♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Good evening, friends, and welcome again to "The Last Day of Prophecy" seminar, dealing with some very important topics relating to Bible prophecy and, well, the end of the world. I'd like to welcome those here in Charlotte, North Carolina. Thank you for joining us again this evening. And, of course, our friends also watching across the country and around the world, a very warm and special welcome to you as well. You know, friends, we've got some good news. We have more than 2,000 different groups gathering around the world literally who are participating in this seminar. And, of course, we're glad we have an extended audience, an extended study family that's watching all over the world. Now, if this is the first time that you're joining us, this is just part two of a seven part series, so I want to encourage you to keep coming to all of the different presentations. There are some seminar materials that we want to make sure you receive here in Charlotte, and also those who are watching. If you want to take a look at the website, lastdayofprophecy, you can click on the link that says Material, and you can download the studies and follow along with us right here as we study together.
We have a theme song that we like to sing at the beginning of each of our programs together. The song is called "Jesus Will Come on Time." I invite you to stand, and Charles and Kelly will lead us as we sing together. The words should be on the screen, "Jesus Will Come on Time."
♪ ♪ Jesus will come on time
♪ ♪ Yes, He will come on time
♪ ♪ Doubters will talk and scoffers mock
♪ ♪ babbling without rhyme or reason
♪ ♪ His promises are true
♪ ♪ He will remember you
♪ ♪ The clock of prophecy will chime
♪ ♪ Up Jacob's ladder we will climb
♪ ♪ In brilliant glory so sublime
♪ ♪ Our God will come on time
♪ ♪ Yes, Jesus will come on time ♪
That's very nice, let's pick it up now.
♪ ♪ Jesus will come on time
♪ ♪ Yes, he will come on time
♪ ♪ Doubters may talk and scoffers mock
♪ ♪ babbling without rhyme or reason
♪ ♪ His promises are true, and he will remember you
♪ ♪ Now, the clock of prophecy will chime
♪ ♪ Up Jacob's ladder we will climb
♪ ♪ In brilliant glory so sublime
♪ ♪ Our God will come on time
♪ ♪ Yes, Jesus will come on time
♪ Repeat Jesus now.
♪ Jesus will come on time
♪ (Charles) What he will do?
♪ Jesus will come on time ♪♪
Amen, amen. Pastor Brian Alberg will be having our prayer. Let's just stand as we ask God's blessing on this program.
Let's open up our minds and open up our hearts together. Our Father in heaven, tonight we thank you that you have carried us through this day. We thank You for the privilege to be in this place and to focus now upon Your word. We acknowledge Your presence, and we ask that You will mingle in our thoughts and our outlook tonight as the Scripture comes alive for each one of us. We praise You and thank You in Jesus' name, amen.
(Jean Ross) Amen, all right. Please be seated. At this time, I'd like to invite our speaker for the series, speaker, director of "Amazing Facts," Pastor Doug Batchelor. We are so glad that he is here as part of this program, and sharing with us from night to night. Pastor Doug, this is night number two, and we are delighted to be in Charlotte.
Amen. Thank you so much. We're delighted to be here too. Thank you, Pastor Ross. Thank you, Charles and Kelly, and Pastor Brian. And it is good to be here with you in Charlotte. What a beautiful day, the sun has been out, and the pollen is in the air, and I've been sneezing, and spring has arrived. Thank you so much for coming. You know, this is one of the first times just about I can remember in 30 years of public seminars like this we started on a Monday. And we appreciate your faithfulness, and we're so glad that you're here. We're going to be talking about some very important things.
And you know, before I get into the study for tonight, I just want to take a minute and acknowledge and recognize the crew that has done so much incredible work in setting this up and building a beautiful stage. And the 3ABN team has been doing just a marvelous job. It's a joy to work with them, and I just want to recognize them and thank them for all their hard work. You look at what's happening behind the scenes, matter of fact, we've got some people going around with cameras that are video-taping reality public evangelism. And so, who knows, we might start a series. No, I'm just kidding. But they are taping it, so we might make a half an hour show and show you what goes on behind the scenes to put a program like this together.
Well, we're going to be talking about the last day of prophecy. And our presentation tonight is dealing with the lost day of history. And we're going to be sharing with you some things. I want to ask you to begin with, we've only known each other a couple of nights, but I hope we're friends. And we've made it very clear from the advertising this is a Bible seminar. So, you're not afraid for me teaching from the Bible, I assume. And I'm going to tell you the truth. I'm going to tell you what the Word of God says because we're too short on time. All you have to do is look at the news in the last 24 hours and you can tell that the world is in bad shape. And we need to know what the prophecies say. Jesus has given us some truth. There's a lot of stress and trouble in this world, and God wants you to know how you can have real peace and rest. That's why Jesus came. He says, "Come unto me, and I will give you rest."
Well, I've got an amazing fact. I always like to start every program with a little amazing fact. And our amazing fact tonight is about someone who ran for president-- or he actually was a president that you probably never heard of. His name was David Rice Atchison. You ever heard of him? Well, let me tell you how this happened. James Polk, in 1849, concluded his term as president. He finished on Saturday. Zachary Taylor was supposed to take over on Sunday. Taylor did not want to be inaugurated on Sunday because of his religious beliefs, but America cannot be without a president. So, what happened is the president pro tem of the senate, who was David Rice Atchison, was the next in line to fill in as president. But he had worked so hard in preparing for the final bills they had to get through congress and wrapping things up from the Polk administration, that he was so exhausted Saturday night that when he finally fell asleep, he slept for 20 hours, sleeping through his entire presidency, and snoring much of the time. It's a true story. Can you imagine being president for one day and missing it? Wouldn't that be sad? He boasted the rest of his life, he said, "I want you folks to know I had the most honest and economical administration of any president." President for a day. He was so tired that he slept.
