The hymn we just sang alludes to something we'll study next week as we look at what our Lord and the Apostles said about the Christian Sabbath the Lord's Day. But the author of Hebrews says that there yet remains a final Sabbath rest for the people of God and that is the eternal state that is heaven. And we just sang Philip Dobridge's famous hymn where he talks about we enjoy each Lord's Day as a special slice of heaven. But heaven will be so great and oh Lord that heaven would come. We've gone through the first three commandments. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make images or worship them. You shall not take the name of God in vain. And today we begin the fourth commandment. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. And there's our better format for each study. We'll ask the question what does the fourth commandment require of us. And then what does the fourth commandment forbid. I've had attacked on a third little thought. Why is the Fourth Commandment so controversial? Why does it just get under people's fingernails and up their noses or whatever phrase you want to use? Why is the Fourth Commandment controversial? So what does this Fourth Commandment require? What does it forbid? And why is it controversial? First of all, what does the Fourth Commandment require? First of all, we're going to do a little history of the Fourth Commandment. There are those who say, well, the Sabbath wasn't instituted until Israel became a nation. And that, I will hope, is well intended, but it's not true. The Sabbath principle was instituted at creation and practiced by God himself. This one in seven principle was practiced by God himself by honoring a day, calling it holy, resting from his labors, was begun in creation. If you turn in your Bibles to the book of Genesis, chapter 2, We have the conclusion of the days of creation. On the sixth day, man was created. In Genesis chapter 2, verses 2 and 3, we have the creation of the seventh day. Thus the heavens, Genesis 2, 1 through 3, thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them, all the creatures that inhabited them, And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. Now the Hebrew word for Sabbath is really almost identical to our English word Shabbat. And it comes from the word for rest or to cease from your labors. And really our word Sabbath is almost just a transliteration rather than a translation. Genesis describes God's great work of creating. And on every day it says at the end of the day God saw that it was good. On the creation of the sixth day of the creation of our first parents he said it's very good. And then a question, why didn't God just stop then? OK, I've created everything I'm going to create and we're going to operate for the rest of time on a six day cycle. But he didn't. There was one other day, but he wasn't going to do any work on this day. This day was to be a set apart day when he could reflect upon his own creation and enjoy it and to marvel at it. Does it not even occur to you. Why are we on a seven day cycle. Why aren't we on a 10 day cycle or a six day cycle or a 40 day cycle. But God himself created in six days and the seventh day. He didn't do any work so to speak. He wasn't working at doing the creation. And we shouldn't think of God if they're perspiring going home when these constellations really get to you after a while. No that's be a false understanding of you know God thinks God wills and it exists. Creation out of nothing. That's another study. But God make all that exists and he makes our first parents in the image of God. The first and only things that are said to be made in the image of God are humanity. Men and women are made in the image of God. Having completed all of his works of creation seeing he's made his image bears exactly the way he wanted to. Then God says it's very good. And you know what? I'm going to have another day and we're just going to celebrate all that's been done. All that's been made. The reflection of my glory in the creation and in my image bears. Now, again, why did God do this? Was it just chance? God goes, there's nothing special. It just kind of worked out this way. I could have had 30 days or eight, but I'm just I just chose to do it in six and have one day and seven to be special. But verse three says, So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy. It's set aside. It's special. Why is that? Because on it, God rested from all of his work that he had done in creation. This was to be a one day and seven principle of reflecting on what God had done in making and in glorifying his creation and to imitate God. The fourth commandment, to put simply, is about the sanctification of our time. Does God own time? Time began at the creation of the cosmos. Does God own time? Is our life given to us as a stewardship? We say, well, God owns everything. True. Does God own our time? He made our bodies. You can go back by infinite regression. You say, well, my parents made me. Well, because God gave you to your parents. But you go back by infinite regression all the way back to Adam and Eve. God made the first parents. God made every parent. God made every parent with the ability to conceive that did conceive. God is the God of not only our being, our very existence, but he's the God of our time. The Bible says over and over again, the days of our lives are numbered by God. Well, that means more than just the fact that God knows when we were born and God knows the day that we're going to die. Not only that he knows the minute, etc. but that God has ordained all of our days in between. God is the Lord of our time. This particular commandment says six days thou shalt work but one day and seven is to be set aside as a special day of reflection and thanksgiving and worship to our God on this holy set aside and special day. Now the question is asked if God is the God of our time. Do we have to work six days? I mean, should we go back to our labor unions and to our corporations and say, we've been reading our Bibles and we want to stop the five-day workweek and we want to go to a six-day workweek? Well, you're entitled to do that if you'd like. I have no bother with that. It doesn't say you have to work at your career six days. It says there are six days are to be set aside for doing all your work. Whether your work is schoolwork, whether your work is working in a factory or working on a farm or working in an office or working in a home, you are to get your work done, all of your chores, all of your work in six days. And then the seventh day is to