All right, let's turn our attention to the fourth commandment, ethics and Sabbath. And I'll read in Exodus 20, verse 8 and following. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy maidservant, nor thy, excuse me, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day. Wherefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. The question of Sabbath observance, of course, very much divides evangelical thinking and practice, even reform thinking and practice. There are those who believe that the Sabbath is purely an Old Testament institution and is not applicable to the New Covenant community at all. Advocates of this view may very well maintain that the church needs a set day for worship services, but they would deny that this is based on the creation ordinance, the original Sabbath observance, commanded in Genesis chapter 2, or the fourth commandment. Most of the Reformed community, of course, gives a verbal profession of faith in the ongoing relevance of the Christian Sabbath or Lord's Day. In this broad group, you find both Sabbatarian strictness and laxity. The purpose of this particular installment of our study of ethics is not to settle all the differences within this second group. For me personally, I hold it to be an unassailable doctrine of Scripture, taught in both Testaments as well as in our confession of faith, that the commandment to view one day in seven as holy or consecrated to the Lord is binding upon us. The primary purpose of the Sabbath day is rest, and worship, rest from our daily work and worship of the living God. Recovery, in my opinion also, of a biblical outlook on the Sabbath is absolutely vital if we are to image, reflect our Creator, if we are to determine acceptable activities on the Lord's Day and have the sufficient energy and motivation to seek dominion of the earth. We have the original Sabbath ordinance in Genesis 2, verses 1 through 3. And so when Moses says in Exodus 20, verse 8, remember, he's hearkening back to the original creation ordinance. This isn't something new. This isn't something synodic, meaning at Mount Sinai solely. This is an ongoing duty that man has always had in imitation of his Creator. What was the nature of God's rest? God's rest was not inactivity or indolence. Jesus and the Father, Jesus said in John 5.17, have been working from the beginning. So it's not that God ceased from His providential sustaining and governing of the universe that He created. He rested from the specific work of creating. God's rest properly refers to the completion of all the hosts of the heaven and the earth, verse 1 of Genesis 2. God finished creating these. And the verb here, kala, in Genesis 2, signifies the completion of a process. He did not go on creating. He worked for six days, then He ceased the specific work of creation. in which he was engaged. And what did God do in his rest? He rested in admiration of his accomplishments. We're still being spoken to as men here, okay? Dust mites, alright? It's very difficult to know exactly what this means, but we'll just have to go with what the Bible says. God rested in adoration, satisfaction in his accomplishments. He saw that all that he had made in chapter 1, verse 31, it was all very good. God's rest, we might say, was a divine self-satisfaction in the glorious work of His hands in the creation of the world. And so the original Sabbath, just like every other aspect of this first creation week and all subsequent weeks, demonstrates the God-centeredness of life. God does all things for His own glory and His own pleasure. There's also a divine blessing in the original Sabbath ordinance upon the seventh day. The seventh day of the creation week was the first thing to be declared holy in Scripture or set apart. The other days, their activities, their completed works were all very good. The seventh day is holy. It's sacred, set apart to Him. The seventh day is not only declared to be holy, but it is raised to a holy status by God's own declaration. Its holiness stems from God's own satisfaction in the work of his hand. So it's not that there's something intrinsically holy in the seventh day. It's by God's appointment that that particular day was elevated. elevated. And there's a divine pattern for man here, it's very clear in the original creation ordinance on the Sabbath. In God's own example of six days of work and one day of rest, The God, the Lord, the Creator of the universe sets a holy example for us. And so being made in His image, we are to follow the work rest pattern of our Creator. 6 and 1. God has set this day apart from all the others and we must use it for His glory and our spiritual profit. Please note something. If Adam had not sinned, we would still have needed the Sabbath rest. from our work of culture building and a regular time for the responsibilities of corporate worship. And so God's example here at the beginning in Genesis 2 teaches us several things about rest. One, it's not inactivity. Two, it is the cessation of normal labor and activities that engage us the other six days. And three, it's spent in joyful adoration of the works of our Creator. So let's talk for a minute about this Sabbath pattern. Work, rest, and worship. Let's talk about this Sabbath pattern. First of all, the fulfillment of the cultural mandate is the background of the day of rest. Six days work, one day of rest. Sabbath rest, in many respects, has meaning only within the context