Automatic Transcript Generated:
It is quite clear in the Bible that the disciples gathered on 1st day of the week and kept Sabbath!
Speaker 1
All right. So Jim is asking quite clear in the Bible they gathered together on the first day of the week. Funny thing, man wants the credit and Catholics want the credit, but God is in control. Search the scriptures and the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 2
Thanks, Jim.
Speaker 3
I appreciate the question. And yes, indeed, God is in control. And I agree. Let’s search the Scriptures and see what they really have to say. And when it comes to Holy Spirit, sometimes people, I think, use the Holy Spirit as a crutch to say whatever I feel is true. But what does the Bible tell us about the Holy Spirit first and how.
Speaker 2
We can know what is true from him?
Speaker 3
Isaiah 820 says, to the law and to the testimony, if they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.
Speaker 2
That’S Isaiah 820 and two Timothy 316.
Speaker 3
Tells us that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. So it’s all given by inspiration. And that word, the inspiration, I think the NIV would say it’s God breathed or spirit given.
Speaker 2
Right.
Speaker 3
So the Spirit is behind it. Two Peter 120 says, knowing this first.
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Peter 1, second Peter, chapter one, verse 20.
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Starting there, it says, knowing this first, that no prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were.
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Moved by the Holy Spirit.
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So we have the Bible, which is first and foremost inspired by the Holy Spirit. It might not be 100% the Holy Spirit dictating. I believe it was a process where.
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Man and God are working together, which.
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Is an incredible thought, but the Spirit is behind it. So the same Spirit that inspired the Bible should be able to help us interpret. And it is my prayer that the Holy Spirit is always helping me interpret it correctly and pray the same for you. But let’s go read the Scriptures, let them speak for themselves, and hopefully let’s both, neither me nor you, anybody watching, read anything into it that’s not there. And we so easily can take in our 21st century mindsets and rituals and language and world and try to put that back into the Bible when it’s not there.
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So we need to put ourselves in.
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The position of the writers, their experiences, who they’re writing to, and try to understand what they’re saying, what the Holy.
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Spirit’s really saying, not read into it.
Speaker 3
So let’s start with one of these first day verses. There are verses that talk about people.
Speaker 2
Gathering on the first day, but that’s a fact.
Speaker 3
Yeah, absolutely. They met on the first day. But then there’s a lot of conclusions that are drawn from that that we have to question. Is that the correct interpretation of the.
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Facts that are in the Scripture? Let’s start with John 20 john 20.
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Starting at verse 18. I’m backing up a little bit so.
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We have a little context here and.
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This is the day that Jesus resurrected. It was a Sunday. And so here we hear that Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord and that he had spoken these things to her. Then, the same day, at evening, being the first day of the week when the door was shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews. So we see here that the disciples are gathered together on the first day. So are they already worshiping on Sunday? Jesus just rose that day. Most hadn’t even seen him or some hadn’t seen him yet but they just knew. Did they just know that this was Sunday and now they need to start keeping Sunday as a new Sabbath?
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Is that what happened here?
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And they just threw together an impromptu communion service that evening to celebrate Jesus’s resurrection with a memorial of his death?
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Is that what happened? And does that make any sense?
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Know this is a church service and.
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They locked the doors to the building.
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So we have know go back think are these things making sense that people are reading into it? Is this really a communal service that they’re doing and they’re celebrating Sunday now is the Sabbath just as soon as Jesus resurrected?
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Or is there another possibility here which.
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Could it be that the disciples are used to living and eating together and the Bible is telling us that it’s the first day to reinforce that this is still that same day when Jesus rose and met Mary and giving us this idea of the timeline where we are in events. So we’re on still that same Sunday.
Speaker 2
Jesus rose and these disciples are gathering together to eat together in the evening like they probably would any day and.
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Of course they’re locking that door because they’re concerned about their safety and don’t.
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Want people intruding on them. Would that make sense?
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In fact, if you want to see if you look at John 20 verse one, it tells us earlier there that now on the first day of the week, mary Madeline went to the tomb early.
