Today friends, we're going to talk about COUNTERFEITS. And to set the stage, I'm going to tell you a parable.
One day, TRUTH had an appointment in a certain town where the people were very anxiously waiting for him. And it was a hot day and TRUTH was walking along the dusty, narrow road towards that town. The heat was almost unbearable, and as he came around a corner, he spied through the trees, a big water hole.
“Well”, TRUTH thought, “I think I'll take a swim and cool off in the water.” So he took off all his lovely white clothes and hung them on the branches of a tree and jumped in.
He was having a great time. But you know friends, it's sad but it's true, everywhere that TRUTH goes, LIE goes also. And LIE heard that TRUTH was going into town and so he came along following and before long he too came around the corner and spied that waterhole. And when he saw it, he got the same idea as TRUTH, and said, “I feel so hot and sticky and dirty in these grubby old clothes of mine. I think I’ll go over and cool off a little bit.”
So he went over to get ready to jump into the pond, when suddenly he saw TRUTH's beautiful white clothing in the tree. Now LIE being sneaky, got an idea, and he said to himself, “I think I'll skip the swim today. I'll steal TRUTH’s clothes instead.”
And so it was that he pulled off his dirty raggedy clothes and dropped them on the ground, and quickly took TRUTH'S beautiful clean clothes off the branch and put them on, and he walked on into town.
The people were anxious for TRUTH to come, and when they saw this thing coming down the road they began to rejoice. 'HERE COMES THE TRUTH.” Until finally, one of the wiser people among them said, “Now hold on people, that's not TRUTH, that's a LIE with TRUTH's clothing on.”
Meanwhile back at the waterhole, TRUTH got through with his swim and went over to get his clothes on so he could head on into town. Well, lo and behold, no clothes!
And as he looked around, he realised what had happened, for there on the ground he saw the dirty, old, ragged garments of a LIE. And TRUTH said, “Before I wear them, I won't wear anything”, so he just started off down the road in the altogether. And when the people saw him coming, they began to rejoice and shout, and they cried out, “Look folks, here he comes, the NAKED TRUTH!”
Today friends, we are going to talk about COUNTERFEITS. And we are going to get the NAKED TRUTH right from the Bible. Not from some church or other, Not from Ray Archer, but from GOD'S WORD in the Bible.
The Bible verses we're going to put up on the screen are from the New King James version. Please follow every verse we look at, because I want you to see it, not because Ray Archer says it, but because the Bible says it.
Dear Father, we thank You for Your wonderful truth You reveal to us out of Your Holy Scriptures. We thank You for every dear person who is listening now. Please bless these dear people and give them the faith, and the strength, and the courage that they need to follow You. Thank You Father for the genuineness and honesty of each person listening. And we ask for Your help to do what is right, in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Let's turn right to the front of the Bible. The book of Genesis. The book of beginnings, the first book in the Bible. The very first chapter tells how God created the heavens and the earth. In...
Sometimes the idea is put forward that in some instances in the Bible, the word 'day' could possibly refer to a time that is much longer than a 24-hour period.
Well friends, let's look at the six days of creation week, with God resting on the seventh day. Here we find that when the word 'day' is used in the original Hebrew language, with a number as an adjective beside it, e.g. first day, second day, seventh day and so on, it always refers to a 24-hour day. Even without the number attached as an adjective, almost every one of the other nearly 1,400 mentions of the word 'day' in the Old Testament are also 24-hour periods.
“It boggles our little human minds to think that God could create things that big and that fast and that amazing. We've got to remember that our awesome God is unbelievably bigger and smarter than us.” Now the last verse in Genesis 1 verse 31 says, Genesis 1:31
“Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. (And when God said it was very good, it must have been absolutely perfect.) So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.”
Finally, in the next 3 verses, Genesis 2 :1-3, we read these words.
“Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.”
So there it was, in the beginning, on the first seventh day in the history of this world, the great God of heaven rested on that day, blessed that day, and sanctified it, which means 'set it apart as holy'.
And friends, we are soon going to notice from God's word, the Bible, that this seventh day of creation week, is also called the Sabbath Day. Now I want you to think about that, because you've probably wondered like I had, why there are two days in Christian circles. Some people keep the seventh day, Saturday, as their special day and of course the majority of people keep Sunday as their special day.
Some people say with contempt that, ''the seventh day is the Jewish Sabbath. Well, when God made man on the sixth day, how many people were on the earth? Two! Adam and Eve! Right? Were they Jews? No way! There were no Jews until hundreds and hundreds of years later. In fact, 2,500 years later. God never made the Sabbath for the Jews. He made it for Adam and Eve. When there were only two people alive on the face of this Earth, God created this special seventh day as a rest day for us, and as a living memorial of His creative power, as we will soon see.
There were three things God did in order to create the seventh-day Sabbath.
That word 'sanctified' means ‘to make holy or set apart for a sacred use’. God rested on the seventh day, He blessed the seventh day, and, He set it apart for a sacred use. And remember, there were no Jews yet - only Adam and Eve.
Now way back in Exodus chapter 20, we find God's Ten Commandments. They go from verse 3 through to verse 17. These are God's Ten Commandments that He wrote on stone at Mount Sinai. The whole Ten Commandments are written right here in these verses. “Thou shalt not kill, commit adultery, steal,” and so on. And right in the middle of them is this one starting in verse 8.
So God asked us to remember the seventh day, the Sabbath day, and, to keep it holy so we would never forget that God is the Creator. No gods of silver or stone can create anything. No man who calls himself God can create anything. Only the God of heaven is the true Creator. Every time man has worshipped false gods, he has dishonoured God, and every person who remembers, and, keeps holy God's seventh day, gives God honour.
