OUR SUBJECT IS,”THE EIGHTH DAY.” SOME MAY SAY, WHAT DOES THAT PERTAIN TO? WELL. THAT IS WHAT WE ARE HERE FOR: TO TRY AND ANSWER THAT VERY QUESTION. THE ONLY WAY WE SHOULD TRY TO ANSWER THIS KIND OF QUESTIONS IS BY EXAMINING WHAT THE BIBLE HAS TO SAY ABOUT THEM. I AM NOT TRYING TO PICK ON ANY CERTAIN DENOMINATION. I AM JUST ENDEAVORING TO LOOK INTO THIS BLESSED OLD BOOK AND LET IT DO THE TALKING. IF WE LOOK AT WHAT IS WRITTEN, AND DETERMINE IN OUR HEART’S TO ACCEPT THE WORD OF GOD AS OUR AUTHORITY, WE SHOULD COME OUT ALRIGHT.

I have a booklet here, put out by teachers of the Seventh Day Adventists movement. I want to say again, I am not pointing my finger at the Seventh Day Adventists just to criticize them. I would not criticize them any more than I would any other system of organized religion, but the very fact that they are a system of organized religion puts three strikes against them before I say anything. They have written this book as though Sunday, the day Christians come together to worship the Lord, is a counterfeit day. In other words, according to them, the devil chose Sunday, and they are teaching that if you worship on this day, then you have the mark of the beast on your forehead. I will read certain excerpts of it along in the message just to show you how they approach the whole thing. We are going into this message to prove to you that the writers of the New Testament knew what they were doing. I know what the histories say, and Seventh Day Adventist teachers are very prone to go all out researching a lot of things from history, but they still miss the mark. The sad part is, there was no problem among the early Christians as to whether they should worship the Lord together on the first day of the week, or still hold to the Jewish Sabbath day. All of this is clearly laid out in the Bible. It spoke of it in types. When it comes to types and shadows, a lot of people miss the true meaning of why certain rituals were to be conducted along in the hours of their observing certain days. The Adventists are very prone to take certain teachings of Paul and use those to try and prove that Christians who worship on the first day of the week are following an antichrist spirit. Keep in mind, the Law, the ten commandments, was given by God at Mt. Sinai, approximately four hundred and I will say fifty years, before the advent of Christ. That is just a rough figure. When God gave the Law at Sinai, it is true that there were ten commandments, and the Sabbath was referred to, but along with that, followed the writings of Leviticus, the statutes. These were things built around the ten commandments, things that governed the fellowship and worship of the people in relationship to the ten commandments. Therefore, with this in mind, we are going to read what the Law and commandments say about the Jewish Sabbath, which was not named Saturday back then. It was the seventh day of the counting of their month. They started counting from the first day of the month and came right on through, the first day, the second day, the third day, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh. Then they go into the eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, twelfth, thirteen, fourteen, so on and so forth. There was no such thing as the Greek titles for the days of the week. The world picked up all of that from the Grecian period. The Adventists are very prone to speak against the “Christians,” the Catholics who have established Sunday as the legal day of worship. They are trying to convince all that will listen to them, that Sunday, which is what the first day of the week is referred to on our calendars, is a pagan day because it is a pagan day celebrating the god of the sun, just as Monday was the god of the moon. This is how their teaching goes. They will tell you that if you worship on Sunday, you are actually participating in the functions of a pagan day. They do not realize they are blinded themselves. Therefore I want to say this, They are blinded by truth. There are people in the world of religion today that can look a verse of scripture right in the face and are totally blinded by it; therefore they fight against the true meaning of it. That is the way with the Adventists. They are hung up on the Sabbath day, Sabbath, Sabbath, Sabbath. That is where their teaching is based. With the Jehovah Witness, it is Millennium, Millennium, Millennium. You can take a look at Jesus name people, and it is Jesus is God, Jesus is God, Jesus is God. That is where all their sermons originate, and that is where all their sermons and teaching ends. You are just wasting your breath trying to say anything else to them. On the other side of the total picture, the little bride of Jesus Christ is not going to be repetitionists on any one particular point of the truth their revelation holds. She knows the great Creator expressed Himself fully in that of His only begotten Son Jesus, but having a true revelation, she knows Jesus, called the God-man, is not to be looked upon as God. He would have to be His own father to fit the picture some of these oneness people portray Him in. Either we are turned back to the true revelation of the word of God, or we are still just a bunch of traditional people, holding on to a hand-me-down religion, trying to find our way through something that is all a complete maze to us. Now having said that, let us open our Bible’s to the 23 chapter of Leviticus. Here is where we begin to read about the Sabbath’s, how many, and how to look upon them and so forth. We have the book of Leviticus broke down into various divisions, we could say. “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, Concerning the feasts of the Lord, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts. Six days shall work be done.” God has given this at this certain time, and notice, this had never been written before at this particular time. It follows the pattern in the book of records in the Genesis book, how God in six days created the heavens and earth and so forth, and on the seventh day He rested. If people will go back and read that record carefully, we will know that on the seventh day He rested, and in that period of time there was not one thing moving on this planet called earth. After God rested, He then comes into another day, or another period, wherein there was not yet a man to till the earth, and there was not anything creeping or crawling anywhere. What can we say to that? This absolutely covers the entire period of how God began to bring the planet back out of its darkened, judged state of existence. We were watching a program lately about animal life in Africa and the Asiatic areas, all about the monkey, the baboon, the chimpanzee and all those. They are trying to declare how they have found traces of the skulls and how large they were, and that from these different species of the monkey family, so many millions of years ago, then out of one line of these things there were two species that sort of decided they were going to break away and become something else. One became something else, and the other decided he wanted to become a man. I just thought, Go on and talk. You have a large audience, but what you do not know is that God, one of these days, is going to look you right in the eye and say something to you that is going to tear all your philosophy to pieces, but it will be too late to do you any good. I would hate to be an atheist, or an evolutionist, and have to stand before the throne of God and give an answer as to why I missed the truth about His creation. It is true that present day man may have certain physical features that look something like what the prehistoric man, or animal evolved to, but that prehistoric man, (as he is called) is nowhere on this earth today. All you will find is his bones. Do not forget the character we call the serpent, which was in our garden of Eden with Adam and Eve: He was no doubt a replica of something that was maybe in existence in the prehistoric world. Yet that prehistoric character was not necessarily man, as he is proclaimed to be. He was just an intelligent form of the overall animal kingdom. There are also other animal like creatures that have certain similarities to something that was in the prehistoric world. If you could see in front of you, an outlay of all the lizards there are in the world, all you would have to do is look at them through magnification, and you could see replicas of the dinosaurs represented in them. In Ghana, Africa, when we were there, while sitting on a hotel veranda, we saw in the trees of the hotel yard, a lizard about so long. He would go up in the tree, then come down and crawl around among the people on the ground. As those little creatures would run around on this veranda, they would stop now and then and raise up and stand real tall. Then they would stand up on their back legs and look all around. We could not help but notice that they had a head and body shaped much like those giant dinosaurs we see on television and in books. As I looked at that little thing I thought, If you could blow him up somehow, you would see one of those giant dinosaurs represented in that little body. I am saying all this because religion, as Christianity, has too long sat in the darkness of human tradition, thinking that God created this planet and everything in it, in six, twenty four hour days, and then rested for a full twenty four hour day, simply because, they say, That is what the Bible says. That is not what the Bible says. The Bible does not pin it down to days of twenty four hours each. It says, Genesis 1:31, “And God saw every thing that He had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. (2:1) Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. (2) And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. (3) And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made. (4) These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.” When you are dealing with generations, you are not dealing with days of twenty four hours each. You are dealing with centuries of time. You must keep in mind that the book of Genesis was not even written before the flood. The book of Genesis was not written until after the commandments were given at Sinai. Moses wrote the first five books of our Bible. Furthermore, I do not believe Moses had to wait for some old wives tales, or hand me down stories to give him the knowledge of what to write in Genesis, or in the other books of the Bible that are attributed to him. The Bible says that Moses was a man that God could speak to, from mouth to ear. Therefore, what he wrote in Genesis is an accurate story of what God wants to give all His true children. Let us not belittle its authenticity, ever. We may not understand everything we read immediately, but when the time is right in the mind of God, He will open our understanding to whatever we need to know to continue our spiritual walk with Him.

