Holy Sabbath #5

This is Holy Sabbath number 5, and we’re going to thoroughly cover all the aspects of the Sabbath in the Bible, and men’s arguments concerning why they keep Sunday, and so forth. And I think that we’ll find that the Sabbath is the only day, as we’ve seen, that God has ever sanctified and set aside as a weekly day of worship and rest for Him.

Now let’s go back to Jeremiah 7, and let’s see that the Israelites were also violating God’s laws and commandments by Sunday worship. Now what do I mean by that? Whenever you read about Baal, Baal is the sun god. And Ashtoreth is the female counterpart, which we have today in the Catholic Church as the Virgin Mary. In Babylon it was Semiramis. And of course, all the other names of it, if you get the book, The Two Babylons and read that all the names of these gods and deities came out of Babylon; and when the language was changed at the tower of Babel, the names were changed. But it’s still the same old worship.

Let’s see something very important here in Jeremiah 7, which is this: that the Israelites, just like those people today who claim to be the people of God, who claim to worship God on Sunday, who claim to say that they have license to do this because God has made it possible for them to do so, are using the very same excuses that they used, and Jeremiah confronted them with it. Plus, also, it’s important to understand, that they didn’t do this out in the peripheries. They didn’t do this secretly in their homes. They did it publicly, at the very temple of God where God said He would put His name. There they worshipped Baal. There they committed all sorts of sacrilegious and idolatrous acts.

Now let’s read it beginning here in Jeremiah 7:1. “The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, Stand in the gate of the LORD’s house, and proclaim…” So he had to go there and stand. And Jeremiah was not liked, because he told the truth. He gave them the Word of God. And they didn’t like to hear it because it upset their idolatrous and sinful ways of which they had pleasure in. Just like today. “…And proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the LORD, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the LORD. Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings,…” (Jer. 7:1-3). So God first of all always calls for repentance. And God calls for repentance of Sunday-keepers today, that they change, that they amend their ways; that they quit using the name of God on the first day of the week and saying that that is the Lord’s Day, or the Christian Sabbath. Because as we have proven it is not so. It is not true. There is no such thing as a “Christian Sabbath” being the first day of the week. That is the day of the sun. That is the day of the sun god.

And He says, “…and I will cause you to dwell in this place. Trust not in lying words,…” And isn’t that what people are trusting in today, lying arguments? How many times did we see that they know – the religious leaders know and they understand that the Sabbath is the seventh day of the week and not the first day of the week. The Catholics know it, the Protestants know it. Everyone knows it, but yet they want to trust in their lying words, because, you see, the human heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. And they want to have pleasure in their sin. And they want to do it right in the temple of God. They want to come right before God, and stick their thumb right up before God. “…Saying, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD are these” (vs. 3-4). Meaning that, “If we do it for God, everything is fine.” Listen – God never sanctions sin. Understand that. And sin is the transgression of the law. God will never be honored by lies. God will never be honored by sin.

Now verse 5, “For if ye throughly amend your ways and your doings;…” That is, you quit your Sunday-keeping, your Easter-keeping, your Christmas-keeping, and you cast it away from you, and repent and amend your ways, “…if ye throughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor; If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt:…” (vs. 5-6). See, because God gave the Sabbath as His commandment in love so that the people of God would always have that direct connection between God and themselves. So when you do something that’s contrary to the laws and commandments of God, which is the will of God, it’s only to your hurt. Because it’s sin; and the wages of sin is death, Romans 6:23.

Verse 7, “…Then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever.” And that is going to be true of the United States of America, and of Canada, and Australia, and New Zealand. That if the people of God would change and repent they could dwell in the land; but since they probably won’t, then God is going to raise up the stranger within. And the silent invasion that has been taking place will overwhelm us and overtake us, and then we will be invaded by foreign troops and carried off into captivity, just exactly like the Israelites were. Because, as we will see, they were carried off into captivity because of Sabbath-breaking. We’ve already seen that. But we’ll see it reaffirmed here.

Verse 8, “Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit.” And concerning the Sabbath day versus Sunday, the lying words that cannot profit are these: that everything that was on the seventh day has now been transferred to the first day. And those are lying words. That, “In the New Covenant, now we have the first day of the week. And that is the Sabbath.” Those are lying words. “Oh well. Christmas and Easter, oh, they’re so wonderful and fine, and it’s for the children anyway.” That’s pleasing human beings, and those are lying words.

“Will ye steal [and they steal God’s name], [will you] murder [because you continuously sacrifice Christ, or crucify Him over and over again by living in sin], and [will you] commit adultery [physically and spiritually],…” Will you commit adultery with the great whore of Revelation 17 that is going to amalgamate and bring all the religions of the world together under the hegemony of the Pope? “…And swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not;…” They don’t even know and understand that. “…And come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations?” (vs. 9-10). And that’s exactly the phraseology that people have today concerning Sunday and Sunday-keeping: “We have been delivered from the law so that we can do these things.” And they’re an abomination before God because it’s sun worship.

“Is this house, which is called by My name, [has it] become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the LORD.” He says, “But go ye now unto My place which was in Shiloh, where I set My name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of My people Israel.” And the wickedness was going after other gods. And other gods always involved Sunday-worship. “And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the LORD, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not; and I called you, but ye answered not; Therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by My name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh. And I will cast you out of My sight, as I have [and I will] cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed [house] of Ephraim. Therefore…” (vs. 11-16).