Well, we're going to be dealing with some questions in our study tonight. And first I want you to be thinking about something that's connected with what we discussed last night. We talked about the cycles of prophecy, and here's question number one in our presentation. From where do we get a 7-day week? We talked about the cycles of prophecy, and we showed you all the cycles through Genesis all the way to Revelation. You know what the Bible says? Second chapter, Genesis chapter 2, you can read the first few verses, it says, "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, "and all the host of them. "And on the seventh day God ended His work "which He had made, and He rested on the seventh day." Because in it, God-- He blessed the seventh day and He sanctified it, "Because in it He rested from all the work that God created and that He made."
So, right there in the beginning of the Bible, God creates the world in 6 days, but how many days do we have in a week? We have 7 days in a week. God made an extra day for a purpose of worship. And it's interesting, no matter where you go in the world right now, you'll find that they've got a seven day week. I don't know if you caught something there in Genesis chapter 2, the first verse. The first time you find any number mentioned three times in the Bible, it's seven. It says the seventh day, the seventh day, the seventh day there in the beginning of Genesis chapter two. At the end of the Bible, there's another number that stands out. What number is that? Six six six. Seven is a number for God. It's called the perfect number. Man was made on the sixth day, it is a number for man. You'll notice it says in Revelation chapter 13, speaking of the mark of the beast and the number 666, it says it is the number of a man.
So, in the last age, you have a conflict between worshipping God and worshipping man. Remember what Peter said? "We ought to obey God rather than man." And so, this theme of this battle between good and evil, the devil wanting worship and God saying, "You'll never be fulfilled unless you worship me," you see it playing out. Now, even in space, you can understand why we have a year with about 364 and one quarter days. It's because that's how long it takes the earth to make a circuit around the sun, right? All of the empires of the world had a year with about the same amount of time because they could look up in the sky and see this pattern. And virtually all of the ancient calendars had a month. They had somewhere between 27 and 30 days because of the lunar cycle. That's where you get the word "month," it's from moon. And our day has 24 hours because it takes the day-- the earth 24 hours to rotate on its axis.
Now, here's your question. All of the world today celebrates a 7-day week, and it didn't just begin with the Jewish people. Where do we get a 7-day week from? Mathematical, there's nothing in the sun, moon, or stars that gives you a 7-day week. Only thing that the world can trace it to is in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And yet it carries on. I worked with the Native Americans for about a year and a half, and I remember some of my Sioux and Navajo friends say, "Oh yeah, long before the bilagaana came," the white man, they said, "we had a 7-day week." I thought that was so fascinating. Where do they get it? The only place you can trace it is back to the beginning.
Our question number two, did God make the Sabbath rest only for Israelites? No, there's a number of Scriptures that bear this out. For instance, you can read where Jesus says in Mark chapter 2, verse 2, he said, "The Sabbath was made for man." Now, how do you spell Jew, M-A-N? No, man means mankind. And he went on to say, "Not man for the Sabbath," meaning man was made first, and the Sabbath was made to be a blessing for man. And then you can read again where it--by the way, you know, I should probably pause here and mention, why did God make another day? He made everything in 6 days, but we have a 7-day week. Why don't we have a 6-day week? Because time is the stuff that life is made of. It's not in the Bible, that's Benjamin Franklin, but it's true.
You cannot love without time. All love relationships need time. If people are not spending time together, the relationship suffers. You all still with me on that? So, after God makes man, then He makes another day for what you call quality time. And my dear wife sitting down front here will testify that quality time is different from time being in the same building. Sometimes she'll say, "Doug, we're not spending any time together." And I'll say, "I was home all day yesterday." "You were in the office." "Well, I was here." She says, "It's not the same thing. We need to spend time together."
Well, you know what that means, right? Communicating. You can't love without knowing somebody. You can't know somebody without talking to them, and them talking to you, having experiences together, time together. You can't serve God if you don't love Him. You won't love Him unless you have a relationship with Him. The whole purpose of that seventh day is about a love relationship with God and resting in the Lord. And yet this is what you would call the gorilla in the room for Christianity. It is something that is being lost and people are suffering because of it and they're just working themselves to death. It's called the Sabbath truth.
Is the Sabbath just for Jews? No, you can read in Isaiah chapter 56, it says, "And also the sons of the stranger, "that join themselves to the Lord, to serve him, "and to love the name of the Lord, them also I will-- "to be his servants, everyone that keeps the Sabbath from polluting it." He's talking about the sons of the stranger. These are people who are not Jews that joined to the Lord, that keep the Sabbath, "Take hold of my covenant." It says, "Even them I will bring to my holy mountain "and make them joyful in my house of prayer. "For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations." For one nation? Remember when Jesus drove the money changers out of the temple? He quoted from this verse. It's for everybody. That's why it even says in the commandment that everybody's supposed to rest. It says, "I'll bring them to My holy mountain."
Does this world need some rest now? You know, stress is considered one of the most deadly things that is happening to our society. I just had a few statistics here I thought I'd share with you. Forty-three percent of all adults-- that'd be even in this room-- suffer adverse health effects from stress. At least 75% of all physician office visits are attributed to stress-related ailments according to the American Psychological Association. Stress is linked to the six leading causes of death in the United States, namely heart disease, cancer, lung ailments, accidents, cirrhosis of the liver, and suicide. And you know, one of the number-one selling medications are dealing with stress and digestion, acid, indigestion, and all of this is often stress related. And maybe we forgot how to relax.
