Beginners Care Package

Holy Sabbath Series

Holy Sabbath #6

Fred R. Coulter - March 3, 2000

This is Holy Sabbath, number six. And in this one we are going to go to every place in the New Testament where it says concerning the first day of the week; and we’re going to look at it, we’re going to analyze it, we’re going to understand what it’s really saying. Now let’s understand something very important: that this Bible is the Word of God. And it is the truth. And we saw how the commandments of God are truth, and His Word is truth. So now what we need to do is go ahead and review just a little bit here. Let’s go back and we’ll pick it up here in Genesis 2, and see where the Sabbath began.

Now here in Genesis 2, let’s begin in verse 1. One of the first things that God wanted us to know concerning Him is that we would be able to fellowship with Him on the Sabbath. So the first thing He did after creating Adam and Eve was to create the Sabbath. Now let’s begin in verse 1. “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day [Now, it should read, ‘sixth day’], God ended His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made” (Gen. 2:1-2). Now God, being God, doesn’t need to rest. He doesn’t get tired. So why did He do this? He did this to set us a personal example. And to also show Adam and Eve that on the seventh day they were to rest, worship God, fellowship with Him, and so forth.

Now let’s notice something special about this seventh day which God did not do on any of the other days. God never blessed the first day, the second day, the third day, the fourth day, the fifth day, or the sixth day. But let’s read here in verse 3: “And God blessed the seventh day,…” So that means there’s a particular blessing on this day. Every time the seventh day comes to mankind, wherever he is on the earth, it is a blessed day, because God has blessed it. Now notice, “…and sanctified it:…” “Sanctified” is a very important word. “Sanctified” means to be set aside for a holy use or purpose. So this day is to be used for the holy purpose of worshipping God, fellowshipping with Him, studying His Word, being with His people, fellowshipping with each other, loving each other, loving God, caring for one another, talking about God, and all of these things are all involved on this day, because it’s sanctified; therefore, that means it is holy. Or you could put it another way – to sanctify it, He made it holy by setting it aside.

“…Because [so here’s the reason] that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made.” So if God rested to set us an example, God created the day, God blessed the day, God sanctified the day, God made it for the special particular use, then we have to also understand that man cannot change that. Man can’t make something Holy because Man is not Holy. Only God is Holy. So only He can establish what things are. And that’s what He did here. He blessed the seventh day, and from creation all the way down to this time, every seventh day is a holy convocation unto God.

Now, because God has given us choice and set before us life and death, good and evil, therefore, people can choose to ignore the Sabbath. Or break the Sabbath. Or claim that God transferred everything from the seventh day to the first day. Now we’re going to see that isn’t true. But let’s just examine another couple of the verses that we have covered here. Let’s come to Exodus 20. Now, there are some people who say, “Well, God didn’t give the Sabbath until it came time for Israel.” Not so. God gave it to Adam and Eve, and carried right on down through to the time of Israel. And when God came down on Mt. Sinai and personally spoke the Ten Commandments to them, the fourth commandment is the Sabbath.

Now let’s understand something very important concerning that also: the Catholics have removed the second commandment from the ten in their shortened version of it. But even if you would get a Catholic Doway version of the Bible, and you would go read Exodus 20, it would tell you the second commandment here concerning making idols and so forth. So let’s begin in here Exodus 20, and let’s begin in verse 1.

Now let’s begin right in verse 1, Exodus 20, and we’ll come down to the fourth commandment concerning the Sabbath. These first four apply to God – man’s relationship to God. That’s very important. Then the second six apply to man’s relationship to other men. And Jesus said that the primary commandment was to love God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, with all you being, and to love your neighbor as yourself; and on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. So the love of God is what has given the commandments. The love of God is not separate from the commandments of God. 1 John 5:3 (paraphrased) says, “And this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not burdensome.” So the Sabbath was never a burden. God never gave it as a curse to the Jews. God never made it something that was inconvenient for man to do. God never gave a command that men could not do. But men don’t want to do them.

