Amen. Well, if you believe the Lord answers prayer, say Amen. And I hope you don't take for granted our prayer meeting on Wednesday night. And I believe that the Lord still answers prayer. I want you to take your Bible tonight. Go to Romans chapter number 14. Romans chapter number 14. And I also want you to go to Colossians chapter number 2. So Romans chapter number 14. Romans chapter number 14. And then when you get there, if you'll hold your spot there and find Colossians chapter number 2. And when you've arrived at both places, if you'll stand as we honor and reverence the Word of God tonight. Romans chapter 14 and Colossians chapter number 2. And I want us to look at, let's look at Colossians chapter number two first. Colossians chapter number two, I just want to look at one specific verse, well, two rather. Colossians chapter number two, look with me in verse number 16. The Bible says, let no man therefore judge in meat or in drink or in respect of a holy day. or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days, which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is Christ. I want you to jump to Romans chapter number 14. Look with me in Romans 14 verse 5. The Bible says, One man esteemeth one day above another, another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord. And he that regardeth not the day to the Lord, he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he that giveth God thanks. And he that eateth not to the Lord, he eateth not and giveth God thanks. For none of us liveth to himself, no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord. Whether we die, we die unto the Lord. Whether we live therefore or die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ both had died, or both died and rose and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and the living. But why dost thou judge thy brother? Or why dost thou set it not, thy brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give an account of himself to God. Let us therefore, or because of that, not therefore judge one another anymore, but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way." Let's pray. Lord, we love you tonight. Lord, I ask God that our time together would be profitable. Lord, that we would not just take this information, Lord, and just do away with it, but God, that we'd be good stewards of the information that we've received tonight. Lord, not to show other people that we are right in their wrong, but Lord, to simply point them to the truth of your word. Lord, we believe God and the Bible is our final and sole authority for all faith and practice. Lord, I ask God that you'd help me let the Bible do the speaking tonight. And Lord, that we would, God, be better Christians for it. Be with our children in the back. Lord, we love you. In your name we pray. Amen. Thank you for standing. You can be seated. We've been dealing with a series on where we differ. At this point, we have dealt with two cults. We've dealt with Jehovah's Witness. We've dealt with Mormonism. And tonight, we're going to deal with the Seventh-day Adventist. Now, Seventh-day Adventist is not a cult. It's not like Jehovah's Witness. It's not like Mormonism. And I'm going to explain a little bit about that here in just a moment. The two scriptures that we went to tonight, both of them really have to do with Christian liberty. Romans 14, Paul is speaking that, listen, some of these Romans, there was issues with the food, whether it was clean, whether it was not clean. Some of them had issues with specific days. Some regarded one day that was more holy. Some said, well, all days are holies. And he said, look, basically Paul said, listen, he said it don't matter. He said, you just need to be fully persuaded in your mind on what you believe, because you're going to stand and give an account to God, not for anybody else, but for yourself. Then we get to Colossians chapter number 2, and Paul is letting us know that he says, let no man therefore judge you in meat, what you eat or drink, or in respect of a holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days. He said all those things were a shadow of something to come. And if you were to jump to verse number 17, he says that shadow was Christ. He said Christ had fulfilled all those things when He had come. We are looking at tonight on where we differ with Seventh-day Adventists. And can I say this and time out and say there are going to be more than just Baptists when we get to heaven. I hope y'all understand that tonight. Now listen, I am unapologetically an independent Baptist preacher in an independent Baptist church, but I would be a fool to say that there are only going to be Baptists in heaven. That's not the case. There are some people that differ on us on certain things of the Bible, and we're going to see some of that tonight, but they still believe the same gospel. Therefore, if they believe the gospel, they get to go to heaven because they believe in the death, burial, and the resurrection. Does that make sense tonight? So when we talk about these groups, they say, by the way, any of the groups, for that matter, they're not our enemy. We do not wrestle with flesh and blood. But we have