You know, I heard one time about these two country towns decided to have a competition. They each picked the strongest man, and they had a wood cutting competition. Whichever man, from sunup to sundown, could cut the most wood, that town was going to win this bet. I don't know what brought it all on, but anyways, so they went out to a piece of the woods, and each man sectioned off a piece of woods, and they started early in the morning, they blew the whistle, and they began to chop trees and cut wood. And this is back before they had chainsaws. And one man was working furiously all day long. He was supposed to be full of energy and very strong. And he was irritated because he saw his challenger sitting down several times, eating lunch, drinking water, because at the end of the day, he thought for sure he'd be way ahead, and his challenger won. He said, "How in the world could you win?" He said, "I worked straight through all day long without taking a break." And he said, "You kept sitting down. How?" He said, "Well, you thought I was just sitting down." He said, "Every time I sat down and took a drink," he said, "I sharpened my axe." You know, there's a Scripture that says that. If the axe is dull, it causes more work. And God designed--you know, you're a lot sharper after rest, and you can get more done when you're rested. And it's destroying families, it's destroying health and relationships. Stress. And that's part of the reason for the Sabbath truth.
Number three, how has God honored this lost day of history? By the way, if you haven't figured it out yet, when we talk about the last day of prophecy, the last day of prophecy is connected with the Sabbath truth. We showed you the millennial Sabbath last night and how this all ties in. You stay with us, friends, you're going to hear some amazing things. I promise you it will all be from the Bible, and it will change your life in a positive way. So, how does God honor this lost day of history? Answer, He says--we'll read this right out of the Bible. If you go in your Bibles to the book of Exodus-- I've been holding my Bible like a prop, and I've not been reading to you from it because I got all the Scriptures up on the screen. Exodus chapter 20 is where you find the Ten Commandments. You'll also find them in Deuteronomy chapter 5, and Jesus quotes various ones, and Paul in the New Testament. But if you look at verse 8, it says, "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. "Six days you shall labor and do all of your work, "but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Jews." It's the Sabbath of the Lord your God. "In it, you shall do no work, "you or your son or your daughter, or your male servant or your--" It doesn't matter what country they're from or what nation. "Your male servant or your female servant, or your cattle." God cares even about the cattle resting. "Or the stranger, the alien within your gates." Why? "For in six days, the Lord made the heavens, "and the earth, and the sea, "and all that is in them, and He rested the seventh day. "Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and He hallowed it."
You notice He starts out and He says, "Remember it," meaning it existed before, "and keep it," meaning it's something He established, and He wants us to keep it. If you come over to my house and it's winter time and I say, "Look, I've got to run to town, can you keep my fire going?" "Sure, Doug." And I take off. Town's 20 miles away, and you go to check the stove, and there's no coals, there's no fire in the stove. And you're thinking, "Why did Doug tell me to keep the fire going? There's no fire." The very fact I said keep the fire going means I've got the fire going. You just keep stoking it, right? So, when God says keep the Sabbath day holy, it's because back in Genesis, He said, "I blessed it, and I made it holy." And He wants us to keep that, because man has a tendency to forget. Yes, even His own people in the Old Testament and in the New Testament forget. And when God tells us to remember, it's because He knew we would forget. And that's what's happened to our society again today.
All right, let's get back on here with this. So, you heard me read that to you. And so, God did several things. He rested on that day, He blessed the Sabbath day, and He made it holy. He sanctified it. Now, that's very important to remember, because what He did with that day He wants to do with us. Now, let me show you what I mean by that. Jesus says in Matthew chapter 19, "Whosoever--" I'm sorry, Matthew 5:19, "Whosoever therefore shall break one of the least "of these commandments, and teach men so, he will be called least in the kingdom of heaven." By the way, Christ has been quoting in the Sermon on the Mount, from the Ten Commandments. He said, "You've heard it said by them of old you shall not commit adultery." What's he quoting? Ten Commandments. And He quotes it in several places there. And so He said, "Whoever breaks one of the least "of these commandments and teaches men so, "they will be called or spoken of "as the least in the kingdom of heaven. But whosoever will do and teach them--"
Now, friends, if you say, "Pastor Doug, why are you talking about the Sabbath?" Jesus said, "Whoever does and teaches I will call great in the kingdom of heaven." So, I hope you're not offended, but I'm just trying to do what Jesus tells me to do. He wants us to do it, and He wants us to teach it. We should never be ashamed of talking about the Ten Commandments. Kind of sad that in Christian churches today that people in some churches are uncomfortable talking about this subject because it's been neglected. But it's one of the Ten Commandments. And it's hurting us that we're forgetting about it.
Number four, of what two precious things does God say that the Sabbath is a sign? Now, here's from Ezekiel 20, verse 12. It says, "I gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctifies them." Now, do we still need sanctifying today? All right, so He gives it to us for that reason. Is that still important? Furthermore, it says in Exodus chapter 31, it says, "It will be a sign between Me "and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made." It's a sign of His creative ability. Do we still need the Lord to create within us new hearts? So, it's a sign of His ability to sanctify, it's a sign of His ability, His power to create. A lot of people in the world today doubt that God created. I still believe what the Bible says, that the Lord created. I don't think that the whole universe is an accident. There'd be no purpose to life. Every Sabbath, we're remembering the divine creation. It says it's a sign.