Now there comes a time when God says He’s had enough. Enough is enough, is enough, is enough. And that’s what is going to happen with Sunday worship today. Because the Protestants failed to bring the Reformation all the way to the Sabbath, they are going back to Rome. They are going back to the abomination of Rome, which is Babylon the Great. Only this time it’s going to bring all the religions into it. And when that happens and God, as we saw last time, gives them over to believing a lie through great delusion, then will be brought to pass verse 16 right here in Jeremiah 7: “Therefore [God told Jeremiah] pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to Me: for I will not hear thee.” Now that day is going to come for us in this last time.

Notice verse 17. It defines what they’re doing. “Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?” Right there where God’s name is. “The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven,…” So if you’re going back to Rome, you’re going right back to the queen of heaven worship under the guise supposedly of the Virgin Mary. That is idolatry. That is sin. That is against the Word of God. Because you refuse to keep the Word of God, because you refuse to keep the Sabbath, because you refuse to keep the holy days of God, because you refuse to do what is right in God’s sight. Oh, you want to take His name. You want to say, “Well, we will keep nine of the commandments.” But God didn’t say nine is enough. “Well, we will keep eight of the commandments. Oh well - we’ll just make our own standard.” No. “…To the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke Me to anger. Do they provoke Me to anger? saith the LORD: do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces?” (vs. 17-19). And isn’t that true? Who knows, in the realm of religion today, what is right, what is wrong, what is truth, what is error? Because we all now we have to get along and go along, and do not speak evil of anything or anyone. And then all of the abominable false doctrines can come pouring in.

“Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, Mine anger and My fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn and shall not be quenched.” (vs. 20). Question: did that happen? Answer: yes. It happened twice - the Babylonian captivity and the captivity with the fall of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. And then the extension of that carried on to the Bar-Kockba revolution which ended in 135 A.D. Were they scattered to the four winds? Were they rejected of God? Were they cursed? Yes. Why would anyone want to persist in their own way and their own lives, and to bring a curse upon themselves? To be in such a condition that God will not hear your prayers? To be in such a condition that you love the abominations which God hates? To be in such a condition that you don’t care, and just say, “Well, God is going to bring it. Let him bring it.”

Now here, let’s go to Isaiah 28. We’ll come back here to Jeremiah 7 again. Because you see, this is what you’re actually doing when you reject the Word of God, which is the truth of God. When you reject the true Jesus Christ for the false Jesus, the false Messiah, when you reject the Sabbath for Sunday and you reject the holy days for Christmas and Easter, and the other abominations. And I just read recently that many of the Protestant churches are being brought back to Rome even a little further, by this spring celebrating forty days of Lent.

Now I want you to read Isaiah 28. Let’s begin in verse 14. “Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem. Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement;…” And if you continue in Sunday and the pagan holidays that’s exactly what you are into. There’s no eternal life in Sunday. There is no eternal life in the pagan holidays. Eternal life comes through Jesus Christ, because He died for you and rose again to bring you eternal life. And Jesus said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” But no, if you cling to the lies, if you cling to the false doctrines, if you cling to these things which are not right then you have made a covenant unto death and are in agreement with hell. And “…when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us:…” Because you see, in doing that you say, “Well, it won’t happen to us. Maybe it happened to them back there in the olden days, but it won’t happen to us.” It will happen to any people anywhere who reject God. “…For we have made lies our refuge and under falsehood have we hid ourselves.” Now notice. The only way out is through Christ. And here is a prophecy of it. Verse 16, “Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste” (Isa. 28:14-16). So that’s the way out - through Christ.

Now let’s come back here to Jeremiah 7, and let’s see something else. All the way through the book of Jeremiah God talks about, “Obey My voice; did not obey My voice; did not listen to Me.” Now remember when we started out this series, we went how many times to Genesis 26:5, that Isaac was to receive the blessing because his father Abraham, “Obeyed My voice, kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.” Now let’s read it here. Jeremiah 7:21, “Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh.” Now, who were they sacrificing to? Baal. Where were they sacrificing to Baal? Right at the temple of God. Were these noxious to God? Yes.

So he says, “For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices:…” That is, these sacrifices to the other gods. Surely He spoke to them about His own sacrifices, yes. But these wrong, abominable sacrifices to other gods right in the temple of God is just one of the greatest effronteries that people could ever do to God; and yet God kept pleading with them to repent. God kept pleading with them to turn from their ways. God kept pleading with them to come back to Him, like He does here in verse 23: “But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey My voice,…” Now that means every word that God has spoken that you read in the Bible which says, “Thus saith the Lord…”; “…Moses, speak to the children of Israel and say, ‘Thus saith the Lord: Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.’” Those are the words of God, aren’t they? Did not God speak, as we saw, from the top of Mount Sinai to give the commandments to God, which contained - the commandments to the people of God, rather - which contained the Sabbath day, the seventh day Sabbath? Yes.

“…Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be My people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have command you, that it may be well unto you. But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward and not forward. Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day…” (vs. 23-25). Did they not, right after Moses went up to the mount after hearing the Ten Commandments and God giving the Ten Commandments, did they not say, “Where is this man Moses? We don’t know where he is.” They came to Aaron and said, “Aaron, make us gods.” So Aaron foolishly took all of their gold and made a molten calf, which is the symbol of Baal. And the molten calf had horns, like this, with the round sun disk right in the horns. And the people worshiped that and made merry, saying, “It’s a feast unto the Lord!” So they did it from the very day they came out of Egypt.

Do we do the same thing today? Yes we do. Does not the Catholic priest hold up the wafer, the round wafer, so-called “the host,” which is a round disk made unto the sun? Is there not over the throne of the Pope there in St. Peter’s Basilica a great sunburst? Yes there are. And are there not four serpentine pillars going up from the base, clear, way up to the very top of the so-called sanctuary? Serpentine, picturing that Satan is the god that’s holding up that? Yes. And do they not do the same thing? Does not the Pope burn incense, and walk around with the incense, and the smoke coming up? Yes. And the Protestants, following their command of keeping Sunday, and Christmas, and Easter, are going right back to Rome, doing the same thing, the same thing that the children of Israel did here.