be a special day set aside for God. Now, another historical fact besides the fact that creation begins the seven day cycle and one day in seven to be given to worshiping God. But right after the fall, not only was relationship with God lost and intimacy with God was lost. But also the word of God engraved upon human hearts began to be effaced. And I've been using this illustration consistently like an old tombstone that at one time had carefully crafted letters and numbers engraved on the face of that granite or marble or whatever it was. But after years and perhaps centuries of weather and sun and rain beating on that, it began to be smoothly began to wear away and you can hardly even read the face of that tombstone. You couldn't tell what was written there. That's what's happened to the law of God written on the heart of man a creation after man fell into sin after our first parents gave into temptation and sin plunged the whole world into ruin. Pretty soon man began to forget God's laws because they weren't easily read on the heart and man was now estranged from God and not in fellowship with God. So what do we find. Well, all of the commandments began to be disobeyed and lost and certainly that was true of the fourth commandment. The commandments written on our hearts began to fade into oblivion. In fact, ancient civilizations quickly lost the idea of one day in seven as a day of devotion to God. They lost the idea that there was one true God and they worshiped the dictates of their own fallen hearts. It's interesting that If you study the idea of time, if you got an encyclopedia and looked up the word time, how have civilizations over the centuries tried to measure the passing of time? There's a clock up here. Yes, folks, there is a clock up here. And I'm wearing a wristwatch. You're wearing wristwatches. We have all these different means of telling time. Where does the concept of breaking down time and increments, where does it come from? And why do we have the increments that we do? Different civilizations have tried different practices. For example, we know that the Egyptians tried living on a 10-day calendar, as did France after the revolution. We're throwing off Christianity. We're now making man the measure. Man is going to be the measure. No longer are we going to be on a Christian cycle. We're going to be on a human cycle. And so France tried to have a 10-day calendar. It lasted 12 years, and it just fell apart, and it didn't work, and they gave it up. Some cultures have tried to have 40-day months. 40-day months and based again on a 10-day week and four weeks in a 40-day month and that didn't quite fit and said well we know about the cycles of the Sun and the moon and there have been lunar calendars there have been solar calendars that's fine but how do you reckon why a seven-day cycle Only two of only two of Israel's neighbors the Acadians and the Babylonians had a seven day week. Other countries had weeks divided up into into other increments. But God was not going to let his one day and seven principle go. And it's interesting as you follow the the crimson thread so to speak of salvation through the Old Testament only people who were close to God Only people who were close to God kept the idea of a one day and seven principle. You don't have to look these up but you can take my word for them and write down the reference and look them up. But as you look at the patriarchs the early fathers of the faith in the book of Genesis they kept a seven day cycle. In Genesis chapter 7 verses 4 and 10 God warns Noah that the flood was going to come in seven days and it's stated that in seven days the flood did indeed come. When Noah was in the boat in Genesis chapter 8 verses 10 and 12 He sends out a dove on a seven day cycle looking to see if the waters have receded. In other words the idea and it's not meant to be a big deal almost you could just almost slip high and not see it. But while the rest of the world is losing a sense of how do I mark out time. Well my time is in reference to God. If I don't have a relationship with God then what am I supposed to do with time. Well those people who knew the one true God still were on a one day and seven cycle and the idea of a seven day week. And finally, in Genesis chapter 29, when Jacob is dealing with his tricky father-in-law, Laban, and the trickster is himself tricked. He thinks he's working seven years to get Rachel, only to discover the morning after his honeymoon begins, he wakes up, that wasn't Rachel, that was Leah. And his father-in-law tells him, well, that's our custom in this culture to never let the younger daughter marry first. You have to marry the older daughter. If you want to work another seven years, you can have the younger daughter, the one you really love. But it's interesting that In the cultural exchange there is a seven day honeymoon. They're on a one week basis of a honeymoon. It's not perhaps a big deal to you but when cultures around you know nothing of how to divide up time and there's still one group of faithful people and they're still holding to a seven day cycle of time that's significant. It's interesting that when God finally calls his people out at the exodus they've been in bondage for four hundred and thirty years. They've lost all their heritage. even as slavery destroyed the heritages of West Africans who came to North America, and they had to rebuild their culture, while the Hebrews, being for 430 years in Egypt, had to rebuild their cultures entirely. You would have a great and edifying study of the first five books of the Old Testament. If you'd read them from a point of view, we're starting from scratch. We have to build up our own culture. What do we do? Well, God says, here's where you came from, the book of Genesis. Here's where everything came from. Here's how you particularly, your family lineage came from here. God has been working with you. Nothing's been happening by chance. People today like to study their lineage, their heritage, where they came from, who their ancestors were. Well God gives an inspired account to Moses here in the first five books to explain to these people who are marching in the wilderness. This is from whence you have come and God has called you to this glorious heritage. If you turn to Exodus chapter 16 let's begin to see God reinstating the one day and seven principle to his chosen people. You've been living with the Egyptians who, as I said, were on a 10-day cycle. You had to learn to speak another language. All of your cultures, all of your customs that your culture had, you had to practice them in your home if you could practice them at all. Here are people having to relearn their history. In Exodus chapter 16, verses 22 and 30, through 30, let's read an interesting account. God is going to feed them with something called manna. Now the word manna is Hebrew for what is it? Because they didn't know what it was. It was something they'd never seen before. On the sixth day, verse 22, they gathered twice as much bread, two omers each. And when all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses, he said to them, this is what the Lord has commanded. Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. Bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil and all that is left over lay aside to be kept till the morning. So they laid it aside till the morning as Moses commanded them. And it did not stink. And there were no worms in it. Now, excuse me, if you'll note that in previous times, if people tried to disobey God and say, well, we don't want to go out every morning and pick up the stuff, we'll just go out and just pick up a whole bunch. But it would always be nasty the second day. You could never eat it the second day. Theology is like manna, by the way, if you don't use it for the right reasons and the right time frame, it'll go bad on you. And so they had to go out every day and trust God that it was going to be there the next day. Literally, give us this day our daily manna. Give us this day our daily bread. They had to trust God that just because you have it today, well, how do I know he'll come through tomorrow? Because he solemnly swears that he is faithful. Trust him and get up the next morning and go get it. But one day a week, you could collect twice as much. And that's the only night when it wouldn't go bad and have weevils in it and stink the next morning. That was the night before their Sabbath. Moses said, Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath to the Lord. Today you will not find it in the field. Six days you shall gather it. But on the seventh, which is a Sabbath, there will be none. On the seventh day, some of the people went out to gather, but they found none. Sure enough, there always has to be rebels and hardheads. Ah, don't pay attention to Moses. He doesn't know anything. And they go out there and there's nothing. And the Lord said to Moses, how long will you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws? He's speaking to Moses as the representative of the people. He's poking Moses in the chest about what the people are doing. See, the Lord has given you the Sabbath. Therefore, on the sixth day, he gives you bread for two days. Remain each of you in his place. Let no one go out of his place on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh day, even as they were marching for 40 years to Canaan. They were to set aside one day and seven. They were not to go out and to gather on this day of rest. But miraculously God would give them a double provision of manna that would last through the Sabbath day. Then on chapter 20 we've just read of the giving of the fourth commandment. God says it was trans it was transcribed inscribed rather on your hearts at creation. I'm now putting it into tablets of stone. But the fourth commandment begins with the word remember. It is something that you have almost lost. I have been reminding you as you've been marching here, you lost it probably, or almost lost it when you were living it for 430 years in Egypt. All the nations around you have lost it. Remember the Sabbath day. Remember means you're tempted to forget. Now, what are we actually supposed to do? Who's to observe it? Go back here to verse 8 through 11, and look how we are to observe under the man's headship. It's speaking to each head of a household. They didn't have eHarmony.com. They didn't have singles kind of doing their own thing. They didn't have retired people doing their own thing. People lived in family groupings with your extended relatives. So the question is, he said, whoever is the head of the home and all the people under your authority in your grouping, that you are to see to it that everybody in your grouping observes the Sabbath. He says you. OK that's the head of the home your son your daughter the immediate family is to observe it. Then he says your male servant or your female servant. In other words people who are under your employment under your roof. You're to tell them they are to honor this day also. They says your livestock. Now, livestock function as machines. Cows are milk machines. Beef cattle are meat machines. There's different ways in which you can say chickens are egg machines, etc. The point being is that you are to be careful that you do not like to give your animals a day off, and so you're to give them, as living creatures, a day of rest. The sojourner, that would be a temporary guest, someone who's staying with you. Out-of-town company. Hey I heard you're walking to Canaan. Can I come join you. I wonder what kind of sojourners wanted to walk to Canaan. A temporary guest who was under their room who was within your gates is another way of phrasing it. You are to have out of town company honor the Sabbath when they're in your home too. It's just the opposite. I've known people over the years who. Oh I didn't see you Sunday. Oh we had out of town company so we didn't come to church. Right, so you let the non-Christians set your agenda for obedience to God. So maybe if a person believes in abortion and stays with you, you should believe in abortion too. Or, you know, how far do you want to take this logic? Rather, he says, if someone's staying in your home and you're the head of your home, then you should ask them to observe the Sabbath and participate with you. Very different from how some people have done just the opposite. The Sabbath principle, the one day and seven principle was given to God's special people. The one day and seven principle was given to God's special people. Going back to creation, Genesis chapter one, the only people that existed were God's special people. Adam and Eve were God's special people. But then when the fall came, everybody's a rebel. So God starts over again. So we have the idea now that God's beginning again and he's marking out a special people who will go back to honoring God in this one day and seven principle or ritual. Look at Exodus chapter 31. When God is making Israel into a special nation and he says that creation I gave them the fourth commandment and now all the world is in rebellion against me. I have called out on special people to myself. who are in covenant with me. OK. And Exodus 31 beginning in verse 12. And the Lord said to Moses you are to speak to the people of Israel and say above all you shall keep my Sabbaths for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations that you may know that I the Lord sanctify you. You are set aside as special. You my covenant people. What's something that you can do to show that you're in a special relationship with God? You can honor God by honoring his day. You shall keep the Sabbath because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people, which is another way of saying he shall be killed. Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death. So in case someone had wax in their ears, he says three times in a couple of verses, you are not to work on the Sabbath day under penalty of death. Therefore, the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations as a covenant forever. It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel. that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed, so to speak. And he gave to Moses, when he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God. So here we have the creation of the covenant people as it then existed. Again, if you take a photograph of the world from space at night, Where is the spiritual light coming from? Let's look at China. Dark. Let's look at North America. Dark. Let's look at South America. Dark. Let's look at Africa. Dark. Let's look at Central Asia. Dark. But wait, there's a glimmer of light over here in the Middle East. There is a people who God has called out. And in the darkness of sin, God has given this small group of people his favor, his mercy, and light emanates from them. The only image bearers who are functioning as image bearers on the planet were people in the Middle East. Then later in Deuteronomy chapter 5, if you'll turn there, Moses is going to be dying soon. We've gone through Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy is the second giving of the law. You remember that Moses took the first two tablets and threw them on the ground and broke them when he came down and found the people partying after they thought he was up there way too long. And so whatever God's doing is taking too long. So we're going to go back to Egyptian partying lifestyle. And in Deuteronomy 5 we have the Ten Commandments again. But some of the reasons for the fourth commandment are a little bit different. The nation is being instituted as a nation. They've marched. They're about to go into the promised land. Joshua will lead them across into the promised land. Moses will get to see the promised land, but because of an act of disobedience and defiance on his part, he will not be allowed to join them. Well, in Deuteronomy, Chapter 5, verses 12 through 15, we have again the giving of the Sabbath commandment, but they're no longer marching in the wilderness. They're about to set up their civil institutions, the nation state of Israel. verse twelve of chapter five observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy as the Lord your God commanded you six days you shall labor and do all your work but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God on it you shall not do any work you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock or the sojourner who was within your gates that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you." And then he says, you shall remember. What? That you were a slave in the land of Egypt and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Where were you in your BC days? Where were you before I rescued you? You were in slavery and sin in Egypt. And through much of the Old Testament and certainly in the New Testament. In fact it's even said at one time that we are involved in the New Exodus. Mark talks about that we are involved that Jesus has led us out of the New Exodus. We're no longer in bondage to sin. And instead of the instead of the slave masters being the Egyptians were we were slave masters to the devil. But he's brought us out and we're now on our way to heaven rather than on our way to Canaan. But he says, you're to keep this day a special because you're to remember from whence you have come. What were you like in your BC days? Where were you headed when I saved you? What was going to be your end had I not saved you? What were you enslaved to when I took you to myself and made you my own? Think from whence you have come is the motivation here in verse 15. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt. And the Lord brought your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Now that's anthropomorphic language. It's attributing to God physical attributes to kind of understand there wasn't a big fat hand and a giant arm bulging with biceps that reached down and saved the Israelis the Hebrews. No it was mighty displays of the acts of God the 10 judgments upon Egypt and the plagues the parting of the Red Sea the destruction of the Egyptian cavalry. all by the sovereign power of God. Now, as Christians reading our Old Testament, can we think of any analogies to this in our lives? Did God exert His strong right arm, so to speak? Did God exert mighty power in liberating us from a time of captivity and bringing us to a place of freedom and in knowing Him? Yes. And what was this mighty act and this mighty power? God became a man. God damned his own son on the cross that we might be freed from slavery. God raised his son from the dead, the firstborn among many brethren. We've been saved by the mighty power of God big time. And so as a result, he says, I'm tweaking the Sabbath here. Think from whence you have come. Think from whence you have come. As we'll see next week as we look into how the The Old Testament Hebrew Sabbath was changed to the Christian Lord's Day. We see how our Lord looked at the Sabbath, how he taught against false teaching on the Sabbath, and then how Resurrection Day was the first day of the week and Christians began to worship on the first day of the week. Can you see how a Christian can read this passage with tremendous edification and say, you know, this really describes what happened to me. I was in slavery. I was up to my eyeballs in sin. God redeem me by a great work of his power. And I'm here today and I'm on my way to heaven by the grace of God. And so one day in seven gives us a good opportunity to reflect upon that, to remember that, to cherish what's been given to us. So, as I've said, this principle, only so far as I've taken you, we're only going through the Old Testament, this