Number five, which day did Jesus keep? Now, what is a Christian? Is a Christian a follower of Christians? Is a Christian a follower of churches? Or is a Christian a follower of Christ? So, what's the example of Jesus? If you do what Jesus does, you're saved. Can you say amen? What day did He keep as holy? You can read in Luke chapter 4, verse 16, "He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up, and as His custom was--" What's a custom? Something you do once or twice in your life, or is it a regular pattern? "As His custom was, "He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and He stood up to read the Scriptures." Now, Jesus from His youth, He went to church every week, and He read the Bible, and this was His custom. And that was the practice in the Old Testament and in the New Testament.
Number six, what was Paul's custom? We're going to look at some of the other great leaders in the Bible. Paul wrote almost half of the New Testament, so what was his practice? You can read here it says in Acts chapter 17, verse 2, "As his," what's the word? "His custom was," it says. "He went to them three Sabbath days and reasoned with them out of the Scriptures." Matter of fact, if you look in the book of Acts chapter 9, when Paul begins-- before he's converted, Paul's name was Saul. And he goes to hunt down Christians. How many of you knew that in the Bible? Do you know where he goes to look for them? He goes into the synagogues to look for them. Why? Because that's where they were meeting. And that was open on Sabbath. So, the early Christians, they never understood there was anything other to do than keep the day that Jesus kept, and that was given back to man in the beginning. You know, the Bible says the Sabbath was made for man. What else was made for man? God says, "It's not good that man should be alone, therefore I will make woman." Do we still need women? Do we need what God made for man? Then maybe we still need the Sabbath too.
So, I got you all wrapped up in that one, didn't I? All right, number--did I read all of those verses here? Let me see, 18, "And he reasoned with them in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded not just Jews, Jews and Greeks." The word "Greek" there means Gentiles, or non-Jews. Next question, did the apostles also meet with Gentiles? Some people say, "Well, yeah, they were going to the synagogue because they were trying to convert the Jews." But the New Testament says it was their practice, not just Paul, but Peter, James, John, all of them, they met with Jews and Gentiles. Did the apostles just speak to Gentiles on the Sabbath? Answer, in Acts chapter 13, verse 42, it says, "And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, "the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath." And what happened as a result of that? It says, "And the next Sabbath, the whole city gathered together to hear the Word of God." It's not just talking about Jews, all of them came. Wherever the Christians went, through the first centuries, they met every Sabbath day. It was very clear. Acts chapter 13, verse 44, "And on the next Sabbath day, "almost the whole city came together to hear the Word of God." I guess I shared that one.
Number eight, did Jesus intend for His people to keep the Sabbath after He died for their sins? Well, you look at the prophecies that Jesus gives about the Second Coming, and He says, "Pray that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the..." Why did He say that? Looking down in time, Christ knew--He said, "Pray it's not in the winter," because if they had to flee out into the wilderness, there's not much in the fields, there's no harvest going on, it's going to be especially cold and hard. And obviously, fleeing for your life, you wouldn't want to be doing that on the Sabbath day. And so He expected His people to be remembering this on through time.
Question number nine, does the Bible teach that God's end time people would also be keeping what we call the seventh-day Sabbath holy? You can look here in Revelation chapter 12, verse 17. It says, "The dragon was wroth with the woman, and he went to make war with the remnant of her seed." And there's two outstanding characteristics in the last days of God's people in Revelation 12:17. She keeps the commandments of God. This is--the woman is a symbol for the church. The dragon is a symbol for who? The devil. The dragon is angry with this woman. That means this is--anyone the devil's mad at is good. He is angry with this woman, and why is he angry? She keeps the commandments of God and has the testimony of Jesus. That's the law and the prophets. That's the Old Testament ended, Moses and Elijah, the law and the prophets, still believes in the commandments of God.
You know why this is important, friends? You're going to find in the last days-- and I'm going repeat this a few times-- there's going to be a battle over who you worship. Right back in the beginning with Cain and Abel, they both claimed to worship the same God. Abel did it the way God told him, he brought a lamb. Cain modified things, and he brought the fruit of the ground. Abel tried to reason with his brother and said, "You need to obey God." And he said, "Look, I can do my own thing. It's a small detail." God accepted Abel's sacrifice; He did not accept Cain's sacrifice. They both were brothers, and they claimed to worship the same God, but Cain killed his brother. You've got the one-- they're both worshipping. They're both ostensibly worshipping the same God, but the one who is worshipping correctly is persecuted by the one who compromises. You've got manmade worship, and this is what's happening in Revelation. Those who do not worship the beast the way they're told are persecuted, and they can't buy or sell, and ultimately there's a death penalty. See it happening all through the Bible. But now I'm getting ahead of myself, because I'm going to be talking more about that tomorrow.
All right, so another one. Revelation 14:6, similar to Revelation 12:17, it said, "I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, "having the everlasting gospel "to preach to those who dwell on the earth, to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people." This is the gospel going in the last days, the everlasting gospel. "Saying with a loud voice, 'Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come.'" This is something that happens just before the end. And it says, "Worship Him who made the heaven and the earth, and the sea and the springs, or the fountains of water." You know, that's an exact quote form the Sabbath commandment. "For in six days the Lord made the heaven and the earth and the sea." It's saying--it's calling us in Revelation back to the worship of the beginning, the worship of the first believers, God's original plan, the worship that God designed. The Sabbath truth has been lost sight of. And these angels--now, notice what happens right after that in Revelation chapter 14, verse 12. It says, "Here is the patience of the saints; here are those that keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus." Again, right after it talks about the principle of worshipping the creator who made every Sabbath, when it says remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, it says why? "For in six days the Lord made the heaven and the earth and the sea." It's calling us back to remember our origin. What right does He have to ask us to worship Him? He owns you by creation, and He owns you by redemption. He owns you because He made you, and then He bought you back again after we were kidnapped. And so, when He says, "Worship Me," and He tells us when to worship Him.