this information to point them and to give them truth. So where are we different when it comes to the Seventh-day Adventists? In fact, I was going to split this up, or I was actually going to have a couple more tonight, but when I realized how deep I had to dig on some things, we're just going to stick with just dealing with Seventh-day Adventists tonight. Seventh-day Adventism is a sect of Christianity that believes, really, they believe a lot of different things and there's different scales of Seventh-day Adventists. Some of them don't believe everything that one group believes, so it's really widespread, if you will. But they believe that their worship services should be conducted on the seventh day or the Sabbath instead of Sunday. Like I said, there are different degrees to Seventh-day Adventism, but some Seventh-day Adventists believe identically to Baptists other than holding to the Saturday Sabbath. Other Adventists, however, go much further into strange doctrine. Talk about that here in just a second. But it is important to know that unlike Jehovah's Witness, unlike Mormons, they do believe on a lot of the same fundamentals and most of them are Christians, they're saved just like we are. But the term Advent, I want you to listen to me tonight, the term Advent is not a secular or a bad term. The word Advent simply means this, it simply means coming. That's why around Christmas time you'll hear some people even, I've talked about, we'll talk about the first advent. That is when Christ, the first time he came to this earth, his incarnation, when he came and put on human flesh, that was the first advent. So that term simply means coming. It's not a bad term. And many Christians observe and celebrate advent in preparation for Christmas. But then there's also the future return of Christ. And it's also referred to the second coming or the second advent of Christ. The second advent of Christ. Broadly speaking, anybody who expects Christ to return, you're an Adventist. Now, we don't call ourselves Adventists, but anybody who's expecting Christ to come back, I'm expecting Him to come back. Therefore, it makes me an Adventist. That's anybody who expects the Lord to come. However, the term Adventist is normally reserved for people or groups who have an obsession, if you will, with the return of Christ. Now, I want you, and church, I think most of you understand that. The second coming of Christ, you have the rapture, and you have the second coming. But a lot of times when people talk about the second coming, they're including the rapture. You could break it down like this. The rapture is part A, and the second coming, when Jesus physically comes to the earth, could be part B. Some people all encompass the second coming, including the rapture. But we know, obviously, that there's a difference. But beyond this theological meaning that can apply to a great number of Christians, there's been a limited group through the years who have been called Adventists. Now, the origination. Where did Seventh-day Adventists come from? They originated, like I told you, over an obsession with Christ's return, or the second Advent. This group was known as the Adventists. They were also called the Millerites. Because their group was founded by a man by the name of William Miller. He was a false prophet who predicted that Jesus would return in either 1843 or 1844. He was obsessed with the coming. He predicted it. And how many of you know tonight, can I say this? There's a common theme here as we look at some of these cults and some of these, a lot of them have made false proclamations. And can I tell you, 1843 and 1844 have already passed and Jesus has tarried. He's not come yet. So Mr. Miller, the founder of this Adventist group, obviously was wrong. He failed. And when it failed, the Millerites disbanded, they split up, and as far as church history is concerned, this was known as the Great Disappointment. But when a couple of Miller's followers claimed to have visions to account for the failed prophecy, they said, well, instead of Jesus coming to earth, instead of him coming to earth, Jesus actually went into the temple in heaven, and they tried to explain away Miller's claims or Miller's prediction of Jesus coming. And one of the persons who covered for Miller was a 17-year-old lady by the name of Ellen Harmon. And she had her first of some 2,000 alleged visions in a prayer meeting shortly after Miller's disgrace. And I'm sorry, I'm reading that slide to make sure that's right. Yeah. So let me just explain this to you. So you had a guy by the name of Miller. He had this little group of followers. They were very obsessed with the return of Christ. He said, Jesus is going to come back. In 43 or 44, Jesus didn't come back. They looked at this guy and said, well, you weren't correct. So the group began to split up. But then some of these prophets showed up on scene and said, well, actually Miller was right. He wasn't talking about the physical coming of Jesus. Jesus went into this temple in heaven. That's what he's talking about. In other words, he was wrong and they're just trying to explain it away. Okay. Anytime somebody's wrong, And they'll just try to explain it