part. But the point is, we've been seeing there's a one day in seven principle. It's a day marked out by God. It's a day marked out to reflect initially on his works of creation. But now he says not only is it my works in creation and but is now the fact that I have saved you. I've made you my people and my works of recreating you of renewing you of regenerating you of saving you. You're to take this day and reflect upon that. So it's appropriate on the Christian Sabbath the Lord's Day to go out and appreciate the glories of God. Someone told me at St. Simon's Island they said I've never seen a real palm tree before. It looks just like a palm tree. And I remember the first time as a boy from the Midwest and the South, moving to California and driving over the top of the mountains near San Bernardino and coming down into the la-la land of the LA Basin. And sure enough, there were palm trees and smog. And smog, I didn't care for, but this is really weird. You're driving and there's palm trees like you're in this strange place. Well, it was a strange place to me. You can appreciate the wonders of God, whether the sea turtles hatching and going into the water, because God created them to do so, or all the other wonders of giant live oak trees with Spanish moss hanging from them, the wonders of the nature in your neighborhood, or the greater wonder of God having made this world so beautiful and we've ruined it by our sin, saying, I want to save you for myself. I want to show you further glories. I want to show you how much I love sinners and how much I love to save them. You are missing my glory. I will save you so that you can see it. What does the Fourth Commandment forbid? Well, very plainly, it forbids taking the Sabbath day, the Lord's day, and treating it like any ordinary day. We're to get our stuff done in six days so that we can have the seventh day set apart to do all the things having to do with God. We'll see next week, too, that when it says it's a day of rest, it's not a day of lying in a hammock. When you're not at church, although it's a fine day to take a nap, many of you, your weekly cycle is based on a Sunday afternoon nap. Naps are your friend. When you're a kid, naps are a terrible thing. But when you get to be an adult, naps are your friend. But it's more than a day of rest. It's a day I set aside to worship, to reflect upon what God's done in saving us, to reflect upon the beauties of his creation. There's a whole host of things that we'll see. The Sabbath is a reminder of God's sovereignty over us. I'm the Lord of time. You didn't make time. I did. I'm the one who divided up and we shall be forever on a seven-day cycle. I shouldn't say forever. We shall be as long as time lasts on a seven-day cycle. But we sang this morning a hymn about the Lord's Day is special. But there is a day coming. The day when you step from earth and time into eternity and it will be all one giant day, so to speak. For there's not the passage of time as we conceive of time. in eternity. And the author, Philip Doddridge, said how great that day will be. The first day of Adam and Eve's life was they were created on, what, the sixth day. They woke up, the first morning they ever woke up, after maybe, I don't know when on the first day, the sixth day God created them, but the first day they ever woke up in the passage of time was the Sabbath, was so to speak like their Lord's Day. And they were reminded that God made them that they existed and that they were creatures. But their very first full day was their day of rest and of worship and of admiring God and glorying Him. The Lord's Day, the Sabbath, is a day when we should make sure that we're done from all of our other earthly and worldly cares. I said worthily cares, it's early. Worldly and earthly cares. to love and honor the Lord and get caught up with all the times with Him we've wanted to spend. You know, people during the week talk about how crowded and cramped their life is and everybody wishes they have more time. God goes, hey, I've given you one day and seven. Don't clutter it up with all the stuff left over from the week. I know college students who really could get their work done by studying during the week six days and people who can get their work done in the business world on six days and not push it over in the seventh day. Now, the trial and temptation is always, yeah, but worldlings don't take this day off. They work on this day and they get ahead. They study on this day and they get ahead. What? Who says so? God doesn't think they're getting ahead. They're actually falling farther behind. Every time they break His laws, they're falling farther behind. Well, you see, but I see I need to take Friday and Saturday to kind of have fun and do goofy things. But then I then I need I just don't have time to get my stuff done. So I need to do it on Sunday. Well, maybe you could rethink how you do Friday and Saturday and then you can really keep the Lord's Day as a special day because you really did get everything done you needed to in the first six. And maybe God would honor you obeying him by doing your schoolwork in six days and doing your housework and doing your worldly cares and all of your worldly chores and all that stuff and seeing if God wouldn't honor you. In talking about what's forbidden in the Lord, I turn to Isaiah 58. There are many times in the prophets when the prophets railed against the disobedience of God's people. The priestly ministry was the everyday ministry for the people of God in the Old Testament. But when the people of God fell into sin, when the priests weren't doing their job, God would raise up prophets, men who had a fire burning in their belly, and they were going to call the people back to God and to obedience to him. And the prophet Isaiah, who was also a priest, but a priest who had a vision of God in chapter 6. A God who is holy. A God who is holy, holy. A God who is holy, holy, holy. Turn to Isaiah 58 and let's pick it up at verse 13. He's going through a number of things that they don't do and they should be doing. In verse 13 he says, If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, meaning how you do Sabbath, From doing your pleasure, it might also be business, but the stuff you want to do from doing your stuff on my holy day. It's supposed to be a day about me, but it's a catch up day for you to do your stuff. You've forgotten what this one in seven principle is about. I've given you one day in seven to come back and get reflective on me so you can orient your life. People are made to run on