HOW GOD LOOKS AT DAYS

Let me now get back to reading these scriptures we want to look at. “Six days shall work be done: (Now this is God giving, through Moses, and the children of Israel, the beginning of days or weeks, in which six days are for work, and the seventh is for rest. Six days shall work be done.) but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings.” Every seventh day, is how you must read this. Forget the Greek titles of these days. It is the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and then the seventh was the rest day. That establishes with Israel that there is going to be six days they will do work, and the seventh one will be a Sabbath. Then the next day will be the eighth day, then the ninth day, on and on until here comes the fourteenth day. Again you have a Sabbath. That is the way the original time factor in Israel was calculated. Now we go to the fourth verse, so notice the wording. “These are the feasts of the Lord, even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons. In the fourteenth day of the first month (This comes to the second Sabbath.) at even is the Lord’s Passover. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the Lord: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread.” Which meant, when this second Sabbath comes around, it is going to be the beginning of the Passover season, which was established as a memorial, a way of remembrance of how God brought Israel out of Egyptian bondage. He is going to set a type here that not only gives the children of Israel an opportunity through a festivity to remember what God did for them by bringing them out of bondage, but the Passover lamb itself speaks of redemption from Egyptian bondage, and also has a future tense, looking ahead to another time when the true Lamb of God, which will be and was, the Jewish Messiah that will come, and then through that Passover, they will have a far greater affect on the human race. However, at that time, Israel was only going to see the Passover season, the Passover feast, and the lamb. Let us continue reading. “And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the Lord: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread. In the first day ye shall have an holy convocation: (which means after the Passover lamb has been slain here, on the evening before, at the closing of the fourteenth day, then begins the fifteenth day, and as we come to the night season of that fifteenth day into the daylight hours, they start their holy convocation of eating nothing but unleavened bread, because it is a festivity built around the Passover lamb that has been slain the day before. This has a far reaching affect. In the first day ye shall have an holy convocation,) ye shall do no servile work therein. But ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord seven days: in the seventh day is an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.” Now something begins to take place. “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest.” Let me go back now, and explain something. He is giving this at the time that He is giving them their different feasts and Sabbaths. When you come into the land that I will give to you and harvest season comes, harvest season will come before the Passover season. In the middle east the grain has been planted in the fall of the year, but we can say that along about the month of March the grain will start ripening. When this ripening stage comes to a certain stage, every land owner that is a farmer will go out to that grain. It is not yet ready to be harvested completely, but he takes his sickle and makes a swath. Then he gathers those fallen stalks. He gathers it into a bundle. This is tied. This is referred to as the first sheaf of the overall harvest that will follow some days later. This bundle of grain could be barley, wheat, or something else. The main thing is, it is of the harvest. They gather this sheaf of grain and take it to the priest. The priest takes that and it is stacked in an orderly fashion, because it is to be kept there until the children of Israel are in that period they are celebrating and taking unleavened bread as a memorial about their Passover lamb. It has got to work together in order for the picture to be what God wants to portray. “When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest.” We might ask, what is the priest going to do with it? “And he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it.” What did that tell you? It means after the Jewish Sabbath day that occurs within the Passover season, then this sheaf of the firstfruits of the harvest shall be waved before the Lord by the priest. The Jewish people never did pick up the meaning of it. To them it is just a ceremony, but it typed the resurrection of the Christ to come, who has already come, been slain, and raised from the dead. He is the fulfillment of the Passover lamb, if you catch the point, on the “next day” after the regular Sabbath. This is why there has been a great squabble between Christendom about the resurrection of Christ, between the Greek Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church. Down through history, the Greek Orthodox Church, which covers the area of the early beginning of Christendom among the Gentiles, has celebrated the resurrection of Christ. They never referred to it as Easter. They celebrated the resurrection of Christ precisely in the order of the Jewish Passover. It is only the Roman Catholic Church that changed it. I am not going to go into all of that right now, because it would detract from the main part of the message. This is the first time something is mentioned about when was the Messiah, who was yet to come, if He is to be killed according to a Passover season, when is He to be raised from the dead, according to the season of the Passover? That is why this priest must have this sheaf offering. “And he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the Sabbath.” You do not even need to ask the question, Well what does that mean? You know what the morrow after the Jewish Sabbath is: It is the first day of the week again, isn’t it? You are starting the cycle of seven more. Do not look at the name Monday, Sunday, Tuesday, or any other of those names given to the days of the week. This is the way the Jews kept a record of things. Verse 12, “And ye shall offer that day, when ye wave the sheaf, an he- lamb without blemish, of the first year, for a burnt offering unto the Lord.” Now this lamb here, is not talking about the Passover lamb. This is another lamb that is to be offered with the sheaf offering. “And the meat offering thereof shall be two tenth deals of fine flour mingled with oil, an offering made by fire unto the Lord for a sweet savour: and the drink offering thereof shall be of wine, the fourth part of an hin. And ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears, until the selfsame day that ye have brought an offering unto your God: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.” Now we have seen here, in reading up to this point, that the fact that the priest is to have this sheaf offering, lets us know that the Jewish Messiah will be crucified in a perfect Passover season, and that He will rise from the dead on the next day after the Sabbath, after He has been crucified in the Passover season. Why? This is establishing the true resurrection. Jesus did not rise from the dead at the closing of the Jewish Sabbath, which some of the Adventists want to teach. It all comes, in just the way certain things are read in the New Testament.

SEVEN SABBATHS-THEN ONE MORE DAY

Now we want to go to another specific type as we read further. Starting in the 15th verse, this would bring us to Acts 2 when the day of Pentecost has fully come. We are going to read about the originality of this. “And ye shall count unto you (notice) from the morrow after the Sabbath, (That is the Sabbath that falls in that Passover season, so you are going to start with this first day again.) from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven Sabbaths shall be complete. (Seven Sabbaths give you forty nine days.) Even unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath (and that takes you to the fiftieth day) shall ye number fifty days; (fifty days, it falls on Sunday. This is the first day of the following group of sevens. This proves that the Church was born on Sunday.) and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the Lord. Ye shall bring out of your habitations (your kitchen) two wave loaves of two tenth deals: they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baken with leaven; they are the firstfruits unto the Lord.” This is the type, and that is why it says in the Bible, in the book of Acts,”When the day of Pentecost was fully come,” which is fifty days after the resurrection of the Jewish Messiah, so it was the Jews that were counting this. All the Jews on that fiftieth day were to bring two loaves of bread made from the grain of the same crop that the first sheaf was taken from. It was to be done fifty days later. These two loaves of bread typed the Church, which is multiple, meaning many, and it is to have leaven in it. That speaks of the mortality of a nature that is still about us. Notice as we continue to read, “And ye shall offer with the bread seven lambs without blemish of the first year, and one young bullock, and two rams: they shall be for a burnt offering unto the Lord, with their meat offering, and their drink offerings, even an offering made by fire, of sweet savour unto the Lord. Then ye shall sacrifice one kid of the goats for a sin offering, and two lambs of the first year for a sacrifice of peace offerings. And the priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits for a wave offering before the Lord, with the two lambs: they shall be holy to the Lord for the priest.” Now we will go to the book of Acts. This is where we see the 120 disciples. They were in an upper room. We automatically say ten days later, but why are we saying that? Because the Bible says Jesus was seen among His brethren about forty days after His resurrection. Right? Then He ascended up from the Mt. of Olives. On the way to the Mt. of Olives He told His disciples, how ever many there were following Him, Tarry ye in Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high. He is speaking of what God is going to do on the day of Pentecost. Then He takes them out on the Mt. of Olives and from there He ascends into heaven. Now whether there were three hundred or five hundred that followed Him over there, it just so happens that out of that number there were 120 that actually did what He said. They verbally heard what He had said, then went back to Jerusalem and into the upper room. They stayed there. Those people were not ignorant, because they knew they were between the Passover season and the Pentecost festivity. Nevertheless, they are in the upper room, and they are going to stay there. Then, when the day of Pentecost has fully come, the feast day when the people have brought the loaves offering, the lambs and so forth, and it is going to follow with a feast. The priests must first have all of this, because it is going to be presented unto the Lord as a burnt offering. Therefore, when we go to the book of Acts, and the day of Pentecost has fully come, that means it is the fiftieth day. It is not the beginning of the fiftieth day at sundown the day before: It is the fiftieth day as it comes on into the daylight part of it. Here in that upper room, is the 120 disciples still gathered together, but let us take a look at the temple grounds. Thousands of Jews are flocking there from all over the land of Israel. They are bringing these leaven loaves of bread, a type of sin. Little did those on the temple ground know what was taking place in another place, higher up on Mt. Zion, up there in that upper room. The fire of the Holy Ghost fell. As fire down there in the temple grounds was consuming the burnt offerings of the ritual of this thing, the real thing was taking place up there. The streets were full of people going toward the temple, but while the fire was consuming those natural festivity articles on the altar down below, 120 men and women up here represent the grain of the same crop harvest that was harvested with Christ being the beginning of the resurrection of the dead. That is why from the day that the priest offered the sheaf offering, the resurrection of the Messiah, fifty days later the fire of the Holy Ghost fell and accepted the first fruits unto Him, which now is the believers. That is why He is the beginning of the new creation. He is not the beginning of the old creation. Many well meaning people want to say He (Jesus) created all things. Jesus did NOT create all things. He did not create anything. If He had created all things, then He would be the head of all things, but the apostle Paul, in the 11th chapter of 1st Corinthians, says, That as Christ is the head of man, so is God the head of Christ. God has made Christ to be the head of all things to the Church, because it has got to come under redemption, not creation. That is why Jesus is the first born among many brethren. He is the first born from among the dead. You and I, according to Paul’s revelation in 1st Corinthians 15, follow Him, the redeemed, each man in his own order. We only have one authority for what we believe and that is the written word of God. So as we look at the scriptures, we can see what was going on down at the temple. Fire was consuming bread and different things that were offered. It is a burnt offering. We can also see that it fell on the first day of the week. Well what does that tell you? That Jesus was the first begotten from among the dead, and the sheaf was waved on the first day of the week, or more correctly, the next day after the Jewish Sabbath. That is exactly when Christ rose from the dead. The Church was born fifty days later. It too fell on the next day after the Sabbath that fell within that forty nine days of Sabbath. The fiftieth day was the descent of the Holy Ghost, the baptism of fire, and the believers were accepted and filled with the Holy Ghost. We now have the Church in existence and the scriptures tell us that she falls in behind Jesus which it says is the beginning of the creation of God, so the Church is on the move. I have to say, Types are more important than just reading a literal verse of scripture and trying to know what it is pointing to. Let us go now to Leviticus 23, and we will begin reading in the 33rd verse, “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month (When we go seven months, we are coming to the fall of the year. Their holy year begins in April there about. The harvest that has been mentioned is the spring grain from the seed that was planted in the fall of the year, maybe October or November of the previous season. How many understand? We are seven months later, as we look at this. We have come through what we call the summer, the hot season. We come then to another time of the year, the fifteenth day of this seventh month.) shall be the feast of tabernacles for seven days unto the Lord. On the first day shall be an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile (hard) work therein. Seven days ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord: on the eighth day shall be an holy convocation.” We know the eighth day is the next day after the Sabbath. Why is it referred to as the eighth day? We have to keep in mind that it is pointing to another time of the same year, when another harvest is coming in. It consists of the type of crops that have been planted along about the time of the feast of the tabernacles. This types something else that God will be doing, because it speaks of the re-gathering of the house of Israel after many years of dispersion. He is bringing her back and restoring her back into His promises. These festivities point to how God is going to deal spiritually with the Jews in the re-gathering period. The eighth day is saying that from then on He has constituted the fulfilling of His plan of redemption for the human race, both Gentile and Jew. When we go from that, we go to the Millennium, which is a dispensational day of one thousand years.