away, okay? It was a spiritual coming of Christ. That's what these followers of Miller would say. Then this lady by the name of Ellen come along. She had over 2,000 supposed visions in some sort of prayer meeting shortly after this happened. And she began to unite these Millerite people and began to pull them all together. And that's when this group was called. They went from the Millerites to the Adventists. And in 1846, Ellen married a man by the name of James White who was an Adventist preacher. And soon they became convinced that Sabbath-keeping was for all Christians. Sabbath-keeping was for all Christians. In 1847, Ellen had another vision. This one confirmed that her new belief that Sabbath-keeping was to be a primary doctrine of the Bible. The Adventists under Ellen White's influence became known as the Seventh-day Adventists. Ellen White's many visions and writings, she did a lot of writings, she wrote about all her visions, and she greatly shaped the doctrine of Seventh-day Adventism. And today, most Seventh-day Adventists still consider Ellen White to be a prophetess of God. Even though, obviously, she wrote about many prophecies that failed, never come true. And over the next five decades, Mrs. White wrote nearly 10,000 pages of alleged prophetic material, including one of her visions, and I'm not going to give you all this, one of her visions, she talks about the great controversy in her vision. She sees God with all of His armies of angels fighting the devil and all of His angels, and it was a big vision that she had, and she writes about it in a book. Can I tell you this, that if God wanted to snap his fingers and wipe the devil off the face of the earth, he wouldn't have to go to war with them. Y'all understand that tonight. Well, we ain't gonna see it, but that will take place, okay? Other visions, she had visions that dealt with how to eat healthy. She believes she got a command from God on how to eat properly. You can find that in her book Testimonies of the Church, volume 6, page 327, if you're interested in what she has to say, what supposedly God told her about eating healthy. So this is how the Seventh-day Adventist got started. And anybody else think it's a little weird? Personally, I think it's a little bit weird. It's okay to think things are weird, alright? And visions from God. And listen, on the subsurface, you may think, well, they're just an innocent group of people. And they may be. But it's important to know where their history comes from. See, our history comes from the Bible. We continue the apostles' doctrine that was passed down from men of God and without wavering, without change. But all of these always start with a man or a woman that got a vision. Joseph Smith, nobody else was there to see the vision except him. Nobody else saw the vision that Ellen got, just her. But I find it interesting when Jesus Christ rose from the grave, over 500 of the brethren, they didn't just see Him by themselves. You'll notice the King James, it says they saw Him all at one time together. That's very important when it comes to the evidence of the resurrected Christ. They all saw Him at the same time. Okay? But when it comes to this group, it's all about different visions, different prophecies. That's how this group got started. Now, let's jump to probably the most important thing. What do they believe? What do they believe? Now, I'll be honest with you, church. For the most part of what I've studied, they don't believe a lot differently. There's going to be some things, but they don't believe a lot. They believe the same gospel. They believe the same Jesus we believe, died on the cross, rose again. So they have a lot of similar beliefs that we do. And like I said, there's different groups of Seventh-day Adventists. Some are way out in left field, and some really believe close to what we believe. Now, when it comes to the Bible, these divine sources, the Bible, Seventh-day Adventists, and I'm quoting from them, Seventh-day Adventists accept the Bible as their only creed and hold certain fundamental beliefs to be the teaching of the Holy Scripture. However, and I'm quoting, revision, what's that mean? To alter or edit, revision of these statements may be expected, and I struggle with this word right here, Quinquennial, that's a fancy word for every five years. The general conference session whenever the church is led by the Holy Spirit to a fuller understanding of Bible truth or if a better language is found to express these teachings of God's Holy Word. What does that mean? They hold this general conference to have equal weight with the Bible. That's what they're saying. Their divine source is the Bible, but also there's this general conference that is located in Michigan, and if they want to change their interpretation of what the Bible says, the Seventh-day Adventist group must follow what they say. You say, preacher, what is that similar to? It's similar to Catholicism. In other words, the Pope has equal standing with the Bible. And the Pope has renounced homosexuality, saying that it's okay. Therefore, whatever your interpretation of the Bible is on homosexuality is wrong, because the Pope says it's okay. And I say, there's