God and we're meant to orient our life on God. You know, people today have global positioning satellite systems in their vehicles. You can get them for hiking and camping. At any time, you can know where you are on this planet because your GPS system will hook you up with a satellite and you can figure out where you are. Well, that's a weak analogy to how we are to know where we are at all times by being rightly connected to God. And he's telling the people, you've left the proper use of the Lord's Day and it's reflective of how you just left me, period. And as a result, you don't know who you are, where you're going, where you've been. You're just kind of lost. If you keep from doing your stuff on my holy day, become reoriented, and call the Sabbath a delight. It's a delight. No, don't say it through clenched teeth. There are people who go, well, I called it a delight, nothing happened. Well, see, this works this way. Our tongue is meant to be an overflow valve for our heart, and if we say it in an unbelieving fashion, it doesn't count. Oh, you mean I'm really supposed to believe it? Yes. We're really supposed to see how the Lord's Day is a gift to us how the Christian Sabbath is a gift to us and to call it and to regard it as a delight. Oh thank God I've got one day and seven to come apart from all my regular stuff so I don't come apart and just break down. And if you'll call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord honorable. What does the word honorable mean? It means to be worthy, to be honored, to be treated as special. No, it's not an everyday day. It's not the day where I get caught up with all the stuff that kind of dribbles into Sunday. It's meant to be a special day in the way that you would treat a significant person as honorable, as you would honor your spouse. You don't spend time with other men or other women. You honor your spouse and you treat them as special. You have a special king or president. You're to honor this person. He said, I expect you to honor my day and truly treat it that way in your heart. If you honor it, well, one way you might honor it is not going your own ways or seeking your own pleasure or talking idly. I think the idea here is not, for example, the Hebrew actually says, speaking a word. I mean, I can't talk. I don't think in context it's saying not to talk. But for example, I was trying to think of a way to say this diplomatically. Some of us have a hard time thinking about what we're going to say. We've all done this. We've all blurted out stuff. I go, why did I say that? If I just said nothing, it would have been better. For example, after the service, there are some people who can't talk about spiritual things for five minutes. They got to go to sports. They got to talk about the children. They got to talk about their week. They got to talk about business. They can't keep on focus on track for five minutes. He's saying, wouldn't you learn if you could learn to discipline your tongue so you can find yourself waiting till Monday. The business world will be there. It will still be there. Sports will be there on Monday. There's nothing so cataclysmic happening in the sports world that you can't live to Monday without discussions about your children and the ebb and flow of children's lives. They can wait till Monday or your aches and pains and all the things that we like to talk about instead of we have this one day to spend time encouraging one another in the Lord. Well let's encourage one another in the Lord now. A legalist would say, Pastor, after you gave that sermon, somebody was in the foyer talking about unspiritual things. I'm not looking for you to be a police of other people. I'm looking for you to discipline your own heart. In fact, that's the legal thing. I found 18.9 people not talking about spiritual things after the service. I kept a record. Well, maybe if you'd more focus on your own heart and how am I keeping the Lord's Day and how am I keeping my tongue? He says, if you'll honor by not going your own ways, what stuff would I normally do during the week that has maybe nothing to do with the Lord? It's not wicked or sinful. It just doesn't have a lot to do that I can see or seeking your own pleasure. Maybe and rather than roller skating on Sunday, you could go roller skating on Saturday. I'm not into roller skating, but you might be and that might be something I won't think I'm stepping on too many toes or too many skates here. If skating is your thing, don't skate on Sunday, skate on Saturday. or talking idly just running your mouth about stuff that you could have saved. Then if you learn to discipline yourself and keep your focus clear you shall take delight in the Lord. And he says what I will make you to ride on the heights of the earth and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. In other words, I will give you the heritage that I promised to my chosen people. You know, I'm the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. These promises I've made to my covenant people, they will be yours. You will enjoy them. I've given you one day in seven to get refocused and to see how much I've blessed you so you can make it the other six days. Years ago, when some people first came to understand the Lord's Day, at first it was like, well, I don't know what to do. It was kind of awkward. And now these same people say, I don't know how I ever existed for years without the Lord's Day. It is my favorite day of the week. It is my favorite day of the week. I could quote from Jeremiah 17, 19 through 27 or Ezekiel 20, 11 and 12. Or for the book of Nehemiah chapter 9 verse 13 and 16 which you can get the tape and look those verses up but there are other prophets dealing with the problem of Israel that when the people's heart leave the Lord they leave the one day and seven cycle and they don't honor one day and their intimacy with God plummets. Why is the Fourth Commandment so controversial. Well. In one sense, all the commandments are controversial because they all have to do with God's God. And I'm not that very sense of I tell you to do this because I'm God is for your own good. Well, who are you to tell me anything? I mean, I'm actually this old and I'm a human being. And I mean, it's stupid. But the idea of a creature talking back to the creator. But that's what sin does. It's irrational. It's stupid. It makes it makes a rational person irrational. It makes an intelligent person stupid. That's what sin does. I don't need a creator. I'm me. Whoop-dee-doo. What is that? But it makes a cocky person into a fool who