So let’s begin right here in verse 1. “And God spake all these words, saying, I am the LORD thy God [no other god – just He], which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before Me” (Ex. 20:1-3). Now that’s very important. Because first of all, God shows: one, He brought you out of Egypt. And today we are living in spiritual Egypt. Number two, He is the God Who brought us out of sin; because Egypt is sin, and sin is the transgression of the commandments of God. So it all fits together.

“You shall have no other gods before Me.” Now let’s understand something very profound, as we covered last time; how we showed that when the children of Israel were cast out of the land and exiled because of their sins, what they were doing, they were worshipping Baal and Ashtoreth, which was Sunday worship. No doubt about it. Baal was the sun god. And Sunday is dedicated to the sun, as we will see. Has nothing to do with the Sabbath. So anybody who is keeping Sunday has another god before the true God. So they’re breaking the first commandment.

Now let’s read the second commandment. “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness…” Now, they’re not even to make them. See, God is very specific. Now, in the church that you go to, do they have idols? Do they have statues? Do they have crosses, crucifixes, pictures of saints, gargoyles, steeples? Those are all images. God said don’t even make them. And yet they justify it by saying, “Well, we don’t worship these idols, but we worship what it represents.” God is never represented with an idol. Did you know that? Now here’s something very profound you need to always understand, which is this: the true God can never be worshipped with a lie. Now you think on that. The true God can never be worshiped with a lie. “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above [so that means angels], or that is in the earth beneath [any man, any animal, any beast of any kind], or that is in the water under the earth [no fish]: thou shalt not bow down thyself to them,…” (vs. 4-5). So there are two parts to this: don’t make them; number two, don’t bow yourself down to them.

“…Nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me;…” And people are going to say, “Well there’s that harsh God.” Well now, just stop and look a minute, now. What I suggest you do is this: instead of saying, “God is harsh,” say, “God is true,” and that sin is the transgression of law. And wherever people are transgressing the law, there are penalties for transgressing the laws and commandments of God. So why don’t you do this: why don’t you write down the Ten Commandments, and you began analyzing the various peoples and countries of the world, and ask the questions: which commandments do they not keep? Which commandments do they do keep? And I think you will be surprised. Those who are breaking most of the commandments are the most wretched people on the face of the earth. And that’s just the way that it is, because God is true.

Now people don’t want to take that part of the second commandment and apply it as a truth from God. But they sure love verse 6. Now let’s read verse 6, because everyone wants this. But you can’t get this unless you do what God says. Verse 6, “And shewing mercy unto thousands of them [notice] that love Me, and keep My commandments.” And that’s exactly what Jesus said. John 14:15, Jesus said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” Question is, do you love God? Do you love Christ? And if you do, should you not be keeping His commandments? Let’s turn it around the other way. All those who do not keep the commandments of God hate God, and hate the Word of God, and despise the correction that is there, despise the truth that is there. And you might also run a little experiment on that and try it too.

I remember one time we were talking about when they had the shooting over at Columbine. And at that particular time I was doing some water exercise and there were some other people in there exercising. And we were all talking about the thing that happened at the shooting at Columbine, and what a terrible thing it was. And everyone is trying to come up with an excuse as to why it happened. And I just said very plainly, “Well the reason is, is that people have forgotten God.” Just a simple little statement that could have even been written in a newspaper, and within five minutes I was alone in the pool. Why? Because people don’t want to hear the name of God. They don’t want to hear the truth. They don’t want to do things God’s way. Because God’s Word is sharper than a two-edged sword, and cuts asunder, dividing even the soul and spirit and the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart. And so there I was alone, finishing my exercise because the people... Now they were good, sincere, people as far as the world is concerned, but goodness and sincerity in the world does not equal righteousness before God. Loving God and keeping His commandments equals righteousness before God.

Now let’s come here to verse 7, commandment three. “Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain.” What is the worst way of taking the name of God in vain? Is it swearing? Cursing? What is the worst way? The worst way is for a man to stand up and say, that in the name of God you are given license to break His commandments. In the name of God you don’t have to obey anything in the Old Testament. That is taking God’s name in vain in the worst sort of way, because it is a perverted faith to lead people astray and lead them from God to Satan the devil. Now you need to stop and think about it. If truth is truth - which it is - and the Word of God is truth - which it is - then you better start thinking about, if you are keeping Sunday, what are you going to do? Are you going to continue taking the name of God in vain? Are you going to continue breaking the Sabbath every week?