Now let’s read on. “…I have even sent unto you all My servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them: yet they hearkened not unto Me, nor inclined their ear, but harden their neck:…” And that’s what we’re seeing happening today in this society. “…They did worse than their fathers. Therefore thou shalt speak all these words unto them; but they will not hearken to thee: thou shalt also call unto them; but they will not answer thee.” So it’s the same thing here today. If you hear these words of God read from the Bible and you don’t answer God’s call to repentance, and you don’t listen to the truth of God’s Word, then you are going to pay the penalty because you have made a covenant with death. “But thou shall say unto them, This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the LORD their God, nor receiveth correction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth” (vs. 25-28). And God did cast them away.

Let’s come over here to Jeremiah 10 for just a minute. Let’s pick it right up here in verse 1. “Hear ye the word which the LORD speaketh unto you, O house of Israel: Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen,…” (Jer. 10:1-2). And Sunday is the way of the heathen. Now hold your place here and come back to Deuteronomy 12. God warned them over, and over, and over, and over again, but they wouldn’t listen. They refused, just like He said. But here, Deuteronomy 12, we will see what God told them, pleaded with them, asked them to do, saying, “I love you; keep My commandments. And if you love Me, keep My commandments.” Same thing as the New Testament doctrine that Jesus brought. And remember, the apostle Paul wrote to Timothy and said that, “From a child you have known the Holy Scriptures [that is, the Old Testament] which are able to make you wise unto salvation through Jesus Christ” (2 Timothy 3:15, paraphrased).

Question: do you think that you can receive salvation if you reject the words of Christ? Now remember, Christ was the Lord God of the Old Testament Who created the Sabbath, as we saw. If you refuse Christ, refuse His word, refuse His truth, refuse to listen, do you think that you’re going to receive eternal life? Do you think that you can take the Word of God and add to it, and take away from it, and put in this little heathen practice which is cute and nice? And this little one, which is so enjoyable? And to bring in so many people just to “church” them, just to have numbers in a building? Let’s read what He says here, Deuteronomy 12:28. “Observe and hear all these words which I command thee [that is, hearken to the voice of the Lord your God] that it may go well with thee [because God wants it to go well with you], and with thy children after thee for ever, when thou doest that which is good and right in the sight of the LORD thy God.”

Now what is good and right? As we saw last time, all the commandments of God are truth; all the statutes of God are truth; all the law of God is truth; and every precept that God has concerning all things are altogether right. And if we understand that, then it would go well with us. Now notice verse 29. Now He gives a warning after that. “When the LORD thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land; take heed to thyself that thou be not snared [that means, be entrapped] by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou inquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which He hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods” (vs. 29-31).

Yes - they actually had the sacrifice of children, where they were burnt in offering to Moloch and to Baal. And the priests ate the flesh of the children. That’s where you get the name “cannibals,” meaning “priests of Baal.” Can you imagine that? Can you understand that? Can you see what kind of abomination this is to God? And yet the children of Israel did that very thing when He said, “Don’t do that!” “Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which He hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods. What thing soever I command you, observe to do it:…” Now notice – “…thou shalt not add thereto nor diminish from it” (vs. 31). And that includes the Sabbath. That’s the dividing line between Sabbath and Sunday. Because if you add Sunday then you have violated the commandment of God, and you have gone after the heathen. Now let’s come back to Jeremiah 10. And part and parcel with the whole thing is Easter, and Christmas, and all of the pagan holidays that come along with it.

Now back here to Jeremiah 10:2. “…Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vain [vanity, nothing]: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.” And that’s what people have just done, haven’t they, with Christmas? Yes. “They are upright as the palm tree…” And of course, down in Egypt that’s what they used. They used a palm tree. In the northern climates use a pine tree, or, a fir tree. “…But [they] speak not: they must needs be borne [they need to be carried around - that’s what he said] because they cannot go [themselves]…” And people used to worship those as gods. So people today say, “Well, we don’t do it for that reason.” Well then, why do you do it when God says not to? “…For they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.” Now that doesn’t give justification for doing it. It’s just saying that these things are no gods, to do good or evil. So why would you leave the true God and go after the tree? “Forasmuch as thereis none like unto thee O LORD; Thou art great, and Thy name is great in might” (Jer. 10:5-6).

Now let’s come to Jeremiah 11. Let’s begin right here in verse 1. “The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, Hear ye the words of this covenant, and speak unto the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and say thou unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Cursed be the man that obeyeth not the words of his [this] covenant,…” (Jer 11:1-3). Now let’s project that forward to the New Covenant. What is the curse for not obeying the words of the New Covenant? Eternal death in the lake of fire. And whenever you claim that God sanctifies Sunday, you have broken the words of the covenant. Because as we saw in Hebrews 8 and Hebrews 10, that the covenant that God makes with us is this: that He will blot out our sins and iniquities and remember them no more; and write into our minds and inscribe upon the tablets of our heart, His commandments and His laws. So here is a prophecy of it here.

“…Which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt,…” And you can say, which Jesus Christ instituted on the night of the Passover, Nisan 14, when He broke the bread and said, “Take, eat; this is My body…” When He passed the cup of wine and said, “Take, drink; This is My blood in the New Covenant.” So you break that covenant, you are in deep trouble. “…[And] from the iron furnace saying, Obey My voice, and do them, according to all which I command you: so shall ye be My people, and I will be your God:…” (Jeremiah 11:1-4). Now, He continued to say that. Let’s come down here in verse 7. “For I earnestly protested unto your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, even unto this day, rising early and protesting, saying, Obey My voice.”

