Change of the Day - Part 2

Introduction: The Change of the Day and the Fourth Commandment

0:00 All right, we need to get started. We're having a problem with the screen, as you can tell, and hopefully they'll have it working here in a few moments.

0:09 We'll just have to do the old-fashioned way, the way the Apostle Paul and those people did. It seemed to work okay for them. They didn't have projectors, so I think we'll be all right. Okay, let's pray.

0:23 Our Father, we thank you for this Lord's Day that's come to us again, and this weekly reminder of our help to us, a helpful reminder of what is important in our lives. And Lord, we know that we are to remind ourselves of that and to know that every day. But we thank you that you've given to us the Lord's Day, that we can lay aside everything else that would tend to distract us and draw our attention away from you. And we can fix our hearts and minds upon the things of Christ.

1:00 We pray now, as we begin our Sunday school class, that you'd grant us grace and help and strength, that we might be able to communicate well your truth, and that you'll give us understanding in your truth. And we also pray for all the other Sunday school teachers. We pray the same for them. We pray that you would have mercy upon us, that you would pardon our iniquities, and you would grant to us the help of your Spirit.

1:24 For Christ's sake, we pray. Amen.

1:29 All righty. We are in this section on the church's ethics, and we spent our first several lessons just developing arguments on this subject. Could that light right there be turned off? Whoever did the lights shining in my eyes can't see.

1:57 Okay.

2:00 It doesn't. No, this one here. There we go. Can you still see me okay?

2:07 And so, we finished that section on the issue of the abiding authority of the moral law, Ten Commandments.

2:18 There we go. And these are the arguments that were developed. Just kind of go over this real quickly in case there's someone here who hasn't been here.

2:28 And now we're considering the Fourth Commandment, since it tends to be the most controversial one. And this is the outline of and following.

2:38 You can just read that. I'll not read it to you. And then two weeks ago, or three weeks ago, or was it two weeks ago, we completed the first division in which I set forth the biblical basis of the continuance of the Sabbath. And we saw that the Sabbath was instituted at creation, including the Ten Commandments, predicted by the prophets as continuance, and the intended blessing and proper observance of it was held by Christ.

3:10 And we now pick up where we left off last week. As we're now considering the change of the day. So, the question that's facing us right now is why in the Christian church has Sabbath observance been changed from the last day of the week, Saturday, to the first day of the week, Sunday. And I remind you, I have three headings here.

3:34 The possibility of a new Sabbath. That's what we covered last week. The coming of the new Sabbath we're going to talk about today. And God willing, next week we'll talk about the passing of the old Sabbath.

3:45 And let me just... I want to just review briefly for you about what we looked at last week.

3:50 We considered... Before we looked at the fact that the day has changed, I want us to see that there are good biblical reasons why the change of the day shouldn't bother us.

4:00 Why it's not doing violence to the fourth commandment for the day to be changed. And these were not proofs, but they were what we might call biblical realities that rightly understood should prepare us for the possibility that the day could be changed. And so we spent the entire...

4:16 Sunday school class on these two points. The important distinction between natural and positive law. The important distinction between the actual command given in the Ten Commandments and the supplementary data that are attached to them. And so today we now come to the coming of the new Sabbath.

The Authority for Changing the Sabbath Day

4:39 Now as most of you know, we as a Christian church observe Sunday, the first day in our calendar week, as the... New Covenant application of the fourth commandment, the Christian Sabbath.

4:53 And that's been the practice of the vast majority of Christian churches throughout church history. But by what authority do we do that? Those who believe that the Sabbath should be observed on Saturday may come to you with that challenge. They may say, show me a text in all of the Bible where we are commanded to change Sabbath observance from the last day of the week to the first day of the week.

5:15 And because there's not such a verse... That you can turn to that says, thou shalt change Sabbath observance from the last day to the first.

5:24 They think that they've won the argument. But does that prove that the Bible doesn't teach such a thing? Of course not. God in his word doesn't reveal to us his will only by direct explicit commands.

5:37 Thou shalts and thou shalt nots. Much of his will for us is revealed by way of necessary inference as we compare scripture to scripture. Or by way of the example that is given to us by inspired men such as the apostles. And I'll point out several illustrations of that later.