THE MILLENNIUM-A SABBATH FOR THE PLANET

The Millennium is a Sabbath to the earth. The Millennium, a period of time that lasts a thousand years, which is a dispensational day, is going to be a Sabbath to the earth and to the people that live in the Millennium. Keep in mind also that in the Millennium you have a Gentile Bride reigning with the King. We call her a Gentile bride, but that Bride element actually started out with only Jews. The major body is made up of Gentile people from all races of people around the earth. Before the Millennium can start, He has to bring Israel back and restore her back into the promises of redemption. That is why, as they offer these sacrifices, it speaks of the next day after the Sabbath, or of an eighth day which is eternity. This is why, as you see this and understand it, you need to keep in mind that when the Millennium begins, the only people that are going to be participants in the Millennium, as far as having ruling authority, are the people that have come under a redemption plan that has been fulfilled in and through the Lord Jesus Christ, Him having given His life to pay for the sins of all mankind and settle the sin question, and redemption for all time. It is all constituted in the finished work of Christ at Calvary. We can say this, The Old Testament saints that walked with God in fulfilling the rituals of the Law were doing exactly what God required of them, because every ritual and every observance of every day they were required to observe all pointed forward to the Christ that was to come. Therefore, when Christ did literally hang there on the cross, and later was laid in a tomb for a short season, every bit of that observance was fulfilled in the death, burial, and resurrection of Him who died for the sins of all of us. At the same time, your sins and my sins, even though we were not even in the world yet, except in the mind of God, were all paid for, because we point backward to the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. When we come to the re-gathering of the house of Israel, and we see Revelation 11 coming into fulfillment, we see the two Jewish prophets coming on the scene and they are fulfilling their part to give Israel access to the redemption that has already been paid for. Therefore, when we all go into the Millennium together, everything points to the finished work in the Lord Jesus Christ, both for Jew and Gentile. I want to finish reading this so that you get the entire background picture. “On the first day shall be an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein. (We are in the fall of the year as we look at this.) Seven days ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord: on the eighth day shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord: it is a solemn assembly; and ye shall do no servile work therein.” It all means this, that in the fall of the year, as the Jewish people will gather in, fulfilling this, this eighth day is speaking of that which is to follow. (If I had the map of the cycle of the earth to show you how we have it in a drawing it would help, so maybe we will get it fixed up before we end this message.) When the Millennium is over, the redemption price for the earth has been paid. That is why, when the Millennium is over and Satan is loosed for a little season, you need not ever think the devil is going to be allowed to defile the earth all over again. The only thing he is going to be allowed to touch is a few mortal human beings that have been born in the Millennium, and never been tested by him, like we all have been. He will never be allowed to contaminate that living, human element that has been propagated through the Millennium period, to the extent that he can cause them to defile the earth, which for a thousand years God has slowly been redeeming back to its original state through the redemptive work of Christ Jesus. For one thousand years, it will be godly, righteous people ruling and reigning, establishing a rule of righteousness over the entire planet. What we have to realize is that every baby born in that thousand year period, even though Satan is bound in chains, still has those fallen attributes in their genetic makeup, with the potential to rebel against God, so God has to allow Satan an opportunity to get to them and draw away as many as he can. God will judge them and all the rest will pass on into the eternal age to live with God and His redeemed family forever. That is why, when we read the end of the book of Revelation, John saw a new heaven and a new earth. What you are seeing there, is the beginning of the eighth day, in eternity. From that period on, it will not change any more. It is no longer Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, then start all over again. Yes, there will be days just as before, but it means in that eternal age, worlds, ages, ages, ages without end, there is no more sin, no more evil, no more heartache and no more keeping track of days and weeks and years. That eighth day is going to be a wonderful time of perfect fellowship between God and His whole family. Why did John not see that? That is why he said, I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and first earth have passed away, meaning they passed away because they have been renewed through redemption. It is still the same planet, but the work of righteousness that has been fulfilled on it has caused the planet and how it functions with life on it to be completely different.