Will you obey the voice of Jesus Christ when He said, and He still is today, that the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath day? Not Sunday - the Sabbath day. Will you obey His voice, or will you cling to your false, lying, deceitful doctrines which say, “Oh well, the Sabbath - that was a Jewish Sabbath, and God has delivered us from all these ‘Jewish’ things.” Well, you see, that’s how they denigrate the laws of God. The laws that Judaism has added to the laws of God, and made it a great burden, those are just as much sin as Sunday is sin. And we need to understand that. Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to destroy the law or the prophets. I have come not to destroy, but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17, paraphrased). That is, bring it to the full; and then fulfill all the prophecies concerning His first coming. So we have the same thing here, verse 8. “Yet they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear, but walked every one in the imagination of their evil heart: Therefore I will bring upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do; but they did them not.”

Now notice verse 9. “And the LORD said unto me, A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, which refused to hear My words; and they went after other gods to serve them: the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken My covenant which I made with their fathers.” (vs. 9-10). And He says, “I’m going to bring evil upon you.”

Let’s come over here to Jeremiah 16. You see, this applies today. These words and these prophecies are also for today, for modern Israel today - the people of America, and Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Those are the people of Israel. And if you believe that, as the Jews have said in their lies, that all of the Israelites were Jews, that is a lie. The children of Israel, the ten tribes of the northern tribes, were carried off into captivity because of their sins. And then after that the Jews said, “Well, they have been absorbed into the heathen. Therefore, we are the house of Israel.” Not so. They are one tribe of Israel.

Now let’s pick it up here, Jeremiah 16:10. “And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt shew this people all these words, and they shall say unto thee, Wherefore hath the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us?…” “Oh, well, God can’t be that way. God is a God of love.” Like we have today – “‘God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’ Oh, God wouldn’t do that,” and you get a warm, fuzzy feeling in your heart. That’s not the love of God. God will pronounce it upon you, because unless your love is based upon keeping the commandments of God and serving Him His way, and obeying His voice, then God is going to bring it. “…Or what is our iniquity?…” Your iniquity is Sunday-keeping, Christmas, Easter, New Year’s, all of those things. That is the iniquity. Lying, cheating, murder, adultery, abortion, and every one of these things are the iniquity that God is going to bring.

“…Or what is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God? Then shalt thou say unto them, Because your forefathers have forsaken Me, saith the LORD, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken Me, and have not kept My law; and ye have done worse than your fathers; for, behold, ye walk every one after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may not hearken unto Me:…” (Jer. 16:10-12). And isn’t that true today? People don’t want the truth. People don’t understand the truth, you see. And Sabbath-keeping, Sabbath-breaking, Sunday-keeping, and all of these things are all tied together. Because look at what happens to the society when they reject the Sabbath of God and His holy days, and turn their back on God - they gradually get rid of every single one of the commandments. And that’s where we are today. And we put in the White House a president that is a paranoid liar, that doesn’t know the truth from error, and would rather tell a lie than the truth. And the people love it that way. And he is popular, and wonderful.

Well, when it gets that way there is a day of reckoning coming, and it’s not too far down the road. And so you need to ask yourself a question: what am I going to do? Or are you going to say, “Well, there goes this preacher again. He’s got to come and attack everybody under the sun.” No. I’m only reading you the Words of God. And God says if you will return and repent He will forgive you and put it all under the blood of Jesus Christ. But you cannot continue in the way that you have been going. And you cannot come up from the abomination of Sunday-keeping, and all the pagan holidays, as if you are coming up from eating all of the abominable things of the earth and wipe your mouth and say, “We are delivered to do it.” Never happen. God won’t listen to you.

Let’s come over here to Jeremiah 17:19. Right here in the middle of it God said, “Alright, if you will honor the Sabbath I won’t send you into captivity. If you will just turn, if you will just listen, if you will just respond…” God says. Verse 19, “Thus said the LORD God unto me, Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people, whereby the kings of Judah come in, and by the which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem.” So he had to go to every one of the gates and stand there and give this message; then move on to another gate and stand there and give that message; move on to another gate and stand there and give that message. “And say unto them, Hear the word of the LORD, ye kings of Judah, and all Judah,…” So it begins right at the very top doesn’t it? “…And all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter in by these gates: Thus saith the LORD; Take heed to yourselves and bear no burden on the sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem; neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the sabbath day, neither do ye any work, but hallow ye the sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers” (Jer. 17:19-22).

So He gave them another chance, didn’t He? How many times must people be told? I mean, isn’t it something, that, just consider the millions, and millions, and billions of people around the world that come to their churches and cathedrals on Sunday and say, “We are delivered to do these things,” and participate in abominable ceremonies, which are just, what you might say, sanitized form of Baal worship. And they won’t listen. And they won’t hear. Oh, they will worship the Virgin Mary. Oh, they’ll bow down to the Pope. Oh, they will say, “We are delivered to do Sunday. Oh, God hates those Jews. So therefore, the Sabbath, we can’t do that.” Look, the Jews did not keep the Sabbath. Some people say that God gave the Sabbath day to curse the Jews. Wrong, wrong, wrong. God gave the Sabbath day to be a blessing, and intended it to be.