5:53 But what I've mentioned many times I think already is the office of deacon. You never find a command that thou shalt have deacons in the church. But we do have an apostolic precedent where deacons were appointed in the church. In Acts chapter 6 we have qualifications for the office of deacon.

6:07 Given in 1 Timothy chapter 3, conclusion, ordinarily churches ought to have deacons. Even though there's no thou shalt have deacons command in the New Testament. So it's very naive and really irresponsible. To approach the Bible in such a way that demands a direct explicit command for everything.

6:26 And ignores these other ways that God reveals his will to us in his word. In fact, if we had time I could show you that it denies the principles of interpretation that the biblical writers themselves apply to the word of God. And we derive our hermeneutics from our principles. Our understanding of the principles.

6:49 By which the Bible is to be interpreted. We derive it from our doctrine of the word. And also from the way the biblical writers themselves interpret and apply the word of God. Particularly the apostles.

Foreshadowings in the Mosaic Covenant: First and Eighth Days

7:01 So keeping that in mind. What evidence or proof do we have that the observance of the fourth commandment under the new covenant has been changed to Sunday. The first day of our calendar week. And the first one is that there are foreshadowings of such a change in the rituals of the Mosaic covenant.

7:19 Now the. Jewish Sabbath was meant to be on the seventh day of a normal week. However, that week worked itself out as we saw last week in the Jewish calendar. The seventh day after six days of work.

7:36 The Christian Sabbath is the following day. The first day of the week. Or taken from the beginning point. The eighth day.

7:44 Well, just consider briefly the previous significance of first and eighth days in the Old Testament.

7:52 Jews. Like the disciples of Christ. The early apostles were already conditioned and prepared to see the significance of Christ's resurrection. Being on the first day of the week.

8:04 The eighth day. By the special place that was given to the first and eighth days in the Mosaic economy. For example, the first day of the Passover was a holy assembly. The first day of the feast of booths was a holy assembly.

8:20 With reference to the eighth day. The eighth day. The day of the feast of booths, which is the same day the Jews counted the days inclusively. If you're saying the eighth day, we would say the next first day.

8:35 The eighth day. The feast of booths was a day of rest, a holy assembly, and a day of sacrifice. The rite of circumcision was to be administered to baby boys only on the eighth day. And we know from Romans 4.11 that circumcision was a sign or a seal of the righteousness.

8:53 That is, by faith. The perfect everlasting righteousness of Christ that was accomplished, has been accomplished, was imputed to his people. That righteousness was actually confirmed on the eighth day. Or the day when Christ rose from the dead.

9:09 Also, the eighth day was the day of the consecration of the firstborn. It was on the eighth day that the cleansing of leprosy was to take place. It was on the eighth day that the consecration of the Jewish high priest was completed. Which, by the way, points us to that special eighth day when our great high priest, the Lord Jesus, rose from the dead and was consecrated priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

9:36 Now, none of this proves the changing of the Sabbath, but certainly prepared the way for it in the minds of our Lord's disciples and of anyone who was a Jew involved in the Jewish religion, Old Testament religion. Religion. When Christ rose from the dead on the first or eighth day.

New Testament Emphasis: Christ's Resurrection on the First Day

10:00 Now, with that Old Testament background, we come to the New Testament. Secondly, there is the peculiar emphasis and insistence upon the fact that Christ rose from the dead on the first day.

10:13 And that's specifically mentioned five times in the Gospels. And I've listed out to you the references where that's found. We have this five-fold reoccurrence of the phrase, the first day of the week. Now, is that merely an interesting little detail?

10:26 That they mention without any fault or purpose? Well, to help us to see that it's not, ask yourself, how many other times are days of the week mentioned by their number in the New Testament?

10:40 The answer is none. Now, the third day after Christ's death is mentioned, which is the same thing as the first day of the week. The Lord's day is mentioned. The preparation day for the Sabbath is mentioned.

10:53 But there's no other reference to a day of the week by its number in the New Testament. Now, that being the case, it's very difficult. It's very difficult to imagine that the repeated mention of the first day of the week by the Gospel writers was for no reason. It was just kind of an offhanded little fact that they threw in there for no reason or no purpose.