Satan despises the Sabbath because people who keep the Sabbath are at the same time honouring God. So... GOD SPOKE AND WROTE ON STONE - “THE SEVENTH DAY IS THE SABBATH”
Of the 31,102 verses in the Holy Scriptures, there are only 15 verses written directly by the hand of God. They are the Ten Commandments. And of those 15 verses, four of them tell us to keep holy the 7th or Sabbath day. I believe that God felt that His Ten Commandments, which included the one about the Sabbath Day, were so important that He wrote them down with His own hand.
Of the Ten Commandments, we're just going to concentrate in this message, on the 4th one about the Sabbath day.
God's Sabbath day commandment comes right over into the time of the New Testament, and many people are not aware of that. They don't study their Bibles to notice that the Sabbath is referred to many times in the New Testament.
Firstly, let's turn to the book of Luke in the New Testament.
“So He (that's Jesus) came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.”
So it was Jesus' custom to go to church on the Sabbath day (or Saturday) as we call it today. Now still in the New Testament, there are some verses here talking about how the followers of Jesus continued to keep the Sabbath day holy.
Let's pick up the whole story starting from after Jesus had died on the cross. We’re going to the book of Luke and chapter 23. Jesus had been crucified, had died, and He was still hanging on the cross.
Now that was after Jesus was dead and gone. He was in the tomb. These verses tell us that after Jesus was put into the tomb on Friday afternoon, they went home to prepare spices and ointments to anoint His body. But then the sun was starting to set (and the Bible says that the Sabbath day was kept from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday), so they put their spices and things down and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment.
Some people say that when Jesus died, people stopped keeping the Sabbath, but that's not true, is it? No way were his followers going to break the Sabbath commandment by working and anointing his body on God's special day of rest.
So they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment. Now the very next verse in that story is Luke 24 verse 1 which says, ...
“Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they, and certain other women with them, came to the tomb, bringing the spices which they had prepared.”
I'll read it from the New English Bible which makes it very clear. ….
“It was Friday and the Sabbath was about to begin .... Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes; and on the Sabbath day they rested in obedience to the commandment. But on the Sunday very early they came to the tomb bringing the spices they had prepared.”
Friends, the Sabbath of the Lord is a special time when we rest from our six days of work and remember God as the Creator and worship Him. Yes, He gives us this special day of rest from our work too.
The reason why so many people are uptight with ulcers, and nervous breakdowns, and heart attacks, and they explode every time you step on their toes, and husbands and wives are screaming at each other; is most often because they are under the hammer seven days a week.
You need one day when you are not worrying about the housework. You need one day when you are not worrying about the bills. You need one day when you don't have to worry about who's fighting who in the world and which politician is stabbing the other one in the back.
Humans need an opportunity to recoup and be refreshed to face another week, and God gave the Sabbath day to us not as a problem, but as a privilege.
Have you got that? It's a PRIVILEGE, and those who keep the Sabbath know that's exactly what it is.
Years ago my trade was in the repair of refrigeration equipment and I couldn't have cared less what day was God's Sabbath day back then. They were all the same to me. The whole seven of them were work-days.
Well this factory owner came to me and got me to install some specialised refrigeration equipment for him. It was urgent. But, he said, “I endeavour to keep the Ten Commandments in the Bible, so please don't work at our factory from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset.”
And I thought to myself, if it's so urgent, I'll have a go at this fella. So I said, “Well, you keep Saturday, and I keep Sunday (which I certainly didn't at that time), so we'll have to miss two days each week.” And even though it was extremely urgent, he didn't give in. He was fair dinkum. So without his knowing, in my own workshop, I worked on his equipment on both Saturday the seventh day and Sunday the first day of the week. Nevertheless, friends, that man got me thinking, and Delphine and I finally got to studying this business about the Sabbath.
Let's see what St. Paul says over here in the book of Acts.
“For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God.”
Paul says, I've declared how much of the council of God? 80%? 90%? No! 100%. The whole counsel of God.
Now, there are over 140 references to the seventh day Sabbath in the Bible yet there is not one reference in the Bible that indicates that the first day of the week is holy. That may surprise you. It made me think, because Paul says, “I have declared the whole counsel of God to you”, so if the Sabbath had been changed to Sunday, why didn't he say something about it? Friends, there's not even a hint of any change. You'll see what I mean soon.
What else do we read about Paul?
“Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the scriptures.”
That was in AD 54. Over 20 years after Jesus went back to heaven, Paul was still keeping the Sabbath. Some people say, “Ah, yes, but Paul was only speaking to the Jews on the Sabbath”. But if those people would care to read the next couple of verses, they would find in verse 4 that Paul was also speaking to a great multitude of Greeks as well. So it wasn't just the Jews. Here's verse 4...
“And some of them were persuaded, and a great multitude of the devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women, joined Paul and Silas.”
And if we turn over to Acts chapter 18 and verse 4 we read:
“And he (Paul) reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded both Jews and Greeks.”
So it sure wasn't just the Jews who were listening to him in church on the Sabbath. Does the Bible tell us how long Paul went to the church on the Sabbath? Yes! In that same chapter 18 of Acts and verse 11 it says, ...
“And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.”
Just with reference to Paul alone, this devout follower of Jesus, the New Testament records 84 times that Paul kept the Sabbath. And that of course was after Jesus rose from the grave. Paul certainly didn't know of any change of the day of worship from Saturday to Sunday or to any other day for that matter.
Here in the New Testament is the book of Hebrews that was written about AD 64, --- 30 years after Jesus went back to heaven. It says in summary in ….
Friends, God gave us the example and we should enter into the seventh-day Sabbath rest as God did.
That was in AD64, over 30 years after Jesus went back to heaven. No sign of a change yet. The Bible says the Sabbath remains! Satan has deceived us and he teaches that the Sabbath is done away with.