Let’s continue on here, verse 23. “But they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, nor receive instruction.” Does what I’m saying to you make your hair on the back of your neck bristle? Does it make you want to not hear another word that I’m saying? Then you put yourself right in the company with those who rejected God and His Sabbath. And they were Jews, and they were keeping Sunday. Do you understand what I’m saying? God never gave the Sabbath as a curse. God gave it as a blessing. God gave it in truth. Can we come to yield to God with a tender heart, yielded mind, willing acceptance, and loving of God? To keep His commandments, to keep His Sabbath, to keep His holy days? To keep all the things that Jesus said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments”? Do you profess to love Jesus Christ? If you don’t keep His commandments, including the Sabbath and holy days, you don’t love Him. You may have a false love. You may have a deceitful love. You may have an experience that Satan the devil would want you to have. Because it’s a counterfeit Christ, counterfeit Jesus, counterfeit way. It’s not in the Bible. We’ll see that by the time we’re done with this series. What will you do? Will you listen to God? Will you change? Will you turn? Will you repent? It’s all up to you.

Part 2

Now let’s continue on. Let’s see something here. You know, the average Protestant today does not have a clue that the Jews and the children of Israel, the ten northern tribes, were carried off into captivity because of Sunday-keeping. They were worshiping Baal and Ashtoreth. Because you see, the Protestant ministers and teachers and those who still follow Rome - because as we saw, the Catholics have chided the Protestants and say, “By what authority do you keep Sunday, and Easter, and Christmas? You can search the Bible from Genesis to Revelation and find not one word authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. If you want to follow the Bible, you Protestants, as you claim, then you ought rightly keep the seventh-day Sabbath.” They know. You know. But they haven’t been told that the children of Israel and Judah, in worshiping Baal and Ashtoreth, were rejected out of their inheritance because they were committing idolatry and keeping Sunday. So therefore, all those who keep Sunday are right back to the trough of abominations that the children of Israel and the children of Judah were doing.

Now God gave them a chance again. Let’s read here. Now continuing, Jeremiah 17:23, “But they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, nor receive instruction. And it shall come to pass,…” Now notice. Even when God was giving the warning, “You are going into captivity…” “And it shall come to pass, if ye diligently hearken unto Me [again, to the voice of God], saith the LORD, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the sabbath day,…” Now you stop and think about modern-day Israel. What is the greatest shopping day? Saturday. The Sabbath. And how many sports do they have on it? They teach their children to break the Sabbath by having sports and activities on the Sabbath, don’t they? Yes. God said, Ok, if you will “…hallow the sabbath day, to do no work therein;…” And everyone loves their overtime Saturday work, don’t they? Yes.

“Then shall there enter into the gates of this city kings and princes sitting upon the throne of David,…” He would forgive; He would take away the captivity; He would not send them off if they returned to Him. And the king would still be there. The Jews have no king today, because they rejected God under the Old Covenant; sent off into the Babylonian captivity. And from that time on they only had a governor. There was no throne of David there in Jerusalem. And then when it came the time for the one to inherit the throne, Jesus Christ, they rejected Him.

He says, yes, they would be there, “…riding in chariots and on horses, they, and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: and this city shall remain forever. And they shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the places about Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the plain, and from the mountains, and from the south, bringing burnt offerings, and sacrifices, and meat [meal] offerings, and incense, and bringing sacrifices of praise, unto the house of the LORD. But if ye [refuse] will not hearken unto Me to hallow the sabbath day, and not to bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched” (vs. 23-27).

Question: did that happen? We already pointed out, twice. Now if you want some very instructive reading you get the book of Josephus, The History of the Jews. While he refused to write about Christ and the Church, except what looks like an insertion by some translator; he did accurately depict the fall of Jerusalem during the Babylonian captivity and the fall of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. And it was horrible, indeed. Because there comes a time to where God says enough is enough, is enough, is enough. Now how close are we getting to that right now? Well, I tell you what, we’ll soon find out.

Let’s come here to Isaiah 1. Now let’s look at one where a lot of Protestant ministers go to say, “See? God hates the Sabbath.” Now how can God hate something that He gave for their good? Let’s read it. Isaiah 1. This is very instructive. But you have to read it to understand what it’s really saying. God says, “delight yourself in My Sabbath.” How can God hate the Sabbath that He gave as a delight? By the very actions of men. If they are keeping the Sabbath, or the day that they have changed and call it their sabbath.

Now Isaiah 1:10, “Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom,…” And that’s just the way this society is today. Now they know that they have so many homosexual priests in the Catholic Church, and they have the highest rate of AIDS of any group of people in the world. And they claim they represent God? Pray tell, if you’re a Catholic you better repent. If you are a priest you better give up being a priest of Baal, because that is what you are. You are no priest unto God if you’re a homosexual. And you carry around the curse of AIDS, which God has brought upon you to teach you a lesson to show you not to do those abominations. So that’s what He says here. “…Give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.” Which then covers all of the rest of the illegal, illicit sex of adultery, and fornication, and abortion, and all of that to go with it.

“To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto Me? saith the LORD:…” Because you see, they really weren’t to Him. They were to what? The other gods. “…I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts, and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. When ye come to appear before Me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread My courts?” (vs. 11-12). And as we saw with Jeremiah, unto the other gods, right in the house of God. One of the worst kings that ever was, was king Manasseh. And he put an idol right in the house of God, and all the hosts of heaven; and built all the homosexual tents all around it. What is the purpose of that? “When you come to appear before Me who hath required this at your hand, to tread My courts?” What purpose is it on Sunday, that you go to worship on Sunday, and you hear the minister say, “God has delivered us from the law.” No. God has delivered you from the curse of the law; and the curse of the law is sin, and the curse of the law is death. He has not delivered you from the law, that you don’t have to keep it; that now you can believe the lie that Sunday is the day of worship when it is not; when you call Sunday the “Christian Sabbath” when it never was.