11:14 Remember, as we saw a couple of weeks ago, the Gospels were written by theologian evangelists of the church in order to instruct the church and to instruct those the church was evangelizing. Therefore, it seems to me that the most natural explanation for this repeated. This is upon the first day of the week. And really, I can think of no other explanation was in order to demonstrate the origin and the basis of the church's practice of observing the first day of the week.

Special Distinctions Conferred by the Resurrected Christ

11:45 All right. Thirdly, there are the special distinctions conferred upon the first day of the week by the resurrected Christ.

11:56 First of all, there are Christ's resurrection appearances to his disciples on the first day, not only that he rose from the dead on the first day. Which would immediately someone who knew their Old Testament scriptures make those connections to the Old Testament, eight days and first days and their significance in the Old Testament. Not only did he rise from the dead the first day, and that's repeated to us and emphasized to us by the Gospel writers, the first day of the week. There's also the fact of Christ's resurrection appearances to his disciples on the first day.

12:29 John 20, 19, then the same day at evening being the first day of the week. John's careful to tell us what day of the week it was. When the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst and said to them, peace be with you. Now, is it just a coincidence that Jesus appeared to his assembled disciples?

12:53 What was at that time the Christian church, the beginning of the Christian church on the first day of the week? And that this fact, is that just a coincidence? And that this fact is recorded? Well, I would find that hard to believe.

13:09 John 20, 26, he then goes on to say, you remember Thomas wasn't there when Jesus appeared. And so Thomas was doubting. Well, John 20, 26 says, and after eight days, and you remember the Jews counted inclusively. So eight days from the first Sunday he appeared to them was the next Sunday.

13:29 It was both the first day and the eighth day since his last appearance to his gathered disciples. And we read that after eight days. As disciples were again inside, they're gathered together and Thomas is with them. Now, Jesus came, the doors being shut and stood in the midst and said, peace to you.

13:50 Now, why did Jesus come to them again on that day? And why is this pointed out that these resurrection appearances were on the first day of the week? Well, it wasn't for nothing. It wasn't for nothing, brethren.

14:04 Surely this was intended to highlight the peculiar. Significance of the first day of the week for the Christian church. We see this also in the book of Acts in Acts chapter two. Here we have another way that Jesus communicated the significance of this particular day for the church.

14:23 We have the day of Pentecost when the spirit was poured out upon the church corporately. What was the official inauguration of the new covenant people of God, the new covenant church? What day of the week was that? What day did Jesus choose to pour out his spirit upon the church?

14:42 It was the first day of the week. It's also interesting to note that in the Old Testament, the day of Pentecost was a day on which no laborious work was to be done. Well, it was on that day, which was the first day of the week that the spirit was given to the church. So it was on the first day of the week that the resurrection of Christ occurred today that he rested from his work of redemption.

15:10 The. The day of the inaugurating of the new creation. It was on the first day of the week that the spirit was given to the church, the official beginning of the new covenant. And then fourthly, there is the subsequent observance of the first day of the week by the apostolic churches, by the churches planted and established by the apostles.

Apostolic Observance and the 'Lord's Day'

15:31 Now, no doubt there was a period of transition that occurred from the old Sabbath to the new, as there was in several other things. And we're going to talk about that next week as we're going to look at those three passages in the New Testament to give people. Trouble as to what the apostles talking about. We look at those in detail, but but it's evident from the earliest days that the church, the church is planted by the apostles observed the first day of the week.

15:55 You could turn over to Acts 20 verse seven, if you like. I have it there. This is one of the churches Paul planted.

16:04 And here we see the church keeping the first day of the week for corporate worship, gathering together to hear the word of God preached and to break bread. If you turn over there. You'll notice up in verse six that Paul had been in Troas for seven days.

16:33 But interesting, only the church gathering on the first day is mentioned. And we also learn from the preceding context that Paul was headed for Jerusalem and he was in a big hurry to get there. Therefore, it at least appears that his waiting in Troas for seven days was on purpose for the very purpose of speaking to the whole church. When the church gathered on the first day.