Now let’s read the fourth commandment. And we will see that if you are not keeping the fourth commandment you are breaking all of the first three in addition; and if you are not keeping the fourth commandment as a society, then all of the other six commandments are also violated in great ways. Now let’s read the fourth commandment here. “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.” Now let’s see why we are to remember it. Let’s see God’s instructions. “Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:…” Why? Because God labored for six days and did all of His work, didn’t He? So you likewise are to do the same. “…But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God:…” (vs. 8-10). Now let’s notice something here very important. It didn’t say, “Now folks, I know that you need to rest one day in seven.” And I have yet to find anybody who says that, that the principle of this commandment is one day in seven. I have yet to find anyone who says that, that really keeps one day in seven. They don’t. They may go to church on Sunday, but the rest of the day they do whatever they want to do. You think about it.

God said the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. That means He owns it, He created it, He is Master, He is Boss, He is Ruler, He is Lord. “…In it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:…” Now why did God give this commandment? Why is it so important? Now notice verse 11, “…For [that means for the reason that] in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore [that is, for this reason, of the fact of creation within the six days as we find in Genesis 1] the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it” (vs. 10-11).

Now that’s so profound for us to know and to understand and to realize. So I want to go back and review this so that we have it set in our minds how important that this is to God, and how important than it needs to become to you. Now let’s come to Exodus 31, and let’s review again the chapter here in Exodus 31 about the Sabbath being a perpetual covenant. Now let’s understand something concerning covenants. Once a covenant is made it is in operation until all the conditions of the covenant have been fulfilled. Then when the man who made the covenant dies, the covenant is over. Now a lot of people claim, “Well, God gave the Sabbath to the Jews.” He didn’t give it to the Jews, He gave it to the children of Israel, who are composed of twelve tribes and the Jews are only one tribe. He gave it to the children of Israel - all of them. We just read it here in Exodus 20. Now He comes back in Exodus 31 and He makes it another covenant concerning the Sabbath which goes on into perpetuity.

Now let’s notice Exodus 31:12. “And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak thou also unto the children of Israel,...” So this is the voice of God. And as we saw last time, the reason that the children of Israel and the Jews were carried off into captivity is because they didn’t obey the voice of God. They didn’t hearken unto His voice. “…Saying, Verily [or that is, truly, or indeed], My sabbaths…” I want to emphasize that again: “My Sabbaths.” Now let’s understand something about this. It is plural – Sabbaths. Because not only is there the seventh day Sabbath that we are to keep, there are the annual holy days of God which are annual Sabbaths, and they are also to be kept. Now a lot of people get real zealous for the Sabbath, and they look up in the phone book and they look for a church that keeps the Sabbath, like the Seventh-Day Adventists or the Seventh-Day Baptists, and they immediately run down there and start going to church, not knowing that those churches do not keep the holy days; not knowing that those churches also have other false doctrines. So it’s not just a matter of the Sabbath. The Sabbath is only a start so you can be in contact with God. It’s a matter of a whole way of living. It’s a matter of your whole standing before God.

“…Verily My sabbaths ye shall keep:…” Now that is about as dogmatic as you can get. “…Verily My sabbaths ye shall keep:…” Are you keeping the Sabbaths of God? Plural - the holy days as well as the weekly Sabbath? Let’s continue. “…For it is a sign [the ‘it’ means the keeping of the Sabbaths is a sign] between Me and you throughout your generations;…” (vs. 13). Do you have the sign of God upon your heart and mind? Or do you have your own works, your own way, your own religion? You see, it’s either one or the other. And people say, “Well, I don’t have a religion.” Well the truth is, that’s their religion, that they don’t have one. And those who have a religion, have a religion and they reject the way of God. Because God’s way is a way to walk in and live in. Now if you don’t have the tapes “Why God Hates Religion,” we have five tapes on that - why does God hate religion? And that will open your eyes to understand so much profound understanding of God’s Word, and how you need to live your life, that it will really be an eye-opener for you. So if you don’t have those, write in for them, or just click down on our website and go ahead and draw those sermons down from there. They’ll be there and available.