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Is this telling us it was the.
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First day because now Mary is celebrating it as the day of worship or is it giving us a timeline? This is the day Jesus rose, it was on the first day of the.
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Week, just a fact. Yeah, Jesus rose on the first day of week. Do we need to change the day.
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Of worship because of that?
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The Bible is not saying that now.
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Let’S go on to the next verse. But before we go there I want.
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To give a little context because a.
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Lot of people read into Breaking Bread.
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And always think that means communion but.
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We see second in Acts two, verse 46 it says so continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house. They ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart. So is this telling us that breaking bread is something that happens on communion on Sundays?
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Or is it saying that breaking bread.
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Is the thing that these people would do? It’s eating, coming together, fellowshipping together, and it could happen any day of the.
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Week, so that’s important to keep in mind.
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Now, as we read the next verse.
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Which is Acts 26 to seven, this.
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Is another one that people say, look, there’s this evidence that they’re made on.
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The first day and thus worshiping on it. Again, I’m backing up a little bit.
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Starting at verse six to give us.
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Context, says, but we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread.
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And in five days joined them at.
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Troas, where we stayed seven days.
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So they’re going to stay in Troas seven days. Now, on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to.
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Break bread, paul, ready to depart the.
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Next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight.
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So did they gather on the first.
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Day of the week because it was the first day? Did they gather for a church service that day? Or are they breaking bread because it was a communion service? Or is there another possibility which is.
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They’Re having dinner together and we’re told.
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It’S the first day, so we know.
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This wasn’t a typical church service, that.
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Maybe Paul is speaking for a while because he’s taking off the next day.
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Would that make sense?
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Does that fit the context of this verse? And in fact, all the other verses.
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I’m shown too, and in fact, there’s nothing here showing.
Speaker 3
There actually was a tradition of Sunday keeping. Rather, we see that Paul was going from synagogue to synagogue and doing a lot of ministry work on Sabbath. We see this throughout acts. You see Acts 13, verse 14, it says, but when they departed from Perga.
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They came to Antioch in Sydia and.
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Went into the synagogue on the Sabbath.
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Day and sat down.
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Acts 1344, it says, on the next Sabbath, almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God. Acts 1613, it says, and on the Sabbath day we went out of the city to the riverside where prayer was customarily made, and we sat down and.
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Spoke to the woman who met there. Acts 17 two, it reads, Then Paul.
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As his custom was, went into them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures. And finally, Acts 18, verse four says, and he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded both Jews and Greeks.
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And this is important.
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Where was this happening in Acts 18? If we jump up to Acts eight.
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One, it tells us this was in the city of Corinth.
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After these things, Paul departed from Athens.
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And went to Corinth.
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Why am I pointing out that Paul is going to synagogue on Saturdays in.
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Corinth, because the next verse is another.
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One that is commonly cited as one of those proving a first day worship verses. And this is found in one Corinthians.
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Chapter 16, verse two. And it reads, on the first day.
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Of the week, let each one of you lay aside something, or lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper that there be no collection when I come. And people say, see, clearly they’re meeting and they’re taking worship and collecting offerings. So proof they’re meeting on Sabbath. But let’s look at some other translations too.
Speaker 2
Let’s look at the New Living translation of this one.
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Corinthians 16, verse two, new Living translation. It says, on the first day of.
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The week, you should each put aside a portion of the money you have earned.
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Don’t wait until it get there and then try to collect it all at once. Next one, first Corinthians 16 two, the CSB version. It says, on the first of the.
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Week, each of you is to set.
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Something aside and save in keeping how he is prospering. So no collection will need to be.
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Made when I come.
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So is Paul saying again that take up a collection every Sunday at church?
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Or is he telling each church member to make it a top priority at.
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The beginning of each week to set aside some money on their own, like doing it at their homes? And so that when paul shows up, they just have to hand everything that.
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They each have been storing up.
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Sparing paul from them having to go all around and collect it from everybody and trying to do all these offering.