You know, I think it's odd that-- I just want you to know, friends, I should make it very clear right here I believe that there are good, Spirit-filled, godly, loving people in many different churches. And there are people who maybe don't understand this truth, and they're going to be in heaven because they walked in the light that they had. But God wants us to know-- you know, the Bible talks about the light that grows brighter and brighter as the day approaches. God wants us to know the truth. I've preached in Baptist churches, Methodist churches, Church of Christ, Assembly of God, Nazarene, Foursquare, I can't count. Probably hundreds of different churches. And I know there are godly Christian people. I've got friends from many different persuasions. I could name several of the evangelical leaders, and we know each other on a first name basis, and good people, love the Lord.
Heaven is going to be full of people that maybe didn't understand the Sabbath truth. But, you know, as we get near the end of time, the Lord is calling His people to return to the faith that was once delivered to the saints. He wants to have His people come together on Bible religion. And some things have been lost sight of. And every truth that we lose sight of, we suffer for. And that's why He wants us to know these things, that we might be blessed. Here is the patience of the saints. Revelation 22:14, last chapter in the Bible, what does it say? "Blessed are those who do His commandments, "that they might have a right to the tree of life, "and enter in through the gates of the city. Blessed are those who--" Why am sharing this with you? Because to bring a curse, or to bring a blessing?
I was doing a seminar like this once several years ago, and lot of people in the community were coming, and one pastor was there. And I could see he was visibly upset by what I was saying. And I've been sharing this for 30 years. And the more I read the Bible, the more convinced I am it's biblical. That's all I want to know is, am I following Jesus, is it biblical? And he interrupted the program, he stood up. He said, "Brother Doug," he says, "I can't just sit here." He says, "You're putting these people under a burden of works." And I knew his name, I said, "Brother, why are you saying that?" He says, "Because you're telling them to keep the Sabbath." And he said, "You're putting them under a bondage of works." I said, "Wait a second, "I'm telling them remember the Sabbath and to rest. "You're telling them don't remember it. You're telling them to work." I said, "You're putting them under works, and I'm telling them to rest." He said, "We're under the new covenant now. We don't need to keep the Ten Commandments anymore." I said, "Let me just get that straight. Do you believe God wants us to keep the Ten Commandments?" And he said, "No." And some people gasped, and he heard them because they were members of his church. Because you know, don't kill, don't lie, don't steal, so that's okay now? And he said, "Well, yes." And then he realized, well, that would include the Sabbath. And he said, "Nine of them." This really happened. And I said, "Brother, so you're telling me "the one commandment you think we should forget is the only one that begins with the word remember." I said, "That's hard for me to understand."
It's hard for me-- I'm being very open and honest with you, friends, because when I first learned these things, I was upset. When I first came to the Lord, I went to church on Sunday, never heard about the Sabbath truth. And you know, let's face it, a lot of people, they come out of church on Sunday, they're mad if the preacher goes long because they're going to miss the football game and there's a sale at the mall and they got to mow their lawn. Even people that recognize Sunday don't really keep it as the Sabbath anymore, not too many. There are some. And I could go to just about any church in this city or around North America, and I could preach, "Honor your mother and father," and they'd all say amen. Some might be convicted, but they'd agree. And I could say, "Don't commit adultery." And several would be convicted, but they'd agree it's in the Bible, it's still a teaching. And I could go through all of the commandments and they'd say amen. And then I could say, "And remember the Sabbath day, "keep it holy. The seventh day is the Sabbath." And you'd hear, "Old covenant, works." What? I don't understand that. And this is--that's a relatively new reaction. It's just happened in the last couple hundred years.
All right, let's keep going here. I want to quote something to you from Dwight Moody to prove what I was just saying. Dwight Moody, in his book "Weighed and Wanting," page 46, he said, "I honestly believe that this commandment," speaking of the fourth commandment, "is as binding today as it ever was. "I've talked with men who say it was abrogated, "but they've never been able to point to any place "in the Bible where God repealed it. When Christ was on earth, He did nothing to set it aside." Moody was very clear it's one of the Ten Commandments, and it should still be kept. He just thought it was a different day. But recently, churches are not only saying that you shouldn't keep the Sabbath, saying, "Yeah, Saturday's the Sabbath, but we don't really need to keep a Sabbath anymore." And we're suffering from that bad theology, if you don't mind my saying so.
Number ten, will all of the saved keep the Sabbath in heaven? It says that in the Bible. You can read in Isaiah chapter 66, verse 22, "'For as the new heavens and the new earth, "that I will make, shall remain before me,' "says the Lord. "'So shall your seed and your name remain. "And it will come to pass, that from one Sabbath to another, all flesh will come to worship before Me.'" All flesh. All Jews? He's talking about everybody will come to worship before Him. And who do you think the preacher's going to be? That would be Jesus.