How many commandments did God give us? 10! Nearly every Christian church keeps 9 Commandments but the one commandment that bothers the churches, is the fourth one about the Sabbath. In an effort to set that one aside they are willing to say that the whole ten, are done away with, but they don't really mean it. Let me explain.
We're going back near the beginning of the Bible, Exodus chapter 20. The list of Gods Ten Commandments starts here in verse 3 and goes right through to verse 17. But we'll start here in verses 1 and 2 to introduce the Commandments.
So the churches don't really believe that the Ten Commandments are done away with, and if you don't believe me, go into one of their churches and steal some things and see what happens. Or jump into bed with a church pastor's wife. All of a sudden you find that he does believe in the Ten Commandments.
You know friends, there's only one commandment that bothers them, and that's the fourth commandment about keeping God's Sabbath day holy. Let's look at that fourth commandment in Exodus 20:8-11.
Do you know what a jot and a tittle are? In our English language, a jot would be a bit like the dot on an ‘I’ and the tittle a bit like the cross on a ‘t’. Jesus said that not even a dot on the ‘I’ would disappear from the law, the Ten Commandments, as long as this earth was still here. And is the earth still here? It sure is! So Jesus didn't change it, and He goes on to say in verse 19, ...
Well, I don't want that to happen to me, friends, and I know you don't want it to happen to you either. Now what does our next text say in the book of Matthew?
Here, friends, Jesus Christ, the greatest prophet who ever lived, prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem about 40 years before it actually happened, and He said to his disciples in ….
“Pray that your flight will not be in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day.”
So Jesus did not, say, “Pray that your flight won't be on Sunday.” In fact, 40 years after Jesus gave that prophecy, the Christians fled from Jerusalem on an autumn Wednesday in October of AD 70. Not one Christian died, while a million others lost their lives because they did not heed Christ's warning to flee. So Jesus respected the Sabbath as he looked forward 40 years into the future. And so those Christians were still able to keep holy the Sabbath day, the day of rest and communion with God.
Now we come to the book of Revelation which was written by John at the very least, 20 years after Christ's ascension to heaven, and it says in...
“HERE ARE THEY WHO KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD.”
For that word 'keep', Strong's Concordance gives a meaning, 'keep - to fulfil a command.' So it is saying, here are those who fulfil the commandments of God.
These were the people who would make it through to the glory land.
And will we still keep the Sabbath every week in the new heaven and the new earth? Isaiah the prophet looked forward into the future and God told him in
“....'In the new heavens and the new earth which I (that's God) will make, …. from one Sabbath to another, all flesh will come to worship before Me', says the Lord.”
So we've seen friends that God made the seventh-day Sabbath right back there in creation week, and it was kept right through the Old Testament, and right through the New Testament, and it will be kept right through the future, in the new heavens and the new earth. It is an eternal command, an eternal institution, put in place by an eternal God.
In the new heavens and the new Earth there's not going to be a fence where people keep the Sabbath on one side and some people keep Sunday on the other side. The Bible says that 'from one Sabbath to another, all flesh will come to worship God.”
And friends, I am now so sure of this, that for years, I have offered a $10,000 reward to anybody who can find one text in the Bible that tells us we have to keep Sunday, the first day of the week, and not only will I give you the money, but also my house and my car. In fact, you can have everything except my wife and my kids. And the next Sunday after you find it, I’ll join a Sunday church. If you don't believe it, find the text. Get a minister to help you if you like.
Ecclesiastes chapter 3 verse 14 tells me why I can be so sure that God never changed the Sabbath.
“I know that whatever God does, it shall be forever. Nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it.”
You know friends, our great God has a sign for each one of us.
“Hallow (which means keep holy) My Sabbaths, and they will be a sign between Me and you, that you may know that I am the Lord your God.”
Friends, for God to be really our God, we must keep holy His Sabbath. Yes, God has a SIGN to every one of us.
"Moreover I also gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between them and Me, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctifies them.” And sanctifies means purifies. Do we want to be purified?
If we really love God, yes, we do want to be purified.
The Sabbath is God’s sign between Him and us, that He sanctifies us, He purifies us, He sets us aside as a holy people.
Now every time God does something, Satan tries to counterfeit it, just like LIE did when he went into town with TRUTH’s clothing on. So -- in the Garden of Eden, God Gave marriage, and Satan came up with the idea we have today of premarital sex and trial marriages. When God came up with the Sabbath to honour Him, Satan twisted and misconstrued the word until most Christians in the world today are unconsciously breaking God’s holy Sabbath every week, without even realising it. And God in His mercy had to send the Naked TRUTH down into town!
Then of course, some people say, it doesn't really matter which day you keep. Any day of the seven is ok! Well, suppose you have seven lovely daughters and I was young and single and came up to you and said, “Sir, I want to marry one of your daughters.” And you turned to me and said, “Which one?” So I replied, “Well, any one!” You'd go and get the shotgun and run me out of the house, wouldn't you?
God did not say, keep A Sabbath. He said, keep THE sabbath. Now if I said to you, “Bring me A book”, you'd bring me just any book. But if I said, “Bring me THE book”, you’d know very clearly that I was referring to a specific book, isn't that right?
The Bible says in:
“THE seventh day is THE Sabbath of the Lord your God. In IT you shall not do any work, …” (and so on.)
God is very specific about which day to keep.
I’d like to demonstrate the fact that the seventh day, the Sabbath day, is different from the rest. I want you to imagine that there are seven drinking glasses in front of you, each filled 2/3 full with water and representing the seven days of the week. One, two, three, four, five, six, Sabbath.
The Bible tells us that on the first day of creation week God made light.
Now all these glasses of water, representing the 7 days of the week, they all look pretty much alike don't they? And when I look at them, I can see why people say, well, what difference does a day make? Isn't one day like another?
