right?

And for some reason within our circles, which I hate by the way,

people refuse because of the whole gimmick that's taken place

in the prosperity movement.

They refuse to show any weakness to the elders to ask for prayer.

Listen, come to my pulpit.

I keep a vow of oil on top of my pulpit.

It's almost never used because the people who are sick do not call

upon the elders for prayer.

And you might say, well, what's that oil gonna do?

Well, probably nothing, but the Bible says to anoint with oil.

And it's just one way that I'm being obedient.

It says for the elder to anoint with oil.

So I keep oil on the pulpit and also keep some here at the house

in case I have to leave here and don't pray for somebody.

I'm gonna be faithful to what the scripture says.

I almost called my co -elder this week being sick.

I felt I was down in the dirt.

I almost called my co -elder to come and bless me.

Well, you should have.

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.

And so, 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.

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, 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.

And matter of fact, not only just attend, but show up a half hour before the fellowship and all that.

But there are some people who will make, it doesn't take much for them to make an

excuse not to go to church.

Absolutely.

And that's got to change.

How many people at your church?

How many people at your church?

So we have 130 members.

We have roughly about 200 people attend.

And when we go to church, our church, let's say it starts at nine o 'clock.

And we have people there at 830.

I mean, a lot of people.

Is there any way to know that everyone is there at the same time?

Like, is there any way to know that?

Yeah. You can pretty much tell the ones that are missing.

Yeah.

So our church is small.

Right.

And it's been over a year since every member has been there together.

Right.

And we are small.

Yeah, because of our numbers.

I mean, I don't think that we've ever had every member there at the same time, just because when you have 200

people, somebody's gonna 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.

It's in our law.

And they'll show grace.

Of course, we'll show grace.

Absolutely.

The elders will show grace for a period of time.

But, hey, are you guys okay?

Did something happen?

You know, you're saying you're not able to go to church, but you were able to go shopping at the HEB not too long ago.

You know, I saw you there.

Or you're -.

I normally wait three weeks before I start barking at them.

Right.

In fact, I would say - I'm leaving 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 Lord's day.

And I don't have any issue right now with people purposely skipping church, in my opinion,

from what I see.

Hurt when I don't see somebody at church.

I don't know how you feel, Pastor Jeff,.

That like pastoring, like, man,.

I wanna see those that are in my fold, those that I pastor, those that I,

during the week as I'm preparing the message and I'm thinking about, okay, this is the exegesis of this text.

I'm preparing it to edify these individuals, these people that God has put me over.

It hurts when someone's not there.

And I'm not saying like when they're sick or when they're out of town or something along those lines.

It hurts.

I like to worship God with those that God has put with me.

Like that.

How well could you preach if I cut your hand off and threw it outside the church?

So good.

It'd be a great message.

My hand's against me and Jeff threw it out the door for me.

Yeah.

Well, okay.

So we're calling them, you know, like we are the body of Christ, but locally in the church, we are

the body of Christ.

This is what makes up our small body, right?

And so, you know, when I'm in there, you know, listen, man, I know a lot of people can

relate to this and a lot of people can't because we just talked about the whole idea of how being a bi -locational pastor, 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.

I'm going over my sermon notes two times before I get up in the pulpit to preach and I get a text

message.

Someone's not coming.

There went that hand.

Next thing I know, another one, 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, 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.

More than likely it stems from a guilty conscience, guilty sin issue that they're staying away from church.

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.

And they don't wanna be around the preaching.

They don't wanna be, they wanna be able to be free to sin their sin.

And so they stay away.

They're gonna stay away from the people of God.

They're gonna stay away from the people that are gonna hold them accountable.

They're gonna stay away from hearing the scripture that's gonna hold them accountable.

It's a sin issue.

It's a sin issue to miss church.

Absolutely.

Again, I'm not patterned, let's not fall back.

Over 20 years of being a Christian, over 20 years of being a Christian.

And I doubt if I've missed five Lord's days simply because I know I need to

be around the people of God.

I know I need to be under the teaching of God's word.

And listen, I want to be there.

It's not burdensome.

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.

It was a joy.

Yeah.

We drive 50 miles.

We drive 50 miles to church and it's worth it.

I mean, it is.

I was gonna say something and I just missed it.

I'm gonna have to think about it.

Say something else.

I gotta get off here in a second.

I think we gotta end it.

Oh, it's already an hour and 15.

I can't remember what I was gonna say.

Golly.

Say something else.

It'll come back.

I know I'm gonna regret it if I don't.

I was just talking about how I deeply want to be a part of,

listen, my highlight of my week is the fellowship with the saints.

It's the highlight of my week.

Yeah.

It's the highlight.

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.

I don't know how to feel about it.

Like this is a struggle that I'm going through.

And again, I'm not doing this, but I'm so, because for many years,

I set myself in the pew instead of behind the pulpit because of some convictions that I had whenever I

was first ordained as an assemblies of God.

I'm so glad.

Like I'm glad that I wasn't the hand chopped off of my pastor.

I got it.

I got what it was.

If you were missing church and God is not disciplining you for missing

church, you're in trouble.

You're in trouble.

God is not going to allow his children to live any old way they want to live.

He's going to discipline.

And 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.

God better be disciplining you.

He better be doing something in your heart.

A strong conviction.

You better be praying the Lord will break your leg.

Absolutely. That's what I was going to say.

Anyway, so let's just give a quick recap.

So we believe, so Tom, do you believe in the Lord's Sabbath or it's the 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 Sabbath rest.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

I think that it's misdefined a lot, but defined properly.

Yes, I do.

And it's a perpetual rest and it's going to point to the perpetual rest.

Yeah. Yeah.

And it's pointing, we're worshiping the one who kept the law in our place so that we can live.

It is a mandate.

Celebrating the resurrection.

Yeah.

Being a part of the local body, gathering together week after week, it is a mandate.

It is a positive command.

So as Tom out with commands earlier, was talking about, keeping the

Sabbath in the sense of the new covenant is a form of believing in

Jesus.

Yeah.

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.

And we are to commit, we are to, if we love him, we'll keep his commands.

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 Lord's Sabbath is a

command.

And if you don't do that, you're sinning.

You're sinning.

Yeah.

It should be a joy.

It should be a 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 could live a life pleasing unto him.

When you can't worship every day, not the way scripture prescribes.

Go ahead, Brian.

I can't remember who said it to you, but it's a glimpse into what heaven will be like, right?

Yeah.

And so again, that already not yet.

We are coming together to celebrate that new heavens, new earth in what Christ has done in the resurrection,.

Right?

That's what we're doing on the Lord's days.

We're celebrating the resurrection of Christ, which is what is the resurrection?

The rest, the finished, the completed work of Christ.

So what are we doing on that day?

We're celebrating the finished work, which is the rest of, you see what I'm saying?

Like it's right there.

Is he worthy?

Is he worthy?

Absolutely, absolutely.

He's worthy of our worship.

He's worthy of our worship in spirit and truth.

It's not just going to check the boxes.

It's going to partake in the means of grace by which the Lord is going to

conform you to the image of his son, Jesus Christ.

Amen.

That's right.

Yeah, amen.

All right, that's it.

Last words.

Hallelujah.

Why are you taking my stuff?

I love that.

We'll see y 'all.

God bless.