THE GREAT WHITE THRONE JUDGMENT

When Christ is finally seated on the great white throne for judgment, every bride saint of every age will be there with Him. Every righteous angel will be there. At that great white throne judgement, death and hell give up the dead. All that are in the seas, and all that are in the graves are resurrected to be judged. What is the purpose? Christ is conquering death, Christ is conquering the grave. There is no longer a hell in the heart of the earth after that. There is no longer a grave yard on this planet after that. The last thing He conquers is death. That is why this ends redemption forever. Redemption is complete. This is why Jesus is the beginning and the end. He is the first of the creation of God. That does not mean He is the first rock, or the first tree. He is the beginning of the redemption of every mortal human being that needed to be redeemed. Redemption will have been accomplished through Him. That is why we see eternity going off with a beautiful planet, a godly, righteous element of people. We see that holy city new Jerusalem, descending, coming down out of heaven from God Himself. When that hour has arrived, there will no longer be (and listen carefully how I say this) Gentile preachers pointing to Him and saying, This is our God. No. Anyone who is there will be saying, There is our brother, first and foremost. He was not born to be an addition to the propagation of mankind here on this planet. He was born, begotten from God to be the first begotten of the dead, to fulfill all that had been written of Him. The man from Africa that wrote the book trying to prove how wrong I was by saying that Jesus was the Son of God, and that He was a man, actually says that I am saying He was created just like we were. He is an educated man, and has read the same scriptures I read, and is himself saying that only the body of flesh was the Son. I have a better revelation than that. The very Creator and life giver, and my Saviour, was in that begotten Son in the fulness of all His divine, redemptive authority. When you truly see the Godhead as one should see it, you know that GOD the Creator, which is Spirit, WAS IN HIS SON reconciling the world unto Himself, but the Son was not, is not and never will be God. When redemption is completed, He will turn over all power and authority that the Father had delegated to Him for the purpose of redemption, back to the Father, (according to 1st Corinthians 15) and He, the Son, from then on throughout all eternity, will be looked upon as our elder brother. Well anyhow, what we have to understand is that we have two objects of thought, but because I expressed it that way, he says that I believe in two Gods. That is pure nonsense. First of all, God, Jehovah is not a person. He is a sovereign Spirit so big that everything exists in Him. No man has seen Him at any time, nor can anyone see Him, because He has no shape, no form that can be seen. Yet He can make Himself small enough, if you choose to look at it that way, to get inside of you. That is the part I like. He was fully represented upon earth, because He was inside His Son directing His every move. That is why some looked at Jesus in His ministry and said that they had seen God; because they knew no man could do, by his own power, what they were seeing done as Jesus passed by. That is the way He wanted it to be. Let me say to you, if you can listen to my way of trying to explain. That first Adam God created and put in the garden, which was a little bit of heaven on earth, had been put there with his wife Eve, on the basis of their free moral agency, and was given a choice, to see how they would carry out what they have already been intellectually instructed to do. As spirit beings, they had been told what to do when they were given physical bodies. Had Adam and Eve never allowed the devil to use the serpent to divert them from the commandment of the Creator, and would have waited for their hour to have that intimate relationship to fulfill the Creator’s instructions to them, God could have looked upon that conception and smiled, thinking, now I know I can trust them. There would have been a headship authority invested in Adam and Eve on the basis of that obedience, and every child conceived by that type of relationship would have been a holy offspring of God. However, after Adam allowed the devil to strip him of any chance of ever gaining such recognition, they were forced to fulfill the command to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth according to the law of the other tree in the midst of the garden. That was the law that went with partaking of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In other words, partaking of the intimate relationship for the sole purpose of pleasure, rather than just for the purpose of producing another son or daughter of God, which would have been the case if they had waited for Eve’s reproductive cycle to come around. What really happened? God stripped Adam of that divine authority as a result of his disobedience. Sure the Creator is going to allow them to go ahead and propagate the earth physically, but there is going to be the absence of that divine, eternal life, and that divine knowledge that they could have had. Because of Adam’s disobedience, man was denied the privilege of access to the spirit world, and was cast upon this bare planet to live and walk and to learn what it is, to toil and till the earth in the heat of the day, and have to fight a constant battle with weeds and briars and all the other things that interfere with growing a crop of anything to live on. When you think of mankind in this hot season we have just passed through, especially out in the state of Texas, when for twenty some days the temperature was over 100 degrees, and they had ninety some deaths attributed to this heat, it makes you realize how blessed it would be if we had an ideal temperature and rainfall the year round. That is how it would have been, if Adam had never sinned. What actually happened when God cursed Adam? Well God said to him, In the sweat of thy face shalt thou earn thy bread. Let us read a few verses in Genesis 3. (17) “And unto Adam He (GOD) said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; (18) Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; (19) In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” That is when all of man’s troubles began. Every time I hear one of these loud mouthed scientists talking about his know-so-much position, I can see that old serpent smiling. That serpent is proud of his offspring. How many understand the meaning? That is what the devil was after: a line of men that would depend upon their own intellect instead of depending upon God. Where else would such creatures come from, if not from the serpents line through Cain? Do any of you think Adam and Eve would have ever given birth to men that would grow up having no knowledge of God at all? Every last one of their offspring would have had their personal relationship and knowledge of their Creator. You never would have had professors and scientists trying to convince you that we are all a product of evolution, and outrightly denying that a Creator brought all of this into existence. Those great learned men, and women, will stand for hours describing how this came about, and that came about, and never say one thing about a Creator. Then when you and I come along, we try to say something to prove there is a God, and they say, That has not been scientifically proven, as if that is the last answer. Science did not come from the throne of grace. Science is the results of the instigation of the devil himself. Now let me say something to explain why I said that. I would never want anyone to think that I believe God would have kept all mankind in total ignorance about the planet we live on. Do not ever think God was not going to let His children have some knowledge about the planet, the earth, as well as other planetary bodies. Those things would have followed the obedience, and it would have been a perfect knowledge imparted from the very Creator Himself. The very fact that the devil was allowed to use that serpent character, which was the highest intellectual form of the animal kingdom, has allowed the devil to see the day when he was going to have men and women on this earth that would do their utmost to destroy the knowledge of God, the knowledge of His holiness, His virtue and everything that would even suggest morality and human decency. No wonder we have a society the world over, that is living just like that society God destroyed in the flood of Noah’s day and hour. Get around them and start talking about God, and they get real nervous. They are ready to tell you that you are an idiot for believing such nonsense. Well I have to say, Stick around! Just stick around! We are going to find out who the real idiot’s are! A clipping from the paper was given to me this morning. That Moslem nation that has supported much of the terrorism in the world, has just tested one of her long range rockets. She sent messages to various ones that represents how every Moslem state is speaking to the rest of the world. In other words, we have the means, the capability of delivering long range weapons, both biological as well as atomic. It is the Moslem way of saying to the rest of the world, Look! We will back you to the wall. I just have to say to them also, Stick around! God is going to put on a show one of these days and you will not enjoy it. He will make the professors take off their glasses, because those glasses will not be good enough to read the handwriting on the wall. I am glad we serve a God that is real, and that we have a means of salvation for our sin sick soul’s. God has perfected a beautiful plan for His creation and it all leads right into this eighth day, so I wonder how many of you understand that this is God’s ultimate purpose, to have the earth filled with those who are there because they love Him and find great joy in obeying His word? It all points to the eternal age, a world without sin, and without worry. We will never again have to be concerned about the weather, the stock market, blue Monday, nor anything else. Some reject the idea, but the Bible tells us that Jesus Christ is going to be seen as our elder brother after redemption is completed and we are all in eternity. He is going to be the head of that whole redeemed mass, if that be a proper term. God is going to finally dwell with His entire family in the way He planned it from the very beginning. I will say this, We will see God then, as we are supposed to see Him, because we will see Him as an eternal Spirit that radiates and fills the whole universe. He even fills His redeemed family. It is going to be beautiful. That is why it says in 1st Corinthians 15, That God may be all in all. In the Millennium though, Jesus is still seen on that throne, not the great white throne, but the throne He rules the earth from for one thousand years, there in Jerusalem. That is because He is the head of the redeemed family. He is the head of the new creation. Only after we enter into the eighth day, will redemption be totally completed, both for people in the different eras of time, as well as the planet earth itself. The planet will have finally reached its Sabbath period, when redemption is finally complete. That is why Jesus is referred to as the beginning and the ending. How many can see that? Open your Bible’s to Ezekiel 43:23. We are reading about the new temple as the Millennium begins. We are reading about the altar that has been constructed, in which there will be animal sacrifice offered up once again. It will be displayed on this altar in the Millennium. Now please, saints, do not say to me, Bro. Jackson, I thought that Christ was the end of all that. Looking at it from your position, I can see why you would think that, but remember this, When the Millennium starts, my Bible tells me that all nations will be represented once each year, by an element that will go to Jerusalem. For what purpose? To worship the Lord. They are still going to worship God in that person, the King, or through that person. Yet here on earth with Him is His resurrected, and raptured, immortal Bride, Old Testament saints and all. We have to keep in mind that these mortal subjects that have been carried over out of this era into the beginning of the Millennium are going to have babies born unto them, and they will grow up to full adulthood in a time when the devil is bound and unable to manifest any of his evil schemes. Those little children will not be exposed to pornography and all the other perversions of our society today. They will have a righteous, immortal society ruling over them, so they will walk accordingly, but as we said earlier; They will have reached that point without ever having been tested by God’s adversary, but there is a representation of God’s plan laid out there before them. You must understand that these people that are born during the Millennium, because of the fact that they are still partakers of flesh that has a certain amount of hereditary sin in its background, they will still be subject to some of those impulses; therefore in the Millennium, as these people grow up and go and worship the Lord of hosts and so forth, when they go there and see an animal on the altar, and see its life taken and the body laying there quivering, with blood coming forth from that body and dripping off of the altar, they are made to know that it was the ONE they are going to see, to adore and worship, who likewise hung on a crude old cross one day and took the place of that lamb they are looking at. He was their Lamb, just as He was our Lamb, and the merit and virtue of what He accomplished as that Lamb also pointed ahead to them. They have to have a living representative that points them to the fact that something had to die to pay their inherited sin debt. There are some people, if they never saw anything, they would never know how to relate to it. Do you understand my illustration? For over a thousand years of time, under the law of the Old Testament, every time Jewish people saw those animals die on the Jewish altar, to them that was redemption, but you and I know it was every bit pointing to the Christ that was to come. For what the blood of bulls and goats could not do, the blood of Jesus Christ fulfilled it and reached back and atoned for the sin of all mankind. There is no blood on the altar today because we are living through the Grace Age, the age when we have the revelation of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We are the product of a message, and it was through His death, burial, and resurrection that we are the recipients of that total redemption. We have to see it by faith in order to partake of it now, but when it comes to this next period of time, we must keep in mind that it is not a gospel being preached to them, like the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ: It is the fact that the Lamb of God is now a King. It takes this animal sacrifice on that Jewish altar to remind those people that He, the one they go to Jerusalem to adore, is the same One that was the Lamb of God two thousand years ago. They see Him as a mighty King instead of a bloody lamb. They recognize God in this man, ruling and reigning, bringing everything under subjection to the knowledge of Him who is above all. That is why there has to be something in that thousand year period that points them back to the finished work of Jesus Christ on that old cross. Here is one thing we must understand as we go ahead on this Millennial altar. It actually begins in the 19th verse, but I am not going to read it all. I am going to pick up in the 23rd verse, “When thou hast made an end of cleansing it, (meaning the altar) thou shalt offer a young bullock without blemish, and a ram out of the flock without blemish. And thou shalt offer them before the Lord, and the priests shall cast salt upon them, and they shall offer them up for a burnt offering unto the Lord. (How long?) Seven days shalt thou prepare every day a goat for a sin offering: they shall also prepare a young bullock, and a ram out of the flock, without blemish. Seven days shall they purge the altar and purify it; and they shall consecrate themselves. And when these days are expired, it shall be, that upon the eighth day, and so forward, the priests shall make your burnt offerings upon the altar, and your peace offerings; and I will accept you, saith the Lord God.” That means for seven whole days that altar goes through a cleansing process. That is from the first day to the end of that week. But the fact that the eighth day, from then on, that goes to show that this Millennium era that mankind is then living under, with Christ sitting in Jerusalem, ruling and reigning, goes to show that there is still a presence of sin on the earth, not because the devil is here, but it is that inherited nature in those corporal bodied people that have not attained unto immortality. This is exactly why Christ must rule the nations, not with a fan, but with a rod of iron. He keeps that inherited nature to sin, under control until redemption is finally completed. Sin is still present throughout the Millennium.. That is why in Isaiah 66, it says there will no more thence be an old man from that period on, that hath not, (past tense) fulfilled his days, for a child shall die a hundred years old. That is in the Millennium. And an old man that hath not lived his days. When you begin to see the reality of it all, the Millennium is not yet the perfect age, it is the Sabbath. Seven thousand years, God deals with man on the basis of his fallen nature. That is why Christ has to rule with a rod of iron. Death is the final penalty of disobedience throughout the Millennium. That does not mean that everyone is going to die. It means that throughout the Millennium, everyone that is not rebellious will live a life of longevity, but if there is a child that shows some uncontrollable tendency of this mortal, inherited sin, God will let him reach a hundred years old, giving him ample opportunity to change by hearing what is said, what is supposed to be learned, and what is to be accepted, and then he will be cut off. Therefore, we want to see from the eighth day that it is pointing to the eternal age, because when the Millennium comes to a close, redemption for every human being, as well as for the planet earth, has been accomplished. That is why John saw the new heaven and new earth, and said, For the first heaven and first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea, so just imagine, there are no more graveyards either. There are no more dead bodies on this planet when it reaches that point. There is no more wicked held captive in hell. That is why we can say that hell is not eternal, because death and hell deliver up their dead to be judged and destroyed at the great white throne judgment of Revelation 20. These people that want to climb a tree when we say there is no eternal hell, just simply do not understand the scriptures. Hell as we know it now does truly exist in the heart of the earth somewhere, but one part of that has already been conquered. That was when Christ died two thousand years ago. Where did He go? He went straight to hell. Why? Because He had authority to take the keys away from the devil and take all the righteous spirits out of there. This fulfills what Paul said in Ephesians 4. He took the keys that death and hell held over the righteous spirits and took them to a heavenly paradise. When He conquered that part of paradise or hell, it only left the wicked spirits down there. That is why, at the end of the Millennium, when the white throne judgement is set, this is the Supreme Court of heaven, Jesus Christ with the power of attorney, and the Bride is going to sit there with Him, along with all the angels of heaven, we are going to judge demons, along with every evil thing that has ever been done in the respective generations that mankind has played his part in during the seven thousand years that have expired. That is why, when it is all over, there is no further need for hell. All of its former residents will have been cast into the lake of fire for their final disposition. People who do not understand why there is no eternal hell need to ask themselves this question: Why would it still be needed if all of it had been emptied out into the lake of fire? What does the scripture say? All whose names were not found written in the book of life are cast alive into the lake of fire. Even the lake of fire has a beginning. There is no one there yet. That is just for use after the final judgment, because there is no life given at that judgment. It is just for the wicked. Therefore there is no reason for anyone to climb a wall saying, Well you know those wicked spirits have to suffer eternally. Do you not realize that in order for them to suffer eternally, they would have to have some form of eternal life, and that is contrary to God’s purpose. They are going to suffer on the merits of how bad, how evil they were in their respective generations. The meaner the man was, the longer he is going to suffer; but eventually that old body will disintegrate, because it must suffer the degree of punishment for having not accepted his opportunity of salvation. Therefore whatever length of time God wants that lake of fire to serve its purpose, even if it is ten billion years, that wicked will some day disintegrate; and when the last one has reached that point, there will be no further need for the lake of fire either. I pray that we have said enough to establish the fact that the eighth day points to a perfect day, a day without end. It points to a time when redemption is complete, and the planet earth is completely free from all traces of sin. Everything is complete. This brings us to world without end.

THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS-WHAT DAY WAS IT?

We are going to take a look and see how the four gospels line up, and the conclusion one must come to. Did Jesus rise from the dead at the closing of the Jewish Sabbath? No. He rose from the dead at the beginning of the daylight hours on the first day of the week. I have here, the writings of the Ante-Nicene Fathers. I am going to read from them as we go on into this. We read from the book of Leviticus, as well as from Ezekiel, to get much of what we want to see. The beginning of this whole setting, as we read about the Jewish Sabbath, which consisted of every seventh day, and there was to be a Sabbath that was to be hallowed. It was a rest day from the weekly labors. It was to be throughout all their generations of time. Following that, we learned also how that when the time came that the Messiah, the Savior of mankind, which is the Lamb of God that should be killed, crucified in the Passover season, which to them pointed backwards to getting out of Egypt, but we see much beyond that. God purchased them. We find it was typed there in the sheaf offering that Christ was to be raised, not on the Jewish Sabbath, but on the first day of the week. Then seven months later, which would bring them into the fall of the year, that brings them to the day of atonement, then the feast of trumpets. In that period of time there was definitely to be an eighth day observed. This is the beginning of where this eighth day comes into play. The eighth day is none other than the first day, the day that Christ rose. But it means that it is going to be a day that portrays the finished work of God. When it is all over, then the redeemed kingdom of God, which will consist of not only mankind, but the planet earth itself, will be launched off into another world, so to speak. The word “world” there, is not talking about a planet. It means an era of time. It goes to show that this will be the eighth day, eternity. It will never change again. No sin will ever be present. No evil of any kind, just righteousness. That will be what the Bible speaks of as world without end, displaying the finished work of God. That is what the eighth day is all about. It is only mentioned two times, once in Isaiah, and again in Ephesians 3:21. (20) Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, (21) Unto Him be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.”

SEARCHING THE SCRIPTURES

I am going to let us look at these various scriptures all through the four gospels. Here, we have Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the record written by these four men who walked with Jesus. These are the ones we want to look at first as we continue on. This is the way the gospel writers wrote the record about when Christ rose from the dead. Some of the Adventists people will say that Christ rose on the Sabbath, just as the Sabbath was ending. We want to examine this carefully and see what the scriptures say. As I said earlier, I am not doing this just to be finding fault with anyone’s religion. The Adventists observe a Sabbath, and they preach it as though it is everything there is. Jehovah Witness have the Millennium and they preach it like it is everything there is. If you look at all the religions of the earth today, that claim to be the true Church of God, they all have a pet theme to play with. If you do not accept that as the ultimatum, it is almost like you are out of the picture. We are going to find, if we will allow the scriptures to speak to us, that we are going to take all of what is allotted to the New Testament Church, or we are going to miss the boat, so to speak. God is not going to allow anyone to cut the Bible up into sections and say, I believe that, but the rest of it is un-related to the Church. No. Carnal minded man has done that for centuries, but we are living in an hour when the true Church, the bride of Jesus Christ is going to have the whole truth to live by. Go with me into Matthew’s writing first. Here, we are going to see how the four gospels record this event of the resurrection of Christ. Keep in mind though, that the Jewish week has seven days in it just like ours, the Greeks, or anyone else’s. What we find in this, is that in this week, Saturday, the seventh day, is the Jewish Sabbath day. That is the day they rest. Those that are critical of those that worship on Sunday try to calculate and say, Where did they get this idea? The Adventists say that the Roman church, Catholicism, made it a mandatory law. Well, Catholicism is to blame for a lot of things, simply because they are void of a true revelation of the scriptures. They have canonized certain things because it shows they respect this and believe that, but I am going to read something that will show you how the disciples, from the advent of Christ, after His death and resurrection, recorded it, and how the early Christians in the New Testament spoke of this event. There is very little written in the New Testament, of what day they observed, how they observed it, and what it did consist of; but right now we want to see, from the four gospels, if there is any possible way the gospel writers missed something when they described their way of talking about the first day of the week. Please keep in mind that our day begins at midnight and ends at midnight. The Jewish day begins at approximately 6 o’clock in the evening, or at the going down of the sun, and ends the next evening at the going down of the sun. This gives the Jewish day, the first twelve hours is relative to darkness, followed by twelve hours of light. As the light part of the day is fading out, it goes back into the darkness again. That starts the beginning of the following day. We are in Matthew 28, verse 1. The first day of the week has come. Notice how it is written by Matthew, “In the end of the Sabbath, (When does the Sabbath end? Approximately six o’clock in the evening, the sun is setting on the western horizon, we might say. It is ready to slide over the hills. Notice the word dawn is used by the translators.) as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week.” Those that want to teach that Jesus rose at the ending of the Jewish Sabbath always use this to try to prove their point. They say, As the Jewish Sabbath was reaching its point of end, this marks the beginning of the next day, and therefore they are saying the dawning does not refer to morning: It just means, as the next day is coming on. Well saints, we must keep in mind that this thing called the resurrection has to follow the type that is set. You do not necessarily look at how it was written here and stake everything upon that, because we are going to read four other accounts of this same event. We are going to see that sooner or later they all correlate together. You have to understand what the writer was talking about, and in what relationship he was writing. “As it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow: And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men. And the angel answered, and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for He is risen, as He said, Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly, and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead; and behold, He goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see Him: lo, I have told you.” Now let us just imagine that this is the only writing we have that tells us what took place. I can see why some want to interpret it the way they do, because they ignore all the other clarifying scriptures that could lead them to the truth. Let us just suppose we are all Jews. We are living through the Sabbath day after His crucifixion, which is the seventh day as they account for days. We have done no work. Everything has been relatively still ever since sun set on the sixth day. For some reason or other we are waiting for this Sabbath to come to its end. We are standing around, watching the hour glass as the last grain of sand pours into the bottom and it is ready to be turned over again, to begin another day. My point is this, If Mary Magdalene and those that came with her had come while the sun was sinking on the western horizon, the gospel writers would not have written it like they did. (Follow me now), Because you are in a Jewish day, not a Roman day. Therefore, if we look at this the way the Adventists do, Jesus must have risen from the dead just about the time the sun was slipping over the horizon in the evening, beginning another day. Follow me carefully, because there are three more men that are going to write their version of this thing. They will all correlate, so we need to read all four accounts. The actual word “dawn” here, is pointing toward the daylight hours of the first day that is coming up and that is hours after the day itself began. Jesus was not risen from the dead in the first hour or two of the beginning of this first day. The first hours will take you into the early dark hours of the first day, and midnight has not yet come. I do not even see that kind of picture, looking just at Matthew’s account. Let us notice now, somewhere within that temple grounds is a pile of grain, and it represents the first fruits of the harvest and it points to the resurrection of Christ. That priest is not taking them and waving them before the Lord as the Sabbath fades out and the first day comes in. He is not waving them around seven, eight, or nine o’clock in the dark hours of the first day. How many follow me? The resurrection of Christ has to correlate somewhere relative to the time that priest is going to be waving the wave offering. I do not say that he waited until nine o’clock in the morning and the sun is up, because there is a lot for him to do on that day. The point is this, they have definitely passed the midnight hour, which is the dark part of the first twelve hours. We are moving toward the dawning of the daylight hours of the first day. That is when all activity will start. With the priest’s, society, whatever is going to function through that day, it is going to start early in the morning, after the dark hours of the first day of the week is beginning to recede, so with that, let us go now to the gospel of Mark.