But you know friends, there were some things that God did to the 7th Day that he didn't do to any other day. We see these things in the Fourth Commandment in...
And so God said, I've done something very special to the Sabbath day. And friends, when you hold up that seventh glass, it's different from all the others. You can see the difference. You can taste the difference. It's sweet! I can hardly wait from one Sabbath to another for the blessing that God gives in His special day.
You know, the devil has fooled a lot of people for a long, long time. A lot of people have been drinking out of that first day glass, that Sunday glass, for a long time. And they’ve been drinking and drinking but they don't realise friends, what they've been missing out on.
People come to me and say, “How is it that now I keep the Sabbath I get a blessing I never seemed to get before?” Well that's easy, because God blessed that day. There's a special blessing in that day that is in no other day.
Friends, I’d like to ask you to pray quietly to yourselves while I show you some things. Ask God to help you be honest enough to open your mind to listen to what God says from the Bible and the different churches, and to give you the strength to do what He asks us to do from the Bible. Some of you may see statements here from the Bible and the churches today that you never thought you'd see in all the days of your life.
Now we know that God created marriage in the Garden of Eden. He also created the Sabbath in Eden too, before there was ever such a thing as a Jew.
Now we've already read this, but I’d just like to look at some of these things again. It says in Genesis 2 verse 2 that...
“God rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.”
And Mark 2 verse 27 says...
“The Sabbath was made for man, …”
M.A.N. What does that spell? That does not spell Jew. And if anybody thinks it does, then you'd better put your wives away because...
“…. but woman (was created) for the man.”
M.A.N. We understand that the woman was created for ALL mankind, not just the Jews. And so it is with the Sabbath. It was made for ALL mankind. And then it says in...
“God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it, because in it He had rested from all His work which God had created and made.”
God did it and man can't change it.
Now, way out there in the Sinai Wilderness, God gave food, or manna to the people, to remind them of the weekly Sabbath.
Some people say, “Well that reminder about the Sabbath was only for the Jews and it didn't start until Mount Sinai.”
Interestingly enough though, Mount Sinai is in chapter 19 of the book of Exodus, and the story about the manna is 3 chapters earlier, in chapter 16 of Exodus. The manna, or bread as it is sometimes called, started well before they ever got to Mount Sinai, and that manna fell down every day of the week except on the Sabbath. Every time it fell, that was a miracle.
“Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will be none.”
When it didn't fall on the Sabbath, that was another miracle. Now if people got lazy, and on the third day of the week decided to gather a double lot of manna to last for the 4th day too, the Bible says that worms got into it and it stank. But when they gathered extra on the sixth day of the week for the Sabbath as well, it stayed sweet and fresh. Another miracle.
“The children of Israel ate manna forty years, until they came to an inhabited land; they ate manna until they came to the border of the land of Canaan.”
So they were out there eating manna for 40 years. Now let's see what we read here from verses 27 to 30.
“Now it happened that some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather, but they found none. And the Lord said to Moses, ‘How long do you refuse to keep (My what?) My Commandments and My laws? See, for the Lord has given you the Sabbath, therefore He gives you on the sixth day bread for two days. Let every man remain in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh day.”
Friends, these miracles were performed every week for 40 years.
So here it is, some - MATHS NUMBERS
They received manna for 40 years.
Multiply that by 52 weeks in a year and we get 2080 weeks and therefore 2080 Sabbaths.
Then there were 3 miracles for each Sabbath.
Firstly, a double amount of manna fell on Friday.
Secondly, no manna at all fell on Sabbath. (and)
Thirdly, the manna that was kept over for use on the Sabbath, did not go rotten as it did on the other days.
So if we multiply the 2080 Sabbaths by the 3 miracles for each Sabbath, we finish up with 6240 miracles that God used to re-establish his weekly Sabbath.
And as God said in verse 4 of that same chapter 16 of Exodus, “I've done it to see if they will walk in My law or not.” So when somebody tells you the Sabbath started at Mount Sinai, friends, you tell them kindly to go and read their Bible.
So there it is. In chapter 16 God used the miracle of the manna to remind people about the Sabbath. In chapter 19 they came to Mount Sinai, then in chapter 20, God actually wrote it down, engraved in stone in the Ten Commandments, to help them to remember.
In the fourth commandment in...
“REMEMBER the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”
Now what about Jesus and the Sabbath?
“So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.”
So it was the custom of Jesus to keep the Sabbath. In fact in...
“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.” (Which means to carry them out.)
Jesus said, ‘I haven't come to destroy the Law. I haven't come to destroy the fourth commandment about the Sabbath, just as I haven't come to destroy any of the ten commandment laws.’
And there's the whole statement again in...
“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. (Then Jesus said) For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.”
So Jesus said that not even a dot above an ‘i’ will be removed from the Ten Commandments till heaven and earth pass away. And have heaven and earth passed away? No way! You’ve just got to walk out the door friends and put your feet on the ground and look up into the sky to know that the heaven and earth are still there. So every one of the Ten Commandments are still valid today. Every one!
In Acts 17 and verse 2 the Bible says that Paul was in the habit of going to church on the Sabbath.
“Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures.”
And that was well after Jesus died and rose again. And if you take the time to read from chapter 13 to chapter 18 in the book of Acts you will find that Paul kept the Sabbath 84 times in those chapters alone. Paul kept God’s Sabbath day wherever he went...
Now many people who go to church on Sunday, say that the days must have got mixed up because they go to church on the Sunday now, and not on the Saturday. Well they don't really believe the days got mixed up because they keep Easter on Good Friday, Easter Saturday, and Easter Sunday. Please look at these verses about after Jesus died on the cross on Good Friday.
Mark 15 and verse 42 and 43 say this about the Sabbath.
“Now when evening had come, because it was the Preparation Day, that is, the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea… went in to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.”
