Sound Doctrine: Corporate Worship

You see our children growing up in the Lord's admonition, amen?

A family discipleship church, that's what we are. You guys have a part in that, by the way. Their authentic sanctification and love for Christ comes from seeing it authentically played out in your lives. And so by you being here, you have a part in raising these children. By you being here and worshiping together with us has a part in verifying what the parents are saying and teaching to their children. And so thank you for your part in raising the children here at Beulah Baptist Church. You know that I say that rather investedly, right? If that's a word, investedly. I'm definitely invested in the children here. And I love our family discipleship model. In fact, it's catching on. Many other churches around the nation are bailing on the church growth philosophy of handling church and getting back to the Bible and not wanting to separate their children from their parents, especially on Sunday morning in worship.

One such church is First Baptist Dover, which is right outside of Tampa, Florida. And Pastor TJ Francis is a friend of mine and he's invited me to come and speak at their family conference next month. You'll see those details soon. And they do family worship as well. I'll be speaking on family worship and how to study the Bible as a family. What an awesome privilege it is to be part of what it is to spread how to do Christianity biblically, just getting back to the basics of the Word of God and such. I'm really, really awesomely privileged in my own heart and mind. I'm humbly privileged to be a part of what God is doing here at Beulah Baptist Church. Just wanted to take a few minutes and say that.

Family discipleship is God's number one plan. It starts with the fathers and the mothers discipling, personally discipling their children. And then from there we go to church and then from there we live life. Amen? So it starts in the home. And so the absentee fathers are really a big issue in our country and around the world. The parents that do not take the primary role in educating their children, it's a big issue. And worship at home is part of that. Studying the Word at home is a part of that. Family worship at home is a part of that because families make up churches, and what families do at home should be an extension of what we do here.

All right. I have a question for you as we begin to open up. Today's subject is on corporate worship, and the question is, which day is the Lord's Day? And I want you to answer that biblically. So take your Bibles and answer that biblically. Can you answer that biblically? See, some of you know where to turn, some of you don't. Can you answer that biblically? Which day is the Lord's Day? Take your Bibles and answer the question.

I think I'll help you out. Acts chapter 20 verse 7 is a good starting point. So Acts chapter 20 verse 7 is where we're going to start on the subject of corporate worship and the first day of the week. Which day is that and why do we do what we do on the first day? The first day here in Acts chapter 20 verse 7 is referencing the first day of the week. We'll read this passage of Scripture and then pray and expound upon corporate worship on the Lord's Day today. Thank you so much for coming. If you're visiting with Beulah Baptist Church, please come again. We simply go through doctrines of the Bible, books of the Bible, and character studies of the Bible when we teach God's Word.

All right, Acts chapter 20 verse 7 says this, "On the first day of the week" -- now that first day in the Greek is pronounced "heis" and it means "one." So the primary number one is what that's referring to. That's easy. That's the number one. "So the first day of the week when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul began talking to them intending to leave the next day and he prolonged his message until midnight." I won't do that today, so let's pray.

Father, we do love You so much and thank You for the Scriptures that we're going to examine today on the subject of corporate worship on the Lord's Day. I pray that You would bless us and help us to understand why we do what we do, not just to be given to human tradition and to be given to habits that we have perhaps learned from our parents and grandparents, but to have conviction as to the intentionality of what we do. God, I pray that You would bless us in Christ's name. Amen.

Look with me in verse 6. I want you to know that the author, Luke, of this book Acts is very detailed. In verse 6 he says, "We sailed from Philippi after the days of the unleavened bread and came to them at Troas within five days." So he records here that the sailing from one place to the next took five days. It's very specific. "And there we stayed seven days." And so he mentioned again how long they stayed there. So he is very precise in what he is saying, and it's very logical to think that in verse 7, "on the first day of the week," he is very precise in what he's saying. He's not mixing his words, he's not speaking hypothetically, he's not guessing. Luke, the doctor, is a very precise man and he is recording this underneath the inspiration of God. And so he records this that it is happening -- this worship service -- on the first day, Sunday.

They attended this local worship service and now the New Testament Christians, they gathered on Sunday to do all kinds of different things as the New Testament church. Take your Bibles and turn back now to Acts chapter 2 and we'll start in verse 40 to look at what a New Testament church does at this time. What were they doing on the Lord's Day? They were preaching, teaching, singing, taking up offerings, praying, fellowshiping, unifying, caring, they were baptizing. They were doing all kinds of things to celebrate the day that Christ was resurrected on the first day of the week, Sunday.