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Calls and all these things, he just.
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Shows up and, hey, Paul, here’s everything.
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We’Ve gathered and kept at our homes. That’s actually.
Speaker 3
The more I say true understanding of that verse and not reading anything into it. And here’s what one commentator also made which makes a lot of sense. He said that Paul, by suggesting that they store up according to how they’re prospering, is applying. You need to do a certain level of accounting work, doing computation. Okay, what were my revenues and income and all this this week? And then, okay, based on that, I’m going to set aside X amount. This sort of calculations and math is work that these people would never do.
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On Sunday if they were truly keeping Sunday as a holy day.
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So this verse in of itself proves.
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That Sunday wasn’t their holy day.
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And by the way, this offering they were doing wasn’t an ongoing offering. This was going to be a one time collection that Paul wanted to do to then take these funds and help support the people who are suffering and.
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Really poor and impoverished in Jerusalem.
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I mean, the Christians there were financially oppressed and we’re going to count on the better off gentiles to support them.
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In their time of need. So these verses we looked at, are.
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They actually proving their Sunday worship or is that being read into the text by Sunday worshiping? Christians who are hoping to justify their.
Speaker 2
Sunday worship, hoping it’s in the Bible.
Speaker 3
And this is where I have to agree with a lot of Catholics who say this concept of Sunday worship being.
Speaker 2
In the Bible isn’t biblical.
Speaker 3
I agree with these Catholics, it’s not. And so what happens then is when you’re worshiping on Sunday, are you really.
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Obeying God or are you paying homage.
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To the person who changed that day.
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Or thinks they would have changed that day?
Speaker 3
And it’s very interesting that Daniel seven, verse 25 says, speaking of this power that would emerge, this ecclesiastical governmental hybrid power, it says, he shall speak pompous words against the Most High, shall persecute the saints of the Most High, and shall intend to change times and laws.
Speaker 2
Or the times and law. Interesting, it says this law here, then.
Speaker 3
The saints shall be given into his hand for a time, times and half a time.
Speaker 2
And by the way, if you look.
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That up, you also see that period of time happening also in Revelation, spoken.
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A lot in Revelation.
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Is there a law that also deals with time? It’s interesting we only see that in one law, and that is the Fourth Commandment telling us to keep the 7th.
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Day as the Sabbath.
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And it’s not making the Sabbath the 7th day. It starts off, remember the Sabbath day.
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To keep it holy. God made it the Sabbath day way back on the first week of creation.
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And if you think it’s gone, you think the Sabbath, oh, we don’t have.
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To keep it anymore.
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Look at Revelation 414. Seven. It says, fear God and give glory to Him for the hour of judgment.
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Has come, and worship Him who made.
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Heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water. First, that word worship there, it means.
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Profound reverence, kneeling and.
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Prostration. Why can’t I say that? To do homage to one or make.
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Obiacence, whether in order to express respect.
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Or to make supplication. A lot of big words there, right? But it’s totally different than this idea of just singing hands up, getting all into the music. It’s getting that obeying God, keeping his commandments, that’s worship. And Revelation is telling us, obey God. And so how are you going to.
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Obey God keeping his commandments?
Speaker 3
And one of those is, remember Sabbath day, to keep it holy. And remember this verse I just read from Revelation says, who made heaven and earth, the sea, the springs of water? Where does that come from?
Speaker 2
That’s a direct quote from the Fourth.
Speaker 3
Commandment, and we see it in Exodus 20, verse eleven. It says, for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested the 7th day.
Speaker 2
Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hollowed it. God made it holy day, he set.
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It aside and this is what it’s important to understand about what’s holy and what’s not.
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Sometimes we think holy is something that.
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Just has, like, light radiating from it.
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And it’s glorious and amazing.
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Sometimes holy is just set apart because God set it apart. God can separate things.
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The whole week of creation is God separating different things.
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Separated light from darkness, he separated the waters from waters. He separated the earth from waters and then created life and the creatures out.
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Of the earth than the waters.
