All right, we're gonna try to get through a little bit of chapter two today in the book of Genesis. And we've got two different directions we're gonna go. We're gonna start right off in the beginning of the chapter, and then we're gonna shift gears before the end of the lesson. We're gonna first start off talking about the seventh day here is recorded in Genesis chapter two, verses one through three. And if you have your Bible, you can turn to it. If you have your sheet, you can see it there. It says, thus the heavens and earth were finished, and all the hosts of them. 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. 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. Now, we know, and it says on your sheet there, we know that God never needs rest. So what is this idea of the seventh day that God rested? Well, in technical terms, in just practical terms, it just means God stopped. He's done. He finished what He was set out to do. He didn't have to sit back and rest as if that took a lot out of Him. It never does. The Bible tells you, I give you references, that He neither sleeps nor slumbers. That's Psalm 121, verses 3 and 4. but he simply stopped from all his work which he had created and made. And we dealt with that a couple weeks back where we talked about the difference between creation and making and forming. And so the Bible gives you here those words that he created and he made. But this reveals an important dispensational truth. Now, we've been studying dispensations on Tuesday nights. If you haven't been able to come so far, you're still welcome to come. We've got two weeks left. And during those two weeks, we'll hit some more information. But we went through the Book of Acts, the last two classes, and we really dissected it to show that there's transitions in time. And dispensations is a very important truth to understanding the Bible. If you don't know dispensations, you need to get a hold of that. It's the right way to understand the Bible, to rightly divide the word of truth. And that's what you have to do right here at this passage. It says in verse 3, And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it. Now, we'll talk about a religion here, the Seventh-day Adventist particularly, who'd like to take that verse and run with it and make a religion out of it. But you can't do that. This reveals an important dispensational truth of a coming day. And I have that word day bolded. It says that. It talks about the seventh day. He rested on the seventh day from all his work. But it's a coming day for the rest of rest for the people of God called the Millennium. Turn over to your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 4. Hebrews chapter 4. We'll look at verses 4 through 10. Now we know 2 Peter 3.8, don't look at it, but just get to Hebrews chapter 4. 2 Peter 3.8 says, A day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. Right? We know that the seven days of creation, or rather the six days that we read in Genesis 1, happened in 24 hour periods. And the evening and the morning were the first day. and the evening and the morning were the second day. We know that the evening and the morning is 24 hours, right? It's a whole day. But God uses the word day throughout the Bible in different ways. And when we're talking about day, according to 2 Peter 3.8, we're talking about a thousand year time span. A day with the Lord is a thousand years. So we look at the six days of creation, And we can extrapolate from that as we know, now that we're out in 2021, and we can realize that there have been six days, man has been on this earth, mankind has been on this earth for 6,000 years. right and there's coming that that when that six thousand years is over and we expected to be over already i don't know why we're still here frankly now we should be gone by now in a rapture but nonetheless it will come any day now the lord will appear and we'll be taken out of here in a rapture and we and it will begin the seventh day And that seventh day is called the millennial reign of Christ. It's 1,000 years if you read your Bible. It's 1,000 years long, which will be a seventh day. And in the seventh day, in verse Genesis 2, 3, that's when God finished His work, and that's when He rested. It's a picture of that. But Hebrews chapter 4. Talks about this here, it says, for he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, and God did rest the seventh day from all his works. And in this place again, if they shall enter into my rest, when you read verses in the Bible and it says, they shall enter, you have to ask yourself, who are they? Is that me? Or is that someone else? Well, I'll give you the answer here. They are the Jews, the children of Israel. That's verse 5. Verse 6, seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and that they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief, again he limited a certain day saying in david today after so long a time as it is said today if you will hear his voice hard not your hearts for as jesus had given them rest then we have not afterwards spoken of another day there remain a therefore arrest to the people of god notice that phrase the people of god that's israel for he that is entered into his rest He also has ceased from his own works as God did from his. So that's the millennial reign of Christ being given to you there in Hebrews chapter four. And it's talking about, it refers right back to Genesis. And the Bible's like a circle, I've told you that before. It's gonna go, the way it began is the way it's gonna end. And so when it ends, it's referring all the way back to Genesis, we're gonna have a Sabbath day of rest, and that's for the people of God. Now you and I will be there. We'll be a part of that. And we'll be helping out Jesus Christ as He sits on the throne ruling and reigning over that earthly people. It's going to be interesting to see a bunch of people, mankind, humans, you know I don't like that word, but humankind, they're