Now notice, “Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto Me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.” Now notice verse 14: “Your new moons and your appointed feasts My soul hateth:…” Why? Because their new moons and their sabbaths and their ways were the pagan days. That’s why He hated it. God would not hate His own Sabbath. God would not hate His own holy days. But He hates it when people come with the wrong attitude. Now it’s says here, continuing, “…they are a trouble unto Me; I am weary to bear them. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide Mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood” (vs. 13-15).

Now let’s go to Isaiah 66, and let’s just say this: even if you’re keeping the right days that God has said you should keep - and we have seen this with the Churches of God, haven’t we, that they do keep the Sabbath and they do keep the holy days. But what is it that they do? They are committing adultery; they are lying; they are cheating; they are stealing. Their heart and their attitude is wrong before God. So here, Isaiah 66, God makes it very clear, even if you have the right days, even if you follow the law in the letter, but your heart is not right before God, even that becomes an abomination to God. Because God wants a willing heart. God wants a yielded mind. God wants a contrite spirit. Let’s pick it up here in verse 1. “Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool: where is the house that ye build unto Me? and where is the place of My rest? For all those things hath Mine hand made, and those things have been, saith the LORD…” (Isa. 66:1-2).

See, because what is greater than a magnificent building? What is greater than a temple of God? What is greater than a church building? A contrite and a humble heart and spirit, and one that worships God in spirit and in truth; and one that loves God with all their heart, and mind, and soul, and being. See, because then you have a relationship with God. Otherwise, you just have a religion, and you have a building, and you put confidence in physical things. And know for sure, God is going to remove it. And God is going to take it away, that you may repent and come back to Him. Now let’s continue here: “…But to this man will I look, even to him thatis poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at My word” (vs. 2). Do you tremble at the Word of God? Do you love the Word of God? Do you fear disobeying God? Do you fear transgressing the Word of God? Do you fear breaking the Sabbath day and doing your own thing? Do you?

Now notice - you can be religious as can be, you can offer a sacrifice according to the way that God said under the Old Covenant to offer it. But if your heart isn’t right, what good does it do? Verse 3, “He that killeth an ox isasif he slew a man; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog’s neck; he that offereth an oblation, as ifhe offered swine’s blood; he that burneth incense as if he blessed an idol. Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations.” Which, we already saw what they were. “I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spake, they did not hear: but they did evil before Mine eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not” (vs. 3-4).

Now again let’s come back to the first chapter of Isaiah. It’s kind of like Jesus said, “I am the beginning and the end.” So here, we can tie the beginning of Isaiah together with the end of Isaiah. And here, right in the beginning He gives the solution. And here is what it needs to be. Now let’s come here to verse 16. “Wash you,…” Yes. Through the proper baptism, and the cleansing of the washing of the water by the word. “…Make you clean [by doing the things that are right]; put away the evil of your doings from before Mine eyes; cease to do evil;…” And Sunday-keeping and the pagan holidays are all evil, as we have seen how many times? Yes. “…Learn to do well;…” That is, the proper worship of God, the proper Sabbath-keeping, the proper keeping of the commandments of God, as magnified by Jesus Christ.

“…Seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD:…” God will listen. God will hear when there is repentance. “…Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:…” Now in the New Covenant, if you be willing and obedient you will inherit eternal life. But, verse 20, “…if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it” (vs. 16-20). Now that’s quite a thing. We need to understand just exactly what that is. Now let’s come to the New Testament. Let’s come to 1 John 2, and let’s see what the apostle John wrote. Now again, I know that we have covered this in the past, but that’s been quite a few back from the beginning of this.

1 John 2, and here is how we need to model our life, right here. And we need to do so by loving God, as Christ said, with all your heart, and all your mind, and all your soul, and all your strength. God doesn’t want some part-time Sunday-worship. God wants your whole being. God does not want you going out and adding the pagan abominations to His way. He wants you to reject it because it’s part and parcel of the world and Satan the devil. It’s not of God. Now notice verse 3. “And hereby we do know that we know Him,…” Do you really know that you know Christ? Even though on Sunday a lot of ministers and people say, “Know the Lord! Know the Lord!” But they don’t know Him because they are Sunday-keepers. They may know of Him from reading some scriptures, but they don’t know Him because they are not fellowshipping with Him on the Sabbath. They are not keeping His laws and His commandments.

Now notice. Here is the “if”: “…hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.” Now you think on that. And as Christ said, let this sink deep into your ears. Or as we just learned in the Old Testament, to “Obey My voice.” Now notice verse 4. Are you this person? Does this apply to you? It surely does to all of those who profess Sunday. It surely does to those who teach Sunday, who teach commandment-breaking. How can you teach commandment-breaking in the name of Christ, when He came to forgive sins, which is commandment-breaking? It’s an impossibility. It’s an oxymoron.

Verse 4, “He that saith [and that means anyone who says], I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar,…” Are you a liar? Do you believe a lie? Do you reject the truth of God? And it says, “…the truth is not in him.” Are you the same as the children of Israel and the children of Judah in the Old Covenant, that you reject God’s ways? Now notice verse 5: “But whoso keepeth His word…” And Jesus said, “The Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath day.” Do you keep His Word concerning the Sabbath? Do you keep His Word concerning the first commandment, and the second commandment, and the third commandment, as well as the fourth commandment, and the fifth, and sixth, and seventh, and eighth, and ninth, and tenth? And do you keep the commandments as magnified by Jesus Christ in Matthew 5, 6, and 7? Do you? “…His word, in him verily is the love of God perfected:…” (vs. 4-5). So you see here very clearly, that there can be no such thing as the love of God while you are breaking the commandments of God. That is also an oxymoron. That is a contradiction. And if you do not keep the commandments of God and love Him and let God’s love be perfected in you through His Spirit and through His truth and through His Word, then you are rejecting Christ. If you keep Sunday in the name of Christ, you are in fact rejecting Christ. Do you understand that? That’s what it’s saying here.