a problem with that. You say, preacher, why is there a problem with that? Because man is fallible. Man is a sinner. Man will change. But listen, our Bible does not change, okay? And they're saying, well, the General Conference may change it. So therefore don't tell me that your Bible is your authority if the Bible is not your authority. General Conference regulates the beliefs of each Seventh-day Adventist church. By the way, we've got one right in our backwoods, back behind our church in a neighborhood. I looked at their website, looked at a lot of different things too. As Baptists, we believe that the Bible is the final authority for all faith and practice, not a constitution, not a creed, not a council, not an organization, but God's Word. Also, remember that they believed that Ellen White's prophetic visions were considered truth as well. 2 Timothy 3.16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God. We've looked at this verse many times. The Bible does not say visions. The Bible does not say conferences. The Bible doesn't say people sitting in high places of authority. But all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, correction, instruction and righteousness. John 17.17 says this, Thy word is truth. Not the general conference, not another man, not a vision, but Thy Word is truth. Isaiah 40 verse 8, The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the Word of God shall stand forever. Listen church, we don't need any other truth outside of the Word of God. The Word of God is our final authority, okay? But that's what they believe. So on the subsurface, they'll say, well, yes, the Bible is our final authority. But when you dig around a little bit, you're going to find, well, if the General Conference, this group of organization in Michigan changes it, then we're going to follow what they believe. Also, they hold to this woman, Ellen White's prophetic visions that she had. OK, so just understand that. What do they believe about death? What do they believe about death? According to the 28 fundamental beliefs, they'll say that the wages of sin is death, but God will give eternal life to his followers. Until Christ returns, death is an unconscious state. Adventists believe that eternal life begins for believers when Jesus returns. That's when they'll say, well, that's when eternal life begins. They believe believers are essentially in a soul sleep until Christ comes back. In other words, if we were to die and the Lord tarries, they'll say, well, you'll just sit in an unconscious state in the ground until Christ comes back. That's what they believe about believers when they die. You say, preacher, what's the problem with that? I'll tell you the problem. Number one, it ain't found in your Bible. Soul sleep is not in your Bible. They'll get it from passages that talk about when some of the disciples and the apostles, when they died, how they went to sleep. They're taking that for a literal term, okay? We know that not to be true. We also know that Hebrews 9.27 says, And it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this, the what, church? The judgment. It doesn't say an unconscious state. It doesn't say purgatory. It doesn't say anything. It says after this, the judgment. Who's the judge? Christ is the judge. When the Bible describes a person sleeping in relation to death like Luke 8.52, 1 Corinthians 15.6 Obviously, church, you know this. It doesn't mean a literal sleep. Sleeping is given to believers because their bodily death is temporary. Y'all know this, that a believer's body will be raised up again at the resurrection. The dead in Christ shall rise first. That body, God's going to put the body back together. So when the Bible says the term sleeping, it's because for believers, it's a temporary state. I don't know about you, but I'm thankful that that is temporary, amen? It's temporary. And so that's what the Bible, when it talks about sleeping, that's what it means. And they take that literally, okay? That, well, they're in a soul sleep. So for the soul, the moment we die, we're in the presence of God. For believers, Paul said to be absent from the bodies, be present with the Lord. Philippians 1.23, Paul says this, for I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ. Paul said if I leave this body, I'm going to be with Christ. Okay? Now, So they believe that believers will go to soul sleep. We know according to the Bible that that's not true. So what do they believe about unbelievers? They believe that unbelievers do not go to hell, they do not go to the lake of fire, but will simply be annihilated and they'll cease to exist. Can I throw this out there and we'll get here? When we deal with atheism and agnosticism, they believe the same thing. Well, when we just die, we just die. We're just like an animal. We cease to exist. Well, that's similar to what Seventh-day Adventists believe. They believe that... Let me rephrase this. They believe in hell, but they believe that when you go to hell, you burn and you die. That God will annihilate the unbelievers. They do not believe that a just and a righteous and a holy God would torment unbelievers for all of eternity. And this is my spiritually mature