Participants: Pr. Doug Batchelor
Series Code: AFP
Program Code: AFP000178A
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01:00 male announcer: This presentation is brought to you 01:02 by the friends of the Amazing Facts Ministry. 01:07 [music] 01:11 Doug Batchelor: The devil is a counterfeiter. 01:14 And he has a counterfeit for every truth of God. 01:17 He's got a counterfeit baptism, counterfeit speaking in tongues, 01:21 counterfeit love, and it shouldn't surprise us 01:24 that he's got a counterfeit day of rest. 01:29 announcer: For over 40 years, Amazing Facts has been 01:31 dedicated to sharing God's Word through media. 01:35 This program features highlights from some 01:37 of our best television broadcasts. 01:40 We invite you to sit back and enjoy this edition 01:43 of "Amazing Facts Presents." 01:47 [music] 01:51 Doug: Any of you ever encountered a con artist before? 01:54 There have been some very creative 01:56 con artists through history. 01:58 One of them who wasn't quite as dangerous is Fred Demara. 02:02 They actually made a movie about him with Tony Curtis 02:04 called "The Great Pretender." 02:06 Fred had a photographic memory, 02:09 a very high IQ ranked way above genius. 02:12 He had a literal photographic memory, and he could read 02:15 manuals on any topic, and pretend to be that person 02:18 with some expertise. 02:20 He never went by Fred Demara, he went by just dozens of names. 02:24 He was Martin Goddard, a high school teacher, 02:27 even though he'd never trained for that. 02:29 He talked his way into being Dr. Robert French, a college dean. 02:34 He talked his way into being Dr. Cecil B. Hannon, 02:37 a law student. 02:39 Brother John, a Benedictine monk, lived in a--he was a 02:42 hospital chaplain, an assistant prison warden, a Hollywood 02:46 actor, and a surgeon aboard a Canadian Navy destroyer 02:50 with no medical training, 02:52 and he was performing surgeries successfully. 02:59 And then you've got Arthur Furguson. 03:03 He was a smooth operator, a Scottish fellow dressed 03:07 impeccably, had perfect diction, looked very sophisticated. 03:12 And he succeeded in one year, he sold Nelson's pillar in 03:18 Trafalgar Square to some American tourists. 03:20 He began to think Americans were gullible because he also 03:23 sold Big Ben for $5,000. 03:26 He accepted $10,000 down payment for Buckingham Palace. 03:31 When he came to the USA, which he figured would be a lot 03:34 easier, he did sell the White House to a cattle rancher, 03:38 gave him a 99-year lease for $100,000. 03:43 He was arrested when he tried to sell the Statue of Liberty 03:45 to an Australian. 03:48 True story. 03:50 Then you've got Victor Lustig, Eastern European, very bright, 03:54 spoke like five or six languages. 03:57 He sold the Eiffel Tower two different times 04:04 without being caught. 04:06 Came to America, told everybody that he was a count, 04:09 and he had an accent, he was very dignified, 04:11 and swindled so many people. 04:13 Eventually, he decided rather than conning people, it'd be 04:16 easier to just print his own money, and he was finally 04:18 arrested for one of the most massive counterfeiting 04:21 operations, and he died in prison. 04:24 That's Victor Lustig. 04:27 The big swindler is the devil. 04:31 The devil is a counterfeiter. 04:33 And he has a counterfeit for every truth of God. 04:37 The devil has a counterfeit salvation, got a counterfeit 04:40 Holy Spirit, he's got a counterfeit baptism, counterfeit 04:44 speaking in tongues, counterfeit love, and it shouldn't surprise 04:47 us that he's got a counterfeit day of rest. 04:51 Now, if you look in the Bible, this is a prophecy seminar, 04:54 but you read Revelation chapter 1, verse 10. 04:57 John says, "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day, and I heard 05:02 behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet." 05:06 What is this Lord's Day? 05:08 Someone said, "Well, it's because the vision of 05:11 Revelation, he saw the Lord's coming, and so he called it 05:14 the Lord's Day." 05:16 Others have said, "Well, that was Sunday. 05:17 He had that vision on Sunday, that's the Lord's Day." 05:20 Others have said, "Well, he was working in the mines, he was a 05:23 prisoner on Patmos, but he refused to work on Sabbath, 05:26 and God gave him the vision of Revelation on the Sabbath day." 05:31 So, what does the Bible say? 05:32 And that's our first question. 