going to be down there and we're going to be in our glorified bodies. and we're gonna get to watch them and we're gonna know exactly how they feel and what they do and what they think because they're gonna be just like you and I were but that's another subject so it is a thousand-year day of rest to the Jewish people in which Jesus himself shall sit on the throne of his father David as king of kings I want you to turn to these references go to Acts chapter 2 Peter is preaching in Acts chapter 2. If you've been with us in Institute, you know that. And Peter is preaching to who? Jews, in Acts chapter 2. And so he's giving them, he's talking to them about their Savior, who they crucified. And in Acts chapter 2, verse 25, he says, for David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face for he is on my right hand that I should not be moved. Therefore did my heart rejoice and my tongue was glad. Moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope because thou will not leave my soul in hell neither will I suffer thine holy one to see corruption thou hast made thou hast made me to made known to me the ways of life thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance men and brethren let me First speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulcher is with us unto this day. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne, he seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption, This Jesus hath God raised up, wherefore we are all witnesses. Therefore, being by the right hand of God, exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear. For David is not ascended into the heavens, but he saith himself, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thy foes thy footstool. Therefore let all the house of Israel know, assuredly that God hath made this that same Jesus whom you have crucified both Lord and Christ now that's the context of when you get into act 238 about getting a repent and be baptized but the point I'm making here is that the Lord has promised to sit on the throne of David and they were looking forward to that in the book of acts after he died on that cross and rose from the dead And they were looking forward to the fact that he's about to return and set up that kingdom. Now, if you've been in, I don't want to go over institute class, but if you know, the Lord gave Israel a chance nationally to receive him as their savior. And if they would have, after he died and rose again, if they would have, he would have come and set up this millennial kingdom. But they didn't. Stephen preached again in Acts chapter 7, and they stoned him. Stephen saw the Lord standing ready to come back, but he didn't come back because they refused his message. And the Lord sat right back down, and it's been 2,000 years we've been here. And so we make a mistake if we try to apply what we're reading all of this, this day of rest, if we try to apply that to us. This is talking about the children of Israel. I've said it many times. I've said it in an institute. I've said it in a Sunday school. We are God's plan B. the Gentiles. We've been 2,000 years a provocation of jealousy to the nation of Israel, that Gentile dogs will take their place, that we'll be priests and kings. You know only the Levites were the priests back there. And so we'll be priests and kings in their place, a bunch of people that they have no dealings with. but God is provoking them to jealousy through us and in the fullness of times the Lord will come back and he'll rapture us out of here when the times the Gentiles are fulfilled and we'll make up the body of Christ and that is a unique thing that is never again but reading on here on your sheet now The Sabbath day was revealed to Moses by God as a sign of the coming day of rest for Israel. Go over to the book of Ezekiel. Ezekiel chapter 20. I'm making a point out of this today because I don't know if I ever really have in Sunday school before, but a lot of people get the idea of the Sabbath day wrong. And again, they have a whole religion, many religions are trying to honor the Sabbath day. You may have gotten the question, why don't you have church on the Sabbath day? Well, it's a Jewish thing. It has nothing to do with that body of Christ. Again, we're a provocation to them. But Ezekiel chapter 20 and verse 20, it says, And hallow my Sabbaths, and they shall be a sign between me and you, that they may know that I am the Lord your God. How many of you are in Institute? Raise your hand. How many of you know what a sign is for? You can say it out loud. It's for Jews, right? And so what does the Bible tell you here in Ezekiel 20, 20 that the Sabbath is for? It's for a sign. Who receives signs? The Jews. All right, I know I'm being repetitive, but just get that down. The Sabbath is not for the church. The Sabbath is for Israel. Now that right now, is the Sabbath for Israel? No, not even right now. The Sabbath has been postponed. It'll come back. We're gonna have a full 1,000 year day of Sabbath coming up here. But it won't be for you and I. We'll be out of here. It'll be for the Jewish nation. And so, go to Nehemiah. Nehemiah is just before Esther, I believe, is that right? Nehemiah, Esther. Nehemiah 9, and verse 13. We read 13 and 14. This is where Moses got this command of the Sabbath, to keep the Sabbath. This is 2,500 years after Genesis. alright it says thou camest down upon the Mount Sinai and spakest with them from heaven and gave us them right judgments and true laws good statutes and commandments and made us known unto them thy holy Sabbath and commanded them precepts statutes and laws by the hand of Moses thy servant you know that's telling you right there that's telling you that nobody observed the Sabbath for 2500 years up until Moses So why am I making a point of that? Well, because the Seventh-day Adventists, which we have some dealings with here, we actually rented one of their buildings for about a year, because they don't have church on Sundays. They