Good morning, everyone. We're looking at chapter 22 in our Confession of Faith on worship, religious worship, and the Sabbath day. Particularly, we're looking at paragraphs 7 and 8, which deal with the subject of the Christian Sabbath. And just in general, the question of sacred time. Is there such thing as sacred time? Set apart, sanctified, to be used for the worship of God? And the answer is yes. And our confession of faith does a very good job of explaining what that means. But we've looked already, this will be our third installment on this series on the Christian Sabbath, but we have, we've looked at 12 arguments for the perpetuity of the Sabbath principle. We did that in week one, just showing how the Sabbath was a creation ordinance, something that God came up with. And not just for himself, but it was for all humanity, all mankind to follow in his footsteps, so to speak. And so we looked at 12 arguments for that. And then last week, we looked at five arguments for the change of the day from the seventh day of the week to the first day of the week. So let me just recap what Those five points were and then we'll draw some applications from that and then we will look at the practice of the Sabbath day, specifically paragraph eight. So we're just finishing up paragraph seven and then we'll look at paragraph eight. Yeah. You got it. Let's pray before we begin. Heavenly Father, thank you for the Lord's day. Help us to delight in it today as we should. Help us to honor our Savior. Help us to see Him as the Lord of the Sabbath. May we fall down and worship Him. May you bless us and enlighten us and help us to see the great blessings that are in store for your people on this day. May we not forsake them. May we not neglect them. May we not see this day as a burden. but as a great delight. Bless us, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. So again, those arguments for the change of the day from the seventh day of the week in the Old Testament to the first day of the week in the New are these. First, the Old Testament prophesied that in the latter days the Sabbath would cease and yet at the same time would continue on. So we have to wrestle with some of those texts. The seventh-day Sabbath passed away and was replaced by the first-day Sabbath due to the resurrection of Christ from the dead and the new creation He inaugurated. Remember, He rose from the dead on the first day of the week. On the first day of the week, Christ rose from the dead, met with His disciples, poured out His Spirit, established the church, gathered His people for worship, and sanctified the day to be uniquely His. This is what the New Testament teaches us concerning the first day of the week. Some really important things going on on the first day of the week. And then lastly, the early church clearly honored and set apart Sunday as the Lord's Day and saw it as the holy day of corporate worship. So, here's some applications that we can draw from this. First, we must meet for worship on the Lord's Day. We must meet for worship on the Lord's Day. Worshiping God on Sunday is not optional. It is not out of convenience. It is not just according to tradition. It is now the only divinely sanctioned and obligatory day of worship. Churches have the liberty to gather together on other days of the week, but this is the one day of the week that God commands us to gather together on and worship Him. Richard Barcello states this. First day of the week meetings in the New Testament were sanctioned by Christ through His apostles. These meetings for worship are not to be placed in the category of adiaphora, something indifferent or outside the law of Christ. This is not an issue of Christian liberty. left up to each individual to determine what's best for them. It is the will of Christ revealed to us in the New Testament in various ways to be practiced by His churches until He comes again." We don't meet on Sunday just because we feel like that's the best day of the week to do it. We meet on Sunday because the Lord tells us to meet on Sunday. And we have no say-so in that. This is God's ordained day. of public worship. Since the Lord's Day is the God-appointed day for corporate worship in the gospel era, there is an expectation that if you're a member of GRBC, you will be at the stated meetings of the church on the Lord's Day. That's part and parcel of being a member of one of Christ's churches, that you come to the stated meetings of the church. Our Constitution makes it clear in a couple of places In the section on the church covenant, it says this, We will worship God regularly, faithfully observing that public and corporate worship which He commands on the Lord's Day, while also being diligent to attend all the stated services of the church, except when legitimately hindered. And then in the section on duties of church members, it says this, Members of Grace Reform Baptist Church are expected to attend regularly the stated services of this church unless providentially