Now, I want you to notice that in the time of Adam, God establishes that the Sabbath is made for man. Then you got, during the time of Moses, we know that they kept it there. Then, of course, Christ and the apostles kept the Sabbath. It says we're going to keep it in heaven. Why would God not think that we need rest now and a special blessed time for worship? Why would He change it? What was wrong with that day? It doesn't make any sense. When I first learned these things, you know what convinced me about the Sabbath truth? I went to--when I first learned this, I went to several of my friends. I went to church on Sunday. I actually worshipped with several different groups. I was so hungry, I went to church several times a week. Prayer meetings, home meetings, I was just-- I'd stay up all night so I could go to an early morning home meeting. They thought I was very holy because I'd be there at five in the morning. I'd just been up all night. And otherwise I never would have made it, but I mean, I just was eating up all the Christian teaching I could get.
And when I learned about the Sabbath, I went to my pastors, and I asked ten pastors, "Why don't we keep the Sabbath anymore?" And I got 11 different answers. And they contradict each other. They'd say things like, "Well, Doug, we're not under the law now. We're under grace." And so I said, "Does that mean we don't keep the Ten Commandments?" And they said, "Well, we just keep the ones "that are mentioned in the New Testament, and the Sabbath's not repeated." And I studied the Bible, and I found out that's a myth. The commandment that is not repeated in the New Testament is the third commandment, "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, "for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who taketh His name in vain." That's not mentioned in the New Testament. Does that mean we can take God's name in vain? Of course, it says in the Lord's Prayer, "Hallowed be Thy name." That's close enough for me. And--but the Sabbath is mentioned many times in the New Testament. That's like one of those myths that you repeat it and people-- and so that was one. Then someone said, "Well, we keep Sunday now and honor the resurrection." I said, "That's a beautiful thought, but where's the Scripture?" "Well, we don't really have a Scripture that commands us. We have a longstanding tradition." And then another guy was really creative. He said, "Back in the days of Joshua, "there was this battle and Joshua prayed "and the sun stood still and Saturday turned into Sunday." I said, "Well, that's clever, but they still kept it on Saturday for another 1,400 years, so that doesn't make sense." And the more I asked, and I got all these different answers, and none of them agreed. And they'd all say, "Oh, that other pastor's wrong. This is--" I said, "Something doesn't pass the sniff test about this." It's really simple what the Bible says on this. And when we go to church in heaven, Jesus will be the preacher, amen?
Number 11, what time of day does the Sabbath begin and end? You can read in Leviticus, it says, "From even unto even," from sundown to sundown, "you will celebrate your Sabbath." It's pretty clear. You can read in Leviticus chapter-- or sorry, Mark 1, verse 32. And it says, "At even, when the sun did set." So it's at sundown is when the Sabbath began. And some of you have maybe seen a Hebrew vespers, where they understand this. Number 12, can we be certain that the present seventh day of the week, Saturday, is the same Sabbath that Jesus kept holy? You know, there have maybe been calendar changes, and so we can't be really sure. Look at these Scriptures that I think make it clear. Luke chapter 23, verse 54, "And that day was the preparation, Friday, and the Sabbath drew on."
Now, in a few days, they're going to be celebrating what they call Good Friday in many of the Catholic churches. The Sabbath drew on, so it's a preparation day, that's pretty clear? And then it says, "And they returned, "and they prepared spices and ointments; and they rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment." Now, you notice this is written by Luke. Was Luke a Jew or a Gentile? Gentile. He doesn't say according to the Jewish law. Luke, who is writing this, you know, 20 years after it all occurred, he doesn't say, "This was the Jewish Sabbath." It would have been a great time. He could have said, "This is the old Sabbath." He states it as a matter of fact that every Christian would understand, "And they rested according to the Sabbath." It's like it's a self-evident truth.
Now, friends, did you catch that? The apostles spent 3 1/2 years listening to Jesus teach. And when they took his body off the cross, and the sun was going down, they looked among themselves and they said, "We are not going to be able "to finish anointing His body before sundown. The Lord would not be pleased." They said, "We'll come back Sunday and finish." Wow. They would not even finish this labor of love because they knew what Jesus taught. They never got the idea from Christ that it didn't matter. Jesus had a lot of conflict with the religious leaders on the Sabbath, not whether or not it should be kept, but how it should be kept, big difference. He said, "It's better to do good on the Sabbath day. It's okay to heal on the Sabbath day." And we might answer some of your questions on that in a future presentation. And then it says--so that was sundown Saturday. "When He rose early the first day of the week," Mark 16:9, "He appeared first to Mary Magdalene." What day would that be? That's what we call Sunday. So, you just kind of get the panorama here. He dies on Friday, called the preparation day.
You know, you realize Jesus even kept the Sabbath in his death? He went to sleep Friday. You know, it's interesting, they opened up His side, and the blood and water came out, and the church was born. Adam went to sleep on the sixth day of the week, and God opened His side, and His bride was born. Jesus went to sleep and rested through the Sabbath, and woke Sunday morning early to continue His work as our high priest, as our intercessor before the heavenly Father. And so, there's no question about which day it is. Nobody has any problem figuring out what day Friday is. Muslims all over the world, they have special prayer on Friday. Well, no one wonders which day Sunday is until they hear the Sabbath truth, then they say, "The calendar's been changed. We can't be too sure anymore." No one has a problem about it until they hear the truth. And then you look in any dictionary or encyclopedia and say, "What is the seventh day?" It'll say Saturday. What's the first day? Sunday. Matter of fact, in over 105 languages of the world, the word for the seventh day of the week is Sabbath. Matter of fact, they're going to maybe splash some of those different languages up there on the screen. Those of you who speak Spanish... [speaking foreign language] Russian... [speaking foreign language] And in Jewish, it's Shabbat. And in many languages of the world, even though they don't keep it in their country, the word for the seventh day is Sabbath. Or day of rest, or some derivative of that.