And then it says a few verses later in...
“Now when the Sabbath was past (or gone) …. very early in the morning, on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen.”
So we notice that there is the Preparation Day, then the Sabbath day, and next comes the first day of the week.
Let's look at how the New English Version of the Bible puts it. It should be pretty reliable because the preface tells us that the New English Bible (was) “… translated from the Greek into the English by the Baptists, the Church of England, the Church of Scotland, the Congregationalists, the Church of Wales, the Society of Friends, the Methodists, the Presbyterians, the United Church Council in Ireland as well as the British and Foreign Bible Society and also the National Bible Society of Scotland.”
So here we read in the New English Bible from Luke 23 and starting at verse 54 through to Luke 24 verse 1.
“It was Friday, and the Sabbath was about to begin. The women who had accompanied Him from Galilee followed; they took note of the tomb and observed how His body was laid. Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes; and on the Sabbath day they rested in obedience to the Commandment. But on the Sunday morning very early they came to the tomb bringing the spices they had prepared.”
Well, obviously the days haven't been mixed up. Almost everyone in the world agrees that Jesus was crucified on Good what? Good Friday! And almost the whole world agrees that Jesus was raised from the dead on Easter what? Easter Sunday! and the Bible calls Sunday the FIRST day of the week, not the SEVENTH.
Well, the Bible says that the Sabbath is the day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. That's the Sabbath day according to the Commandments. The Bible says that. “And on the Sabbath day they rested according to the commandment.” So in between Friday and Sunday is the Sabbath! It's like the filling between the two slices of bread, it's the best part!
Some people say, “But we keep Sunday in honour of His resurrection.”
And so would I friends, if He told me to. But I can't find a single text that tells me to keep Sunday in honour of His death or resurrection. But, does Jesus want us to forget His death and resurrection? Not at all friends.
Firstly, about His death. In nearly every church there's a table down the front that often has these words carved into it.
THIS DO IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME.
Do what? Keep the communion! Jesus gave communion as a memorial of His death. There it is in 1st Corinthians 11 V 24 and 26.
“All of us who have been baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into His death. We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”
So Jesus gave communion and baptism as the memorials of His death, burial and resurrection, not Sunday friends. Now...
“I was in the spirit on the Lord’s Day.”
Some people find that one text and say, “There it is. That proves it!” Well friends, you'll find that there's not one single text in the Bible that tells us that the Lord's day is Sunday or the first day of the week. Surprised? So was I. So, does the Lord have a day? He certainly does.
“The Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath.”
In...
“The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God.”
And that's right in the Ten Commandments. So the Lord's Day is not Sunday, the first day, but it is the seventh day, Saturday, the Sabbath day.
“If you keep the Sabbath holy, not having your own fun and business on that day, but enjoying the Sabbath and speaking of it with delight as the Lord's holy day, and honouring the Lord in what you do, not following your own desires and pleasure, nor talking idly, then the Lord will be your delight.”
So the Sabbath is the Lord's holy day, not Sunday.
Now would you like to know where calling Sunday the Lord's Day came from? I’d like to show you. But before we do that, I’d like to consider a question that people ask.
“When does the Sabbath day start?” Does it start at midnight on Friday night when we are all asleep? No!
What does the Bible say? It starts at sunset Friday. Gods 24-hour day was always from evening to evening. With God’s day, the evening comes first.
We'll let the Bible explain that.
So the evening comes first and then comes the daytime.
Now another verse in Leviticus, chapter 23 verse 32. Now this verse was talking about one of the ceremonial sabbaths, but it's still the same as the weekly Sabbath, in that it was kept from evening to evening.
“It shall be to you a sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict your souls; on the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening, you shall celebrate your sabbath.”
“From evening to evening you shall celebrate your sabbath.”
Question: When does evening start?
Answer: At sunset!
“At evening, when the sun had set, they brought to Him all who were sick and all who were demon possessed.”
The sun, friends, is God’s great clock. When the sun sets, the old day has finished and a new day is starting. The ancient Romans, humans, decided to start the day at midnight. So according to our man-made clocks, the old day finishes at midnight, when we are sound asleep. And the new day starts at midnight, when we're sound asleep. It's not a very good way to celebrate the end of the old day and the start of the new day is it? -- When everyone is snoring their heads off.
God’s great clock, from sunset to sunset, is very good.
Now a few minutes ago we saw from the Bible that the Lord's day, the Lord's holy day, is the Sabbath or Saturday, not Sunday. So where did calling Sunday the Lord's Day come from? I'll show you.
“In the year 325, (that's about 300 years after Christ) Silvester, the bishop of Rome from 314 to 357 A.D., officially changed the title of the first day, calling it the Lord's Day.”
Then in the book...
Rabanus Maurus said in Book 2, chapter 46:
“In 325 A.D. (that’s the same year we just mentioned, about 300 years after Christ,) Pope Sylvester commanded that the first day of the week be called the Lord's Day because the Lord rose on that day, and he (Pope Sylvester) ordered that the rest of the Sabbath, (that means the Sabbath rest), would better be transferred to the Lord's Day, so that we should leave that day free of worldly works in order to praise God.”
Surprised? I was too! God sends light, not to embarrass but to enlighten and save.
How did it get to be called the Lord's Day? A Catholic pope named it the Lord's Day hundreds of years after Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and all the rest were dead and gone.
Under the Sabbath heading on the website you'll find a half hour talk called ‘Who changed the Bible Sabbath to Sunday?’. It is the documented history of how the Papacy proudly changed God’s day to Sunday, and how almost every Protestant has simply followed like sheep.