All through history now we will see the new church, the local church, the New Covenant church, the New Testament church meeting on the first day of the week since the resurrection to do these things. In Acts chapter 2 verse 40 it says this, "And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them saying, be saved from this perverse generation." I think it's probably one of the more relevant verses to today. In verse 41 it says, "So then those who had received his word were baptized." Okay, so they're baptizing in corporate worship on Sunday.

"And that day they were added about 3,000 souls," amen. In verse 42, "they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching," okay? So they're preaching and teaching the words from God that the apostles also were teaching, okay? "And to fellowship," so they were fellowshiping. "And to the breaking of bread" -- that's the Lord's Supper. "And to prayer," so they were praying together. And then in verse 43, "And everyone kept feeling a sense of awe, and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles."

And so we believe -- sensationalists I should say -- that the gifts of healing and miracles and such ceased with the apostles. And so these supernatural gifts were enabled by Christ to those whom He gave that ability and that gift to, and those supernatural healings and such ceased with the apostles. And they're not able to be transferred by the laying on of hands, okay? And so they did this here, but it did not confer with their disciples. In verse 44 it says, "And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common." You see the unity there. In verse 45, "And they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all as anyone might have need." You see how they were caring for one another here.

It's very nice. And then in verse 46, "Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart." And that is fellowshiping. "And then praising God and having favor with all people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved." See the results in doing church God's way. It's amazing.

And so you see here in the early church meeting on Sunday, the first day of the week, that they are preaching and teaching and singing and offerings and praying and fellowshiping and they're unified and they're caring for one another and they're baptizing each other. This is a lot of what the local church does on the day that they come to worship corporately -- corporate worship. These elements are a very strategic part of worshiping God. And so we pray for one another to God and you pray for the local church for people to be studying the Bible and to learn God's Word and to know these things, and you pray for the lifting each other up and you're edifying one another.

It is incredibly encouraging to be in a prayer circle and to be prayed for when someone is praying for you in the areas that you're struggling. It's so strengthening. I encourage you to be in Bible study. Our men meet early at 8:30 to pray in here. And so there's prayer happening early on Sunday mornings. There's prayer happening before Bible study and after Bible study, and here in corporate worship we make much of prayer. When we welcome you to the service and we read Scripture and then we spend time in prayer together and we pray for the offerings, or praying for one another. Prayer is a big part of worshiping God. You're acknowledging Him and going to Him for help and worshiping Him.

Now you've got to ask yourself the question, why did the church start worshiping on Sunday instead of Saturday, which was the Sabbath? Okay. It's a good question to ask and you need to know the answer to that. And in short I would simply summarize it like this: it's in honor of Christ in His resurrection. He was resurrected on Sunday, and so in honor of Christ the local church then moved from the Sabbath or Saturday to Sunday and they started worshiping on Sunday, the first day of the week. And guess what kept on happening? The Jews kept on worshiping God on Saturday in the synagogues. And so you had synagogues going on Saturdays and you had the new early church worshiping on Sunday.

And I would say for us today not to comprehend the fact that we worship on Sunday and gather for Christ -- it has an element of dishonoring Christ if you do not acknowledge that and become a New Testament believer. So early Christians in Acts set Sunday aside, and guess what? It remained that way. It stayed that way. All the way into Revelation chapter 1 verse 10 it says, "On the Lord's Day." And so the church still is recognizing, even into the book of Revelation -- which would be 30 plus years later, maybe 60, whatever -- that the church is still worshiping on the first day of the week on Sunday.

And then as you continue through the centuries you see New Testament believers worshiping on Sunday, the first day of the week. Centuries of church history attest to the continuation of Sunday worship honoring the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. In practice we acknowledge and we remember the resurrection by worshiping on Sunday. And so by you being here acknowledges that we come here on the Lord's Day because of essentially recognizing that Jesus was resurrected on Sunday.