16:58 Of the week, look at first Corinthians 16, Paul, writing to the church of Corinth, verse once is now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given orders to the churches of Galatia. So you must do also on the first day of the week that each of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come. Now, just a few comments here of the words laying something aside simply mean to set apart or to lay by itself. This laying aside side was not merely a storing up of money at home.

17:43 The word storing up literally means putting into the treasury or to hoard up. And if Paul was simply talking about storing up money at home, then why? Why? Why did you have to do on the first day of the week?

17:55 You know, you could do that. You do that any time, any day of the week. Second, the reason Paul gives for the church collecting the money, storing it up on the first day was that there would be no collections when he comes. The money was to be laid aside and collected by the church when they met on the first day of the week before Paul arrived there, implying that this was the day that the church gathered together corporately.

18:19 Third, Paul declares that this observance of the first day was not only the practice of the church at Corinth. This was the practice of the churches in Galatia as well. And all this points to the fact that the first day of the week was regarded as an appropriate reoccurring day to make the collection. Because it was the day when the church assembled together, corporate worship, a special name given to the first day of the week.

18:50 And what is that special name? It's called the Lord's Day in Revelation 9, 1, 9 and 10. The Apostle John, as he's about to describe how he came to write the book of the Revelation, says, I, John, both your brother and companion in the tribulation and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ was on the island called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. And he was called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.

19:12 And he was called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. I was in the spirit on the Lord's Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice as of a trumpet. Now, John assumes that what he means by the Lord's Day will be clear to the seven churches to whom he is writing. And the Lord's Day refers to the Lord Jesus, a day peculiarly connected to the lordship of Jesus Christ.

19:36 And there's only one day that possesses that special connection, the first day of the week, the day that he rose from the dead. And indeed, the expression Lord's Day was used universally throughout the earliest days of the church to signify the first day of the week. And here we have the source of that designation.

19:58 Now, this expression, the Lord's Day, clearly sets this day apart as a special day, a holy day, unlike any other day. For example, we speak of the Lord's Supper. Well, just this communion is called. The Lord's Supper is because it's unlike any other supper for the Christian in one sense.

20:22 All suppers are the Lord's just as people's all days are the Lord's. Well, that's true. But all suppers are the Lord's, too.

20:31 But what the New Testament calls the Lord's Supper is a special religious observance which finds its origin in Christ, its regulation in the word of God. Well, we have the same language describing the first day of the week. It is the Lord's Day. It is a special day of the week to be kept holy and to be treated like no other day, a day like the Lord's Supper, to be kept in remembrance of Christ and his redemption.

20:58 Now, you'll find in the Bible that whenever the Lord in a peculiar way places his name upon something, that something is to be set apart as sacred and special. In the Old Testament, his people were set apart as the people who are called by my name. Jerusalem was set apart as the city. Which is.

21:18 Called by my name. The temple was set apart as the house that is called by my name. And this language is always referring to the special position and peculiar honor that is given to those things. And so also the first day of the week is called the Lord's Day, indicating that it is to be recognized as a holy day above all other days of the week.

21:43 And now we go back and look at what we saw last week about the reasons the day may be. The change of the fourth commandment to another day, and that doesn't do violence to the command itself. And you look at all this that we've looked at here and you look at what this day is called in the new covenant. That can mean nothing less than that.

22:01 The Lord's Day is the new covenant application of the fourth commandment, or if you will, it is the Christian Sabbath. It is the day that the Christian is to remember to set apart as special and holy. And frankly, when you consider this together with everything. And everything else that we've seen, it seems to me that God has clearly and certainly sufficiently communicated to his people that the first day of the week is that day of special observance that is set apart for the Christian church under the new covenant, the new covenant application of the fourth commandment.

Testimony from Early Church Fathers

22:38 And then seventhly and finally, let me just point out that the early church did not miss this emphasis. They got it.

22:49 They understood it. Let me give you some testimony from the early church fathers. Now, that's the early church fathers are not authoritative scripture, but still, these are references from history that help us to understand how the church in the century immediately following the apostles and then following them, how they viewed the Lord's Day and what was their practice. OK, Ignatius, he was a pastor of the church Antioch, and he wrote in his epistle to the Magnesians.

23:21 Now, this was written in 107 AD. Which is about 20 years after the death of the Apostle John.