There's also a little book called ‘Rome’s Challenge - Why do Protestants keep Sunday?’ Over 25 pages of information, put out by the Catholic Mirror back in 1893. They are actually very proud of themselves, that the Papacy changed the day of worship from God’s day, the Sabbath, to Sunday, the day kept by the sun worshippers. The statements are very interesting and disturbing, put out by the Papacy. You can read it online or print it out – ‘Rome's Challenge’ in the website SABBATH section.
Alright, let's go on. We're going to read some statements from different churches and if you go to a good library you can check them for yourselves.
First the Church of England.
page 131, Doctor HJ Flowers (says):
“The Sabbath is commanded to be kept on the seventh day. It could not be kept on any other day.”
But friends, which day does the Church of England keep today, not the Sabbath, but Sunday. Then in the ….
page 127 (it says):
“Is there any command in the New Testament to change the day of weekly rest from Saturday to Sunday? None.”
Now, from ‘The Confessions of Faith of the United Brethren’. this is what they say...
pages 57, 58:
“The obligation to obey the fourth commandment is as perpetual, binding and universal as it is to obey the first commandment. The Holy Scriptures alone teach the way and the only way to salvation. We recognise no other standard.”
But do they practice what they preach? Do they obey the fourth commandment? Sad to say, no! Now Methodists...
page 61 by Clovis G Chappell:
“The reason we observe the first day instead of the seventh is based on no positive command. One will search the Scriptures in vain for authority for changing from the seventh day to the first day of the week.”
Surprised?
“Jesus observed the Hebrew Sabbath which was from sunset Friday to sunset on Saturday. Strictly speaking, the Sabbath means Saturday.”
“There is no command in the Bible to keep Sunday as the day of rest. Why do we keep Sunday? The seventh day is not the first.”
“If you tell me that the provisions for the Sabbath, Saturday, are brought over to Sunday, then I will challenge you to show me one proof passage, one word of the Bible to prove this.”
And friends, I'm saying this kindly, I ask you to think about it. It is not there.
(Let's hear what the Congregationalists have to say. Dr Lyman Abbott writes in the) CHRISTIAN UNION. Dr Lyman Abbott.
“The current notion that Christ and his Apostles authoritatively substituted the first day for the seventh, is absolutely without any authority in the New Testament.”
And on pages 106 and 107 of the book ‘The Ten Commandments’, RW Dale, Doctor of Divinity, says...
page 106,107 RW Dale DD:
“It is quite clear that, however rigidly or devoutly we may spend Sunday, we are not keeping the Sabbath. The Sabbath was founded on a specific, divine command. We can plead no such command for the observance of Sunday.”
(Another, a Presbyterian. You'll notice we're covering the field friends.) Dr Donald Fraser:
“There is not the slightest evidence that our Lord or His Apostles regarded, or taught others to regard, the first day of the week.”
But which day do the Presbyterians keep? Sunday. Another Presbyterian writes in the book...
pages 474,475:
“The Sabbath is part of the decalogue, the Ten Commandments. This alone forever settles the question as to the perpetuity of the institution. Until, therefore, it can be shown that the whole moral law has been repealed, or withdrawn, the Sabbath will stand … The teaching of Christ confirms the perpetuity (or permanence) of the Sabbath.”
And now the Baptists. This is from Dr Edward T Hiscox the author of ‘The Baptist Manual’. He says...
“It will be said, however, that the Sabbath was transferred from the seventh to the first day of the week. Where can the record of such a transaction be found? Not in the New Testament, absolutely not.”
Isn't that something? Let's see what else he has to say in the...
“To me it seems unaccountable that Jesus, during three years intercourse with his disciples, often conversing with them on the Sabbath question, never alluded to any transference of the day: also during 40 days of his resurrection life, no such things were intimated.”
(Now the Southern Baptists. They made this clear-cut statement in the Adult Quarterly.)
“The Sabbath was established originally (long before Moses) in no special connection with the Hebrews, but as an institution for all mankind, in commemoration of God’s rest after six days of creation. It was designed for all the descendants of Adam.”
Isn't that clear? That's what the Southern Baptists say about the Sabbath.
What about the Churches of Christ now?
pages 17-19: (In their article on ‘First-Day Observance’ on pages 17 to 19 we read)
“The first day of the week is commonly called the Sabbath. This is a mistake. The Sabbath of the Bible was the day just preceding the first day of the week. The first day of the week is never called the Sabbath anywhere in the entire Scriptures. It is also an error to talk about the change of the Sabbath. There never was any change of the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. There is not in any place in the Bible any intimation of such a change.”
That's what the Churches of Christ have to say. Now, the …
page 47: (The famous preacher DL Moody is writing here.)
“The Sabbath was binding in Eden, and it has been in force ever since. The fourth commandment begins with the word ‘Remember’, showing that the Sabbath already existed before God wrote the Law on the tables of stone at Sinai. How can men claim that this one commandment has been done away with when they will admit that the other nine are still binding?”
Now Ray Archer didn't say that friends. They are the words of the famous preacher Dwight L Moody.
What about the Brethren? That was the church I used to belong to when I was a kid.
page 281:
“With the views of the law and the Sabbath we once held, and which are still held by perhaps the great majority of the most earnest Christians, we confess that we could not answer Adventists. What is more, neither before or since have I heard or read what would conclusively answer an Adventist in his Scriptural contention that the seventh day is the Sabbath (Exodus 20:10). It is not ‘one day in seven’ as some put it, but ‘the Seventh Day according to the commandment’.”
And friends, it’s not just the Adventists who go to church on the Sabbath. There are over 560 other denominations who go to church on God’s Sabbath day. --- Now, just a few more to go. The Mormons.
Franklin Richards and James Little pages 2-6:
“… the most positive and weighty reasons are given by the Lord to the Fathers of the house of Israel, for keeping the Sabbath day. The obligation is evidently as binding upon The Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) as it was upon their fathers, and they in like manner will reap the reward of obedience.”