of faithfulness to the cultural mandate and the Great Commission. Now, our age, we downplay the purposefulness of work as a specific calling from God, and instead, it's a way of earning a living so that we can get the things that we want. And even in our Christian climate, we downplay the relevance of the cultural mandate and try to spiritualize or dichotomize man's task. And so it's increasingly difficult for us today to appreciate the significance of the work-rest-week cycle. Moreover, in our culture, regular six day work week is also uncommon today. We are reserving more and more of our time for entertainment, recreation and leisure when we ought to be finding ways to subdue the earth to the glory of God and spreading the good news of our Lord Jesus Christ. As Christians, we rarely today, rarely consider faithfulness in our callings as an important way that we glorify God and the most significant way we contribute to the Christianization of the earth. But our Sabbath rest first is based upon the divine example, and then it is designed to meet a human need. And the point here is that cultural dominion is hard work. It requires a constant expenditure of energy, time, and resources. We've got to fight continually against sin. We have got to fight against the devil. And so God designed the weekly day of rest as an opportunity for us to rest in the adoration of His completed work and from our own efforts on the earth as God's representatives. So, we also ought to note here that work without rest is suicidal and eventually leads to selfishness and consumerism and cultural impoverishment, where the work is all about getting resources so that I can then get what I want. We cannot, on the other hand, subdue the earth to God's glory apart from the weekly worship of our Maker, because if we don't rest, we'll become workaholics. We will anxiously await the day we can finally retire and begin a leisurely and recreation-based existence, and we'll lose focus so that we forget why we are working at all. So in Genesis, as well as in Exodus, because Exodus tells us to remember what God had already said in Genesis 2, the fulfillment of the cultural mandate, working hard for the glory of God, is the background of the day of rest. A second thing we ought to note about this Sabbath pattern that we all live in, whether we recognize it or not, this pattern of work, rest, and worship, We need to remember that work is not part of the curse, but it's an aspect of man's creation in God's image. God, of course, dignified work, dignified our work by calling his own creative activity work. Work, even menial labor, bears a dignity and meaningfulness because it is a reflection of God's activity in the creation week. Work should never be viewed as part of the curse, a necessary evil. You should never work in anticipation of the day when you don't have to work anymore. By the way, that's one of the reasons why God plundered the stock market, okay? And 401Ks and other things. Because so many people put up resources thinking, well, I'm working now only for myself against the day where I won't have to work anymore. Well, God doesn't have any use for that. That's not His paradigm. And He's going to make sure that all those towers of Babel get knocked down. Part of our creation in God's image is regular six days of labor in our vocation to the glory of God. We are reflecting His glory when our lives are patterned after His own six-day work and seventh-day rest schedule. And we are never more content than when we are laboring faithfully in our specific vocations with the knowledge that He has called us to them and that we are thereby fulfilling the calling. and the purpose of our creation so that we can glorify and serve our God and Savior. Now it's true, sin has certainly added pain to our work, thorns and thistles, but the Lord Jesus Christ has already begun to restore this world and restore all things to Himself. Now there's a difference, thirdly, in trying to understand this Sabbath pattern, there's a difference between Sabbath rest and leisure. For modern man, leisure is escape. Escape from responsibility, often from moral responsibility. It is a chance to pursue a little bit of autonomy in his earthly existence. For the Christian, the Sabbath rest is not an escape from work. It's not an escape from moral responsibility. It is spiritual rest in the finished work of God in creation and in redemption and refreshment of ourselves in our God so that we can continue then the next day to serve Him faithfully with our particular calling in our particular calling and with the gifts that He provided. So our Sabbath is not escape, it's not leisure, it's not late day. It's recreation in our God so that we may then serve Him diligently. Sabbath rest, obviously, fourthly, requires rest, excuse me, requires faith in the promises and providence of God. The Sabbath, the seventh day rest is based firmly upon upon a faith, a confidence in God that he will refresh me for greater activity in his service through it and that he will preserve the work of my hands even when I do not give my attention to them. It's not only necessary, you see, to cease from the work itself, but from all planning and worrying about our work. And so the Sabbath at a fundamental level teaches us to view God as our providential Heavenly Father with whom our labors are secure. He is our safeguard. We may be working like busy bees all day long, but