hindered. That's what we all signed up for when we joined this church, every single one of us, that we would be here on the Lord's Day worship unless we are legitimately and providentially hindered in doing so. So let's resolve not to neglect meeting together on the first day of the week. Throughout the week, let's be like the psalmist who said, How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord. If we have to miss worship, let's make sure our hindrance is legitimate and providential, not selfish and sinful. It is easy for us, brethren. We've had a hard week. We have a disagreement with a brother or sister in the church to not feel like coming to worship. And we can make all kinds of excuses for not coming. Well, if we are truly hindered, we need to make sure it's legitimate and it's providential, not just because we want to do something else. We'd rather choose to be at the ballpark or rather choose to watch some sort of game or rather choose just to wallow in our own sin and misery. rather than come to the public worship of God. So we must meet together on the Lord's Day for worship. Secondly, we must sanctify the Lord's Day. Not just gather together on the Lord's Day for worship, but we must all sanctify the Lord's Day the whole day. Sunday is not only the day of corporate worship, it is also the Christian or New Covenant Sabbath. People have all different kinds of conceptions about what Sunday means for them. But for us, it should be the Christian Sabbath. It is not Sunday fun day. It is not championship Sunday. It is not repair and maintenance day. It is not work day. It is not family day. It's not only the Lord's hour. It is the Lord's day. It is a holy day. In fact, it is the only New Testament holiday God requires us to observe. That's what a holy day means, it's a holiday. It's the only one that we know with absolute certainty God tells us to keep and observe. 52 holidays in the year, all of them are the Lord's Day. So we must make sure not only to meet for worship on Sunday, but to keep the whole day holy. We'll dig into that in more detail when we look at paragraph 8. Not just a day of worship, but a day to be set apart and sanctified to the Lord all day. Not just in the morning, and then in the afternoon we get to do what we want. It's the entire day. It belongs to the Lord. But thirdly, we must defend the Lord's day. must defend it. Opponents of Christian Sabbatarianism, specifically anti- Sabbatarians, are quick either to pity us as weak brethren or decry us as staunch legalists by citing several passages which they believe destroy any notion of sacred time and days in the New Testament. We talked about this a little bit last week. Some of the passages that are brought up to say, There's no such thing as a Lord's Day that's holy and unique and separated from the other days of the week. We're just making this stuff up. We're a bunch of legalists. Well, here's some of the passages that they bring forward. Romans 14, verses 5 through 6, the Apostle Paul says this, One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. Second passage, Colossians 2, 16-17, "...therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ." And then third and finally we have Galatians 4, verses 8-11, Formally, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? You observe days and months and seasons and years. I'm afraid I may have labored over you in vain. On the surface, it seems like the New Testament is telling us there is no such thing as sacred time any longer. Every day is the same. But do these passages really teach that all days are alike in the church age? That the Sabbath day has completely disappeared like a shadow? And that Sabbath day observance now in the gospel age is likened to being enslaved to weak, worthless, and worldly elementary principles? Are we putting ourselves under a yoke of bondage and slavery by calling Sunday the Christian Sabbath? Do these passages really give us the freedom to formulate our own convictions concerning when to worship God? I don't think so. So let me give you some reasons why we shouldn't interpret those passages in that way. First, if this interpretation is correct, it is absolutely absurd. If there is no distinction of days any longer, no one has the right to tell individual Christians when to worship God, not even the churches they are members of. So if there's no uniqueness about any day of the week and it's only a matter of Christian liberty, then even the church that a person is a member of cannot tell them, this is the day we are going to meet for worship and you must be there for that. Because that would be going against their Christian liberty, right? In fact, for a church to impose on its members a day every week for corporate worship would be to infringe upon their Christian liberty. For example, if someone is convinced that worshiping God on Saturday is best for him, then no one should be able to tell him he is in sin for never showing up for Sunday services. After