That's on page 226 of their ‘Compendium of the Doctrines of the Gospel’ by Franklin Richards and James little. But do the Mormons keep God’s holy Sabbath? No, they don't either. They keep Sunday and call it the Sabbath. Even the infidels have something to say to the Christian churches who keep Sunday.
prefaced by Robert Ingersoll (Prefaced by the great atheist Robert Ingersoll. It reads, )
“Probably very few Christians are aware of the fact that what they call the Christian Sabbath, Sunday, is of pagan origin …. I challenge any priest or minister of the Christian religion to show me the slightest authority for the religious observance of Sunday. And, if such cannot be shown by them, why is it that they are constantly preaching about Sunday as a holy day? …. the claim that Sunday takes the place of Saturday …. is so utterly absurd.”
So that's what the Infidels are saying about the Sunday keeping churches. Finally, the ….
(This is from) Father T Enright, a president of Redemptionist College
“But Sunday is not the Sabbath. Any schoolboy knows that Sunday is the first day of the week … It was the Holy Catholic Church that changed the day of rest from Saturday, the seventh day, to Sunday, the first day of the week.”
And another …
“The fact however, that Christ until his death, and the apostles at least for a time after Christ's ascension, observed the Sabbath, is evidence enough that our Lord himself did not substitute ‘The Lord's Day’ for the Sabbath during his lifetime on earth.”
You know friends, after disturbing you with a program like this, I think I owe it to you, to tell you clearly, more about who changed the Sabbath, when it was changed, and by what authority, and why almost every Christian church follows the change.
For a start, here's the little book called ….
‘ROME'S CHALLENGE - WHY DO PROTESTANTS KEEP SUNDAY?’
32 pages of information, put out by the Catholic Mirror way back in 1893. They are actually very proud of themselves, that the Papacy changed the day of worship from God’s day, the Sabbath, to Sunday, the day kept by the sun worshippers. They are very interesting statements, put out by the papacy. You can read it online from our website or print it out – ‘Rome's Challenge’.
An old ex-Catholic man I used to know was speaking about how the Papacy defied God and changed the day of worship from the Sabbath, God’s day, over to Sunday, the day the sun worshippers kept. I remember him talking about Protestants. He explained how the Protestants started out well. They didn't want any man-made traditions. They wanted to follow the Bible only. Then all of a sudden they came unstuck. The Papacy said to them, “You don't like our man-made traditions? Then stop worshiping on Sunday, the day we brought in, and worship on God’s day, the Sabbath, as taught by God Himself, in your Bibles.”
So the Protestants were in trouble because they too had rejected the Bible and God on this issue. They had followed the Papacy and were keeping Sunday. I remember my old friend writing up the word Protestants on a blackboard. He spelt it like this,
PROTEST - ANTS (He said,) The Protestants have lost their PROTEST, and now they are just ANTS crawling back to Rome.
Friends, I want you to feel absolutely at ease in these programmes. Nobody is going to twist your arm and I'm not going to insult anybody because I used to keep Sunday and I understand. My grandfather was a Brethren preacher and a good one. My father was a lay preacher in the Brethren Church. I have dozens and dozens of wonderful friends in the Sunday keeping churches. So please don't feel offended. God’s TRUTH in the Bible is never sent to offend people.
Now that we've seen what the churches have to say about the importance of the Sabbath, let's have a look at a few texts from God’s book, the Bible.
“For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make…”
Now I want to pause for a minute friends.
Do we have a new heavens and a new earth now? NO SIR!
So that's still in the future isn't it? Jesus is going to set up His kingdom on our beautifully cleaned up earth.
Now Jesus is not going to take the people who love Him to heaven and keep them there forever and ever.
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”
God’s going to create a new earth. The Bible says that He's going to burn up the surface of this old earth and out of its ashes He's going to create a new earth, and the meek shall inherit the earth. And so it's still in the future isn't it?
Let's go back to the text from Isaiah 66 verses 22 and 23.
“ ‘For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before Me’, says the Lord, ‘so shall your descendants and your name remain. And it shall come to pass that from one new moon to another (that means from one new month to another because it refers to the change of the moon,) and from one Sabbath to another, all flesh shall come to worship before Me’, says the Lord.”
Do you see that friends?
Not only was the Sabbath kept in the Garden of Eden. Not only was it kept by the Jews in Israel. Not only was it kept by Jesus and His disciples. Not only is it kept by more than 563 denominations today, and countless thousands of genuine honest Christians in little home groups all around the world, and many thousands of people who have studied the Bible and may never have even gone to a church or who have left churches because they wanted to keep God’s Sabbath day, not only all of those people friends, but when we get to heaven, and beyond that to the new earth, we’re going to keep the Sabbath every Sabbath and worship before the Lord. (Isn't that good news!)
Friends, we can see that the Sabbath goes from creation right through to the new earth.
And God said in Malachi 3 verse 6...
“For I am the Lord, I do not change.”
God doesn't change His mind when He makes a promise. Well why should He change when it says in Genesis 1 verse 31, that...
“God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good.”
And the new earth is simply a continuation of the life He intended Adam and Eve to live before they sinned. All those who are with God in the new earth will have everything they had in the Garden of Eden, before sin came in.
Friends, isn't God’s word so clear? It's as clear as crystal! God’s plan has been temporarily upset by the entrance of sin and the work of the devil, but sin will soon be destroyed, and God’s going to turn the new earth over to the meek just as He intended to before man sinned, and His plan will be continued.
Some people think the Sabbath was a provision because of sin. No Sir! When God gave the Sabbath, there were only Adam and Eve and there was no sin. And there won't be any sin in the new earth either. I am so glad friends, that God’s Word is so clear!
In Ezekiel 20 verse 12 in the Living Bible, God says...