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And then he separates the Sabbath from the rest of the week. That was then the last part of creation.
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There it is holy because God said it. It’s holy and then it becomes this test.
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Then do you really trust God? Do you really obey God? Will you respect it as holy because he said it’s holy?
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Or are you going to want to.
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Keep something holy because you want to do something else?
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You want to call something else holy.
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Or somebody else other than God has said this is holy and you want.
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To keep that thing holy, not what God said is holy. So it’s a test of spiritual discernment.
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And I believe it has major end time implications. This is why it’s a big deal to me. If it wasn’t a big deal to God, I wouldn’t be making a big.
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Deal about this either. But I really pray that the Holy.
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Spirit will do his role to convict any of us who is wrong to think what is right. If it’s me, sure, I’ll gladly say.
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I was wrong, but I just have.
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So many verses after verses after verses.
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Where the Bible is so consistent on this.
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You dig deep, and the deeper I.
Speaker 2
Dig, the more convinced I get that the Spirit’s really telling me the 7th day is the Sabbath. Tina, anything else you would like to add?
Speaker 4
I think that was very well put together and I totally agree with that. And I’ve gone to that same struggle, or not struggle, but journey as well, where when I became a Christian, I was in my early teens and I just wanted to study the Bible. I said, I’m not going to read any spiritual books, I’m just going to read the Bible cover to cover before I make up my mind as to which church I want to go to and what doctrines I’m going to believe. Because there are so many things out there, so many ideas. And I could not escape the fact that the 7th day is the Sabbath. From Genesis to Revelation, you just see it consistently. And so our friend Jim, while we respect your decision to decide how you will worship God and whatever day you choose to worship on, let yourself be convinced in your own mind of that day. We’re not trying to push you into we do want all of us, I want you, Jim, and all of us to be saved. And I want us to all be walking in the truth and by the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 4
Because without God, we can’t do anything. We don’t know anything. Only God knows everything. And he’s given us His Holy Bible as our instruction book, and that’s what we have to go by. And so when I read the Bible, same like you’re saying, I just can’t escape it. And when I read the book of Hebrews in the New Testament in chapter four, the Bible clearly says, and the Lord rested on the 7th day, and God’s people are called to do the same. And then he goes on to say, and if there was another day, I would have told you. But there’s not. And so there’s no clear evidence in the Bible that points to the first day of the week as anything sacred. It’s a good day. I believe that God does everything dually, like anything in the Bible. A lot of things, like a dual prophecy, it can mean two things. And so when you look at the first week of creation and then the 7th day Sabbath, I really see when Jesus fulfilled the 70 weeks prophecy, he fulfilled it in a similar manner. The first day of the week, is that’s a good day?
Speaker 4
It’s to start work. The first day is the start of the work week. We need to get going. And that’s why on the first day, God said, let there be light, which is good, like you’re enlightened, but you need to work. It’s not our day of rest. Only the 7th day is a day of rest. The first day is a day of beginning and newness, but not in the sense of resting on a Sabbath. It’s a different type. It’s a six day shall thou labor. It’s a work day. And so I pray that you will be convinced in your own mind, just like Paul says in Romans chapter 14 and verse five, let every man be persuaded in his own mind. And I know he’s talking about days as far as the Passover and things like that, but when it comes to what day you’re going to uphold and choose to worship God, I just pray that you continue to seek the Lord as well. And we’re going to pray for you. And we’re praying for ourselves too, because pray for us too, because we want to be led only by God’s Holy Spirit as well.
Speaker 4
We don’t think we know everything, but we just want to point everything back to the Bible, just like you’re saying, Jay. And we want to all take this journey together in truth, wherever it leads us.