Now let’s continue on. Now notice, here’s the reason why: “…That ye may know that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you” (vs. 13). Now do you know that it is God that sanctifies you? It is not a church, it is not a minister, it is not an organization. But if you’re going to worship God and received His Holy Spirit, He is the one Who sanctifies you. Now hold your place here in Exodus 31, and let’s go clear to the New Testament, almost all the way to the book of Revelation, and let’s come to the book of 1 John. And here is a very profound section of verses. Now we’re talking about knowing God, and we’re talking about that the reason that we keep the Sabbaths of God - plural, Sabbath and holy days; and I will bring a full sermon on the holy days here pretty soon - is so that we may know Him. Now notice what John wrote. Now I want you to understand how thoroughly the New Testament and Old Testament agree, because it’s really one book. And Christ never came, as we saw, to do away with the law and the prophets. He never came to do away with the commandments of God.

Now let’s pick it up here in 1 John 2:3. “And hereby [which means, in this way] we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.” And part of knowing God, and the most important part, is keeping the Sabbath and the holy days. Because if you keep those you will, number one, have the right God; number two, you won’t have any images; number three, you won’t be taking the name of God in vain; number four, you’ll be keeping the Sabbath; number five, you’ll be keeping the holy days. And that means that all the rest of the commandments will fall in line. Now, “…hereby we do know that we know Him.” So it’s something that we need to know that we know. It’s not just something that you’re acquainted with, or like Job, when he finally came to repentance he says that, “I have heard of You with a hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You” (Job 42:5, paraphrased). So he didn’t know that he knew God until after he went through his great trial. Then he knew that he knew God. Do you know that you know God? And know that you know that you know?

Now here’s another little test. Verse 4, let’s read it: “He that saith [or that means, the one who says], I know Him, and keepeth not [is not keeping] His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” Now we need to understand something profound, which is this: all Sunday-keeping leads to sin and lies. And they don’t know God. Because God says back here in Exodus 31 - let’s come back here now in verse 13 - that the only way you’re going to know Him is to keep His Sabbaths. John says keep His commandments, and you know that you know Him. So that’s a very profound.

Now back to Exodus 31:14, “Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that defileth it shalt surely be put to death:…” And what is the wages of sin in the New Testament? Death. “…For whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people.” Now to be cut off from God is a very profound thing. That means you have no blessings from God. That means you have no protection from God. That means that you don’t know God. That means you’re just turned over to your own carnal devices. Is that what you want? Well if that’s what you want, then continue to keep Sunday. If you want the blessings of God then you better do what God says.

Verse 15, “Six days may work be done; but in the seventh [day] is the sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD:…” And we’re going to see here in a little bit that God never changes. “…Whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant” (vs. 15-16). Meaning that this covenant with the children of Israel has no end. Even the death of Christ could not end this perpetual covenant. And that ties right back in to “Verily My sabbaths ye shall keep…” in verse 13, which means then Sabbath-keeping and holy day-keeping is a perpetual, ongoing covenant with God continuously throughout all history of mankind. Now let’s understand something else here. The church, that is, all of those individuals who have the Holy Spirit of God - and the church is something as God sees it, not something for what men proclaim it to be - and the church will be keeping the commandments of God, will be keeping the Sabbaths of God, will be loving God and loving each other and loving their neighbor as themselves. So you have to look to the fruits to know where the church is. But the church is spiritual Israel. So all of these things carry right down to the church. Now we’re going to see that in just a little bit here.