05:34 What day biblically is the Lord's Day? 05:38 How about we let the Bible describe itself, 05:40 give our answers, amen? 05:42 So, let's look and find out. 05:44 You look in Luke chapter 6, verse 5, and Jesus said, 05:48 and we've read this several times already, he said, 05:50 "The Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath." 05:56 So, what is the Lord's Day? 05:58 Jesus said the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. 06:00 Look again in Isaiah 58, did you catch something 06:03 we read the other night? 06:05 "If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing 06:07 your pleasure on the Jewish holy day." 06:10 Is that what he says? 06:12 He says, "On my holy day," so what is the Lord's Day? 06:15 God tells us. 06:17 And right there in the command in Exodus 20, "Six days you 06:20 shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day 06:22 is the Sabbath," of a denomination, or of the Lord? 06:29 There is nothing in the Bible that tells us any other day 06:34 than the Sabbath day is the day that the Lord 06:36 would designate as his day. 06:38 He rested, he blessed it, he set it aside. 06:41 He made a whole day not where he created anything, but a day, 06:45 a day of relationship, love, and worship. 06:48 Next question. 06:50 If the Sabbath is the Lord's Day, why do so many 06:53 people observe Sunday? 06:55 People want to know what the Bible really teaches. 06:58 "He said to them, 'All too well you reject the commandment 07:01 of God, that you may keep your tradition.'" There's a lot of 07:06 traditions that have substituted for biblical truth. 07:10 Furthermore, Ezekiel 22, they had this problem with neglecting 07:14 the Sabbath even in the Old Testament. 07:16 Ezekiel said, "Her priests have violated my laws, 07:19 and have profaned my holy things." 07:22 Profaning something means you take something sacred 07:24 and you treat it as common. 07:26 And it goes on to say, "They put no difference between 07:28 the holy and the profane. 07:31 They have hid their eyes from my Sabbaths, 07:34 and I am profaned among them." 07:35 This is God's people he was talking to. 07:38 Now, before I go any farther, I want to explain to you the word 07:43 "Sabbath" is mentioned 60 times in the New Testament. 07:48 I think no one questions, I don't know, hundreds of times 07:50 it may be mentioned in the Old Testament, 07:52 but it's 60 times in the New Testament. 07:54 Never is it said that it is done away with 07:57 or it has been changed. 07:59 There were a number of disputes about how to keep it, 08:02 but never whether or not you should keep it. 08:05 The first day of the week that we commonly call Sunday, 08:07 you realize the days of the week in the Bible, 08:11 they don't call them Wednesday and Monday. 08:13 We get--our calendar names and our weekly names 08:17 we get from the Romans. 08:19 They worshiped the sun on the first day of the week, moon day, 08:22 Monday, Thor's day, Thursday, Odin's day, Wednesday, 08:29 and so none of these names are in the Bible. 08:31 First day of the week was called first day, second day, third 08:34 day, fourth day, fifth day, preparation day, Sabbath day. 08:37 So, you're never going to find the word "Wednesday" 08:39 in the Bible. 08:40 If you do, you have a strange Bible. 08:43 So, let's find out if there's any place in the Bible where God 08:49 has changed the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day. 08:52 If we look at every text that speaks of the first day 08:55 of the week in the Bible, we should find out if it's there. 08:58 That sounds fair? At least in the New Testament. 09:01 So, that's what we're going to do. 09:03 Do any of the first five resurrection texts say 09:07 that Sunday is a new holy day? 09:09 Let's look at them. 09:11 Matthew 28:1, "In the end of the Sabbath, as it began 09:14 to dawn towards the first day of the week." 09:16 Well, one thing this verse tells us is the Sabbath 09:18 was still the Sabbath. 09:20 And it actually tells us the Sabbath was just before 09:22 the first day. 09:26 "Now when Jesus was risen early," and this is Mark 16:9, 09:29 "on the first day of the week, he appeared first 09:31 to Mary Magdalene." 