crowd tonight, and I'll tell you, He will. And I know sometimes that's not easy to listen to, but that's the truth. Okay? And God is holy and He's righteous and He's just when He does that. Okay? And by the way, when we get to heaven, when we see that, you know what we're going to say? Amen. God is just in what He does. And listen. When an unbeliever dies and goes to hell, they're going to have to crawl over the cross to get there. They're going to have to crawl over the gospel to get there. It ain't like they didn't have a chance. I serve a God who's just and is full of mercy and He's full of compassion. So it's not like God, it's not like a Calvinist would believe that that even if they wanted to get saved, they couldn't get saved. And God says, no, you're not part of the elect. No, listen, every person who dies and goes to hell, they'll have to crawl over the cross of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And when God sends them to an eternal fire, He's just and He's righteous in doing so. They believe that God will just annihilate them. They'll just cease to exist. Is the lake of fire a place where we'll just burn and die and cease to exist? Do we just burn to death? I want you to take your Bible tonight and go to Luke chapter number 16. Let's see what the Bible says about it. Over the past couple of nights, we know that hell exists. We know that the lake of fire exists. Preacher, what's the difference between hell and lake of fire? There's a difference. Hell exists right now. When people die, they go to a place called hell. And then when you get to Revelation chapter number 20, the Bible says the sea and hell gave up death and they'll be judged with the great white throne according to the works. And then they'll be cast from hell into the lake of fire. Luke chapter number 16. Can I say this? When I talk about hell tonight, church, that ought to put a burden on our soul. There's people right now, cars going by. Listen, if somebody doesn't share within the gospel of Jesus Christ, they're going to die and go to a place called hell. It ought to burden our heart. Luke 16, look with me in verse 22. And it came to pass that the beggar died. The beggar was Lazarus. He's a saved man. He didn't go to soul sleep, didn't go to purgatory, but he was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. That's paradise. The rich man also died and was buried. And in hell, he lift up his eyes. Being, notice the next word, in torments. Doesn't say he was tormented, but he's currently in torments. And seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me. Send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water. Cool my tongue. For I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivest good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things. But now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. That's present tense, not past tense. I always found it interesting. I don't know if the rich man, he was able to have a conversation with Abraham. I don't know if he could see Lazarus or not. But you know what the rich man knew? He knew Lazarus was there. Could it be that Lazarus lived such a life that he witnessed to that rich man? That he knew that he was a godly man? That he was in Abraham's wisdom? I don't know. The Bible don't tell us. But what I want you to understand tonight is the rich man said this. He said, I'm being tormented. Present tense. Hell for the rich man wasn't a 15 minutes of being tormented and then he died. No, it was a continual. It was ongoing. It did not stop. And can I tell you the rich man right now is still burning. He hasn't died. He's still being tormented in the flame. I want you to jump with me to 2 Thessalonians 1. 2 Thessalonians 1. I'm giving you Scripture tonight to prove to you that lost people are not annihilated. They don't just cease to exist. 2 Thessalonians 1. 2 Thessalonians 1, look at verse 8. These are unbelievers, okay? These are unbelievers who are persecuting the believers at Thessalonica. Look with me at verse 8. 2 Thessalonians 1 verse 8. In flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, they're unbelievers, they obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with what kind of destruction? Everlasting. Does that sound temporary to you or permanent? Sounds permanent to me. From the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power. Everlasting destruction means a continuum that never stops. Jump with me quickly to Matthew chapter number 25. Matthew 25. Get there quick. First book of the New Testament. Matthew 25. Matthew 25. Look at the very last verse of the chapter. Matthew 25.46. And these shall go away into what kind of punishment, church? Everlasting punishment. But the righteous into life eternal. I don't know about you, but as I read the Word of God, it sure does sound like hell and the lake of fire is going to be a permanent destruction. It doesn't stop. It's everlasting. It never stops. Would you just think about that with me for a moment? Just think. See, our minds can't comprehend eternity well because we are created within time. God is outside of time. And so when you think of eternity, think of never-ending. It doesn't