How important is the resurrection? So glad you're thinking, so I'm glad you're asking. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. How important is the resurrection? Well, it's very important. 1 Corinthians chapter 15 in the first three verses is a good starting point for chapter 15 obviously. And I want you to see the death, burial, and resurrection here in the text. And then we'll read verses 12 to 17 and see that it becomes a gospel issue pretty fast when it comes to the resurrection.

How important is the resurrection? 1 Corinthians 15:1, "Now I make known to you brethren the gospel." Okay? So we're talking about the gospel. "Which I preach to you, which also you received, in which also you stand." If it's a gospel issue, we need to know what it's all about. Verse 2, "By which also you are saved." Okay?

"If you hold fast the word which I preach to you, unless you believed in vain, for I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. And that He was buried and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures." He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. He was raised on Sunday. Now let's read verses 12 to 17. Verse 12 says, "Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain. Your faith also is in vain."

That is very important for you to realize. If you do not believe in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, your faith is in vain, null and void. In order to be saved, you have to believe in the death and the burial and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ as a substitute for your sin. He took on God's wrath. The payment for your sin was paid by Jesus and He was raised from that. He gained victory over death, hell, and the grave there.

In verse 15 it says, "Moreover, we are even found to be false witnesses of God because we testified against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless and you are still in your sins." Do you see that you are unsaved if you do not believe in the resurrection? You're still in your sins. Your faith is worthless. And so the resurrection is a really big deal.

And so we gather on the Lord's Day in honor of His resurrection. Sunday worship gets to be a gospel issue real fast. Not that you have to worship on Sunday, every single Sunday -- that's legalism. But if you don't believe that the Lord was resurrected on Sunday and you don't believe the church should be worshiping on Sunday like the early church did, then it gets to be kind of funny with the gospel. You're tampering, so to speak, with the gospel. We view Sunday worship as honoring to the resurrection. So every Sunday essentially should be like Easter Sunday, celebrating the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But we are not legalistic Sabbatarians, which strictly observe Sunday as if it is the Old Testament Sabbath. We're not combing through the Old Testament, looking at all of the laws and applying them to Sunday like the Jews kept on Saturday. That's legalism. And that gets a little bit funny with the gospel. And we do not view Saturday as Sunday or the Lord's Day. In order to take the Old Testament laws and hypercritically apply them to Sunday, otherwise you literally drive yourself crazy trying to follow all of those laws. And by the way, you know this, that when the Jews were trying to make all of these laws to follow the Ten Commandments, not only did they drive themselves insane, they were approaching God through a works system rather than by faith. There's no reason that they should have tried to follow the law as a means to gain salvation because that nullifies the cross. We are by faith saved through grace. Praise God.

Before the resurrection, Israel was commanded to keep the Sabbath. Why? Why were they commanded to keep the Sabbath? Look with me if you would in Exodus chapter 20. I want you to see it very clearly that they were commanded to keep the Sabbath holy, but you've got to ask the question why.

This is very clear, and upon studying the word Sabbath in the Old Testament, I want to say to you that the faithful student who would go through a Sabbath study may be scared into keeping the Sabbath when you look at the laws and the requirements and the punishments for not keeping the Sabbath. But you have to take the entire Bible in context and apply it correctly. Look with me if you would in Exodus chapter 20 verses 8 to 11.

"Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." Okay? "Six days you shall labor and do all of your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall not do any work. You or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them and He rested on the seventh day, and therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy."

All right, so if you're going to take a legalistic approach to trying to keep the Sabbath, you're not even going to work or cause anybody to work on the Sabbath. And you have a hard-pressed case to make on whether or not today that would be Saturday or Sunday. And if you try and take that approach, then basically, guys, you can't even go out to eat this afternoon because you'll be causing someone to make the food for you. You would not be able to do anything like that that would cause somebody else to work on it. You drive yourself crazy trying to legalistically follow these types of laws.

But why? Well, it was definitely commanded. But here's the purpose in the Sabbath. Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 5. This is the purpose behind the Sabbath. And if you understand the purpose and then you understand that Christ is our thing to remember -- He is Lord of the Sabbath -- then you realize you don't have to follow all of these laws so stringently. We are in Christ. In Deuteronomy chapter 5 verse 13 and following, you'll see the purpose behind keeping the Sabbath. "Six days you shall labor and do all of your work." Deuteronomy chapter 5 verse 13. "Six days you shall labor and do all of your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God and in it you shall not do any work. You or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant or your ox or your donkey or any of your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you, so that your male servant and your female servant may rest."