all, Saturday is the day he esteems as better than the rest. You see the logic there? It's absurd. If all days are alike and it's up to each individual if they want to set one day apart to worship God, then there's really no obligation to come to any stated meetings of the church. They may say, well, I'm busy on that day, but I set aside Friday or I set aside Thursday to worship the Lord. That's good enough for me. Here's what Rich says. If the words each person must be fully convinced in his own mind refer to the Lord's day, the first day of the week, as well as all other days, how could a church discipline any of its members for forsaking the assembly of the saints, let alone encourage them to assemble on a stated day?" I think it's an absurd interpretation if that's the way that you're viewing these passages. Secondly, if this interpretation is correct, it contradicts what we have already seen about the uniqueness of the first day of the week. Clearly, the New Testament teaches something special about the first day of the week. The early church affirmed this belief. But if there is no distinction of days, or if the seventh-day Sabbath still exists, every mention of the first day of the week loses most, if not all, its significance. I mean, why does the New Testament writers speak specifically about the first day of the week and point it out multiple times. Well, if you hold that there are no distinction between any days, then those mentions of the first day of the week are just coincidental. There's really no meaning or significance to that day. It's no different than any other day. And so I guess it's just added information. for us to store in our minds, but really never to be transformed by. The facts that on the first day of the week Jesus rose from the dead, Jesus appeared to His disciples, the Spirit was poured out, and the church was established. Christians gathered together for corporate worship, and the Apostle John calls it the Lord's Day, are merely coincidental because there is nothing inherently special or sacred about that day. That's basically what they're having to say. Even the seventh-day Adventists. Right? It's just a coincidence, I guess, that all these things happen to come about on the first day of the week. Jesus' first-day resurrection becomes a good fact to know, but not a life-changing truth to embrace. And the entire early church got it wrong when worshiping on Sunday. I'm not sure we want to say that. the consistent witness of the entire early church was that Sunday was the Lord's Day and the day for corporate worship. But if we somehow say that there is no such thing as a safe time any longer, and there is no distinction of any days, then we're basically saying that the early church just completely missed it. Completely missed it. Third, if this interpretation is correct, it proves too much. The elimination of sacred time would also lead to the elimination of sacred meals. There's a connection between sacred days and sacred meals. Why do I say this? Because in Romans 14 and Colossians 2, days and diets are linked together. If there is now in the gospel age no distinction of days, there is also now no distinction of meals. And if there are no longer any sacred meals, what does that mean for the Lord's Supper? Again, look at Romans 14, Colossians 2. They talk about supposedly all days are alike, all meals are alike, there's nothing sacred about anything in those matters. Well, if that's true, then what about the Lord's Supper? To be consistent, it would mean that along with the Lord's Day, the Lord's Supper should be seen as a common meal and its observance a matter of Christian liberty. If you can pick what day of the week to worship God on, then the Lord's Supper is just a common meal as well. You can take it when you want. You can take it when you don't want. You can even mix up the elements if you'd like to. It's all a matter of Christian liberty. Rich again points this out. He says, Romans 14 cannot be a universal law against all holy days, just as it cannot be a universal law against all holy food and drink. Neither can Galatians 4 or Colossians 2. If they were, the Lord's Supper could just as well be observed by using tacos and beer. That's good old rich for you. But if it's a common meal, if there's nothing sacred about any sort of food, any sort of supper, you might as well be able to have the freedom to mix and match whatever sort of elements you'd like. And sadly, brethren, there are professing Christians who observe the Lord's Supper in this way. For instance, this man, Lecrae, Christian rapper. Just did communion at home with wheat bread and apple juice. I hope this still counts." Lecrae, this doesn't count. Wrong elements, wrong location, wrong administrators. I don't know his theological reasons for doing it this way, but hey, there's nothing truly sacred about the Lord's Supper. the way it was instituted, the way it's supposed to be taken, the very elements that are to be used. I can do it