believes his own press clippings. You know what that phrase means? It's like, he was the most wonderful baseball player who ever lived and he was great in baseball and golf too. Well, you just wrote it and then you believed it. How stupid is that? Well, that's what sin does to us. We believe our own press clippings and God's not about to tell us anything. Because we're us. So just the fact that it's a commandment from God. As someone said, we're rebels because it's a law and it's a law from God. So I don't want to have anything to do with it. That's part of remaining sin. I think that R.C. Sproul put his finger on a great thing years ago when teaching on the holiness of God. He said, you know, if you come to something in the word of God and it just gets under your skin, or like Chinese mustard, just goes right up your nose into your brain when you have too much of it on an egg roll. Boy, this really burns me. Well, he said, it could be that you don't understand it. Or it could be that God's putting his finger on an area of your life of remaining darkness or remaining disobedience that you have not really searched out. And this is God's way of bringing it to your attention. Remaining sin causes us to just rebel against things in the word of God that we don't want to do. And somehow Even as we've come to see it was for my own best that God did this and this was really good for me. I don't know why I was so stupid. I didn't see how it was good for me. Well one day and seven seems to some people incredible. Hey what do you want to give 10 percent of my income to God. Well we're not actually dealing with tithing but if you want to go there. I mean I mean it's people don't understand because of sin and because sin makes them stupid then they become rebellious and they lose blessings. Christianity so impacted American culture that for a couple of hundred years Christians were thermostats in that they set the temperature and many states had what were called blue laws referring to laws guarding the Christian Sabbath. If you're older than 45, probably, you can remember, as a child, on the Lord's Day, nothing was open. You might find one gas station, and you might find one little, they weren't called convenience stores, they were little mom and pop stores that sold cigarettes for people who ran out or were going through withdrawal, or milk or eggs or a few things, but candy. But there was nothing open. A hospital, one gas station, maybe one pharmacy, that was it. And nowadays, Christians reflect the culture. Christians have lost the Bible. Christians have lost all the biblical doctrines. Christians have lost their heart and soul. The culture has become big and huge and the culture doesn't support the church and church doesn't know what to do. I mean, I would have to exercise self-control. You know, 50 years ago, you didn't have to exercise self-control. There was no mall to go shopping in. There was no movie theaters that were open on Sunday that you could go to the theater. There weren't a thousand and one options. You didn't have to practice self-control because the culture was reflecting Christian values at that point, and the governments of the states passed laws enforcing it. But nowadays, anything goes on Sunday, and you go, but there's so many things I could do. True. I mean, there's all kinds of sins you can do Monday through Saturday, too. Why don't you do them? I mean, if you're a Christian and you don't want to disobey God, you don't do Monday through Saturday. Well, here's a commandment that has reflection as a reflection of how we become thermometers, where we reflect the temperature of the culture around us. We have a God that's reared his head in the last hundred years in America. It's called the worship of leisure and his little brother, the worship of entertainment. That would include sports and all kinds of fun. It's hard to believe, but for example, it was a regular feature of Christian college campuses to have revivals. They used to happen, even though there have been no nationwide revivals since 1858-59, there were revivals on Christian college campuses up until the 1890s. But once NCAA football began to be prevalent on college campuses, even Christian college campuses, students didn't stay home on Saturday and didn't think about their lives and talk, even on Christian campuses. The raw, raw focus was diversion, because sports is a subset of entertainment. It's all just diversion. And we now live in a culture where it's in your unalienable right. You're diverted by listening to the radio in the car until you're at work, and then maybe you can make work fun, and you come home and listen to the radio, or pretty soon we'll have TVs so we can watch TV while we drive home. And then when we get home, we can turn everything on, and we expect to be entertained until we go to bed. And entertainment is now the god that everybody worships at, and the idea of You mean you don't watch TV all night every night? You don't put on your headphones and just go off into la-la land? You don't have a virtual reality thing where you can live in an alternative world? What kind of a person are you? Well, we're people who are not to have leisure as our God. We're not to have entertainment as our God. We're to work and get all of our work done in six days, and the seventh day is a special day set aside to God. It's interesting how When the National Football League made a decision it would play us games on Sunday, it was a huge hubbub. All games were played on Sunday because collegiate sports were played on Saturday and the one day of the week that was left when people weren't working was Sunday. But we'll have games on Sunday afternoon. And mostly in large cities up north where there weren't as many high percentage of Christians to complain about it and people could go and they will have it start respectively after people get out from church. So it's not the Lord's Day. It's the Lord's morning. We're only taking the afternoon. and then pretty soon we're going to have the Super Bowl and now the Super Bowl is on Sunday and churches have just altogether given up and said, hey, we'll have a Super Bowl party at our church and you can do church and watch the Super Bowl and get credit for both. And we'll get wide screens and you can come and we'll have popcorn and nachos and you can kind of do your God and sports thing at the same time. There's a great booklet, I hope you picked it up, on the book table about did God create sports also. And the first page will get your attention. If you went and visited any of the major