“And I gave them the Sabbath - a day of rest every seventh day - a symbol between them and Me, to remind them that it is I, the Lord, who sanctifies them, that they are truly My people.”
My friends, I know that's clear. And even though it's as clear as the sun, there are some people who say, I can't see it. Well, may God have mercy on them.
Please think carefully about it friends. God sends his TRUTH to enlighten and to save. And we are on safe ground only as long as we are doing what He asks.
We're going to read some verses from Hebrews chapter 4 in the New Testament.
Friends, look at it in the Bible before you cast the Sabbath aside. It's there in the New Testament too. The Sabbath of the Lord remains. God’s law cannot be changed.
And the Modern Language Bible says in…
“However, while God overlooked those times of ignorance, He is now summoning all people everywhere to repent.”
When we didn't know any better, God was saying, you are my child because you are doing the best you know. When you didn't know, I overlooked it, but now I command all people everywhere, to repent.
Friends, you might be upset with me for telling you these things about the Sabbath. But if you'd like to call yourself a genuine Christian, a genuine follower of Christ, then you should be spending lots of quality time in God’s guidebook, the Bible. And do you know what will happen then? You'll see all these dozens and dozens of verses about the Sabbath for yourself. I've been studying this for years and you shouldn't be upset with me. You should thank me for saving you a lot of work.
Friends, I was born into a Sunday keeping church. My Mum and Dad gave me a Bible for my 11th birthday. At age 13, I was sitting in church skimming through that Bible, and I started to notice statements about the Sabbath. Even at 13 years of age I could see a problem. I turned to my Dad beside me and I said, “Dad, God said we should go to church on the Sabbath day which is the seventh day, and the Bible shows me that’s Saturday. Why do we go to church on Sunday?” Well my Dad couldn't give me a proper answer to that. (Quietly)
In the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation, that tells of the final events that are soon to take place on this old earth, in the very last chapter, chapter 22 and verse 14, we read these wonderful and yet sobering words,
Revelation 22:14
“Blessed are those-who-do-His-Commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. (Friends that's the heavenly Jerusalem that's still to come.)
So God says, “Keep My Commandments, all 10 of them including My Sabbath day, so you will have the right to the tree of life."
I want to tell you a true story.
A New Guinea native heard the good news about Jesus and decided to follow Jesus all the way. So he decided to go to church on Sabbath instead of Sunday. Some of his Sunday keeping friends said to him, “Why don't you join our church and keep Sunday in honour of His resurrection? You'll get promoted too and soon you'll be one of the leaders in the church. And it doesn't really matter which day we keep, one day’s as good as the other. And in the Judgement it probably won't matter anyway.”
Then, our Sabbath-keeping friend replied...
“If in the Judgement, God asks me why I felt I had to keep the Sabbath, I'll tell Him I was following the men I loved, the great Bible patriarchs, and the prophets, and Adam and Eve, and in the New Testament, Jesus and the disciples and so on. But if in the Judgement, God asks you why you kept Sunday, who will you say you were following?” And friends, it's a good question isn't it!
It comes down to this, friends, …
“Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
Next Saturday friends, I have an appointment with God.
“As for me and my house, (with God’s help) we will serve the Lord”.
Following God, and keeping His Commandments, is infinitely more important than following along with a bunch of friends who are not keeping all of God’s Commandments.
Now just for a moment, I’d like to line up for you some of the most prominent Sabbath keepers. There's Adam and Eve, and there's Isaac and Moses, the patriarchs, the prophets. I see Jesus and the disciples. I see the apostles. I see thousands upon thousands of men and women as we go down through the ages, many who have actually given their lives for the Sabbath. There they stand.
Now on the other side I see those who keep Sunday. I see those who boast that they changed the Bible Sabbath to Sunday. I see hundreds and hundreds of ministers who in all sincerity have thought that Sunday was the right day but they never really checked on it. I also see many thousands of ministers who have refused to tell people the TRUTH about the Sabbath because they were more worried about losing their jobs and the almighty dollar than following God. I see millions of lay men and women, who have simply kept Sunday because they have been brought up that way. And I used to keep Sunday too. In fact I went to church over 2,000 times on Sundays, morning, noon and night.
Now as I look at these two groups of people, some who keep the Sabbath, and some who keep Sunday, I'm a bit tempted to follow the Sunday side friends, because it seems to be the easy road to follow. It's very popular. But just before I make my final decision, I have one last look at the Sabbath keeping side? And do you know who's there friends?
Picture of Jesus on the Cross Jesus Himself, and He's holding out His nail scarred hands and He says, “Ray, if you love Me, keep My Commandments.” And I want to tell you friends, that's settled it for me, because deep down in my heart, I want to be like my Saviour and I know that deep down in your heart, you want to be like Him too.
God is asking each one of us to make a personal decision to follow Him, all the way. Please bow your heads with me in prayer.
Dear Father, we thank You for the wonderful truths You reveal to us out of Your Holy Scriptures. We thank You for the Sabbath that You gave us at the end of creation week as a memorial of Your creative power. We thank You for every dear person who is listening now. Some are already keeping the Sabbath day holy, and some who have not kept it before, are wanting to follow You all the way – all the way. Please bless these dear people and give them the faith, and the strength, and the courage that they need to follow You. Thank You Father for the genuineness and honesty of each person listening.
We love You and we want to keep Your Commandments, all 10 of them. And we ask for Your help to do what is right, as our love for You grows. In the name of Jesus,
Amen.
Friends, if you have been blessed and challenged by this message, then please take time now to send it on to your friends. Thank you.
Thank You,
Ray Archer
The words of this little book guarantee a reduction in stress and depression, and an increase in happiness and good attitude in life, whether you are an atheist, agnostic, Christian, or someone searching for meaning in life.
Best wishes for ‘A Better Life’ – guaranteed!