Circle the word "rest."

"Servant may rest as well as you." So the first point of keeping the Sabbath is to rest, and the second point is in verse 15, which is to remember. "You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt. And the Lord your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm, and therefore the Lord your God commanded you to observe the Sabbath day." So you observe the Sabbath. Israel was commanded to observe the Sabbath not to earn merit with God, but to rest and remember. To remember the works of God. And so Israel needed to rest from their works and remember the works of God. Pretty simple, huh? Rest from your work and remember God's work.

So God worked. How did He work? He brought Israel out of Egypt and His work was parting the Red Sea and all of these works that God had done for Israel. Remember that God saves. He brings you from Egypt into Canaan land, out of darkness and into the light. Remember His salvation. Remember your salvation. Remember His sanctifying agency in you and His working in you. Remember that. We need to remember because we have such good forgetters.

We need to remember the things that God says to us to do because we easily forget. Unless we encourage one another, unless we stir one another up, unless we continuously review what is true, we forget what is and in our humanist era, in our humanistic ways, we drift. Nothing gets more righteous on accident. Nothing gets more organized on accident. You, left alone without the Bible, without believers, without remembering, without repetition, will constantly drift away from righteousness. Think about you by yourself without your spouse, without accountability, without the church. You're going to drift. That's just the way it is. We are humans. We need each other.

God is brilliant in how He designed the local church to keep us moving forward together. He has even set a special day aside for us to regularly remember the things that are important. Regularly praise and worship. Regularly take the ordinances like we talked about last week. Regularly see baptism, which is a picture of the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have these pictures. We have these practices before us to constantly frame our mind.

The world's working against this, by the way. Our secular culture knows that repetition works. In politics it's called gaslighting. You say it over and over and over again, people eventually believe it. In education, the Department of Education knows that if they constantly bombard children with amoral ideologies, that they will continue in that moral fabric.

The first moral decision that a child makes statistically says that that child will continue in that train of thought, in that moral fabric, in that direction for the rest of his or her life. The Department of Education has hijacked our public education system for the Humanist Manifesto's vision to retrain and pervert the children in America. That's the reason why in California there are kissing circles in all the elementary school systems. Every elementary child from first to fifth grade will go through what's called a kissing circle, and by the time that exercise is done, your child, whether it be a male or a female, will have kissed every boy and girl in the class. That is a perversion and it is intentional. If you get the psyche, or the mind, repetitiously thinking about these moral things early, statistically they will stay in that and think that that is right. But see, that's perverted -- to think that what is right is actually wrong and what is actually wrong is actually right is a perversion. It's absolutely disgusting.

And so we need this idea of repetition. The world knows that. The world is repetitiously training Humanists. Satan knows that repetitious training works. Let me give you the biblical worldview side of that same coin. Let's get away from statistics and say, "Well what about biblical thought?" Well, in Romans chapter 12, the Bible talks about renewing the mind. And how does that happen? Well, biologically thinking, yes, there are neurological pathways that can be broken by the Word of God and reset. So physically, biologically, it actually happens. But also spiritually, these new thoughts, these right thoughts can be accomplished by the renewing of the mind. But it takes repetition. You must open up new neurological pathways, new ways of thinking about what is right. If you have been raised in a heathenistic era and you actually think what is wrong is right, then you have to retrain the brain. And that's not done with just one little snapshot of Scripture. It's done through repetition, regular repetition.

And that's the reason why we even meet religiously -- it's a good word, by the way -- twice a week for worship and Bible study. We get all we can. We're constantly encouraging ourselves in what is true. The Bible says in John 17:17, "Thy Word is truth, sanctify them in the truth." And so we're bathing ourselves, training our brains in how we are thinking about what is true, what is true. God is true. "I am the way, the truth and the life," Jesus said in John 14:6. And so we come and we worship God on Sundays and we are remembering what's most important. This is one of the major purposes.

Israel, back to the text -- Israel was set aside in a heathenistic generation. You think all these things are terrible, right? Well, actually it was nothing compared to the Canaanites from whom God was separating the Israelites from.

They were separate in order to rest and remember on the Sabbath what God had done. They were separating themselves from the sinful Canaanites. They weren't to intermarry, okay? They weren't to partner with them. They were to be separate. And so the purpose for Israel was to rest and to remember. That's what that was for. It wasn't for legalistically trying to earn merit with God.