And “…hereby we know that we [abide] are in Him.” Do you abide or dwell in Christ? “He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked” (vs. 5-6). Question: Did Jesus ever sin? Answer: no. Did He ever break the Sabbath? Answer: no. Did He always do the things that pleased God? Yes. Is that how you are walking? Is that the standard and goal that you are seeking for? Is that the purpose in your life, or do you want to go around in your own self-deception and claim the name of God, while you continue in your sins and do the same as the ancient Israelites and the Jews, to say, “We are delivered to do these things,” when you have not been?

Now come over here to verse 15. Because you see, if you do those things, that is the way of the world. And if you love those things then the love of God is not in you. Notice verse 15, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world…” And is not Sunday a thing that is in the world, the command of men? Yes it is. And don’t the Catholics arrogantly taunt the Protestants that they ought to know better, because, “if you’re keeping Sunday, you’re following the Pope; because the Pope did these things by his own decree.” And the decree, as we saw last time, of Constantine. So if you follow Sunday, you’re rejecting God. You’re following the way of the world and the pagan emperor of Rome and you are not following God. You are loving the world and the things that are in the world.

“…If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world” (vs. 15-16). And that is a perfect description of Sunday and all of the pagan holidays…that it is all based upon lust. You stop and think about the so-called thing concerning Christmas, which is really honoring the sun god Mithras, and everything about Christ being born on that day is a lie. And as I have said how many times, you cannot worship the God of truth with a lie. You lie to your children that there is a Santa Claus. You get them all involved in lust and coveting after things, and “Give me this,” and “Give me that,” and “Give me the other thing.” You teach them to have idolatry by having a Christmas tree in your house. And all of that stems from Sunday-keeping. You teach them to look to someone else besides you, as the parents, to receive gifts and good things. No, that’s all of the world. That is not of God.

Now what happens when…let’s come to 2 Peter 2 here for just a minute. And let’s see that these things come in because the way of truth is evil spoken of, or blasphemed, as it is in the Greek. And that’s what all of the Protestant ministers and teaching have to do blaspheming God. That’s what the Catholic doctrine is, is blasphemy against God and His way. 2 Peter 2:1, “But there were false prophets also among the people…” We just read about that, didn’t we? All the false prophets saying, “It’s ok to do these things. We are delivered to do it. Bring Baal right here in the house of God. He won’t mind. We’re ecumenicist. That will be just good. We’re all going to heaven. Bring in Moloch. Bring in the abomination of the Zidonians. Let’s set it right up here in the house of God, and we’ll have a good ecumenical service together. God has delivered us to do this.” That’s what they said.

“…Even as there shall be false teachers among you…” So it comes right into the Church of God. How many things have we seen concerning the Sabbath, the Passover, the holy days, clean and unclean meats, and all of those things, by false teachers coming in? “…Who privily shall bring in damnable heresies [that is, they will stealthily do it; they have an agenda; they have something they’re going to do themselves], even denying the Lord that bought them, and [shall] bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of” (2 Peter 2:1-2). Isn’t that what they do concerning the Sabbath? Is not the Sabbath the truth of God? Is not the Sabbath the day of worship for God? Yes. Do they not speak evil of the Sabbath? Do they not say that if you keep the Sabbath you are Judaizing? Well, most people do not even know what Judaizing is. Judaizing has nothing to do with commandment-keeping, but it has to do with keeping the traditions of the Jews, which Christ has rejected. So they speak evil. Do you accept them speaking evil of it? Do you think that you’re delivered to do those things?

Now notice. “And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you:…” This sounds like Pat Robertson’s program: “Get money. We’ve got a goal of $150,000 in the next hour. Roll the drums! Play the tympani! Send in the money!” That’s all part of the world. You’re being merchandised. “…Whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not” (vs. 3). He says, “I want you to pay attention. I want you to realize and understand something profound, that you as human beings need to really grasp concerning God.”

“For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell,…” That is, tartaroo - place of restraint; the abyss, and as we talked about there in Revelation 9 and Revelation 20. “…And delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;…” (vs. 4). Now are you under chains of darkness because of sin? Here - hold your place here, and let’s come to Matthew 6. Jesus Christ describes this. The true light of the world is Jesus Christ, is it not? And is not the Word of God a lamp to our feet to show us which way to go? Now let’s see what Jesus says here. He says verse 22, “The light of the body is the eye:…” There is something profound about the eyes. “…If therefore thine eye be single [that is, single-minded in purpose toward the kingdom of God and Christ, and loving and serving God], thy whole body shall be full of light.” And Jesus said, “I am the light of the world.”

“But if thine eye be evil…” By going against the commandments of God, by rejecting the truth of God; by rejecting the Sabbath of God; by rejecting the commandment, “You shall have no other gods before Me; You shall not making any graven image of any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or in the earth beneath, and bow down to it,” your body shall be full of darkness. “If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness [which comes from Satan the devil], how great is that darkness!” Verse 24, “No man can serve two masters:…” You can’t serve God and you can’t serve Baal. You can’t take the name of Christ and the Lord God and put it upon - superimpose it - over Baal and say, “This is God.” “…For either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Matt. 6:22-24). Meaning, you cannot serve God and your own way. You cannot serve God and have your own religion. You cannot serve God and make up your own commandments. It will never be.