09:34 Now, by the way, did that past verse, did it say anything 09:37 about it being a new Sabbath day? 09:41 "The first day of the week comes Mary Magdalene early 09:43 while it was yet still dark." 09:45 That's John 20, verse 1. 09:48 And it goes on to say in Mark 16, this is another verse, "Now 09:54 when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother 09:57 of James, and Salome, bought spices that they might 10:01 come anoint him." 10:02 Why were they coming to anoint him Sunday morning? 10:05 Because the sun was going down Friday afternoon when he died. 10:08 They were afraid they would not complete a rather intensive job, 10:12 and they wanted to do it before the Sabbath. 10:14 You could biblically still anoint a person within 3 days 10:17 of their death before they began to decompose. 10:20 And they said, "Let's wait, we'll come back early Sunday 10:23 and do it then because Jesus wouldn't want us doing 10:25 this on the Sabbath." 10:27 Sabbath was that important to the disciples. 10:29 Now, it states, of course, they came, the tomb was empty, 10:32 praise the Lord, but here's a question. 10:35 Did that make it a new Sabbath day? 10:38 How important was it that Jesus died for us on Friday? 10:42 Very important. 10:44 And when he had the Lord's Supper, the communion service 10:47 on Thursday, do we all agree that that was important? 10:50 He establishes a new covenant. 10:53 Did it make it a new Sabbath? 10:55 Did it do away with the old Sabbath because something 10:57 important in the gospel happened on a certain day of the week? 11:01 And so, trying to use that as an argument, 11:03 the Bible doesn't use it. I don't think it's fair. 11:07 >>The Bible tells us that God is love. 11:10 The essence of the great commandments are to love the 11:12 Lord and to love your neighbor. But real love requires time. 11:17 That's why, after God made the world in six days, he made one 11:20 more day for a special love relationship between God the 11:25 Creator and His creatures - it's called the Sabbath day. 11:29 Many people misunderstand whether it's still applicable 11:32 today for Christians or which day the Sabbath is. 11:35 Would you like to better understand what is meant by 11:37 Jesus wanting to give us that rest? 11:41 He says, 'Come unto Me and I'll give you rest.' We have a 11:44 special study guide and it's called The Lost Day of History . 11:48 In this lesson we explain how you can enjoy that rest that 11:51 Jesus promises to those that come unto Him who are weary and 11:55 heavy laden. You can obtain your free copy by 11:58 going to the web address on your screen - amazingfacts.org - or 12:03 call the phone number there and, when you do, ask for offer #113. 12:08 I can promise you, you'll never be the same and you will be 12:10 encouraged and comforted by this study. 12:13 And that's why we do what we do here at Amazing Facts, 12:16 because God's message is our mission. 12:19 If Sunday's not there to honor the resurrection, 12:22 what does the Lord have? 12:24 How do Christians remember Jesus' death, 12:26 burial, and resurrection? 12:29 Romans 6, verse 3, "Or do you not know that as many of us 12:33 as have been baptized into Christ Jesus 12:36 were baptized into his death?" 12:39 And it goes on to say, "Therefore we are buried with 12:42 him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised 12:47 from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should 12:50 walk in a newness of life." 12:53 So, did God establish something to memorialize his death, 12:57 burial, and resurrection? 12:59 Yes, but it wasn't a new Sabbath because there was nothing 13:04 wrong with the old Sabbath. 13:06 Think about it, did God establish the Sabbath 13:09 before or after sin? 13:11 Before sin. 13:13 So, was it part of his perfect plan? 13:15 Yes. Why would he change it? 13:17 He says, "I am the Lord, I don't change." 13:20 There is nothing wrong with it. 13:22 And then you have a similar verse in Colossians 2:12, 13:23 "Buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised 13:27 with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him 13:31 from the dead." 13:32 Baptism again is connected with the resurrection. 