WHAT MARK WROTE ABOUT THE RESURRECTION

We are in the 16th chapter of Mark to look at his account of the resurrection of Christ. “And when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint Him.” Listen carefully: These are human beings that loved Jesus; but I ask you, What would have motivated them to want to come to the tomb around 7 or 8 o’clock in the evening, at the beginning of night season, when normally all other activities that function in the daylight hours has ceased? Do you follow me? “And very early in the morning on the first day of the week, (This account lets us know when they did come: It was early in the morning at the beginning of the daylight hours on the first day of the week, the day we call Sunday.) they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun.” It was not necessarily up yet, but they could see the eastern horizon, the glow. They are up early, because they have waited through the Sabbath for their chance to do what they went there to do. Nothing tells them to sit at home until a certain hour, but they waited for daylight. They were watching the horizon, and when there began to be activity in the city of Jerusalem, that is when they were ready to go. Those disciples remembered when He was laid in this tomb. It was the Jewish officials that went to the authorities and made all the arrangements to guard the tomb. They did this on the day just before the Sabbath set in. They said, That character said He would rise again the third day. Therefore they asked the authorities to go seal that tomb. The authorities said, Look to it yourselves, so they went out and sealed the tomb. They did not want any sleight of hand magician coming along to play a trick on them, to fulfill the words of Jesus, that He would rise again the third day. They were afraid someone might do this to try to prove that He had risen from the dead. This is exactly why the disciples came at this time, because they had been forbidden to participate in any activity during the Sabbath day; but when this first day of the week has come and the night season has passed, they are coming just as the sun is rising. It has not yet illuminated the earth; but they could see it. All across the old city of Jerusalem you could hear roosters crowing. As he looked through the cracks in the boards, he sees the dawning of another day and he is going to sound off. You just cannot keep them from doing that. Well let us continue on with our reading. “And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun. (This tells you how they waited for the dawning of the first day of the week, does it not? It is self explanatory, because it is talking about the same persons.) And they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre? And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away: for it was very great. And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment; and they were affrighted. And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: He is risen; He is not here: behold the place where they laid Him.” Now this speaks more profoundly that it is not in the early, dark hours, as it sounds like in Matthew. It is early in the approaching of the light hours. In other words, it is well past midnight and the sun is beginning to illuminate the eastern horizon.

JOHN, CHAPTER 20

Let us go now, to John , chapter 20 and read what he wrote about the resurrection. If you think I am spending too much time on this, let me remind you that we are giving you the necessary information to combat the various versions, or interpretations of the scriptures that these door to door religionist are always throwing at you. It takes all of this together, to get the entire picture straight. Verse 1, ” The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre.” That does not mean 7:00 or 8 o’clock. It is still dark as far as daylight hours is concerned, but daybreak is at hand. That is why I said before that the sun is just approaching. This profoundly gives you an understanding that Christ arose from the dead well into the hours of the dark period of the first day of the week, after the Sabbath day had ended at sun down prior to that. I will say that we can safely look at it this way, Christ was risen from the dead somewhere past midnight and before the sun was completely up. The angel came down and there was an earthquake. Those guards fell backwards, frightened. That stone rolled away and Jesus appeared. As he appeared, nobody saw Him at that present time, but we can say this: There is the sheaf offering that the priest is going to wave before the Lord in just a short time. I hope all of you can see that you have got to correlate the meaning of the two together. You cannot separate it, having it five or six hours apart, because all activity did not start up again right after sundown. All activity in the temple is going to start about the time the sun is ready to make its appearance. That starts the day of activity after the Sabbath; and not the night before. We have got to keep the wave offering of the sheaf in our mind’s, as being the time when the resurrection has to occur, not exactly at the time the priest is doing it, but within a relative time factor of it, because, when he waves it, it signifies He has already risen. It is not meaning He is rising at the very moment it is being waved. It only signifies that He has already risen. Let us finish reading here. “Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved.” It is none other than John. We can see here that Matthew, Mark, and Luke got their account of it from these that were actually present at the tomb that morning. These women were the first ones to come to the tomb, because they have actually come to prepare the corpse properly for entombment. They had bought these expensive spices, and their main purpose was to have permission to take the body and embalm it. That is what they came for, but they did not have to do that. That is why when they saw the angel he said, you seek the living among the dead, behold He is not here: He is risen. He was already gone.

LUKE, CHAPTER 24

We will now go to Luke 24, where we will get the 4th account of the resurrection of Jesus. “Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them. And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre. And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus. And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments: and as they were afraid, and bowed down their face’s to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen: remember how He spake unto you when He was yet in Galilee, Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.” In reading all these four accounts, I think you can see by now that the dawning toward the first day of the week is not talking about the beginning of the dark hours. That is the thing you should see. It is Mary Magdalene and Mary, the ones that came first. You know if there is a discrepancy between how this event has been recorded, it would have shown this in different wordings that would have kept you divided. My point is, we must understand that sheaf offering, and there are bundles upon bundles of it down at the temple. Down there is the sheaf offering out of every man’s field. That wave offering is to type the first fruits from among the dead. It goes to show, Christ had to rise precisely according to the type that is set forth in the scriptures. Otherwise the type would have been of no benefit. As we read the writings of the apostle Paul, we find him making different statements about types and shadows. Paul’s Epistles give us many clues, as well as factual statements concerning different things of the Old Testament.