we're not the ultimate safeguard of our life's work. He is. Now, fifthly, the Sabbath rest focuses on adoration and the worship of God. Now this divine Sabbath that we have in Genesis 2 that we're told to remember in Exodus chapter 20 verse 8, this Sabbath is sanctified to the Lord for a particular purpose. It reflection. And what is that purpose? Reflection of his handiwork and adoration of them. Now, this clearly calls not only for personal worship, although that and that's certainly there, but because man is a community creature for corporate worship as well. We find then, even in this very first instance of the Sabbath in Genesis 2, an implied precept, if nothing else, for weekly worship of the true God. And we still follow this in the Christian era with the added motivation that God has now finished His redemptive work in His Son. So we have added motivations for praise and worship. Sabbath rest, in other words, is not simply a day for physical resting, although this is certainly a legitimate aspect of it. As the Puritans used to say, the Sabbath is the market day of the soul in which we give attention to those spiritual relationship with God concerns so that we might refresh ourselves in Him. So remember these five things about this Sabbath pattern that we're told to remember in Exodus 20. that we can't appreciate the Sabbath unless we're working to subdue the earth. Work is not part of the curse. Work is an aspect of our creation in God's image, the functioning of that image. Remember that there's a difference between Sabbath rest and just leisure or recreation. Remember that if we're going to participate in the Sabbath, we have to trust God to take care of our work. And finally, Sabbath rest focuses on adoration and worship of the living God. Now let's talk about the Christians' Sabbath observance. of the Christians' Sabbath observance. First of all, before I say anything else, I'm going to assume, based on Matthew 5, verses 17 through 20, if nowhere else, although there's plenty of other passages you could go to, that when Jesus said, I've not come to destroy the law or the prophets, I've not come to destroy but to fulfill, that the creation Sabbath, as then renewed at Mount Sinai, remains in force. that the Sabbath ordinance still is of binding authority. Remember, of course, looks back to the original Sabbath ordinance in Genesis, and there were certain ceremonial additions to the Sabbath command that were given to the Jewish people. Even a certain rigor, perhaps, that was especially added to the Sabbath for them, but this does not at all undermine the abiding moral validity of the Fourth Commandment. And there is absolutely no exegetical or theological reason to view the Fourth Commandment as ceremonial, and not binding any further in the New Covenant age. Perhaps there are certain ceremonial or provisional aspects are abrogated, but the underlying duty to work six days and rest and worship a seventh day remains in force. Now, what did the New Testament teach on this subject? First of all, what about the Lord Jesus? What did He teach about the Sabbath? Well, we've already noted again in Matthew 5, 17 through 20, He didn't come to change any of the Old Testament laws. In Matthew 12, He called Himself the Lord of the Sabbath. The Lord of the Sabbath. He was walking through the field and He was eating some corn with His disciples and they got all mad because He did it on the Sabbath. And you know what Jesus is doing here is He's telling them, I, not you, define the proper observance of the Sabbath day and all your fences and man-made traditions and misinterpretations have ended up destroying My law because the Sabbath is Mine. Moreover, in saying the Lord of the Sabbath, it shows that what? It still continues to exist and He still is regulating it for His covenant people. We also ought to note one other aspect of our Savior's regular practice on the Sabbath, healing people. We run into this often in the Gospel, which that shows us that one acceptable and, if we might even say, necessary activity on the Sabbath is doing good to our friends, our neighbors, and especially the poor and the needy. Paul. It's sometimes said about Paul that he nullified Sabbath keeping. He said, don't worry about days and Sabbaths, he says in one place in Romans, that these things are not necessary for Gentile Christians. But please understand that these passages, Paul's not talking about the creation ordinance Sabbath that was renewed in the fourth commandment. He's talking about the religious calendar of Judaism. Christians are free from this, he says. And with respect to those various holy days and Sabbaths, even though enjoined in the Old Covenant, we're no longer under the ceremonial system. So, following them, you can if you want to, you don't have to if you don't want to, and you don't have to worry about feeling bound underneath this. Now, I would say more about this if we had time. If you have questions about it, you can ask me later. Let's talk about the Christians' observance of the Lord's Day. So first of all, neither Jesus nor Paul changes anything about the six in one, the Sabbath pattern for man. But why the day change? Why the day change? Well, let me mention a couple, three reasons. First of all, the change of the day of Sabbath from the seventh day of the week to the first day of the week was already prefigured in the Old Testament. It was already prefigured in the Old