cities of Europe, any of the smaller cities of Europe, up through this century, the thing that would have been the great focal point of the city were the great cathedrals, the great churches all over Europe. It would have been true in America too. You can still see some of the great churches. Go to First Baptist in Charleston. Go to First Baptist or First Presbyterian or First something in some of the older cities of America. There's still great church buildings. But that's not what marks out cities today. Have you been to the Georgia Dome? Have you been to the Hoosier Dome? Have you been to Yankee Stadium? Those are the places we worship today. That's where it's really happening. And he nails it to a T. We worship the God of entertainment and sports. And our stadiums and our big, massive buildings that we build to house them proves it. In fact, years ago, this is a 20-year-old story. that we try to have the God side-by-side. We will let you have Sunday morning, but then we'll schedule other things on Sunday, and you're going to have to kind of work it in. But in some parts of the country, there just wasn't enough ice time or field time to get all the practice in. So in some parts of the country, it's Sunday morning, and this is when the practice is, and make up your mind. Does your kid want to be a great athlete? Then have him Be over here at 9 o'clock in the morning, Sunday, because that's when games are and practices, and you've got to choose. It's not as prevalent in the South, although it's growing, but in much of the country, not even Sunday morning is conceded to the church people. Just make your choice. Your kid want to be an athlete, or you want him to be a man or a woman of God? Make your choice. Sundays become the second most important shopping day after Saturday. It used to be that people shopped on Friday nights and all day Saturday and got their shopping work done, but now they shop on Sundays. And again, it was that civil law reinforced this point. It no longer does. In fact, most civic and cultural entertainment events, the climax is on Sunday, whether a play, a symphony, movies, concerts, they're all set for Sunday. Restaurants depend on their large Sunday clientele. Most people in the restaurant business don't know how possibly Chick-fil-A can survive by not being open on the Lord's Day. How do they do it? We worship our playtime and we play at our worship today. We used to have the Lord's Day that it was shortened to the Lord's morning that it was shortened to one service. Now we shorten the services to 30 minutes. Now we're having services on Saturday night so people can get their worship thing in and have all day Sunday to give to the thing they really love which is their leisure and their sports and entertainment. And the Lord says my people have given this to you as a gift. We'll see next week that the Lord himself says the Sabbath was made from man not man for the Sabbath. However you can disabuse a gift and doesn't it's not a gift anymore. One day and seven. God says I am the Lord of time. I'm the Lord of how you break out your life. You are to do all your work and its various kinds and get it done in six days. One day I've given to you so you can set apart and it's a slice of eternity. It's practice for heaven. I've said before I'll say again if you hate the Lord's Day then you will not like heaven because one unending Lord's Day. And if you have a hard time thinking, well, I can barely sit through a church service. Why would I want to spend a whole day with God? That goes to your heart. It doesn't go to the problem of the Lord's Day. It goes to your heart. If spending time with God is a drag, it's like the time I tried to counsel a couple and the counsel was that they should spend an hour talking to each other. Spend an hour talking to her? Why? I knew that marriage was terminal because he had no conception of why he would want to spend an hour with his wife. If a person doesn't want to spend time with the Lord, how do you profess to love him? How do you profess to know him? And if all this other stuff is way more important than him, then what leads you to believe that you've ever been supernaturally changed, that you've ever been given the new birth? How is Christ the Lord of your life? I really have a hard time understanding that. What a great gift he's given us. How we need to examine how we're using that gift. Is it viewed as a gift? Or is it an encumbrance? I leave it to your conscience. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, this has not been rocket science this morning. We've seen early on in Genesis that you created all things in six days. And everything was good, but you created your image bearers who were to reflect your glory. Ah, that was very good. But you didn't quit. You didn't rest on your laurels. created one more day for the express purpose of having it a day of worship and glory glorying in your accomplishments. And then you specifically told your people after the world had gone astray that this day was to mark them out and that they were to remember the fact that you redeem them that they could even appreciate what this one day and seven was. We shall see that the New Testament takes this Old Testament Sabbath and makes it an even more glorious day but no less important. We have one day and seven to enjoy you. to enjoy worshipping you, to reading your book, to fellowship with the saints for doing good deeds to other people, to visit people in nursing homes, the aged, the infirm, the sick, to have people into our home, to love on them and show them what a Christian home can look like and what Christian hospitality is like. We've been given all things and what a blessing this one day is. Would you make us into a people who cherish this day, who use it intelligently and spiritually and treasure this one day in seven. We thank you that we're not living in revolutionary France when they threw off all vestiges of God and lived as stark pagans and lived a miserable life as if God was not real. But sad to say many of our friends our family members who are outside of Christ they live one unending cycle. They have their five day week and they hope for the weekends when they can play and party. But then after several years of that The weekends all run together and there's nothing to live for because life is monotonous and humdrum and empty and void. And you've given us a meaningful life for six days and a slice of heaven one day. Oh, help us to cherish that one day slice, which gives meaning to every other day. Well, thank you in Jesus name. Amen.