TYPES AND SHADOWS

What is a type? A type illustrates by something like that sheaf offering, an event that is to come to pass, it typifies. God, somewhere, has spoken precisely what it represents. He demands that it be observed in memory of what it represents. However, when you come to a shadow, you are not looking to some hypothetical meaning. For instance, let us just say the sun is getting ready to go down. Between where you are standing and the going down of the sun, at that angle the sun will cast different shadows within your eyesight. You can see certain objects being portrayed on the ground in front of you. This is called a shadow. If you look at that object long enough, the shadow, the profile of it on the ground, you should know what it is portraying. The purpose in a shadow is, you should be able to tell by not even seeing the object casting it, what it pertains to. If there was an elephant standing 300 yards behind you, it would not cast the profile of a cow upon the ground. The profile gives you the outline. It does not mean you will see its eyes and every time it wags its tail. You are going to see an outline of something, and that is a shadow. A shadow in the scriptures is speaking of something that is in existence. It is just ahead, but this is the way you will understand it and begin to identify it before you actually move out of the shadow to where you see the actual object, which now is in the light right in front of you. Therefore we can say this, The type of Christ’s resurrection was the sheaf offering. We must understand that the sheaf offering, the first fruits had to already be risen from the dead, before the priest is going to wave the sheaf offering, the type. To the average Jewish society that would be going toward the temple, they are going to see that priest wave these sheaf offerings, picking them up and laying them down, pick them up and lay them down, and to them it was just a ceremony. It goes to show, they did not catch any kind of revelation of what the type was pointing to. We are living in a Gentile church world today which has all kinds of religious programs, but God knows a lot of them do not even catch the type, nor do they see the shadow. It is true that some of them teach very interesting lessons on types and shadows, but when it comes to a revelation of the Godhead, they miss it completely, because their mind is set in concrete, believing that God is three persons. Without a revelation of the Godhead, everything else is just a hit and miss kind of thing. Well anyhow, as we look at the four gospels, if we can see that all four gospel writers did agree that Christ was raised well within the beginning of the first day of the week, then there should be no controversy. We can say, Yes it was still dark as those women were coming to the tomb, but all they had to do was look on that eastern horizon. They knew that within another hour or so, everything was going to be lit up. That is the way we have to look at it, if we are going to come out with a picture that the types have been pointing to. Therefore, if we can see that all of this, from here back through the Old Testament, has been fulfilled according to these scriptures mentioned right here in the New Testament. This should begin to give us this little bit of hope that whatever has been recorded in the Old Testament, written as a type or shadow, has got to cast its real objective in the New Testament. Of course we all know that the greater part of the New Testament Epistles were written by the Jew whose name was changed from Saul, to Paul. He was the apostle to the Gentiles. This was the man the Jews hated, because he left them and joined the Christians. Wherever he went among Gentiles, he had a revelation for them that the Gentiles are saved by grace: not because they have kept the Sabbath, not because of circumcision, and not because of eating of meats in observance of any certain day. They are looked upon by the Jewish society as devils, pagans, carnal heathen: Don’t eat with them, don’t have fellowship with them. That is the way the Jewish society who kept the Law looked upon the Gentiles, as though they were nothing but unclean dogs. That is not the picture that God gave Paul. This is where Paul got the great revelation that God has cleansed these Gentiles from all their filthiness, by their act of faith, putting their trust in the finished work of Calvary. It absolutely made the Jews walk and stomp the ground. The Adventists will take the New Testament and say, Yes, but Jesus died to vindicate these commandments and to make them that much more essential and mandatory for you and I to observe, especially the Jewish Sabbath. Well let us just see about that. Go with me into the book of Romans, the 10th chapter. Who is Paul writing to, what kind of people? He is writing to Romans, Gentiles. Yet he is aware as he writes to this Roman church, that this church has had its initial beginning years in advance of this, because there were many Jews from Rome in the streets of Jerusalem when the Church was born, not on the Jewish Sabbath, but on the first day of the week, when the day of Pentecost had fully come. We talked about it earlier: Pentecost was that feast day that was to come on the fiftieth day after the first sheaf offering was brought in. With this in mind, Paul now has put up with a lot of criticism. He hears there is strife within the Roman church, because some in the Roman church are hung up on meat eating. They are trying to separate the meaning of certain animals that have been sacrificed to a pagan god, and I have not the time to be delving into all this and what it meant, but you can see here, within the same body of people, that here was Jews whose lives have been affected by the Law, which not only consisted of certain holy days, but it consisted of Don’t eat this, don’t eat that, don’t touch this and don’t touch that. Then there were the Gentiles; and no doubt many of them had first been converts to Judaism, proselytes. They had a knowledge of the Law, as far as that part was concerned; but now that these Jews had come back to Rome and spread this gospel news about what was taking place in Jerusalem on that Pentecost day, the whole Roman church began to get its growth. It was growing in numbers of people. However because there had never been a man there to substantiate, to solidify the foundational teachings of this church, the people have been left just to let their mind’s wonder, supposing this and that, and having their own ideas about how things ought to be. Well Paul was faced with all of these kinds of things as they began to criticize him on his revelation. I am going to say this, not because we eat pork or didn’t eat it, not because of circumcision or uncircumcision, not because we observed a certain day or didn’t, We are Gentiles, saved by the grace of God, so we have no merit of any kind to boast about. Let us notice now, as we read what Paul had to say to those people at Rome, where he puts the emphasis. We are starting in 10:1. “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, (keeping the Sabbath, not doing any work, and all of that) but not according to knowledge. (Spiritual understanding) For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.” Listen to this statement from Paul. I have to say, When people hold a certain mandatory thing over you, like, If you eat pork, you cannot be saved, or if you don’t worship on the Sabbath day of the Jews you cannot be saved, because it is going to be the mark of the beast on you. That is what this book I have been referring to, says. But Paul says this, and he is sending this letter to a Roman church, which is made up of Jews and Gentiles, “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” Now, Swallow that. That is what it meant, swallow it. That is hitting them right between the eyes. There was a reason why, in every one of these epistles, he was forced to write a certain strong statement to make the devil get back and leave those people alone. Christ is the end of the law. Well, it is for pork, but not the Sabbath, some still say. This is the way people will twist the scriptures and try to bring out their pet revelation and paint their beautiful picture of how it works. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. Now we want to see, just what Paul really meant, so let us go over to the 2nd chapter of Colossians. This letter is being written to a church over in the Asian area where he first had his great revival. The Colossian church was a contemporary church to the Ephesian church. You might say both these churches, when you look at them from the spiritual level, were both right up front. As he is writing to the Colossian people, there is a need that has arisen among them, so let us notice how he presents this revelation to them. He is talking about Jesus in verse 9, “For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” He is actually saying, Jehovah of old, the Elohim of old, is fully represented in the person of His Son. In Jesus, was the full measure of all the redemptive attributes of the great Creator. That needs to be expressed and needs to be evident, that in that man there is eternal life. It is God in that man, reconciling you and me back to Himself. “And ye are complete in Him, which is the head of all principality and power: In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands.” Now I have to say to all of the Adventists, Let’s get it right. You have hung that Sabbath day teaching so high, you have become blinded by how Paul said other things. I am not pointing the finger of accusation, trying to condemn anyone: I was a Methodist up until God opened my eyes. As far as I am concerned, the Adventists had just as much truth as the Methodists, in one sense of the word, but they are all missing it. Try to preach about the Millennium to some Methodist congregations, and you just as well fold your book and get out. I had a Methodist preacher tell me one time that the book of Revelation should never have been written. Well I am very thankful to God for the book of Revelation. It clears up a lot of things for me. “In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. (That is the baptism of the Holy Ghost.) Buried with Him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses.” You could have been a drunkard, you could have been an alcoholic, you could have been a murderer, you could have been guilty of all of that, but thanks be to God, when you heard the gospel of Grace, God saved you and did not bring to remembrance how many days you did not keep a Sabbath day somewhere, nor did He hold up any other thing you did or did not do and say, No. You cannot be saved, because of such and such. No saints, Paul clarifies all of this, so let us see what else he says here. When Paul said in the Roman letter, For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness, to every man that believeth, let us see here, why he made this next statement we are going to read. “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances (The Law is hanging right there.) that was against us, which was contrary to us, (He is writing in respects to Gentiles, how they looked at Judaism.) and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross; And having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.” You should begin to get your eyes opened, illuminated, spiritually speaking. What was the Law really for then? It was a means of portraying to those Jews, who were sinners just like the rest of us, because their nature is contrary to righteousness, so the Law shows them, by the fact that they do not want to do this, it is mandatory because they are sinners. Paul teaches in Hebrews, that without the Law, man did not have a knowledge of what God really looked upon as sin, saying , But when the Law came, sin was revived. In other words, man learned by looking at the Law, that he is a sinner. The only way he can make it is observe it to the letter; but there again, that was only a type. That is why, from the time the Law was given at Sinai, 1450 years prior to that, approximately, it is exactly why we find also in the Galatian letter, what we are going to read in a few minutes, but I want to emphasize this, Paul has said to the Colossians that the Law was hung on the cross with Christ. Therefore the Law was crucified. It is dead! It is dead! “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.” This is the way we should see the Bible; and not the way we want to see it, and twist it. Let us look back a little, and I will make a few comments. When you go to the book of Acts, or to the book of Galatians, no matter where Paul went, he was constantly getting letters from some of those churches. They had their origin from his ministry, so they looked to him for help when they needed it. The church at Antioch, one time, when Paul and Barnabas made their way back there, was in an uproar. Some fellows came from Jerusalem to Antioch, saying they came from Peter’s presence. They told the Antioch church that except they be circumcised as the Jews, they could not be saved. That threw the whole congregation into disarray. No sooner did Paul come home, he decided, We must go to Jerusalem and get this squabble settled once and for all time. They came to find out these men had not come because Peter had sent them, they came on their own. We have that kind still around today. In this Gentile church world, we have evangelists and preachers running from here to there, with every kind of teaching you could imagine. They have their own revelation and a very intelligent way of persuading people that it is straight from the living God. You would think that after this many centuries, that we Gentiles, having had the opportunity to at least know what the Bible does say, we ought not be so ignorant that we would jump at every idea some smooth talking preacher puts forth. Most people are not even interested in the truth enough to even care what they give their attention to. They have that philosophical attitude, What do I care? I have done my duty: I have gone to church, sat patiently for forty five minutes, so that ought to be all that is required. When they leave, most of them do not remember one thing that was said, when they should have been interested in learning something that should have been taught from the Bible. The point is this, Paul was showing the Colossian people that the Law is dead. It was hung on the cross of Calvary and died when Christ died. We have to accept grace without the law.