Now let’s come back here to 2 Peter 2. So pay attention. If God didn’t spare the angels, Peter is saying, watch out; because God is not going to spare you. Now notice verse 5, “…And spared not the old world,…” You go back and read what happened there. Let’s do that. Let’s just go back and read what happened. Let’s go to Genesis 6. Let’s see. We’re coming to this again. As Jesus said, “As it was in the days of Noah, so shall also be in the days of the coming of the Son of man” (Matthew 24:37, paraphrased). What was it? How bad was it? How bad is our society getting? And it all stems from rejecting God’s way and superimposing all of the abominations of the religions of this world upon God. And God will not endure it. He will be kind. He will be merciful. He will be sparing. But the day is coming when He is going to pull it up short, just like He did in the days of Noah.

Now notice verse 5. “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth,…” Is that not where we’re coming today? And are we not going to do it in a much more accelerated way? Are we not living in an age of knowledge, where we have instantaneous communication, instantaneous knowledge? To where these things, people can just a grow in sin and knowledge of this world. All you have to do is get on the Internet and click through it. Yes, there is some truth there. Yes, there are some people trying to do good. But you look at all the evil that’s going on there too. “…And that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” They were in a total, occult, Satanist society, with the exception of Noah and his family. And we are fast coming to the same point of an occult, Satanist society. Notice what happened. “And it repented the LORD that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart” (Gen. 6:5-6).

Do you grieve God because of your way? Do you grieve God because of your sins? Do you grieve God because you take the name of Jesus Christ and attach it to your Sunday, and all of your pagan holidays? “And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth Me that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD” (vs. 7-8). Now if you repent, you will find grace in the eyes of the Lord. Yes you will. Now let’s come back here to 2 Peter 2. He wants us to understand that the flood was a great judgment because of sin. And if God did that - and this is New Testament doctrine - just think what He’s going to do because of all the filthy abominations that are done in the name of God today.

“…And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;…” Now if you don’t keep the commandments of God, you are ungodly. And as one man wrote, which is very profound, he said, “Though your morals be impeccable, if you do not worship the true God you are an atheist.” And if you’re an atheist then you are ungodly. “And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; and delivered just [now, that means righteous] Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation [conduct] of the wicked: (for that righteous man dwelling among them, and seeing and hearing [the things that they were doing] vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;) the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:…” (vs. 5-9).

So God can deliver you. Or are you going to go on, like the rest of those who reject God, who turn their back on Christ? Who go against the way of God, and follow all the rest? Here - you read the rest of 2 Peter 2. Let’s come over here, down here to verse 13. “And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you;…” And we have seen that happen, even within churches of God. Men come in and do this very thing: “…Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children: which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;…” (vs. 13-15). And Balaam was the high priest of Pethor, right there on the Euphrates River. And that’s just like saying the Pope in St. Peter’s Basilica. Because Pethor means “Peter.” Followed that way.

“But [he] was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with a man’s voice forbade the madness of the prophet. These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever. For when…” And this is exactly what happens every single Sunday when they come up discussing the Sabbath-Sunday question. “For when they speak great swelling words of vanity,…” All you have to do is turn on any religious channel, watch these great and famous preachers. “…Great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lust of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. While they promise them liberty,…” Saying, “You have been delivered to do these things.” That now, “Sunday is the Christian Sabbath day.” “…They themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage” (vs. 16-19).

Are you in the bondage of Sunday and the pagan holidays? Have you been overcome by it? Have you turned your back on the Sabbath? Were you once a Sabbath-keeper and are now a Sunday-keeper? Were you once keeping the holy days of God, and now you are keeping the feast days of Balaam? Have you been brought into bondage for that? “For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the letter end is worse with them than the beginning.” Is that where you are? Do you love God’s Sabbath? Do you love God’s Word? Do you love God’s holy days? Or do you believe the lie that Satan has perpetrated on all of Protestantism and all of Catholicism, and yea, the whole world? It says here, “For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them” (vs. 20-21). There is still time. There is still a way of repentance that God gives. You can come out of it. You can begin to come back to God, as we saw there in Isaiah 1. Revelation 3, “Repent and be zealous, therefore.”

“But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is [re]turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire” (vs. 22). So if you have left the Sabbath and gone back into Sunday-keeping, you are right back in the cesspool of the world’s religions and all the satanic lies that come with it. Now if you are in Sunday-keeping and pagan holiday keeping, come out of it. Repent. God says repent.

Let’s come here to Revelation 18, where God pleads with His people, where God cries out to His people. Let’s pick it up here in verse 2. “And he cried [that is, the angel] mightily [coming down out of heaven] with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen,…” Listen - this whole world’s system and religion is going to fall. “…And is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication [of great Babylon, which is all the pagan religions of this world], and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. And I heard another voice from heaven saying, Come out of her, My people,…” (Rev. 18:2-4).

Will you come out of Babylon the Great? Will you forsake Sunday-keeping and pagan holiday keeping? Will you return to God in truth and repentance, to love Him, to keep His commandments, and to serve Him with all your heart, and mind, and being? Will you? If you don’t, He says, if you do then you will not be partakers of her sins; that you receive not of her plagues. But if you don’t, you’re going to be partaker of her sins and receiver of the plagues. So this thing of Sabbath-keeping versus Sunday–keeping is a very important and profound thing. So next time I’m going to go through every place where it talks about the first day of the week. And we will examine it very carefully to see what really took place. Were there indeed worship services going on, and was this indeed a sanctification of Sunday instead of the Sabbath?