In fact, did you know that Israel worshiped not only on the Sabbath but every day of the week? This is so logical if you think about it. How many Israelites were there? Some say a million. Some say two million. A lot of Israelites. We all agree, right? How many Israelites were there? Well, how big was the temple? Could all of those Israelites worship on the Sabbath? Logically, they could not all fit in the temple to worship. They could not fit even in the tent to worship. They actually worshiped every single day. The temple sacrifices were coming in. The priests were sacrificing every single day. There were prayers going up, sacrifices being made, all kinds of things happening in the tabernacle, in the tent, and in the temple as centuries went on. They were worshiping God every single day. So Israel gathered for worship and they sacrificed daily. This is kind of like, "Duh, that's the way it's actually happening." So essentially the Sabbath is for rest and remembrance. And Leviticus 23:3 says that as well.

So the Sabbath rest pointed to what? To Christ. The Sabbath rest was pointing. By practice they were to understand, by what they were doing, was meaningful. Turn if you would to Hebrews chapter 4. I want you to see this. This is so important to get it. What we do is intentional on Sundays. It's not just a tradition. The Sabbath rest pointed to our rest in Jesus Christ. And only Christians can truly rest. Only believers have the ability to rest from their labor. Hebrews chapter 4 and verses 1 through 11.

A good bit of a passage here, but it's important. And if you do 3D Bible study on Wednesday nights with us or at home or in our Bible study groups on Wednesday mornings, you will note that there is one aspect of Bible study that you should look for, and that is a repeated word. And in this section you'll see the word "rest" repeated several times.

In Hebrews chapter 4 verse 1, "Therefore let us fear" -- okay, the fear of God is the beginning of what? Wisdom. All right? -- "if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it. For indeed you have the good news preached to us just as they also, but the word they heard did not profit them because it was not united by faith in those who heard. For we who have believed enter that rest." You see that? "You who believe enter into this rest." Rest in Christ. It's the salvation that's being talked about here.

Verse 3 again, "For we who have believed enter that rest, just as He has said, as I swore in my wrath they shall not enter My rest, although His works were finished from the foundation of the world. For He has said somewhere concerning the seventh day, and God rested on the seventh day from all of His works. And again in this passage, they shall not enter My rest. And therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news preached to them, failed to enter because of disobedience, He again fixes a certain day, today, saying through David after a long time, just as has been said before, today if you hear His voice do not harden your hearts. For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that. So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works as God did from His. And therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest so that no one will fall through following the same example of disobedience."

Verse 12 is important as well. "For the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and the intentions of the heart."

And so believers enter into this rest which is in Christ, into His finished work. In the book of John chapter 19 verse 30 it says, "It is finished." When Christ was on the cross, He said, "It is finished." And so His work was done. And so in the finished work of Christ we then enter into rest. This whole law that we have explored just in a little bit of short time this morning has been fulfilled. Matthew 5:17, Christ fulfilled the law. Christ is the end of the law, Paul said in Romans 10:4.

And so believers, we rest in Christ and we rejoice in Christ. This is a wonderful thing. Jesus in fact is Lord of the Sabbath. And so the Sabbath was made not for man, but for us to be in Christ. So if you try to keep the Sabbath and get legalistic about keeping the Old Testament laws that were made to keep Israel as a distinct nation separate from all of the heathens in that day, then prepare to be reminded by Christ, which is stated in Mark 2:27, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. And Christ will correct you according to His text if you are trying to make more out of Saturday than what the New Testament church is clearly stating. You'll be reminded and corrected.

Prepare even more so to be corrected by Christ. In Matthew 12 verses 1-8, King David ate the showbread there in the temple. And Christ clearly says, "I desire mercy and not a sacrifice. The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath," in that text. So Christ's death and resurrection fulfilled the law and all the demands of the Sabbath rest. And now we rest in Him. The Old Testament law is no longer needed. The cross canceled the law, and especially the Sabbath.