Some people say, "Well, Pastor Doug, "the calendar was changed, so we're really not sure anymore which day is which." They never raise that argument until they learn the Sabbath truth. They say, "We don't know what day it is anymore." Has the calendar been changed before? Yes. Does the calendar change ever affect the days of the week? No. Here's an example of when the Julian calendar was transferred to the Gregorian calendar. You can notice that they had to compensate, and that's where we get leap year now, and you got 1, 2, 3, 4, Thursday is the 4th. Then they added 10 days, and the next day was the 15th, it went from the 4th to the 15th. Did they change the calendar? Yes. Was Thursday still followed by Friday? You know, it tricks people because the days of the week are on the calendar, they think that they're interwoven cycles. They're completely different cycles of time. Any change you make to the calendar never affects the weekly cycle. That's why your birthday might be on a different day of the week every year. And so people, when they raise this argument about the calendar's been changed, we don't know which the days of the week are, that's a total myth.
Someone wrote a letter years ago to the US Naval Observatory. And in their response, they said, "We've had the opportunity to examine chronology, "and we've not found one person that believes "there's been any change in the calendar that has affected "the continuity of the weekly cycle since long before the Christian era." You can also speak to the observatory in Greenwich, England, and they all say, no, there's been nothing that's changed the calendar that affects the days of the week. And if nothing else will convince you, there are 15 million Jews around the world. And I can understand one Jewish family getting washed up on a deserted island and losing track of time and saying, "We don't know anymore what the Sabbath is." But to suggest that the whole nation, 15 million of them right now, that they've all lost track of what their special, sacred day is, they've been keeping it ever since before the exodus, and they know. As have other countries, so there's no question about what day the Sabbath is.
All right, number 13, have the Ten Commandments been changed? The answer, no. Every word of God is pure. The Bible says, "Add not to His words, lest He reprove you, and you be found a liar." And you can read in Daniel 7:25, one of the things the beast power does, it says, "He will think to change times and laws." That's why you need to come-- keep coming, friend. We're going to be talking this week about the beast and the mark of the beast and things that are happening in the last days. You don't want to miss this.
Number 14, does breaking just one of God's commandments really matter? Well, you can read there in the book of James chapter 2 verse 10, "For whoever will keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all." You can't stand before the judge and say, "Now, Your Honor, "I realize I'm guilty of murder, "but I want you to know I've never shoplifted before. "And I've always been faithful to my wife, "and I don't use God's name. Just one little murder, 90%, how's that?" No, God's not giving us a discount. You notice they're not called the ten suggestions or the ten recommendations.
Number 15, did the Sabbath law exist before Mount Sinai? Now, some people say, "Well, the Sabbath was created for the Jews, "and it's a special covenant with the Jews. And God gave it to--" And people-- sometimes pastors will say the Sabbath came from Moses, like it was his idea. And that's not at all true. Let me just take you through a little scenario in the Bible. God talks to Moses at the burning bush, right? Says, "Go bring my people out of Egypt." And he goes and he meets with the pharaoh, he and Aaron. And before he meets with the pharaoh, did you notice there it says in Exodus chapter 4:29, "Moses and Aaron went and gathered all the elders of the children of Israel together." They said, "God has visited us, and He has a special plan. "He's going to redeem us from this place, "but we need to consecrate ourselves to Him. "You've been working 7 days a week. "You're not remembering the Lord. "You're starting to follow the gods of Egypt. You need to return to the Lord." And that included the Sabbath. How do I know that? When Moses and Aaron go to the pharaoh, and he says, "Let my people go, that they may serve me." You know how the pharaoh responds? He said, "Behold, the people of the land are many, and you make them rest." Now, you know what the word there is in Hebrew for rest? It says, "You make them Shabbat. "You're making them keep Sabbath. "You're telling them they need to rest. "I'm not going to let them rest. "Matter of fact, now they're going to have to make bricks without straw." And you know that story. He increased their workload to prevent— Now, who does Moses represent? He's Christ, right? The great Savior. Who does the pharaoh represent? The devil.
Jesus is saying "Rest." The devil is saying, "No, work, work, work. I'm going to increase your work so you can't think about God." And that's what he's doing to the church in our society today. People have got so many things and so many devices to keep us busy that there's no time to, "Be still and know that I am God." And it's all a trap. Pharaoh said, "I'm not going to even give you straw. You can go gather it where you can." And he said, "Go down now, and there'll be no straw given to you." And he increased their workload. Then you know you've got the exodus, stay with me. God works the ten plagues, and they're--parts the Red Sea and they come out of Egypt and their slavery. Before they get to Mount Sinai, they got hungry. And God says, "I've got a plan. I'm going to feed you with bread from heaven." Exodus 16, what chapter did I say? Exodus 16. All you got to remember is the number 16 there. "Moses said, 'Eat today what is here. I'm going to give you bread 6 days a week from heaven. There'll be none on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath.'" He said, "And then, you know, you'll-- "I'll make the bread you gather on the sixth day last through that day." And it says, "Some of the people didn't believe God, and they went out looking for bread on the seventh day of the week." And you know what God said? "How long will you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws?" They haven't gotten to Mount Sinai yet, you still with me? What is He calling the Sabbath, then? A commandment and a law. And this is Exodus chapter 16. You don't get the Ten Commandments until you get to Exodus chapter 20.