have church on Saturdays. And the reason they have church on Saturdays is because they are saying you have to honor the Sabbath day, because in Genesis 2, or Genesis 2, verse 3, and God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it. So if God sanctified the seventh day, and the seventh day is Saturday, I often question people. I don't know if you're like me, but I say, what's the first day of the week? And they say, well, Monday. I say, Monday's the first day of the week? And one guy said, well, it depends on which calendar you use. I said, well, what day do you think is the first day of the week? Well, the first day of the week is Sunday, everybody. It's not Monday. The world has got you conditioned to think that it's Monday, because this is not the weekend. All right, today is not the weekend, today is the first day of the week, and that's when we go to church, and we'll talk about that in a second. But we don't meet on the seventh day, the seventh day is Saturday, it's a Sabbath day. But the Seventh-day Adventist Church will tell you otherwise, they believe it's the internal command because of Genesis 2, 3. And they say that everybody kept the Sabbath day. Well, show me in the Bible where Adam and any of his descendants honored the Sabbath day. They didn't do it. So for 2,500 years they were all disobedient, they're all going to hell. You say, why would they all go to hell? Well, because according to Seventh-day Adventist, if you don't observe the Sabbath day, you're not saved. In fact, some go so far as to say, if you don't observe the Sabbath day and you go to church on Sunday, you are participating in the devil's religion, you are participating, you have actually taken the mark of the beast. I mean, I don't want to get into it this morning, that's not the point of getting into their religion, but it's really messed up. And so they keep the dietary, a lot of them keep the dietary laws of the Old Testament also. And you start to drill them on, oh, I believe in Jesus, every religion, by the way, every, just about every false cult says they believe in Jesus Christ. You know, the Catholics believe in Jesus Christ, and they do. They believe in the Trinity. They believe in Mary and His virgin birth. They believe a lot of good things. But how do you receive Jesus Christ as a Catholic? Through the wafer, through the Mass, through the drinking of the transubstantiation. You've heard, when Brother Faggart was here, how people died over the doctrine of transubstantiation. How that, if you don't believe that it's the literal body and the literal blood being ingested into you through the Mass, that you're to be burned at the stake. Now, we know that's heresy, right? And I don't want to get into all that either, but the seventh day in Venice will tell you that if you don't keep the Sabbath day, you're not saved. Now, go over to Galatians. It's not on your paper, but it just came to me. Go over to Galatians. I believe it's chapter five. And there's a real danger in adding anything to the gospel of Jesus Christ. In fact, don't go to Galatians chapter five. Go to Galatians, but go to Galatians Chapter 1, and we'll notice this first in verse 8, Galatians 1.8. We'll start in verse 6. Galatians 1.6, Paul is talking here, I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel. again reflecting back to Tuesday night Bible Institute there are many gospels in the Bible gospel just means good tidings alright and and so what are the good tidings in Adam's day and what are the good tidings in Noah's day what are the good tidings in Abraham's day what are the good tidings in Moses time what is a good tidings when Jesus here was a good tiding when Paul was here right there's many gospels in the Bible And besides correct Gospels, those are all correct Gospels. I didn't give them to you, but Jesus Christ preached a different Gospel than Paul preached. Noah preached a different Gospel than Moses preached. All right? And so there are right gospels throughout the Bible, but also there are wrong gospels. And Paul is getting after the Galatians because they are with another gospel. And he says in verse 7, which is not another, because there is no other gospel than what I preach, according to Paul. But there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. It's possible to pervert the gospel. And then he goes in verse 8 and he says, but though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. So listen, don't be afraid to point out the errors in the gospel of the other denominations. the other religions, the cults. You might just well call them a cult because that's exactly what they are. They are preaching another gospel and Paul's opinion of that, and it's in the Bible, is that they preach another gospel. They're perverting the gospel and they should be accursed. Now go to chapter 5 of Galatians. Chapter 5. So keeping the Sabbath day was a holy thing. It was a righteous thing. It was given to Moses. It was to be observed by the people of Israel. It was for them. But if you try to add that to today and make that an observance today, you are perverting the gospel of Christ. And according to Galatians chapter five, let's start in verse one. Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. Be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. What is the yoke of bondage, class? The law. What is the Sabbath? the law it's a sign between God and Israel it's a law that he was given on the on the mountain behold I Paul say unto you that if ye be circumcised now he's dealing with circumcision here but it's the same if ye be circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing That's quite a statement. You might want to look at that. If ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. You want to exclude yourself from Jesus Christ? Then just go out and try to live by the law, live under circumcision. Keep the Sabbath day, do all the things. Verse 3, I testify again to every man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Alright, you think Christ isn't by the law? Then you're going to have to do the whole law and Christ is of no effect to you is what he says next. Christ has become of no effect unto you. Whosoever of you are justified by the law, ye are fallen from grace. That's quite an indictment. We're going to leave that alone. But that's why you don't want to observe the Sabbath day or make that a part of what you call salvation. Well, I believe in Jesus Christ. He's my Savior. He's our God. We worship Him. But if you don't keep the Sabbath day, you're in danger of hellfire. Well, you've perverted the gospel of Christ and you're fallen from grace. Christ has become of no effect to you because you know why? You do not want to add anything to your salvation And say, well, it's Christ plus keeping the Sabbath day. It's Christ as I receive Him in the Mass. And this is the problem. This is why we get all over baptism. And say you're only baptized after you're saved, not for salvation as Peter preached in Acts chapter 2 and verse 38, and as Christ and John preached in Matthew, Mark and Luke. Right? You don't want to add anything to your salvation. Because if you believe that you receive Jesus Christ, through baptism. Baptism means how I receive Christ. You're no different than a Catholic. A Catholic says the way I receive Christ is through transubstantiation. A Seventh-day Adventist says the way I receive Christ is through keeping the Sabbath and the dietary laws and all these things or else I'd be in danger. Now there's varying degrees of every religion. And you're going to show me a person, no doubt, that says, well, they believe in Christ, but they just do those things. Well, I don't. I don't do those things, and I don't do them for good reasons. Go to Colossians chapter 2. Let me show you why I don't have a comp... I'm not compelled to do any of those things. Colossians chapter 2. Colossians chapter 2 and verse 16. This is my apostle talking right now. Colossians chapter 2 and verse 16. Paul says, 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. Then it goes on to say, which are a shadow of things to come, But the body is of Christ. I'm in the body, I'm of Christ, I'm in Christ. The shadow of things, why did they do that? We read it in Hebrews, why did Israel keep the Sabbath day? It's a shadow of what's to come. The seventh day, the day of rest, the millennial period. When the King of kings and Lord of lords shall reign on the throne of his father David. We read in Acts chapter 2. Right? Are you following all that? So if you say, well, I'm supposed to follow that today, well, you're not supposed to follow that today. Well, you say, well, those religions, they say so, and they're smarter than me. They're not smarter than you. They do not trump Paul or the Bible. You go with the Bible, and you go with Paul, and you'll be fine. That's rightly dividing the word of truth. Okay? So, Christians, read on in your sheet now the next paragraph down. about us Christians. Christians received the Holy Spirit on the first day of the week, did they not? Acts chapter 2. You may not know that but they did. Acts chapter 2, they received the Holy Spirit on the first day of the week. After Christ rose from the dead on the first day of the week. Now I'm not going to turn to these references but you have them there. They met, they broke bread, they preached on the first day of the week. They took up collections on the first day of the week. Say, why do you guys meet on Sunday? Is that the Lord's Day? No, this is not the Lord's Day. You can call it the Lord's Day if you want to. You're fine to do that, but we know what you mean. But this is not the Lord's Day. The Lord's Day is the millennial reign of Christ. It's also when he comes back and kills everyone at Armageddon. That's when it begins. And so I'll be at the Lord's Day, but that's not today. This is Sunday. And I like what Brother Faggart said. This is the meeting house. You are the church. We're just coming to the meeting house. Right? And that's what the old Southerners used to call it, and maybe we ought to start calling that around here. This is not... What do you do at your church, or your church, or the Catholic Church, or the Seventh-day Adventist Church? Don't call them churches. Try to remove that out of your... Those are meeting houses too, but the church never shows up there. Read on with me here on your paper. A Seventh-day Adventist observes the seventh day of the week because he is not a Christian. A Catholic is not a Christian. A Lutheran, if they trust their baby infant baptism, a Methodist, if they do the same, they're not a Christian. They've perverted the gospel of Christ. They've added to it according to Galatians chapter 5. They've fallen from grace and Christ has become of no effect to you. That's pretty harsh. That's Paul. If you preach any other gospel, let him be accursed. And we run around calling them Christians? And we have fellowship with those people. Now good, they're good people. They may be your next door neighbor. Brandon had a great prayer request. We pray for those. Marcio, we pray for him that he'd be saved. Brandon is not trying to alienate him and say, well, you're a Catholic. You know, you preach another gospel. No, he's going to witness to him. You befriend those people, but you don't have Christian fellowship with those people because they're not Christians. You read about what the Bible says about having fellowship with those people, and the kind of fellowship and the charity you're supposed to have one toward another, and the love and the forgiveness you're supposed to have one toward another. That's from Christian to Christian. That's not from me to a Seventh-day Adventist. That's not from me to a Catholic. It's from Christian to Christian. So a Seventh-day Adventist observes the Seventh-day of the week because he is not a Christian. He is acting as an Old Testament Jew seeking justification by the works of the law.