23:29 And often you'll see paintings of him or pictures of him with lions around him. That's because he he suffered martyrdom in the Colosseum. He was eaten by lions.

23:48 Those then who live by ancient practices arrived at a new hope. They ceased to keep the Sabbath and lived by the Lord's Day on which our life as well as theirs shown forth thanks to him and his death.

24:02 A.D. This is from A.D.

24:04 Sometime they're not sure the exact date between 80 and 140 Christian document in writing called the Didache. There you have an old copy of it.

24:15 It's written in Greek. But every Lord's Day, gather yourselves together and break bread and give thanksgiving after having confessed your transgressions so that your sacrifice may be pure. This is from a document that was given the title of the Epistle of Barnabas written around A.D.

24:33 131. Obviously not the Barnabas from the Bible. But your present Sabbaths are not acceptable to me, but that I have met, but that I have made namely this when giving rest to all things, I shall make a beginning of the eighth day. That is the beginning of another world.

24:51 Wherefore, also, we keep the eighth day, which is the first day with joyfulness, the day also on which Jesus rose again from the dead. This is from Justin Martyr, one of the more well-known early churchmen. Church fathers writing in A.D.

25:07 160. He was an apologist for the Christian faith. He wrote, but Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world the beginning of the creation. And Jesus Christ, our Savior, on the same day rose from the dead.

25:29 And this is from Eusebius. A little later, he was one of the first really church historians, early church historian writing. A.D.

25:37 325. The word through the new covenant has changed and transferred the feast of the Sabbath to the rising of the light and handed down to us the image of a true rest, the Lord's day. All things which it was necessary to do on the Sabbath, these we have transferred to the Lord's day. Wherefore, it has been handed down to us also that on each Lord's day we should gather together.

26:01 After looking at all the various evidence that can be derived from early church writings, the great. Church historian Philip Schaff made this comment. The celebration of the Lord's day in memory of the resurrection of Christ dates undoubtedly from the apostolic age. Nothing short of apostolic precedent can account for the universal religious observance in the churches of the second century.

26:27 There is no dissenting voice.

Application: Avoiding Simplistic Interpretations and Diligent Study

26:31 All right. Well, there's still much more that can be said. But let's see. I want to break off from that now.

26:41 Just to make a few draw out a few lines of application from this consideration. I think, first of all, one of the things we can learn from this is the importance of avoiding simplistic interpretations of Scripture that fail to listen to all that God's word says on a given subject. And I hope this has helped you to see that God doesn't have to give us an explicit command to communicate his will in a given area. He also communicates.

27:13 His will by apostolic example and precedent. He communicates his will by necessary inference when we compare Scripture with Scripture and seek to consider everything that God's word has to say on the subject in question. And that's the case with many truths. And I think there are some Christians have a hard time with that.

27:35 They want that. They want a verse for everything that says thou shout. And they have a hard time in looking.

27:44 At Scripture as a whole and getting the full picture of what the Bible says on a particular subject. For example, take the subject of church membership now dealt with that in the past, but you're not going to find a commandment in the New Testament that says that every church shall have a distinct, recognizable, definable membership. You'll never find a commandment like that in the New Testament. Therefore, some have taken the position that churches shouldn't have a membership.

28:11 Perhaps they don't see the word membership in the Bible. Or they don't see a command that thou shalt join a church and become a member of a church or something like that. And so they've come to the conclusion that having a membership is not biblical. But wait a minute.

28:29 We may not have a direct, explicit command. But as we read the New Testament, we find that the local church is represented as a distinct group that could actually be counted as a distinct group that could be added to that could be joined. A distinct, definable, recognizable group that could be called upon to select leaders from among itself. A distinct group that could be officially gathered together.

29:00 It's represented as a distinct, definable group that could exercise church discipline, including excommunication. So a person who is in the church can be put out of the church by excommunication. Obviously, for that to happen, you have to know who's in. Who's not in.

29:20 And we could go on with other examples like this. When you add of other arguments and evidences. And when you add all that together and other things I've not mentioned, what is God saying to us in his word? He's telling us that the local church is to be an assembly comprised of an official, definable, recognizable, countable membership.