13:36 So, every time a person is baptized, it's like 13:38 they have been raised from the dead. 13:40 He didn't create a new Sabbath day to memorialize that. 13:44 Luke 24, verse 1, and this is the fifth of the first 8 verses 13:50 where the first day is mentioned. 13:52 "Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, 13:54 they came upon the sepulcher." 13:57 That's a tomb. 13:58 It's just stating a historical fact. 14:00 Now, we just went through them. 14:01 All those verses that mention the first day are simply 14:03 giving the record that the Sabbath was over. 14:06 They came back, why does it mention the first day? 14:08 Because now they can resume their work. 14:11 Jesus even kept the Sabbath in his death. 14:15 He went to sleep Friday afternoon, he woke up Sunday 14:18 morning to continue his work as our high priest, 14:21 mediator, intercessor before the Father. 14:23 Amen? 14:25 Now, we're going to jump to the sixth text. 14:28 And it talks about what I think is a regular meeting. 14:30 You'll find this in John 20, verse 19. 14:33 Then it says that same day, the day of the resurrection, "Being 14:36 the first day of the week, when the doors were shut, the 14:39 disciples were assembled," to celebrate and inaugurate 14:43 the new holy day of the Christian era. 14:46 No, they got together for fear of the Jews. 14:48 They are trembling. 14:50 They've just killed Jesus. 14:51 They tried to arrest Mark, who was following Christ, 14:54 and he fled naked. 14:56 And now the body has disappeared, in spite 14:58 of the fact Roman soldiers were there guarding it, 15:01 put there by Pilate. 15:02 They're going to be blamed. 15:04 The religious leaders had paid the guard to say 15:07 the disciples stole the body. 15:09 They're terrified. 15:12 And so, Jesus--they're not gathered to celebrate 15:14 a new Sabbath. 15:15 It's telling you that they were trembling, and then Jesus shows 15:18 up, made them jump 3 feet off the ground. 15:21 Does the seventh passage say that Sunday is holy? 15:25 Let's take a look at it. 15:26 Now, I'm going to read this one with you. 15:28 And you read in 1 Corinthians chapter 16, "On the first day of 15:32 the week let each one of you lay something aside, storing up 15:37 that he may prosper--as he may prosper, that there be 15:40 no collections when I come." 15:44 Now, why is Paul telling them on the first--some will argue 15:48 that's because this was the new Christian Sabbath, 15:51 and they're taking an offering. 15:54 Anything says you can only give an offering on Sabbath? 15:58 Paul was actually telling them--when he says lay by you 16:01 in store, what does it mean, "lay by you"? 16:04 Does that mean a church or at home? 16:07 He's coming through, making haste on his way to Jerusalem to 16:11 bring a special offering to the Jews because there's a 16:13 famine there, in the Christian Jews, and he's saying, 16:16 "Set something aside at home. 16:19 After you get your accounts in order, you've done your giving 16:21 on Sabbath, at home on the first of the week, when you get your 16:24 books in order, put something else aside not for your local 16:27 church needs, but that I can take an emergency 16:30 relief offering to the people struggling from 16:33 the famine in Jerusalem." 16:34 It had nothing to do with there was a church meeting and they 16:37 took an offering, or that this is a new Sabbath day. 16:40 This is not the substitute for the Ten Commandments. 16:43 Does the eighth and final New Testament text command us 16:48 to observe Sunday as a holy day? 16:50 This is the last one, go to Acts chapter 20, verse 7. 16:54 And it says, "Now the first day of the week, when the disciples 16:57 came together to break bread." 16:59 And people go, "Ah, there you have it, they came together 17:01 on the first of the week to break bread. 17:03 That's because they were having a communion service, 17:06 and this is the new Sabbath, and this indicates this 17:08 is when they would normally meet." 17:12 I'm going to read this to you right from the Bible. 17:14 Look in Acts chapter 2, verse 46. 17:17 It says when the Holy Spirit was poured out, they continued, 17:21 "Daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread 17:24 from house to house, they ate their meat with gladness." 17:29 What does breaking bread mean? 17:30 Does it always mean a communion service biblically, 17:33 breaking bread from house to house? 