Speaker 1
And I want to share with that too, that I think it’s important here to surrender this decision to God, to not ask for it to be our will, but that God would permit us to do something, but that he would show us what his truth is on this matter. And I say this from personal experience because I wasn’t raised in the church, I didn’t know about Sabbath keeping. I mean, I knew that some people did that sort of thing, but I didn’t really know anything about it. And God actually convicted me about it at one point. My parents were the ones who introduced me to the 7th day Sabbath. And at the time my whole career depended on working sundown Friday and sundown like working Friday evening and Saturday. Because of the type of career that I was in. When my parents introduced this concept to me, it was very hard to swallow. It was like, wait, my whole career path is built on work that is going to have me working those days or those hours. And my mom said, Just pray about it and seek the truth from God directly. Let him be the one to show you.
Speaker 1
And so I did that. I surrendered to God. I said, Lord, I can’t believe this just because it’s in a book. You’ve had a relationship with me. You know how to reach me and I want you to communicate it to me in a way that I will understand if this is important to you. And that’s exactly what he did. And I’ll try to keep this story really short, but I was driving a car at that time that was falling apart and it was a total rust bucket. And I prayed, Lord, keep this car running till I’m done with college. And his blessing was on keeping that car running. And after I prayed about this Sabbath thing, something started happening. My car stopped working on Friday night and Saturday when I was doing something that was not with keeping Sabbath. If I went out shopping, if I went back to campus to work, things like that, my car would flood out and leave me sit. It only did this on Sabbath only after I prayed that prayer. And it was every Sabbath that I tried to do something that was not with keeping Sabbath. And I really believe that God lifted his blessing from his protection on that car during that time to show me that this was not with keeping Sabbath.
Speaker 1
If I was just going to a friend’s place to be social and connect with people, the car worked. And the rest of the week it worked fine. Well, fast forward a little bit. And my car was really developing a bad gas smell. And I took it in to get it fixed. And the guy came out after taking my car apart and said, do you know what this is, ma’am? And I said, that looks like my gas tank. And he said, yes, I don’t know how your car was even running. Do you see these two pipes coming off? This one was completely rusted off. He’s like, I don’t know how your car was running. And I said, God blessed that car to keep it running. But that’s when I realized how much he blessed that car to keep it running. But he lifted that blessing when I was doing something not with keeping Sabbath. And he gave me conviction about that every single time it flooded out, that this was his way of telling me that the Sabbath was important to Him. And so I just wanted to share that, because I think when we do earnestly want to know the truth from God and we surrender that decision to Him, he will show us if we ask Him to.
Speaker 4
Amen. Amen. I totally agree with that. That’s such a beautiful story. And it’s funny because I’ve had so many friends who’ve had similar things, where when they kept the Sabbath faithfully, god blessed them in a beautiful way. And when they knowingly broke the Sabbath, I know God winks at ignorance. Act 1730 if you don’t know better, I don’t think God’s going to hold you accountable for that. I do believe there’s going to be many people who went to church on Sunday in heaven. I don’t believe that God is going to wipe you out because you don’t keep the Sabbath, because you don’t know. But if we do know, and we know better, and we do what we know, live up to the light, we do know you’ll see blessings that you’ve never seen before. And I’ve seen so many awesome things too, where I’ve had to either speak or do ministry on Sabbath and I have no voice. But then when I’m just like, Lord, I need to serve you just for that occasion, just for Sabbath, he blocks that out. Or if I had a friend who needed to travel on Sabbath and she ran out of gas, and she said, Lord, help me to get to where I need to go.
Speaker 4
I need to do ministry. And somebody picked her up. They’re like, I just happened to be going to that random spot that she was going to be at. And so I’ve seen so many times God’s faithfulness. And I know God will definitely bless us when we desire to keep his commandments. And that’s what we’re called to do in Revelation 1412. You know, here’s the patience of the saints, here are they that keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus. And so I know love is the fulfillment of the commandments, but because we love God, we want to obey every one of his commandments. And one of those especially is the one he called us to remember.
Speaker 1
I have just been so blessed, like God has blessed me so much, I feel like since I started keeping Sabbath. And it’s just having that day of rest that he truly blessed and protected for us. You don’t get that protection any day of the week. God blessed Sabbath to give us that protection. Amen.
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In His Service
BibleAsk Team