stop. Forever. Burning. Being tormented. Always. Night and day. Non-stop. No relief. No break. Church, that ought to burden our soul. I mean, one second in a lake of fire will be enough to make me cringe. But forever and ever and ever. You think about the worst thing that you've been through. What a glorious day when finally relief came. Whatever situation you've ever faced. But in a place called hell and the lake of fire, it's forever and ever and ever. No breaks. No end. It's permanent. I tell you, we ought to be burdened tonight. They say, well, they'll just be annihilated. They'll cease to exist. No. They'll be there forever. Forever and ever. Can I say, I wish that on no man. I wish that on no man. And when I mean no man, I mean no man. That they'll go to a place forever. Can I say this? That God wishes that on no man either. He's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. They're divine sources. They'll say, yes, the Bible, we believe the Bible, but also they hold to that general conference, whatever they say goes. The prophetess, Ellen, she's had these visions. We believe them to be truth. They differ from us on death. They believe that believers go into an unconscious state, soul sleep. But then when the rapture takes place, that we will come up out of the ground. We understand that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Our soul, our spirit is with God. Our body will be reunited with the glorified body. But then also, Unbelievers, they believe they are just annihilated, they'll cease to exist. But then, one of the biggest differences, and let me hit this and we'll close, is Sabbath-keeping. Sabbath-keeping, okay? The Adventists promote Sabbath keeping as a primary doctrine of the Bible. If you know anything about the Sabbath day, you'll know that in Exodus 20, the Sabbath is the seventh day of the week on which the children of Israel were to rest. It was a remembrance that God created the universe in six days and then he rested on the seventh day. Rest was not because God was tired. God does not get tired, but it was a celebration. It's a time of worship. And the Seventh-day Adventists view the Sabbath as a day of worship. They'll say that it's the day that Christians should attend church and worship services. They also teach that no work is to be done on the Sabbath day. Now, the New Testament records Jews and converts to Judaism meeting in the synagogues on the Sabbath day. Obviously, no work would be done on the Sabbath day. The Sabbath day would be the ideal day to have organized worship services. However, the New Testament does not command that the Sabbath be the day of worship. How many of you know that the church is not under the Mosaic law? We're not under the law anymore. Christ came, He fulfilled the law. We're under grace. We're in the dispensation of grace. So the church is under the new covenant that was established when Christ came, when He died. And there is no evidence in the New Testament that the apostles or the early Christians in any sense observed the Sabbath day as the prescribed day of worship. The only scriptures that describe Christians in any sense meeting on the Sabbath are pointing out to evangelistic efforts. In other words, Paul would go to the synagogue on the Sabbath day to try to witness to those Jews that were there. That's why he was there. But he never commands us to worship. He just went there because he knew that they were there and he's going to try to win them and convert them to Christianity. So, preacher, are the Seventh-day Adventists wrong for meeting on Saturday? No, they're not. They can meet whatever day they want to meet. We can meet on whatever day we want to meet. I'm going to prove it to you. Acts 2.46 records the early Christians meeting every day. They lived in an agricultural society. They didn't work specific jobs like we worked. How many of y'all are able to meet for church Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 10 o'clock? Could y'all do that? Five of you. A lot of you can't. Why is that? You've got to work. You've got to work. Back then they could. They met every day. The early Christians did. The Bereans studied scriptures every day. Acts 17 and 11. Acts 20 verse 7 and 1 Corinthians 16 and 2 both mention that Christians met on the first day of the week. Christians throughout early church history have primarily worshipped on Sundays, the first day of the week, in celebration of Christ's resurrection, which occurred on a Sunday. So what do we do? We follow their suit. We meet on Sunday. We worship on Sunday. Because how many know that the resurrection of Christ is the pinnacle of our Christianity? If there's no resurrected Christ, we have no reason to worship. So we get together on Sundays, the first day of the week, and that's why we worship. Write this down. You don't have to go there, but in 1 Corinthians 16, Paul says this. Now concerning the collection of the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, so he said, I told the churches of Galatia to do the same thing, even so do ye, verse 2, upon the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him in store. Paul's taking up an offering. He's talking about giving. He said, listen, when