my own way. That's a lot of how professing Christians think when it comes to worshiping God. I can just do it my own way. I can do it whenever I'd like to. There's nothing unique or special about this day or even the corporate gathering of the church. So it proves too much. Fourth, some have argued that these passages are not referring to the weekly Sabbath day. I don't agree with this one. I'll tell you why next, but I'm just saying that there are many sound commentators who argue that Paul is not dealing with the weekly Sabbath here, but is actually referring to the numerous religious festival days in the Jewish calendar. You can read a bunch of commentators who may say, look, I know in Colossians 2 it says a Sabbath, but it doesn't actually mean here the weekly seventh-day Sabbath. It's talking about all the other various Sabbaths that were attached to all of the religious festivals of the Old Testament. So in other words, the days that were ceremonial in nature and uniquely Jewish. Days like the Passover, the Feast of the First Fruits, the Feast of Weeks, the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Booths, where a special Holy Sabbath rest was required for the Israelites. They argue that what Paul is saying is that the Jewish calendar made up of feasts, new moons, and Sabbaths, and special days, months, seasons, and years has passed away in Christ and holds no authority over the New Testament Christian. So just as a representative of this view, this is what Albert Barnes says in Colossians 2.16. The word Sabbath in the Old Testament is applied not only to the seventh day, but to all the days of holy rest that were observed by the Hebrews, and particularly to the beginning and close of their great festivals. There is doubtless reference to those days in this place, since the word is used in the plural number, Sabbaths, and the Apostle does not refer particularly to the Sabbath properly so-called. So again, that's just kind of a representative view. They say that the specific Greek word, especially in Colossians 2, is plural, sabbaths. And so you would just say that it's the sabbaths that were attached to all these various festivals, like the Feast of Booths and the Feast of Tabernacles and the Day of Atonement and things like that. That's what's been done away with in Christ. But fifthly, if these passages do in fact refer to the weekly Sabbath day, they refer to the shadowy shape of the Old Testament Sabbath, not its everlasting standard. Although I appreciate the position just explained, I don't hold it. I'm talking about the previous point. I do think the weekly Sabbath is being discussed in all of these passages. Colossians 2, Romans 14, Galatians 4, They teach us that the Sabbath day has passed away in its Old Covenant form. That's really important to state. In its Old Covenant, Old Creation form. That's what's passed away at the coming of Jesus Christ. In other words, the seventh day Sabbath has passed away. This is especially true for Colossians 2, 16 through 17. Part of the Colossian heresy was the teaching that Christians had to keep all kinds of old creation and old order institutions, including Old Testament laws. But the Apostle Paul says no. In this passage he alludes to Hosea 2.11 which proclaims the end of her Sabbaths, i.e. Israel's Sabbaths in the Gospel Age. He then calls the Jewish Sabbaths a shadow of the things to come. It's a shadow. Israel Sabbath, the Jewish Sabbath, particularly the seventh-day Sabbath. It's a shadow. The word shadow is interesting. It's used in the book of Hebrews a few times. It's used to describe the Old Testament tabernacle. Hebrews 8, 5, it's called a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. And the word shadow is also used to refer to the entire Mosaic law, Hebrews 10.1, the law has but a shadow of the good things to come. It's almost word for word what Paul says in Colossians 2, a shadow of the good things to come. Well, the whole Mosaic law was a shadow or had a shadow of the good things to come. This means the shadowy, mosaic Old Covenant disappears in the light of the arrival of its fulfillment, Jesus Christ and His new covenant. Tabernacle or temple worship, animal sacrifices, dietary laws, circumcision, and seventh-day Sabbath observance are all laid to rest in the new age. But the Apostle Paul says nothing here about the Sabbath day as a natural and moral law and creation ordinance. What he says has to do with the old creation version of the Sabbath. The Sabbath instituted at the beginning of creation and specifically tailored to the nation of Israel until the time of the Reformation. Therefore, we can affirm that the shadowy seventh-day Sabbath has been abolished without having to affirm that the Sabbath day has been eliminated altogether. All these passages teach us is that the Jewish appendages and attachments and ceremonies associated with the Sabbath day have been abolished in the light of the coming of Christ and the new creation. They do not