Testament. What do I mean by that? All of the eighth-day feasts in the Law. Leviticus 23, verses 36 and 39, Numbers chapter 29, verse 35. It's amazing. Now understand something. particularly the feast where you would have an eighth-day convocation, all of the feasts themselves pointed to Christ. Feast of Thanksgiving, feast of firstfruits, all looking ahead to Him, and suddenly you have another Sabbath on the eighth day? What is that supposed to mean? We're getting two Sabbaths in a row, so to speak? Well, again, this was prefiguring, pointing to the day change. But even beyond that, it was prefiguring that Christ would bring in a new period of time with respect to the Sabbath. And moreover, that the seventh day was not the primary aspect of the fourth commandment. Another day could be just as readily set apart by God's appointment to be treated as holy in His sight. In other words, the Sabbath can change from the seventh to the first day of the week with without the authority of the Fourth Commandment being undermined or negated at all. Because from the beginning, God revealed that He alone chose the appropriate day of the week for the Sabbath, and that day could change by His decree. Second, the change of day from the seventh to the first day of the week has a amply sufficient reason and justification. And that is apostolic example. Just look at a few of these with me. Acts chapter 20 verse 7. It is very clear from the New Testament. that the apostles met regularly on the first day of the week, which in the Old Testament would have been the eighth day of the week. So the change was already prefigured there and now the apostles are actually following this. Acts chapter 20 verse 7, and upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread. Now that didn't mean they went out to McDonald's, okay? Most biblical scholars take this to break bread. It's the same thing as used in Acts 2, 42. It's referenced here to the Lord's Supper. That's a long-standing interpretation of these verses. From what? He was known to them in the breaking of the bread. The two on the road to Emmaus, looking back from what they heard, about the Lord's Supper that Jesus observed and instituted with His disciples. 1 Corinthians chapter 16. So here they're gathering on the first day of the week to celebrate the Lord's Supper. 1 Corinthians chapter 16, verse 1. Now concerning the collection for the saints as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, Even so do ye. Upon the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come." Paul says what? Hey, when you come together on the first day of the week for your services, bring your offering then with you for the poor. Revelation 1.10, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day. In other words, the practice of the apostles is the authority for the day change. What's the reason for the day change? Now remember, the practice of the apostles is the authority for the day change. What's the reason? Because the second Adam has come and completed the new creation. And the finished work of Christ is the reason for that day change. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter 4, and let's read a few verses here. and make a few comments, because this little section in the book of Hebrews is perhaps the best single place explanation for this, that the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, His death, His resurrection, is the reason for the day change. What's the authority for the day change? The apostles. What's the reason? Christ. Let's start reading in verse 1 of Hebrews chapter 4. Let us therefore fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them, but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. For we which have believed do enter into rest, as He said, as I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest, although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. For He spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, and God did rest the seventh day from all His works. And in this place again, if they shall enter into my rest, Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief, Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, Today, after so long a time, as it is said, Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. For if Jesus or Joshua had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest, to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he hath also ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Let us therefore labor to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief." Alright, let's look at this. First of all, we have in verses 1 and 6, a promise of rest remains for new covenant believers. A promise of rest. Peace with God. Now this rest is going to need defining here more closely in just a minute. Then notice in verses 2 and 3, if you're going to enter into that rest, what do you have to have? Faith. Faith in God's promises. Verses 3 through 6 make one main point. Unbelief, disobedience keeps you from enjoying God's rest. Another point in verse 4 is that this rest of God, peace, fellowship, worship, has existed from the seventh day of creation. He speaks in a certain place of the seventh, the other word for seventh, Sabbath, same word. He speaks in a certain place of the Sabbath, the seventh, on this wise, and God did rest the seventh day from all his works. According to verse 7, Paul says, or one of his close associates