29:40 And that church membership involves a voluntary, openly expressed, earnest commitment to obey Christ's directives regarding church life. With reference to a specific congregation.

29:54 We see the same thing when it comes to certain doctrines in the Bible. What about the Trinity? Is the word Trinity in the Bible anywhere?

30:01 You ever found the word Trinity in the Bible?

30:06 You're going to be looking a long time if you try to find the word Trinity in the Bible because it's not there.

30:13 Do we have a verse somewhere in the New Testament that explicitly says there is one God and that one God exists in three persons? No, you won't find it. So if some Jehovah's Witness comes to your door and points out. That out, are you going to become a Jehovah's Witness?

30:32 I hope you won't. Then we don't find an explicit statement of the doctrine of the Trinity. The fact is that the Trinity is really one of the most clearly revealed doctrines in the whole Bible. It forms the entire framework of the gospel.

30:47 It's woven throughout the pages of the New Testament in so many different ways. So, brethren, what does this mean for us, all of us practically? Well, it means that God expects you to read your Bible and he expects you to study your Bible. Now, those of you who have been in the theology class, we're talking about the doctrine of the word.

31:07 And we one of the doctrines we opened up was the reformed doctrine of the clarity of Scripture, which I believe in that doctrine, which teaches that the Bible is clear enough for all to find the way of salvation, the learned and the unlearned. But it also teaches that the Bible is not equally clear in all its parts or equally clear to all persons. Some aspects of its teaching require more work than others to understand. And it shouldn't.

31:32 You stumble us because it's that way sometimes. Why did God make it that way? Because he wants to teach us to pray hard and to study hard and to think hard and to feel our desperate dependence upon his spirit to guide us. Just because something may not be immediately apparent in the Bible by a simple chapter and verse reference that explicitly states it doesn't mean that it's not taught in the Bible.

31:58 It's true that some things are harder to see and to understand. And others and we should be charitable with brethren who may not agree with us on matters that are not essential for salvation. And admittedly, brethren, there are aspects of the Bible's teaching on the Sabbath that are not immediately clear by a superficial glance at Scripture. But God doesn't want us as his children to only give superficial glances at Scripture.

Application: Rejoicing in the Lord's Day and Anticipating Eternal Rest

32:25 He expects us to pray hard and to think hard and to carefully study his holy word, comparing Scripture with Scripture. That we be no more children tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine. And then finally, let us rejoice in the Lord's day.

32:43 We have even greater reasons to observe the Christian Sabbath than any Israelite ever did to observe the Jewish Sabbath.

32:53 The shadows of the old covenant have passed away. The shadowy partial light of the old has given way to the new and the full light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Christ has come. Christ has died for our sins.

33:10 Our redemption has been accomplished. He has risen from the dead. And he is coming again to receive us to himself. We therefore have abundant cause, more than anyone in the old covenant ever did, to celebrate and to take full advantage of the gift of the Lord's day.

33:26 A day of rest and refreshment for our bodies and souls. A day of worship. A day of commemorating and rejoicing in our Lord's finished work on our behalf. And a day of worship.

33:36 And a day of worship. And a day of worship. And a day of worship. And a day of worship.

33:36 And a day of looking forward to that eternal Sabbath that is yet to come, spoken of in Hebrews 4, where we read, There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God, the eternal rest of the new heavens and the new earth. And there remains the rest of the new covenant Sabbath, which will continue to point us to that day until that day actually comes.

33:59 Even so, Lord, come quickly.

Looking Ahead: The Passing of the Old Sabbath and Proper Observance

34:03 Well, I wish we could move on. I know the one thing everybody's wanting to get to. And all this whole study, and you've had to sit through all these lessons, is the proper observance of the Lord's day. That's the sticking point sometimes.

34:18 The two sticking points are convincing people that the fourth commandment still applies under the new covenant.

34:26 And the second sticking point is helping people to understand why that day can be changed and was in fact changed under the new covenant to the first day of the week. The third big issue then. Is, OK, well, how do we observe the Christian Sabbath? What's involved in a proper and balanced observance of the Lord's day?

34:47 We're going to get to that. But we still have one more thing, one more loose end we have to tie up. Maybe it's just my mind. I can't.