THE APOSTLE PAUL COMPARES THE LAW TO GRACE

Let us go to Galatians for another look at Paul’s teaching for New Testament (Grace Age) believers. This letter was written a few short years before the letter to the Colossian church. We are going to start here in chapter 4, verse 1. He brings out the relationship here, showing how the Jewish people, while under the Law, were typed like children placed under the care of tutors. “Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; (What does he mean by that? He is laying down an understanding that those who lived under the law were like children placed under tutors, but over here under Grace, you automatically become a full fledged child of God. I hope you catch my point.) But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made (or born) under the law.” Now I have to talk about the Jewish calendar. Paul was a Jew. He knew every one of the festivity seasons within the Jewish calendar. It was approximately 1450 years at the time of the exodus coming from Egypt. If you will look at it in the right way, the beginning of the month starts on the first day of the spring month Abib. When was the sacrifice to be slain? On the evening of the 14th day. The next twelve hours is 14 and ½ days. Do you catch the point? The next twelve hours that follow that, you are in the 15th day, full bloom. The moon is full and that is what regulates the Jewish month. Try to follow my point. It goes to show, that as the moon, the beginning of the month, there is just a very little streak of light, a new moon. 14 days later, when you saw the moon come up at the beginning of the 14th day, it looked almost like it was complete, but we can say this, When you come at the ending of the 14th day, and the sun is going down, you are getting ready then to start into the 15th day. By the time the sun is ready to rise the next morning, which has taken you already through half of the 15th day, the moon will be full. What this typifies is that after 1450 years, in the fulness of time, the Law was full. Christ came right on schedule. As they were to kill that Passover lamb at that time, that is when they killed their Messiah, the true Passover Lamb. Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to every man (or woman) that believeth: That is what Paul wrote to this assembly. Notice as we go on here. “But when the fulness of the time was come.” My point in saying this is, Christ did not come 1200 years after the exodus started. He did not come 1287 years after the exodus story, nor 1325 years, nor 1380. He came around 1450 years later, after their receiving of the Law. That goes to show how many times the Jewish society has went through that same ritual, that same ceremony, pointing them backward to Egypt, never knowing what it would turn into. Little can they see of the type that is portrayed here. “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made (or born) under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, (That was Jews.) that we might receive the adoption of sons. (Gentiles come in here.) And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, (Thank you.) Father.” He did all this through His act of Grace, because you saw that you needed Him and there was no way you could go back and keep the Law to merit anything. It is an act of unmerited favor on the part of God. “Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.” Now Paul gets right down to the bottom line. “Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, (He is talking to Gentiles that once had no knowledge, no concern, or anything) ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods. (You were pagans.) But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?” You are wanting to turn back to the Jewish Law, so someone has gotten you off track. “Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.” Isn’t that as plain as it could be? It ought to tell you something, that it is grace, not keeping the law. To the Adventists, Do not ever dare to think that because we are teaching from the Bible, the same Bible you use, that we do not have a day of worship: We absolutely do. The day we use is not a Roman day canonized by the Catholic Church. I am going to read where it starts. In the 11th verse Paul is saying to the Galatians. “I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.” He would say that to a lot of Christendom today, those that are hung up on any one part of the Law. Years ago, down on the river road going to Elizabeth, at the foot of the hills, there used to be a church house there in the late 1950’s. They were what you call Pentecostal Adventists. That pastor was afraid to even let those people go to the grocery store: Of course they worshiped on Saturday. He was so afraid to trust the people in his congregation to go to the grocery store shopping for meat, that he went himself and bought the amount of meat his people would need over the weekend. He saw that there was no pork bought. He had to supervise it. My point in talking like this is, you not only have a day of observance, that is the Sabbath, but you also have another part of the Law, which is no eating of pork. Paul said, that in the last days there would be those kinds of people that would depart from the faith, forbidding to marry, abstaining from meats and on and on. The devil has got a lot of gullible people ready to jump into anything that sounds good to them. I read this part to let you know, here in the Galatian letter, Paul is letting the people know, if you are saved by any means, it is by grace, through faith in the finished work of Calvary. So keeping all of this in mind, let us go to Hebrews 8:1. In this, he is portraying to you the purpose of Christ being our High Priest and comparing it along with the high priest of the Jewish Law period. “Now of the things which we have spoken, this is the sum: (the answer) We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens.” In other words, our High Priest has gone to a greater place than that holy room in the Jewish temple. Meaning, where He went, it did something better for us than what that high priest did by going into that room. “A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man. For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices: wherefore it is of necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer. (talking about Jesus Christ) For if He were on earth, He should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law: Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith He, that thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount.” If you have seen anything at all, what Moses saw was God showing him the true tabernacle, He was showing him the Church, the entire body of the Church. See that you make this earthly house according to the model that I have showed to you from heaven. “But now hath He obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also He is the mediator of a better covenant.” Now we are talking about a covenant. The Law was a covenant. It was given at Mt. Sinai. We know this, in Jeremiah 31, about the 31st verse, but the 33rd verse contains these words, a new covenant will I make with the house of Israel after those days, meaning after the Law has run its course. I will come down and will write my laws in their minds and plant them in their hearts. What is He actually saying? He is going to put something here that bypasses the Law and all it demanded, because it puts inside of you a desire to love and please God, and you want to learn from God. The things that basically were of the Law, things that have a spiritual meaning, but we could not see it, those are what God is going to plant in your minds, and in your heart’s. He is going to write it there for sure, because He does it by divine revelation. There will be a day, but it will be a day that far surpasses the Jewish Sabbath. It will be a day that we can remember. It speaks of, and points us to that eighth day, when God is redeeming us through the finished work of Christ, which was a much better sacrifice than the blood of bulls and goats, and the observance of days, months, and years. It is going to bring us into a better relationship; and I assure you, it has. That is why it says right here, “For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. For finding fault with them, He saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.” Why would anyone want to take parts of that old Law, which has already run its course, and hang it over peoples head’s, forcing them to observe the Jewish Sabbath? “Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their heart’s: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. In that He saith, A new covenant, He hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.” What is that saying to those people at the time Paul wrote this? Gentiles, since Christ has already hung on that old cross, the old Law has already fulfilled its purpose. You can see that it has not changed every man, this new covenant, but it has been made; therefore the old is waxing very weak, because there is no righteousness to be obtained by keeping it. “Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary. For there was a tabernacle made; the first, wherein was the candlestick.” It goes on. But we know this, through a better covenant we have been brought into a relationship to our God, through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, who was typed in the Old Testament Law, and under the Old Testament Law, all the true, divine purposes in it was fulfilled that day when Jesus hung on the cross and gave His life for the sins of every one of us.

SUNDAY IS THE DAY NEW TESTAMENT CHRISTIANS CHOSE FOR WORSHIP

I am going to show you how the early church chose to worship on what we refer to as Sunday, in our society. I have said this, That there is not much written in the New Testament about it, but we know what it says in the 20th chapter of Acts, so let us read that first. (7) “And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight. (8) And there were many lights in the upper chamber, where they were gathered together. (9) And there sat in a window a certain young man named Eutychus, being fallen into a deep sleep: and as Paul was long preaching, he sunk down with sleep, and fell down from the third loft, and was taken up dead. (10) And Paul went down, and fell on him, and embracing him said, Trouble not yourselves; for his life is in him. (11) When he therefore was come up again, and had broken bread, and eaten, and talked a long while, even till break of day, so he departed.” We did not have to read all of that to make our point, because we were noticing that it was on the first day of the week that the disciples came together to break bread and Paul was there and preached all night, and that was before there ever was a Catholic Church. Why were those disciples gathered together on the first day of the week to break bread? Why was it not on the Jewish Sabbath day? Because those disciples had a revelation and an understanding which you do not even find mentioned like this. I am going to read you what Barnabas wrote, and we realize that he and Paul had their difference of opinion at one time, but that had nothing to do with the revelation of God’s word, that they both had, and do not forget that in later years Paul wrote about Barnabas and spoke well of him. This is an epistle written by Barnabas. He has been talking here on another subject. He leaves that subject and goes right to this thing we have been talking about in this message.

READING FROM CHURCH HISTORY

“Further, also it is written concerning the Sabbath in the Decalogue (Old Testament) which the Lord spoke, face to face, to Moses on Mt. Sinai, (He recites what the Lord told him) “And sanctify ye the Sabbath of the Lord with clean hands and a pure heart.” And He says in another place, “If my sons keep the Sabbath, then will I cause my mercy to rest upon them.” The Sabbath is mentioned at the beginning of the creation: (That is back in Genesis) “And God made in six days the works of His hands, and made an end on the seventh day, and rested on it, and sanctified it.” Attend, my children, to the meaning of this expression, “He finished in six days.” This implieth that the Lord will finish all things in six thousand years, (They saw that back then.) for a day is with Him a thousand years. And He Himself testifieth, saying, “Behold, today will be as a thousand years.” Therefore, my children, in six days, that is, in six thousand years, all things will be finished. (He is talking about redemption.) “And He rested on the seventh day.” This meaneth: when His Son, coming again, shall destroy the time of the wicked man, and judge the ungodly, and change the sun and the moon, and the stars, then shall He truly rest on the seventh day. (That is the Millennium.) Moreover, He says, “Thou shalt sanctify it with pure hands and a pure heart. If, therefore, anyone can now sanctify the day which God hath sanctified, except he is pure in heart in all things, we are deceived.” (Because no man can set aside a holy day if he is a sinner, only a Holy God can. But watch, he is using that in comparison of what a revelation has done for them.) Behold, therefore: certainly then one properly resting sanctifies it, when we ourselves, having received the promise, wickedness no longer existing, and all things having been made new by the Lord, shall be able to work righteousness. Then we shall be able to sanctify it, having been first sanctified ourselves.” (We will be in immortal flesh. Do you understand me now? That is what he is seeking to bring out.) Further, He says to them, (I just got through reading it) “Your new moons and your Sabbaths I cannot endure.” Ye perceive how He speaks: Your present Sabbaths are not acceptable to Me, but that is which I have made, namely this, when given rest to all things, I shall make a beginning of the eighth day, (Barnabas is speaking this because they got a revelation.) that is, a beginning of another world. (That is why I said earlier, It points you to the age of the eternal age when the world goes into that, redemption is complete. That is why the Millennium is not yet the perfect day. It is the rest day. It is a time for the earth to rest, a time for mankind to rest. But what is accomplished in that period of time of a thousand years? That is the part that is going to live to be passed off into the eternal age, which is world without end.) “Wherefore, also, we keep the eighth day with joyfulness, the day also on which Jesus rose again from the dead. And when He had manifested Himself, He ascended unto the heavens.”

If they taught that back then, are we wrong in teaching it now? I am going to take you to another man’s writing, Justin the martyr, taken from the same writings. It is not quite as long, but it goes to show how important this first day of the week was. They had the importance, they knew that Christ had rose on the first day of the week and that He is the beginning of the new creation of God, the new creation by redemption. Therefore, seeing that the Jewish Sabbath is only a part of the old creation process, it only speaks in itself what it is, but here, it is the beginning wherein we represent and worship the Christ on the day He arose. We respect Him for having been the one that starts the new creation process. This is Justin the martyr that we are going to read from now.

READING

“And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country, gather together in one place, and the memoirs (meaning the gospels) of the apostles, or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits. Then when the reader has ceased, the president (or pastor) verbally instructs and exhorts to the people, that they should earnestly seek to imitate those good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought and the president (the pastor) in like manner offers prayers and thanksgiving, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen, and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent, a portion is sent by the deacons. They who are well to do and willing, give what each thinks fit, and what is collected is deposited with the president (the pastor) who then takes care of the orphans and widows and those who through sickness, or any other cause, are in want or need, and those who are in bonds, and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes care of all who are in need. 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; and Jesus Christ our Saviour on the same day rose from the dead. For He was crucified on the day before that of Saturn, (Saturday), and on the day after that of Saturn, which is the day of the Sun, having appeared to His apostles and disciples, He taught them these things, which we have submitted to you for your consideration.”

I cannot add anything to that, nor would I take it away. To me, that is as plain as the nose on your face. So I have to say, We are going to put this in print, knowing the Adventists will not like it, and knowing that they will not accept it, but we have a revelation of the new covenant, and they are trying to restore an old one. I am thankful to God for the truth of His word. His word will never fail, but man’s word may fail before the day ends.