So, the idea that Moses dreamed it up, God said no. You see, it goes all the way back to the beginning, Genesis chapter 2. It's made for man, for mankind. Number 16, what blessings are promised by the Sabbath commandment for God's people? Well, several. He says in Matthew 11, you know this is the great invitation, "Come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden." And what does Jesus promise? "I'll give you rest." Now, God not only wants us to have the letter of the law, physical rest, He wants us to have the spirit of the law, spiritual rest. And Christ gives us both. But we still need the physical rest as well. Notice something in Revelation about the beast power. It says that--in Revelation chapter 14, verse 11, "The smoke of their torment ascends up forever and ever," and they have what? "Have no rest." And notice Jesus says, "Come and I'll give you rest." The beast power says, "No rest." Christ tells us in Exodus 33:14, "My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest." Jesus wants you to have peace, He wants you to have rest. And the Sabbath, it's not a cursed day. What did He do to the day? He blessed it.
How many of you want a blessing? People are missing a blessing that it's not from a church, it's from the creator. And He's commanding it because he loves us, and He knows what we need. You know, every one of the Ten Commandments is for your good. How many of you believe that? They're not for your harm. And yet, some churches, they're not sharing that truth. Again, Hebrews 4, verse 5, "They will enter into My rest." Hebrews 4, verse 9, it says, "There remains therefore a rest." This is New Testament. "There remains therefore a rest." That word "rest" there? Sabbatismos, it's the Greek for Sabbath. "There remains a Sabbath for the people of God." And for those who say that the Sabbath's not mentioned in the New Testament, here's just one of those many verses. We still need it, it remains. And much of the church has forgotten what God wants us to enjoy and embrace, and that's something we need. Jesus said in John 14, "If you love me," do what?
You know, I remember years ago, there was a bumper sticker, and it said, "If you love Jesus, honk." Any of you remember that? And one time I pulled up behind a car, and I saw that bumper sticker on the car and I gave it a little toot-toot on my horn and the guy turned around and glared at me. I think it must have been his wife's car. Then I saw another bumper sticker after that, and it said, "If you love Jesus, tithe. Anybody can honk." You get it? Jesus said, "If you love me, keep My commandments." If we love Him, He doesn't say, "Just honk your horn." So, if you love him, give Him your time.
You know, the most precious thing you've got is your time. My father was a millionaire. And he never had any time for his kids because he was working all the time. It was easier for him to give us money than it was to give us his time. What does God want? Does He want our offerings, or He wants our heart? And you know, the Lord says, "If you love Me, do you have any time for Me?" Are we so busy? Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. He's blessed this day, and He wants it to be a blessing for you. Jesus has given us the Sabbath truth as a sign of His power to create us, to sanctify us, and to recreate us. And it's going to be a special issue in the last days, friends.
You might be surprised as you keep coming to learn this is the last day of prophecy. This is going to be something that is going to be greatly disputed, the law of God. Notice in the book of Daniel there, chapter 3. There's a government law, and then there's a law that says you don't worship idols. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego have to decide which God they are going to serve, the law of God, or the law of man. Daniel chapter 6, the king says, "Don't pray to anyone but me for 30 days." Well, the first commandment says don't have other gods. Daniel's got to decide, "Am I going to put the law of God above the law of the government and the law of man?" And then you go to the book of Esther. Those who did not bow down to Haman, he built a gallows for them. Mordecai would not. He had to make a decision, "Am I going to obey the law of God, or the law of men?"
Why would the church think that things have changed? Our faith is going to be tested on this and many other fronts in the last days. The bottom line is if you love Jesus, he says, "Keep my commandments." And you know, he goes on and tells us in John chapter-- 1 John chapter 5, he says, "And my commandments are not a burden." You know, when we really surrender to the Lord and we love the Lord, it becomes a blessing. It becomes a privilege to obey God. And He wants you to experience that. You know, Jesus said in John chapter 13, verse 17, "If you know these things, blessed or happy are you if you do them." "Not everyone that says unto me, 'Lord, Lord,' "will enter into the kingdom, but they that do the will of my Father in heaven." And maybe you've not thought about this before, and you're learning some new things, friends. I'd like to just appeal to you. I remember when I first heard this truth, it kind of shook me up because I thought, "How come I never saw that? How come so many other people don't see it?" This is what they said when Jesus was teaching, "If He's the Messiah, how come all the religious leaders don't recognize it?"
If you're waiting for the multitude to see the truth, friends, you may wait until it's too late. The Bible never promises that it's going to be the crowd that's on the narrow road to eternal life. But you've heard the truth tonight, and it's coming from the Word of God. And I pray that you'll keep coming, because I believe the Lord wants you to be blessed, He wants you to have that peace and that rest. How many of you would like to have peace and rest in your life? Father in heaven, Lord, I pray that You'll be with each person that is here, those that are watching. We've learned some new things tonight, and I've tried to just pack so much information into very little time. And I just pray that the Holy Spirit now will take these Scriptures and these principles and help them settle into our hearts, Lord. Ultimately, I pray that each person will ask the question, "What does the Word say?" And will be willing to do Your word. I pray Your blessing on each person. Be with them in their bodies, their families. Help them to have peace and rest in Jesus. We thank You and pray these things in Christ's name, amen.
All right, friends, I know that was a heavy topic tonight, and there's more to come. Our presentation tomorrow night, we're going to be talking about what is in the golden ark. You've heard about the ark of the covenant? You come, you won't want to miss that. Now, don't take off yet. Your group leaders have some other review information to share with you before you leave. We look forward to seeing each of you tomorrow night during our presentation. Bring your friends. God bless you, and thank you so much. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