teach us that the Sabbath day principles has vanished. So the Sabbath day as it was given to the nation of Israel, the Sabbath day that included all of the ceremonial stuff of the Old Testament, the Sabbath day in its shadowy form before Christ comes, all of that has been abolished. But not the Sabbath day principle of worshiping God and resting on one particular day during the week. Paul's not dealing with that. But everything that has to do with the old creation, old covenant way of doing things, it's gone. It's done away with. Christians don't have to follow those things any longer. And specifically for us, that means that we do not have to observe the seventh day Sabbath. So here's what Pastor Sam says in his book, The Lord's Day. The passing of the positive institution of the observance of a religious rest on the seventh day of every week, known popularly as the Sabbath, may be asserted without at the same time asserting that the natural and moral foundation of that institution has been wrecked. The passing of the seventh-day observance of rest may be asserted without denying the coming of a positive institution which the first day of the week is observed as a day of rest or a Sabbath." So brethren, the foundation remains the same. Form and function has changed from Old Testament to New, but the principle, the foundation, remains. So here's just a little graph and maybe I could draw it better. You have the 1 in 7 Sabbath day principle remaining the same both in the Old and the New Testaments. But the old creation, old covenant form, Specifically, the seventh day changes as we get into the New Testament. The new creation is inaugurated. The new covenant is established. The new temple has been built. And therefore, the day has changed to reflect these great historical redemptive realities that are found in Jesus Christ. So in some ways, it's the same in substance, different in form and function. Does anybody have any questions about those things before we move on to the next major part, which is the practice of the Sabbath day? You talking about they practice other, they observe other days throughout? Ash Wednesday, Christmas, Easter, all that sort of stuff. Well, like I said, we only know of one holiday in the New Testament, and that is the Lord's Day. That's what we can say clearly and assert clearly. So whatever else is added to that, you can't tell us from the Word of God and specifically from the New Testament that we are commanded to follow those things. So in some ways all of the rest of those holy days are man-made. None of us should feel enslaved or obliged to practice any of those things. Maybe there's some use, Christmas and Easter especially, to think upon the incarnation of Christ and to think upon His death and burial and resurrection. But we can't, at least from the pages of the Bible, say that those are holy days that must be set apart and observed by every single Christian. We can say that about the Lord's Day, but we cannot say that about any other day. So we have to be careful. We should show charity toward our brethren, but at the same time, if people are trying to say that we're sinning We're carnal because we're not celebrating this day or that day. We have to simply tell them, look, there's only 52 holidays in the year and they all land on Sunday. That's what we are to observe. Eddie and then Tom. It's one thing to hold to the doctrines of grace and Calvinism, but it's yet another to be performed. That's right. I mean, this entire chapter falls, or these paragraphs, the Christian Sabbath, it's in chapter 22 for a reason. Chapter 22 teaches the regulative principle of worship. It regulates everything about worship, even the time of worship. And so this chapter, chapter 22, should be really precious and important to us. It explains a whole lot about what we owe to God in terms of worship. Tom, and then Rex. is referring to the Old Testament Sabbath. In the New Testament and in the primitive church, there was no other name for it, but either Lord's Day, the first day of the week, or Sunday. You're saying that the... Whenever the word Sabbath is used in the New Testament, it's always referring to the Jewish Sabbath. It's never referring to the Lord's Day, Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But that's not to deny that we can't call the first day of the week or Sunday the Christian Sabbath. Yeah. Yeah. But as the term is employed in the New Testament, it's always referring back to the Jewish Sabbath. Yeah. Rex? With regard to your point number four and the idea that it's getting rid of the Sabbath's plural and rather than the Sabbath's singular, I don't think we should make that either or. Yeah. these Jewish additional holy days were called Sabbaths, and they have been abolished in Christ. Yeah. Because they don't point forward to it. Yeah. And especially in Romans 16, that seems to fit better than the first day of the week Sabbath, or even the seventh day Sabbath. Yeah. So it doesn't matter if