Let’s come to the New Testament now. For all of those of you who are saying, “Well you’re just sticking in the Old Testament,” let’s go ahead and go to the New Testament and see what Jesus said. Now let’s see what Jesus said here in Mark 2:27. Now if you believe that Jesus is the Lord, if you believe that Jesus is your Savior, if you believe that Jesus is the Christ, if you are professing to follow Jesus Christ, which day did Jesus say that He was Lord of? Let’s read it. “And He said unto them, The sabbath was made for man,…” And the Greek means, “on account of man.” In other words, if man were not created there would be no need for the Sabbath. You understand that? By the very fact of the creation of man, God created the Sabbath for that special day to fellowship and worship Him.

Was made on account of man, “…and not man for the sabbath:…” Now what does that mean? That means that man has no jurisdiction over the commandment of Sabbath-keeping whatsoever, to change the day, to change the meaning - only God can make any change to what ever commandment He decides, and He will let it be known in His Word that it was changed. Like He did in Matthew 5, 6, and 7, where He said, “You have heard it said in old time, ‘You shall not commit adultery…’” He says, “But I say to you, whosoever looks upon a woman to lust after her in his heart has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:27-28, paraphrased). And whenever there is a change, please understand this: in the New Testament all the commandments become all that much more binding, and all of that much more spiritual. So if the Sabbath was made on account of man, or for man, and God gave it to Israel for a perpetual covenant, and the New Testament church is spiritual Israel, the Sabbath and holy days must be kept by the Church of God. No question about it, if you are going to believe the Word of God.

Now notice verse 28. And this becomes very important for us to realize. “Therefore [that is, because of the fact that the Sabbath was created for man, and not man for the Sabbath, therefore consequently], the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath [day].” Which day is the Lord’s Day? The seventh day Sabbath is the Lord’s day, no other day is the Lord’s Day whatsoever. Now this shows us how we need to really read and understand the Scriptures. See, not only do you need to read them, you need to believe them. And you need to live by them. Do you believe this scripture right here which says, “Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath day”? Do you believe that? If you do you cannot believe that the Lord’s Day is Sunday. Because Jesus declared the Lord’s day is the Sabbath. That’s His day.

Now I don’t care how many churches are out there keeping Sunday. I don’t care all of the good works that they do. I don’t care about any of those things, those do not count. Because we’re going to see - and I’ll read you some more accounts - how they know that they are breaking the Sabbath and keeping Sunday and they have turned their backs on God. Do you want to continue to turn your back on God, or are you going to return to God through repentance? And come back to God, repent of your Sunday keeping? Repent of your idolatry, repent of taking God’s name in vain, repent of breaking the Sabbath and the holy days? Then you need to be baptized, receive the Holy Spirit, and then you’re just ready to start. All of the rest up to that point is only so much information. But unless it’s heart convicting, unless you believe with all your heart, then it isn’t going to do any good. Christ is the Lord of the Sabbath day, and the Lord’s Day is not Sunday. And that is a scriptural, New Testament fact.

Now let’s look at a couple of other scriptures here. Let’s come to the book of Hebrews 13. Let’s understand something concerning Jesus Christ. Would He change it right after that? Well, some people claim because He was resurrected, that changes it from Saturday to Sunday. But the truth of the matter is Jesus was resurrected right at the end of the Sabbath, not on the first day of the week. That’s another whole different subject which we’ll cover later. Hebrews 13:8, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday [when He was Lord God of the Old Testament, the Word of God], and to day [that is, during the time that the apostle Paul was writing], and forever.” Now let’s understand something…God is truth, His commandments are truth, His laws are truth, His statutes are truth; therefore, we can also say, because these things reflect the mind of God, the Sabbath is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The holy days are the same yesterday, today, and for ever. The first commandment is the same yesterday, today, and forever; the second commandment is the same yesterday, today, and forever; the third commandment, the fourth commandment, the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, all the commandments of God are the same yesterday, today, and forever. Now you need to think on that. You need to realize it because you just can’t come to God and say, “Oh Lord, how good I am,” and throw away the commandments of God and do like Job did. Let’s go back here to Job 40, and we’ll review this, and then we will get into all the eight places where the first day of the week is mentioned in the New Testament and we will see, does that constitute Sabbath keeping?