17:35 When Jesus on the road to Emmaus, he ate 17:36 with two disciples, it wasn't a communion service. 17:38 They asked him to bless the bread. 17:40 They were eating. You ever use the expression, 17:43 "Let's get together and break bread"? 17:45 Does it mean have a communion service? 17:46 Not all the time. 17:48 It would mean, "Let's eat." 17:49 And so, to say in Acts chapter 20 that this was evidence that 17:53 it was a religious meeting on Sunday, it doesn't hold water, 17:56 friends, not if you're going to, in my opinion, be biblically 17:59 honest about what the text is saying. 18:02 It's telling you there was a resurrection, Paul's leaving, 18:05 he's beginning a journey, they'd finished the Sabbath together, 18:08 and it's a wonderful miracle. 18:11 Do you see what I'm saying? 18:12 So, we've just looked at all the texts in the New Testament 18:15 that talk about the first day of the week. 18:17 Do any of them say that God has now changed the holiness 18:22 and the reverence of the seventh day to the first day? 18:26 They're not saying that. 18:27 And so, we've got to be very careful 18:29 about building that argument. 18:31 Well, if Sunday keeping isn't in the Bible, here's where 18:33 we all bring it together, where did it come from? 18:38 Matthew 15, verse 9, Jesus said, "And in vain they worship me, 18:42 teaching as doctrines the commandments of men." 18:45 They're manmade commandments that sort of became 18:48 doctrines that they teach. 18:50 You can look in the Encyclopedia Britannica, you can look 18:52 in a lot of history books, it is pretty clear. 18:55 "The earliest recognition of the observance of Sunday, 18:57 it's a constitution of Constantine." 19:01 He established it in 321 AD. 19:04 They called it the edict of Milan. 19:06 It wasn't the Son-day, Son of God, S-O-N, 19:09 it was the Sunday, S-U-N. 19:12 And here's where you find an excerpt of that law, 19:15 "Enacting that courts of justice, and inhabitants of 19:18 towns, and workshops were to rest on Sunday." 19:22 Notice the spelling. 19:25 And again, you can read here from the Codex Justinianus. 19:29 And it says, "On the venerable day of the sun, let the 19:31 magistrates and the people residing in the cities rest, 19:34 and let all of the workshops be closed." 19:38 And all these pagans came into the church, and they said, 19:40 "Well, we want to keep our idols," and the church 19:42 leaders said, "Well, you'd better rename them. 19:45 Better take, you know, Jupiter, Mercury, and Apollos, 19:47 and call them Peter, James and John." 19:50 And they had statues of Diana, they said, "Call her Mary." 19:54 And all of a sudden, the church that used to be settled 19:57 in Jerusalem, the capital now came to Rome, 20:00 went through a dramatic change. 20:02 One of those changes, the Jews were very unpopular 20:05 during that time. 20:07 Anything connected with Judaism they wanted to get away from. 20:10 So, to distance themselves--for a while, 20:12 Christians kept both days. 20:14 But since the Sabbath day, the church leaders 20:17 would say it's a day of fasting. 20:19 Well, the Bible doesn't say that. 20:20 But the Sunday was a day of feasting. 20:22 Which would you prefer, a day of fasting or a day of feasting? 20:26 Gradually, over time, people started to abolish the 20:29 seventh-day biblical Sabbath in preference for the more popular 20:33 celebration of the Sunday. 20:37 And that's how it made its way into the church. 20:40 It wasn't because of a command of God. 20:42 It was because of a compromise. 20:45 Again, Arthur Weigall in his book "Paganism in Christianity," 20:48 "The church made a sacred day of Sunday, largely because it was a 20:52 festival, and it was a weekly festival of the sun, and for it 20:58 was the definite Christian policy to take over the pagan 21:01 festivals to endear themselves to the people by tradition, 21:06 and to give them Christian significance." 21:09 They just began to say, "Well, let's just attach 21:10 a Christian name to it, and bring it all in." 21:13 "The church after changing the day of rest from the Jewish 21:16 Sabbath or the seventh day of the week to the first, and made 21:19 the third commandment refer to Sunday as the day to be kept 21:22 as the Lord's day." 21:24 Matter of fact, I've got a copy here of the Ten Commandments. 