TH E KING’S BUSINESS
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tomb is an effect, what is its cause? The Resurrection. WHENCE CAME IT? Here is the Lord’s Day. We are met to gether here on the Lord’s Day. Where do we get the Lord’s Day from? It is not the original Sabbath, the original Sabbath was the seventh day (not Saturday; the Bible nowhere says that Saturday is the Sabbath, but the seventh day is the Sabbath). The Sabbath was first given in Eden, corrobo rated at Sinai, given as a distinguishing mark to the nation of Israel, a Jewish sign of memorial. Do you remember how tena ciously the Jews held on to the Sabbath? When Titus attacked Jerusalem he entered the holy city on the Sabbath Day. He knew the Jews would not defend themselves on the Sabbath, and thousands were slain by the Romans, for the Jews would not fight on the Sabbath day. Remember, too, another thing about the Sabbath: the Jews never kept me morial days for men, as wfe do for Wash ington’s birthday and Lincoln’s birthday. We celebrate men; they celebrated events like the Passover and the Exodus. Remember these things. Now what do we find? Right here in the Nlew Testament, in the days of the Apostles and as a result of their preach ing, many thousands of Jews gave up their time-honored Sabbath, the seventh day of the week, changing it to the first day of the week and contrary to all custom honoring it after the name of a Man—the Lord’s Day. What made the Jew do that? Some tre mendous fact in history must have taken place to make the Jew surrender that Sab bath given at Eden, and given again at Sinai. What was that tremendous fact that caused such a revolution? It was the res urrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, and so long as you have the Lord’s Day, you have an incontrovertible proof of the resurrection of Christ from the dead. I know well what some people say—that the Lord’s Day is a pagan institution; that it did not come into existence until the time of Constantine. The one who says that is either a willful perjurer or an ignoramus.
Historical data is 'abundant to show that in the days of the Apostles, and the early church fathers, long before Constantine was ever dreamed of, the Christian Church was keeping the Lord’s Day instead of the Jew ish Sabbath, for on that day Jesus Christ rose from the dead. That man is either will fully dishonest or he is an ignoramus who tells you that the Lord’s Day did not come into existence until the time of Constantine. The Lord’s Day is not a pagan institution, the Lord’s Day was not inaugurated by Con stantine; he took the Lord’s Day which al ready existed long before his day and gave it the sanction of the state. The Lord’s Day dates hack to the resurrection of Christ. ‘’And at the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn,” not towards the, first day of the week, but towards the first of the Sabbaths, the first Christian Sabbath. The Lord’s Day is an effect, and its cause, its only possible cause, lies in the great fact of the resurrec tion of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. CAPTURED FOR CHRIST. Then again here is the Christian Church. We know what the Christian Church is. What is the Church of Jesus Christ? Art, music, sculpture, scholarship, learning cap tured for Christ. The meeting of saints, the offering of hymns of praise, and devotion to God. Where did the Christian Church originate? It is an effect. What was the cause? The Christian Church is the result of the resurrection of Christ from the dead. You will remember that when Christ died on the cross the disciples lost all hope in His cause. Peter said, “I am going back fish ing,”'-the rest said, “We will go with you.” The whole lot of them went back to busi ness, and when Jesus appeared to them, it was at the seashore. They were out fishing. Then Christ appeared to them, conversed with them and resuscitated their faith. On another occasion He showed them His hands and His feet and His side. He told them the story of the Resurrection. He stayed with them forty days, giving them many in fallible proofs of his resurrection. What for ? To make them sure that they were not de-
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