Turn to Colossians chapter 2 verse 14. And I want you to see how being fooled about keeping the Sabbath is no new trick. And Colossians chapter 2 verses 14 through 16, there's a warning to this New Testament church to beware of all of these Sabbatarian rules that are lending towards legalism and works salvation. Don't flirt with these things. Don't allow the gospel to be tainted in any way at all. In Colossians chapter 2 verses 14 to 16, "Having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile towards us, and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. When He had disarmed the rulers and the authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him." That's just a wonderful way of describing the cross.

In verse 16, "Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink" -- what's that reference to? Old Testament legalistic approach to following the law, right? Food and drink. "Or in respect to a festival" -- well the festivals were wonderful. What better way than to separate yourself for weeks at a time and to remember and rejoice in the things of God? But you don't have to legalistically keep these things. "Or a new moon or a Sabbath day." You see that? A warning against adhering to the Sabbatarian rules. "Or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day. These things which are a mere shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ."

These things had their purpose in the Old Testament, but they point to Christ. Christ is the substance, and they -- these things in the Old Testament -- are just a shadow. If you see a shadow, what does that reveal to you? Something is making the shadow. What is the substance that's making the shadow? And here the Old Testament ways of doing things are a mere shadow which points to Christ. And now we rest in Christ. It's a wonderful, beautiful thing.

And so believers can, in fact, worship publicly on any day that they want to. And we don't adhere legalistically to the Lord's Day, but we believe that Christ was raised on Sunday, and we honor Christ. We don't dishonor Him in any way possible. We are in the Lord's house worshiping and praying and preaching Christ. It honors Christ when we recognize the Lord's Day. A Christian Sabbath isn't biblical. It's not limited to one day.

Now you may say, if you have read your Bible and you're thinking about this subject, you might say to yourself, "Well, Jesus went to the synagogues." Uh-huh. And He was preaching on Saturday. You might say, "Paul went to the synagogues." He was preaching on Saturday. In the New Testament, you might think to yourself, "Oh, there's a contradiction here." Oh no! Read those Scriptures. Read those sermons. Those were evangelistic. Paul and Jesus went into the synagogues full of Jewish nonbelievers to witness evangelistically and spread the gospel. And they also worshiped on Sunday. You see, this is no contradiction in the Scriptures, and when you see it for what it is, you too then will be like Christ and say to those who are legalistically holding to a Sabbatarian law, or our beloved friends who are Seventh-day Adventists -- you know, this area here on the west side of Central Florida, the northwest corridor especially, is a hotbed full of Seventh-day Adventist churches. They're everywhere, and you have probably experienced benefits like I have of the Adventist hospitals. Praise God for our Seventh-day Adventist friends. They believe in Jesus, but they've got this little area wrong. And so we need to be a light to that.

I love walking through the Adventist hospitals and seeing Jesus on the wall. And I kind of wonder, why is the hospital open on Saturday or Sunday? I can't figure out their thing. But anyway, you see what I'm saying? It doesn't make any sense. But when you read the Scriptures, you see that there is a lot going on in these synagogues, but it's evangelistic. They're reaching and trying to proclaim Christ to them. In 1 Corinthians 9:20 it says, "To the Jew I became a Jew, that I may win the Jew." Jesus and Paul went into the synagogues and became like them to try and win them.

Now transition now to the gospel. The gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is what reveals -- or moves the blinders off of you -- so that you can in fact see truth. Without the true gospel penetrating your soul, you will not be able to truly see what is true. You're still like the blind man. You're still like Lazarus dead in the tomb. You need the gospel. The truth of the gospel is the power of the gospel that can remove the blinders and resurrect deadness.

And when you hear the true gospel and you hear the fact that Jesus Christ died on a cross and rose again for your sins, it penetrates -- like Hebrews 4:12 says -- it penetrates to the heart and soul. And it reminds you that yes, you have broken God's law. It is there to help you see that you are a sinner in need of a Savior. You cannot save yourself. And so in fact, you have broken God's law and His law was perfect. And without one being perfectly holy, you will not see glory. You will not see heaven. And so you're caught in this conundrum. You need Christ.

And so with the gospel, you see the need for Christ. The gospel opens your eyes. It's the power of the gospel that leads to salvation. And faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. And so as we continually proclaim and understand the gospel, you're able to see all of this in context and how true and beautiful it really is. And so if you have comprehended the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ -- in that Jesus has died and been buried and has risen again for your sin and you have repented and placed faith and trust in that -- then you have been truly saved and you are able to enjoy these wonderful truths. They are not legalistic laws to follow.