undoubtedly, that David prophesied of another day of rest that was coming, today. the day of salvation, the new covenant era of the Messiah. Then in verse 8, notice we have this comment that the rest that God promised His people was not exhausted by Joshua when He brought them into the promised land. That's what verse 8 refers to. No, what Joshua did was great, but if that had been it, then he would not have spoken of another day. And so what is it? Well, in verse 9, there remaineth therefore, and this is the unique word for rest here. All the other words for rest are not the same as this word. It's sabbatismos, which is also a homo leguminon. It's a word that never occurs anywhere else to our knowledge. in the whole of the Greek language. A sabbatismos, a Sabbath keeping. That all of the rest that was prefigured, that was observed from creation, that was promised to God's people, that David spoke of another day of rest that was coming, this Sabbath day observance continues for us. And then verse 10, he gives the climax, for he that is entered into his rest, he hath also ceased from his own works as God did from his. In other words, Christ enters into the rest that is being talked about here most specifically by completing his mediatorial work of our salvation. And we therefore are to labor to enter into that rest, verse 11, by faith, by obedience, and also by verse 9, by observing the Sabbath day. By keeping a Sabbath, the Sabbath that Christ has now instituted and inaugurated on the basis of His own saving work. The fact that He has completed redemption, He has died for us, He is raised again. That is the reason for the day of the Sabbath change. Because just as God completed His work and then rested, so now the Son of God, the second Adam, has come and completed His work of redemption and entered His rest at the right hand of the Father. And when did that rest begin? on the eighth day, just like it was prefigured in the Old Testament. He was the first fruits. He rose from the dead. He ascended to the right hand of the Father. So that becomes, in Hebrews chapter 4, verse 9, our sabbatismos, our Sabbath keeping, our Sabbath observance. And so how do we practice? How do we practice on the Lord's Day? What's the Christian practice? We've seen our observation of the Lord's Day and three reasons for the day change. The Old Testament, and it prefigured a day change. The practice of the apostles, and now of course we have the reason because of our Savior's resurrection from the dead and that He has entered into His rest. What is our practice? Well, let me just mention a couple of three things. One, the Lord's Day requires rest. from our daily labor and other lawful activities and recreations." Now, because of the holiness, the privileges, the historical importance of the Lord's Day, we need to carefully, today especially, observe the biblical principles for its proper observance. And the first of these is rest from the work of cultural dominion. We must make sure that we are working for the glory of God and the advancement of the kingdom of Christ so that Sabbath is important to us. Particularly now that our Savior's come and He's been raised to the right hand of the Father and He gives us His Holy Spirit so that we can walk in newness of life. We can't worry about our work. We don't need to do afternoon planning. We don't need to do other activities related to our work. Now Jesus of course makes it very clear by his own example that there are certain emergencies to which we must attend even in our work. But we need to carefully monitor, of course, and limit these emergencies because poor planning on our part doesn't constitute an emergency on God's part, as the saying goes. But the reason for the cessation, the stoppage of work, is not idleness. It's not idleness, just to be lazy, sit around and drink lemonade. That's how we lost the Sabbath in the South. You know, the Andy Griffith version of the Sabbath. Sit around, be lazy, keep your Sunday coat and tie on, read the newspaper, churn some ice cream. Okay, yeah, you're lazy, you're not doing anything, but you're not sabotaging. Okay? This is not sabbatismos. We are to work as hard in worship, in fellowship and sanctification pursuits on the Lord's Day as we do in our regular employments the other six days. And that's not original with me to work hard in worship, different kind of work. To work it hard at rest in the Lord, adoration in Him, fellowship with His people, hearing His Word as we do in our regular employments the other six days. That should be noted. that with respect to labor, and I'm not going to get into a whole bunch of details here, but obviously certain services and agencies in our society will need to remain open on Sunday. But again, one way that this could be mitigated was that we should carefully rotate businesses, should their employees, so that individuals are asked to fulfill necessary positions as infrequently as possible on the Lord's Day. Now let me say what I consider to be necessary. Everything over here that you rode by is completely unnecessary on Sunday. So I'm not thinking, you know, if we don't have somebody at Dick's Sporting Goods, it just won't No, no, all of that would be, of course, that may be unnecessary Monday through Saturday as well, but that's a different story. When we say necessary agencies, police force, firemen, these sorts of things, it would be maybe a restaurant at a