34:55 I didn't really intend for this to go on for this many weeks. But and that is the we need to we need to address the question of and the reality of the passing of the old Sabbath. What the New Testament says about it. We're going to look at those three texts that give people trouble.

35:17 Sometimes Romans 14, the text in Galatians three or Galatians four and then the Colossians two passage. We're going to look at those three passages next week and what they're talking about, how it relates to our subject. And once we've done that, then we'll get to the issue of the observance of the Lord's day. OK, all right.

Q&A: The Logic of the Day Change and Hebrews 4

35:43 Any comments or questions? About what was considered today? Yeah, just another consideration.

35:53 If you prove it well, that there is a universal one day in seven.

36:05 So given that that's true, it's got to occur on one of the days of the week. And then given all the stuff we saw today, which day is it going to be? I mean, you pretty much rule out Monday, Friday or no mention comes down to Saturday or Sunday. Yeah, once once you've realized once you realize what we talked about last week.

36:28 The difference between positive and natural law and the the fact that establishing calendars and so forth has a human element to it and all the things we talked about in the realization that the essence of the fourth commandment is six days of labor. One day is given to rest and worship. And so you realize it's possible that that day could be changed at some point, if God so willed it. Redemptive history.

36:56 So we come to the New Testament. We ask the question, OK, here we are. We're in under the new covenant, the New Testament. What day is it that we're to observe?

37:06 And we see is we're going to see next week that clearly the apostles taught that the old Jewish seven seventh day Sabbath is passed. So what day is it? Well, all that stuff that we looked at this morning doesn't convince someone that it's the first day of the week. And I don't know how you could ever convince anybody of anything, you know, because I think the New Testament.

37:29 Clearly communicates that that the day that's special for us has to be viewed differently from all other days as a day set apart unto the Lord and the New Testament is the Lord's day, the first day of the week. That's what you're yeah, that's right. Yes. Yeah.

38:01 We talked about Hebrews four already in here several times where Hebrews four is talking about one of the things you remember I pointed out was that nowhere is the New Testament teach. That that our resting in Christ for salvation is the fulfillment of the Sabbath. I'm going to actually talk about that again next week. They were resting in Christ for salvation in the Old Testament, too, but they still had Sabbath and the Hebrews four passages teaching that there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.

38:35 And if you look at Hebrews, the book of Hebrews in its context, I think Pastor Hughes even brought this out in his message last week.

38:43 He said. For them in that book, the hope of their eternal rest and these people were being tempted to turn back to Judaism and to cast off the faith because of the persecution that they were enduring.

38:56 And one of the things he's using as a motivation in that book for them to continue to persevere is the hope of our future inheritance and our future rest. And the picture that's given by the writer in Hebrews four of Joshua and the children of Israel who journeyed to Canaan land. And he warns that some of them did not enter into that rest because of their unbelief and they turned back. And now he's applying that to the Christian church.

39:24 Don't turn back. What's Cain in the picture of Cain is not a picture of salvation in terms of initial salvation. It's a picture of our inheritance as yet to come.

39:42 You remember, we saw how even in the in the command, honor your father and mother. The way it's given in the old the old covenant application, that's that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God gave to you. But that land was a picture. It's a type of our eternal inheritance that we have in Christ, which includes the new heavens and the new earth, the entire earth.

40:04 And this is opened up in the New Testament that Abraham was the heir of the world. And we who are in him are heirs of the world. And we have an eternal inheritance, an eternal Canaan. That we must enter.

40:18 And he's he's encouraging these people not to give up and not to turn back. And he's setting that hope before them. And speaking of the fact that there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. And so the new covenant Lord's Day Sabbath is a constant reminder of that.

40:39 It's a pointer to that, just as the old covenant Sabbath was.

Conclusion and Prayer

40:46 All right.

40:49 Time's up. OK. Somebody had their. Phone set right at the right time.

40:58 All right. Let's be dismissed.

41:02 Don, would you close our prayer for us?

41:56 Comprehending the things that you've written. We're grateful for your ministry to us here in this place. And we pray that our worship is fair and pleasing and acceptable in your sight. And we pray these things in your son's most precious name, Lord Jesus Christ.

42:11 Amen.