21:26 I stopped at a local Catholic church, and I snapped a picture. 21:30 You probably can't see it blown up, but they've reorganized 21:33 the Ten Commandments. 21:35 How do you get the Sabbath to go from the fourth 21:37 to the third commandment? 21:39 You eliminate the second commandment about idolatry. 21:42 And that's what happened here. 21:44 You'll notice the commandment about idolatry is missing. 21:46 Well, how do you keep the number ten? 21:48 Split the tenth commandment about covetousness and say 21:50 don't covet your neighbor's wife, that's one. 21:52 Don't covet your neighbor's house, that's the other one. 21:54 And so, they changed the times and laws. 21:58 Baptist manual written by Dr. Edward T. Hitchcock. 22:02 "There is no scriptural evidence of the change of the Sabbath 22:05 institution from the seventh to the first day of the week." 22:10 If you read from Alexander Campbell, Church of Christ, 22:13 "I do not believe that the Lord's day was changed 22:17 from the seventh to the first day." 22:19 Catholic, this is James Cardinal Gibbons, "You may read the Bible 22:23 from Genesis to Revelation, and you'll not find a single line," 22:28 that's why I opened it up to you, "authorizing 22:31 the sanctification of Sunday. 22:34 The Catholic Church for over one thousand years before the 22:36 existence of a Protestant, by virtue of her divine mission, 22:40 changed the day from Saturday to Sunday." 22:44 It was done through edicts of the church, 22:46 not through the commandments of Christ. 22:48 It is a manmade tradition that started as a practice 22:53 that was popular, and they finally made it official. 22:56 Episcopal, "Is there any command in the New Testament to 23:01 change the day of the weekly rest from Saturday to Sunday? 23:05 None!" 23:07 This is not written by my church. 23:09 This is an Episcopal manual of Christian doctrine. 23:11 Methodist Harris Franklin Rall wrote, 23:13 "Take the matter of Sunday. 23:15 There is no passage telling Christians 23:17 to keep the day holy." 23:20 You can look at the Augsburg Confession, Lutheran. 23:24 "The observance of the Lord's Day, Sunday, is not founded 23:27 on any command of God." 23:30 Presbyterian, "The Christian Sabbath, Sunday, 23:33 is not in the Scriptures." 23:36 This is widely known. 23:38 This is why it's just amazing to me--and I remember I got to be 23:41 gentle with you because I remember when I first heard 23:43 this, I thought, "I feel like I've been fooled." 23:46 And you know, some people, all their life they've believed 23:50 a certain thing, and you hear something different, 23:52 and it shakes, it rocks your foundation. 23:55 And so, I want to--I want to pray for you because some of you 23:58 are hearing this for the first time, and you're thinking, 24:00 "What would this mean if I step out in faith 24:01 and do something about this? 24:03 I didn't know this before, but now I know it. 24:06 Now what do I do?" 24:09 You know, I heard years ago about a man that, in England, 24:12 this is like a couple of hundred years ago, he had a yardage shop 24:15 where they sold fabric. 24:17 And in his shop, he had a table where he would unfold 24:19 the fabric, and he'd measure it, and then he'd cut it, 24:22 and sell it to the customers. 24:24 And after--and he inherited this shop from his father 24:26 and his grandfather. 24:28 One day, a customer came back in and said, "You know, 24:29 I was very precise in how much I ordered. 24:32 I got back to make my pillows and curtains, 24:34 and I realized that you actually sold me short." 24:39 Well, this man who owned the yardage shop was 24:41 an honest Christian, a very honest man. 24:43 He'd never been accused of that. 24:44 He said, "Well, let's check it." 24:45 And he took the fabric, he laid it out, and it was--he said, 24:48 "Look, it's right--it's right where it's supposed to be. 24:50 You ordered 3 yards, here they are." 24:53 And the guy said, "Let me get a national tape measure 24:56 and bring it in." 24:58 He brought and he measured it, it was 3 inches short. 25:01 And the man checked and he looked at his table, his table 25:03 was 3 inches short. 25:05 And he'd been selling people 3 inches short for years. 