hospital or something like that. But again, we're so far in our culture from even being remotely organized so that we can't even keep the Lord's Day, perhaps spending too much time on that is superfluous at this point too. The Lord's Day is not for entertainment. It's not for recreation. It's not for laziness. Most people in our culture, you don't need for me to tell you this, but I'll tell you anyway, view Sunday as a day for sports, a day for shopping and other recreations. And many Christians even who don't appreciate The privileges of the day adopt this practice. But a day given to these activities, while not intrinsically sinful in themselves, perhaps, would not be an appropriate use for such a high and holy day where we, by faith, enter into the rest of our Savior that He accomplished. Joshua only gave them the promised land. That wasn't the whole Sabbath promise. Our Savior has given us complete peace and rest with God, and He has now entered into His Sabbath, His rest, and so are we by faith when we draw near to Him. And so television watching, updating your Facebook account, uploading pictures to your social network groups, and other perhaps innocent recreations should not be our regular practice on the Lord's Day. On the Lord's Day. Now, there can certainly be family times of fellowship and walking and various and sundry other things, provided they're not the focus of the day, and that they contribute to the more fundamental purposes of the day. Renewal in God, talking about this rest that our Savior has won for us. And daddies, and I'm so guilty of this in my own life, and if you're here or you're listening, and the recorded media, I just encourage you, if you're going to keep the Sabbath relevant for your family, you have got to keep walking faithfully with God. and have got to keep serving Him and must keep seeking deeper and higher glories of our Savior. Because the Sabbath in our day and age is going to be completely dependent on the growth in sanctification on the part of fathers to want to share with their own children and organize their children and sing with their children about all the great things Christ has done for us. Because there's not going to be any other cultural incentives right now to keep the Lord's Day holy. None. And they're increasingly going away. So you're going to have to realize that Sabbath begins with an appreciation and a participation with this great rest into which our Lord Jesus has entered. I need to participate in it. I need to learn more about it. I need to grow in my experience of it. I need to build a deeper relationship with my Savior. So that this is what I love to talk about. And I'm guilty of this as well. But we need to give some thought to this. Third, we need to view the Lord's Day as a privilege and as a delight. Turn to Isaiah chapter 55, verses 8 and 9. These are well-known verses whenever the Sabbath is discussed, but they're still worthy of reading again here as we prepare to take our dinner hour break. Isaiah 55, verses 8 through 9. He says in verse 6 of Isaiah 55, seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him. And to our God for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain cometh down, For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not hither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater, so shall my word be, that returneth, that goeth forth out of my mouth, that will not return unto me void, but will accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereinto I sent it." Now, as much as I love those verses, that's not the chapter I was looking for. All right, chapter 58. Okay, chapter 58 is what I'm looking for. And I will read most of this chapter, if not all of it. 58, that's okay, when I was preached through those of you, I don't think anybody's here, perhaps who was here that night, but it's always been a big thing for me to make sure we read a lot of, Andrew says he was here, a big hunk of the Bible. And so when we began studying the book of Revelation some years ago, Sunday night, we just read the whole book at one time. Okay, then we did Isaiah, I didn't read the whole thing, I was a little bit afraid, but I read about 40 chapters in Isaiah, because originally this is how God's people got the Word. They got it read to them, which is why Paul says, give attention to reading as well as to preaching of God's Word. Chapter 58, verse 1, cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, show my people their transgression. and the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek Me daily and delight to know My ways as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God. They ask of Me the ordinances of justice, and they take delight in approaching to God." Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? Wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labors. Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness. Ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high. Is it such a fast that I have chosen, a day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord? Is not this the fast that I have chosen, to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? When thou seest the naked, that thou cover him, and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh, then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thy health shall spring forth speedily, and thy righteousness shall go before thee, and the glory of the Lord shall be thy reward. Then thou shalt call, and the Lord shall answer, and thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If you take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity, and if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul, then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darknesses the noon day. And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought. and make fat thy bones, and thou shalt be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters fail not. And they that be of thee, and they that shall be of thee, shall build the old waste places. Thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations, and thou shalt be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of paths to dwell in, if Thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable, and shalt honor him, and not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, or speaking thine own words. Then thou shalt delight thyself in the Lord, and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." Now if Isaiah could write this, and granted this is in a section where he's dealing with the days of the Messiah, and he can have this kind of high and elevated view of the Sabbath, which he also calls the Lord's Day, the day of the Lord, his holy day. If He can say this, how much more must this characterize us now that the greater Joshua, Hebrews chapter 4, has entered into His rest and invites us to enter into this sabbatismos as well. So third then, Not only must we rest from our daily labor and other lawful activities and recreations, not only is the Lord's Day not a day for recreation and entertainment, but we must view it as a delight and a privilege. And how do we go about doing this just briefly? First of all, We need to recognize something about the significance of the Sabbath. And that is a return to faithfulness in observing the Lord's Day is a fundamental requirement for the restoration of the church and the broader influence of the gospel on society. It is a fact of experience, all the history of the church bears witness to it, that if there's loose views of the Sabbath, of the Lord's Day in the church, the whole culture suffers. The church grows weaker and weaker and weaker and weaker over time, which is where we are today. So we've got to see the connection. Faithfulness to call the Lord's Day a delight, the Sabbath a delight, brings strength too. We're to turn away from doing our own pleasure. on the Lord's Day. Isaiah says, now that doesn't mean we can't take pleasure in the Lord, that would be silly. Pleasure here is parallel with what he says in verse 3. Basically in Hebrew it means business. Turn away from your normal business is what he's talking about. It doesn't mean the Sabbath is supposed to be, you know, everybody wear black and frown all day. It has nothing to do with what Isaiah is saying. He's like, don't just, don't do your normal business. Don't, particularly don't do sinful things, that's obvious, but don't do your normal business. He says also that the Lord's Day is a holy day. It's set apart. And he says we must view it as a delight. And so when it comes down to asking questions, which we always do when we talk about the Sabbath, questions like, should I do this? Should I go here? Can I do this on Sunday night? Can I do this on Sunday afternoon? To me, my paradigm is always not that there is a list that can be reproduced. But there is a delight that makes lists largely unnecessary. Now, that doesn't mean that it's not important to get advice and to say, hey, can I do this? Can I go here? But you see, the fundamental attitude towards Scripture, Isaiah saw it. Call the Sabbath a delight. Then you come up to Hebrews 4, and we have the Sabbatismos, because the one greater than Joshua has entered into his rest. The question is, do you love him? Do you adore Him? Is your delight to enter into fellowship with Him and to say, you know what, this Lord's day just was not long enough for all the things I wanted to say to other people about Jesus, all the other things that I wanted myself to say to Him in worship and in adoration. I didn't get to hear enough sermons today about the Lord Jesus. Can you imagine saying that? Okay. I didn't get to hear enough. This is the paradigm. It's not what's my list, what can't I do, where can I not have fun today. It is, I finally get a day to enter into, to taste by faith, because remember Hebrews 4, without faith you can't enter in, because we don't yet have the full realization yet in the new heavens and in the new earth, but it's my delight, and so I rejoice in it, because I rejoice in Him. And I'll say this, in conclusion about the Sabbath, there's much more that could be said I realize, but Your delight in the Lord's Day is directly related to one simple thing. Your delight in Jesus. That's what it is. It's not, you know, okay, I'm going to be Scottish about this thing. Forget that, okay? Great, I mean, if they set a good example, fine. But that's not where you're going to get the strength to call the Lord's Day a delight. It's when the Lord Jesus Christ is the delight of your soul. And you recognize, you know what, I've been so busy serving Him this week, I need a day to delight myself in Him and to seek Him with all my heart, soul, strength, and mind. We'll take a break here for the next couple hours for dinner, and I look forward to seeing you at 7 o'clock later this evening.