Now Job 40:8. Here’s what God told Job. Because Job was so, he was contending with God. He said, “Oh that God would come down and talk to me!” So God did. And his attitude totally changed. God said to Job here, verse 6, “Then answered the LORD unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said, Gird up thy loins now like a man:…” Are you willing to do that? Are you willing to listen to the Word of God and gird up your loins like a man or a woman and understand that God means what He says? “…I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto Me. Wilt thou also disannul My judgment?...” That’s what people do when they say, “Well, God didn’t mean for the Sabbath for us today.” Yet He said it’s a perpetual covenant. “Well, it was changed and went to Sunday.” Is that not disannulling God’s judgment? Was it not God’s judgment to make and create the Sabbath for mankind? Yes it was.

“…Wilt thou condemn Me, that thou mayest be righteous?” God said to Job (vs. 6-8). Now understand that Job was one of the most righteous men in the letter of the law that ever could have been. But he condemned God so that he could be righteous. Do not all of the preachers stand in the pulpit on Sunday when they discuss Sunday-Sabbath, and do they not condemn God and say that “He gave the Sabbath for a curse for the Jews, and we have Sunday, which is our holy day”? Do you think that God honors that? I tell you no. No more than God honored Job in the things that he did. And that’s exactly what they’re doing. They are disannulling the judgment of God that they may be righteous in their own eyes.

Now let’s go to Malachi 3, and let’s understand something that is very important. Now Malachi is the last book of the Old Testament as you come to the book of Matthew in the New Testament in the King James version. Now let’s come to Malachi 3:6. “For I am the LORD,…” God is the Eternal, God is self-existent, He alone is the Lord. He alone is God. Now notice, “…I change not;…” So if Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and the Sabbath and holy days are be to be perpetually kept, and God says, “I change not,” what right do the ministers have to come and say and stand in the pulpit on Sunday and say, “We are delivered to do these things - God has changed it”? Well as we saw, God didn’t change it. There were two main instrumentalities to change it: one, Constantine; two, the Roman Catholic Church.

Now the Protestants failed to finish the Reformation. They got right up to the point where they should have embraced the Sabbath, and they stopped. And Protestantism has stayed almost steady from that day forward. They stopped. So what they tried to do was then cover their tracks. They said, “Well, the New Testament shows that we do these things on the first day of the week.” Now is that true? “Well, Jesus was resurrected on Sunday, so therefore, we worship on Sunday.” Now we’re going to look at that verse in just a little bit here. And we’re going to ask the question, did Jesus then say, “Ok, now you don’t have to keep that Sabbath any longer. You can do it on Sunday”? We will see that He never, ever said such a thing at all in any way. And if you believe He did then you believe lying preachers over the truth of God.

Now let’s continue on and go to Matthew 28. And this is the first place where it talks about the first day of the week. So let’s go there, Matthew 28, and let’s look at it beginning in verse 1. You know, sometimes we read the words but we don’t really understand what it says. And we don’t understand that these were the disciples of Jesus Christ - the apostles, the followers, the women who followed Him we’re dealing with here in Matthew 28. Now let’s read it. “In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulcher.” Now why did they wait until the end of the Sabbath? Notice it says, “…in the end of the sabbath...” That means the Sabbath day was over. So apparently from this it means right at sunset they went out there to look at the tomb. And apparently they went on back, went to bed. When they got there in the morning, we’ll see a little later here. Now there’s some controversy whether this is as it was dawning on the first day of the week, or whether this was the darkening of the time at the end of the Sabbath. Sufficient to say, that at the end of the Sabbath, they waited for the Sabbath to be over.

Now let’s notice what they did. They went to the sepulcher. They didn’t go to a Sunday church meeting, did they? They went to the tomb where Jesus was buried. And verse 2, “And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow:…” Now did the angel say, “I have a special message from God: you can keep Sunday now. You’re out here Sunday morning, and we’re now going to call this ‘Easter’ from now on.” It doesn’t say that, does it? A lot of people assume it, don’t they? “And for fear of him the keepers did shake [that is, those who were guarding it], and became as dead men. And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here:…” (Matt. 28:1-6). That means He was already resurrected before they...