25:08 Now, you've got to understand, many years ago in England, 25:11 the measurements would change. 25:14 The inch was the distance on the king's thumb. 25:18 The foot was the length of the king's foot. 25:21 And as they went from one monarchy to another, sometimes 25:23 these standards--the knuckle, the knuckle, Karen's correcting 25:29 me, not the whole thumb, the knuckle, yeah. 25:32 And so--and so, all these measurements, 25:34 the span and--you know, in the Bible, it says a cubit. 25:36 That was a measurement here. 25:39 And so, these things would change from one monarchy 25:41 to the other, and he was going by an old standard. 25:44 Any of you ever gone from the metric to the standard 25:46 and messed it up? 25:50 Now, that man was an honest man. 25:51 He had no idea that, for years, 25:53 he had been selling people short. 25:55 No one had ever called him on it because 25:57 it was just a little bit. 25:58 Now, here's the question. 26:00 If he continues to use that table measurement, 26:04 is he still an honest man? 26:08 There's a lot of godly people that go to church on Sunday, 26:11 they don't know. 26:13 God winks at their ignorance. 26:15 They love the Lord, they're Spirit-filled, 26:16 they're doing wonderful things. 26:18 Karen and I today to the Billy Graham library, and just saw 26:20 tremendous ministry happening. 26:23 And so, we don't question that. 26:25 We believe we have brothers and sisters in Christ 26:27 that maybe don't know these things. 26:29 Sin is knowing to do good and not doing it. 26:33 The Bible says if we continue to sin willfully, Hebrews 10:26, 26:37 if we continue to sin willfully after we've received 26:40 the knowledge of the truth, there remains no sacrifice 26:44 for sin, but a certain fearful looking forward 26:46 to of judgment and fiery indignation. 26:49 So, sin is when you know God's will, and you say, 26:52 "I don't want to do your will. 26:54 I'd rather do my own thing. 26:55 I want to do what's convenient, I want to do what's popular." 26:58 And I know, friends, some of you are hearing this 27:00 for the first time. 27:01 And if there is a struggle going on in your heart, I want to just 27:03 plead with you, and I'm going to pray for you. 27:07 Do you want to know what the Bible says? 27:10 You find it in the Word. 27:11 Do you want to please Jesus? 27:13 If you're waiting to please your friends, your family, 27:15 your tradition, your church, you're never going 27:19 to make anyone happy. 27:21 You've got to make God first, 27:22 "Seek ye first the kingdom of God." 27:24 And just be honest. 27:25 Say, "Lord, first and foremost, I want to know, 27:28 what do you want me to do?" 27:30 female: Amazing Facts has impacted my life. 27:33 male: I just praise God for Amazing Facts. 27:35 male: Amazing Facts actually did have an impact on my life. 27:37 male: This whole process of getting to where I am today. 27:43 female: I began reading the Bible-- 27:45 female: I got baptized. 27:47 male: I realized that there had to be more to life. 27:49 female: God is really doing this. 27:51 male: The life that he's given me. 27:53 male: This message was so powerful. 27:55 announcer: Amazing Facts, more than 45 years 27:59 of proclaiming God's message around the world. 28:02 male: And then the logo pops across, 28:04 "Amazing Facts Presents." 28:06 I've listened to a lot of different ministers, but this 28:08 was the first time that he's actually saying something 28:11 where I had to grab my Bible and actually pick it up, 28:14 and, "I never heard this before. 28:17 Let me look through and find this." 28:18 Then I just couldn't get enough. 28:20 male: And so, I started doing Bible studies. 28:22 Every single one of these guys started being changed, 28:25 including myself. 28:27 female: My question was, why did that happen to me, God? 28:30 The Lord was able to reach out, and I actually saw him 28:33 as a Father. 28:35 female: I lost everything. 28:36 And that was when I realized that it was 28:38 God missing in my life. 28:40 male: I went to a prophecy seminar, which knocked me out. 28:44 This message was so powerful and so irrefutable, 28:47 and I just went, "This is real. This is--this is amazing." 28:54 [music] 29:25 announcer: This presentation was brought to you 29:27 by the friends of the Amazing Facts Ministry. |
Revised 2017-10-14