This gospel, this glorious thing called church -- life in Christ -- is now freeing and wonderful and enjoyable. It's not something that is drudgery. When Sunday comes, we're happy to get out of bed and come to the Lord's house. When we get up throughout the week, it's like, "Praise God, I'm in Christ, I get to walk with Him all day long." When you see God's law as pointing to Jesus, then it's freeing and wonderful. But when you view the law, or you view the Sabbath, or you view Christ incorrectly -- perhaps like a tradition of man -- then all of a sudden the weightiness starts to come down. And the legalistic drudgery sets in and the confusion sets in, where you can't figure out if you have walked too many steps on the Sabbath or you can't figure out if you mixed some meat and some cheese together and offended God. You know that they don't serve cheeseburgers in Israel, right?

Telling you, that's just a mess of things. There's freedom in Christ. If you have not believed in Jesus, I implore you today, come to Christ. Get away from all of this weightiness. Be free. It is for freedom that Christ sets you free. This is a freeing thing. It sounds like a contradiction, but it's not. You are free to be a slave for Christ. Come to Jesus. Be saved. Repent and place your faith and trust in Him.

Pray with me if you would. Father, we do love You and we thank You for today. We thank You for helping us to understand the truth of Your Word. Help us to continuously understand more and more truth in how the Old Testament and the New Testament are seamless. It's like a road that continues our faith. Help us, Lord, to understand You more from this entire document. That in Your estimation, there is no Old or New Testament. This is Your Testament. This is Your Word. This is You disclosing Yourself to us for life and godliness.

Help us, dear God, for those who perhaps are growing in their faith and continuing to learn more about You. I pray, God, that You would make them so happy in You that they would not look back for anything in the world. God, just like the Apostle Paul, who accredited all of the accomplishments that he had before knowing You as rubbish -- a pile of dung, he said -- help us, too, to see the things that are in our past. They're not even worth mentioning. God, they're worthless. Help us not to glory in the past. Help us to look forward and to press on towards the prize of not only knowing You but serving You.

God, I pray that You would help us to continue to learn more about You and to be sanctified. Raise Your will for us, dear God. And Father, if anyone here is outside of Your will and flirting with sin, or approaching serving You as drudgery and viewing it legalistically, I pray that You would grant them repentance and give them an enlightenment of the truth of the Scriptures. Help them to see that viewing You incorrectly is sin. Help them to see that it's their duty to study the Scriptures to know You for who You truly are and not to walk around as a child of God with an incorrect view, a tainted view of Your holiness. God, help us to repent where we are in error. God, I pray that if we have any incorrect view of You that You would reveal it to us so that we can repent. God, we want to be right with You. We want to know You more and more and more.

And Father, for the soul who may not be saved here in this dear congregation, I pray that You would draw them to You. I pray that You would grant them repentance unto salvation. I pray that they would cling to You and turn from their wicked and evil ways. I pray that they would leave the things that they are under conviction of and run to You, dear Jesus. And God, I pray that many souls would be saved through the truth that is being proclaimed here at Beulah Baptist Church through the preaching and the teaching of Your Word and all of its ministries. And God, I pray that people would be baptized -- biblically baptized -- so that they can portray Your death and burial and resurrection.

And God, I pray that many people would continue to join this dear local church and belong here and learn and spread how to study Your glorious Bible and then become disciple makers and go therefore unto all the nations and make disciples. Continue, we pray, God, to open up phenomenal doors for us to spread Your glorious gospel far and wide. Not because of any merit that we have, God -- we see us for who we truly are. We are nothing. We are nobodies just wanting to talk about You and spread Your glorious plan.

Father, will You bless us? Will You bless these people and their families? Will You give them influence with their loved ones and their friends? Dear God, will You bless us not only to be able to spread Your gospel but to be more like You? Will You give us the joy that surpasses all understanding? Will You give us a mind that thinks about You all day? Will You give us a heart that has a melody that sings for You? Will You give us, Lord, the joy? Will You give us immense rejoicing all day long? Will You help us, dear God? Please, we ask. Thank You for Your promised blessings in Your Word. I pray, God, that You would send us forth today on this Lord's Day to rejoice and to remember and to rest in You. It's in Christ's name that we pray. Amen.