they've both been fulfilled in Christ. Yeah. And maybe I could explain that better. I think it does include all of that. But I think the people who take the position, they would try to exclude the seven-day Sabbath and just say it only refers to these special Sabbaths on these festival days. I think it's probably inclusive of all Israel's Sabbaths, whether weekly or occasionally. David? Well, I mean, the confession makes clear that there's this principle that God had laid down at the beginning of the creation of the world, which was one day and seven to worship Him. Then He particularly gave this positive institution of seventh-day observance to that principle, and that carried on all the way until the resurrection of Christ. So you can at least make a distinction between the principle or foundation, the moral or natural law, which is written upon every man's heart, at least the work of it, that one day out of seven should be devoted to the worship of God. Then you have the positive part of it given, which can change. God has the prerogative to change that whenever He wants, and He's done so when the new creation came in. Christ rose from the dead, firstfruits of the new creation. So you can make that distinction between outward form and function and the particular day and the moral foundation that remains to the end of time. Pastor Sam? You know, I think Nikki and Tom may be right about the use of the Sabbath in the New Testament, but I think what needs to be said in addition to that is that the whole concept of the Lord's Day belongs especially to the Lord. therefore to be kept holy cannot be, biblically speaking, divorced from the idea of a day of rest. What it means, you can't keep a day holy, what it means that a day belongs especially to the Lord is that it is a day of rest. To sanctify it means to set it apart from something to something. To make it belong to the Lord means it belongs idea of a day of rest. So even if it's true, and it might be true, as far as I'm concerned, that the Sabbath is always a reference to the seventh day of the New Testament. It is not followed from that, that the Lord's Day is not a Sabbath, because that's what Sabbath means. Maybe I'm assuming that. Sabbath means rest. Yeah, it literally means rest. But there may be one, I mean, Hebrews 4 that there's a Sabbath rest or Sabbath keeping for the people of God. The word's not Sabbath, but sabbatismos, which would have some, I think depending on how you interpret that, it could refer to first day observance. Yeah. Seventh day Sabbath. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I get you. Matt and then Blake. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Blake. There's a lot of people that when they think of a Sabbath day, they think immediately of the Ten Commandments, which, in my mind, is still a really strong argument for the perpetuity of it. But it goes back further. That's the positive aspect, in one sense, that even though the Ten Commandments are perpetual, it comes even before that, when it's a creational. One day, instead of God rested Yeah. Yeah, it's at least codified and publicized in the Ten Commandments. But of course you make the connection between the Ten Commandments and the Law of God written upon the heart of Adam and Eve and every image bearer of God. But you've got to start in Genesis 2 and show that it's a creation ordinance and show that it wasn't just made for God. It was made for Adam. I was reading somebody today that said that Was it today? Just maybe the thought, you know, Adam was made on the sixth day, and then on the seventh day was, you know, his first full day of living, and it was the Sabbath, and maybe God took him around all his parts of creation and had him wonder and be in awe and worship the Lord on that day for everything that he had made. God stood back and said, it is very good. I'm sure Adam knew that. adored and worshiped God for those sort of things. So Adam knew these things. He was not ignorant of seven-day Sabbath observance. And maybe he kept the Sabbath day. Maybe that was the only Sabbath day he ever kept holy, but that was the very next day. And I think he enjoyed a day of rest as he contemplated the finished works of God on that day. Jonathan? Yeah. Yeah. You follow him and follow his example. Bryce. Yeah. Yeah, that's a good question. I know the principle is binding upon all men. One day in seven needs to be set apart specifically to worship the Lord. Since the seventh day was given at creation, Adam knew it, Eve knew it, at least throughout the entire Old Testament. I think in some ways the remnants of it were known by all people groups, whether Egyptians or Assyrians or Philistines. Because it wasn't just Israel. The seventh day was established for Adam and Eve. So I think there's probably a case to be made that, at least in the Old Testament, everybody in some ways knew about seventh-day observance. But I'm not quite sure about the first day of the week right now. The day, from the seventh day to the first day, every man in this age, since Christ rose from the dead, is obligated to the first day of the year. Yeah. Mickey? Or Rex and then Mickey? The Lord of the Sabbath. All authority was given to Him. Yeah. The first day when He rose from the dead. Yeah. He changed the day. It's His. Right. Yeah. It is the new creation now. Yeah, Mickey. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You would still say it's a sabbatic, or is that the right word, sabbatic day? Let me ask one other question. When was it first called the Christian Sabbath? I mean, I'm... You're talking about, like, theologians? I'm discounting that Hebrew chapter 4, because I think that's the eternal Sabbath rest. Okay. But in the first five centuries, the early church always made the distinction between the Sabbath, which was Saturday, Yeah. But you could say that when they say Sabbath, they mean seventh day Sabbath, just like the New Testament means seventh day Jewish Sabbath. So what they're arguing, yeah. Well, yeah, but not the Jewish Sabbath. But I think Sometimes, maybe, but the point is, I think the elements of Sunday being a Sabbath day are pretty clear in the early church. They might not have called it the Christian Sabbath, but they talk about keeping the Lord's Day holy. I mean, I reference after reference about this is the corporate day of worship. I'm just saying all the elements of it being the Christian Sabbath are there. If somebody has a specific issue about just the terminology, maybe it is just semantics. If you're agreeing with and consenting to all the basic principles which make up a Sabbath day, which it sounds like you are. Yeah. Well, yeah, Blake. at the time Christianity was fledgling. As Christianity rises in prominence, they can start using the term again later on. And because the principle's still there, the idea is the same, and they don't have to worry about distinguishing it from the Jewish Sabbath at that point. It's probably what happened this way. Yeah. Tom, and then Pastor Sam. Remember the Sabbath, to keep it holy, is not the same as Southern today. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and it's called the Sabbath when it was created in Genesis chapter 2. So it didn't just take on the name Sabbath when the law was given on Mount Sinai. It's been called that from the very beginning of time. You say, well, what about? She says, I'm not talking about that. Yeah, all the time. But I think that what you have to realize about Romans 14, Galatians 4, and Colossians 2 is that Paul wasn't talking about that. And what I mean to say is all of those passages are looking back. All of those passages have to do with the shadow You're not talking about the Lord's Day. You're not talking about Christian things. You're talking about that whole thing that was fulfilled in Christ in the Old Testament. And I think that this is the secret, if I can just share a personal interpretation, of Romans 14. When Paul said, another regards every day alike. He is simply not talking about the Lord's event. What he's saying, and there's actually evidence and history for this, is that there were some Jews who said, yeah, all the ceremonial days have passed away except the seventh day Sabbath. There are others who said, no, all the Old Testament calendars passed away, including the seventh day Sabbath. And Paul is saying in Romans 14 that, you know, what a person thinks about that may be a matter of Christian liberty. But the point is, if we ask that question, well, what about the Lord saying? Paul would say to us, I'm not talking about that. Right? Just like our wives say that. That's right. Amen. Blake, one more thing and I've got to close shop. So I've been to Baptist churches throughout my years, and I've noticed that this teaching has barely even brought up even the somewhat friendly debate that we're having this morning. And so what I've noticed is that when they don't take the Word of State seriously, they have a lazy idea of worship, then they have a lazy biblical oral view, which leads to the laziness that you have exposed. So I would just love and just have us praying to you this evening that the seriousness of the teaching of the Sabbath would not just be in Reformed churches, but also in other Baptist churches as well. So that's my comment. It's part of the moral law of God. That's one of the most important things that we can do as Christians. We live from Sabbath day to Sabbath day. so that we can enjoy the eternal Sabbath rest to come. That's why we'll get to the practice of the Sabbath day, just trying to reorganize and restructure our weeks, and not think Monday to Monday, or Saturday to Saturday, thinking Sunday to Sunday. That's how our week should go, our months, our years. And we're taking one big leap, one Sabbath day after the other, until we leap fully into the embrace and arms of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Sabbath day to come. We got to think that way. It's that important for us.