you come together, he knew that they'd come together on the first day of the week. That's when they came together. So preacher, when should we meet? Well, biblically, it makes sense for us to meet on Sunday because we're following what the early church did. We celebrate Christ's resurrection on the first day of the week, so that's when we worship. And can I throw this little nugget out there for you? Proverbs 3.9, the Bible says this, Honor the Lord with thy substance and with thy firstfruits of all thy increase. That's a tithing principle, okay? How many of you think that we ought to give the first part of our week to the Lord? I don't want God to get my leftovers. I think the first day of the week we ought to give it to the Lord. Now that's just a personal conviction. That's a principle in Scripture. You do with it what you will. But on everything else we ought to give Him the first. Why not our time? Why not your devotions first thing in the morning before you do anything else? Why not our worship the first day of the week? Not only does it make sense biblically, but economically. We've already taken notice that most of you can't meet during the week at 11 o'clock because you're at your job, you're working. So it makes sense for us to meet on Sunday. But here's the most important truth. There is not a biblical command to meet on any specific day. We don't have to meet on Sunday. Where in the Bible says we've got to meet on Wednesday at 7 o'clock? Or that we have to have church at 11 o'clock or 6 o'clock on Sunday? I know a church right down the road has church on Thursday night instead of Wednesday night. There is no command on when we have to have church or when we gather together to worship. That's why if you were to go back to those passages that we opened up with, Paul said, One man esteemeth one day above another, and another esteemeth every day alike. So let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth the day, regardeth unto the Lord, and he regardeth not the day to the Lord, doth not regard it. In other words, church, I'll say this. We've got spiritual, we've got biblical, we've got Christian liberty, Paul says, to meet when we need to meet. There's people over in China right now they can't meet on a Sunday. They're meeting at underground. In fact, they don't even announce the time until the last minute because they're in fear the government's going to come in and take over. Are they wrong? They're not wrong. Paul says you've got liberty to meet when you want to meet. He said if they regard it holy as the Sabbath day, let them do it. Because we'll all just stand and give an account of the Lord, of ourselves to the Lord. Does that make sense, church? I'm not changing our service days or times. I'm not preaching this message because I'm trying to do that. I'm just letting you know. Paul says, listen, just be fully persuaded in your own mind. Let me give you some of these interesting facts I thought were kind of interesting. You might like them before we close. Seventh-day Adventism places restrictions on consuming meat. They call it flesh food. They'll say that flesh food, meat, Steak, chicken, fish is injurious to your health. It affects your mind and your soul. And if you want to read more about that, you can go to the Ministry of Healing, chapter 24, page 316. Kellogg's Corn Flakes was an Adventist creation. John Harvey Kellogg was a Seventh-day Adventist doctor in Battle Creek who wanted to manufacture a healthy vegetarian alternative to unhealthy breakfast containing meat. Every single one of you, if you eat Kellogg's, you're never going to look at Kellogg's the same, okay? You can still eat Kellogg's, you're alright. I'm thankful for Genesis 9-3 when he told Noah, Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you. Somebody say amen right there. You don't got to go home and throw your smoker away tonight. Amen? You can put meat on the grill and Paul's going to tell Timothy, he said, Man, you blessed that food, it's alright. Okay, you can eat it. So those I thought were just some interesting facts. In closing, some say that they Adventists accept extra-biblical revelation like the visions from Ellen White. Some don't. They believe that hell is the finalization of death that annihilates people to where they cease to exist. They hold a strict observance of the Sabbath and food laws. And by the way, they're okay. They can do that. That's their liberty to do so. They hold to these different doctrines. Everyone is different to an extent. Can a person be an advocate of Seventh-day Adventism and still be a believer? Yes. I believe that there are going to be plenty of Seventh-day Adventist folks in heaven when we get there. And listen, I'm just showing you a couple of things where we differ on from the Word of God. I don't believe that Seventh-day Adventism is a cult. I just don't like Jehovah's Witness Mormonism. I believe they can be saved. They believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We just arrive differently. in the Word of God on some things, and I hope that I've taken you through the Bible and showed you why we believe what we believe. All God's people said, let's pray. Lord, we love you tonight.