If you have your Bibles, go ahead and just reach down and grab them and turn with me to John chapter five. John chapter five. The last time we were here in John, we looked at verses one through 15, but instead of starting right off in 16 today, I wanted to refresh our context a little bit and just bring in a little of the narrative we'd already covered. So we're gonna start reading at verse eight. So I'll read John 5, verses eight, going through verse 23. It's all one narrative anyway, but you've gotta break it up somehow. So I think this is a good way to do it. All right, John chapter five, beginning in verse eight, this is the word of the Lord. Jesus said to him, rise, take up your bed and walk. And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed and walked. And that day was the Sabbath. The Jews therefore said to him who was cured, it is the Sabbath. It is not lawful for you to carry your bed. He answered them, he who made me well said to me, take up your bed and walk. Then they asked him, who is the man who said to you, take up your bed and walk? But the one who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, a multitude being in that place. Afterward, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, see, you have been made well, sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you. the man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. For this reason, the Jews persecuted Jesus and sought to kill him because he had done these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, my father has been working until now and I have been working. Therefore, the Jews sought all the more to kill him because he not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was his father, making himself equal with God. Then Jesus answered and said to them, Most assuredly, I say to you, the son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the father do. For whatever he does, the son also does in like manner. For the father loves the son and shows him all things that he himself does. And he will show him greater works than these, that you may marvel. For as the father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the son gives life to whom he will. For the father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the son, that all should honor the son just as they honor the father. He who does not honor the son does not honor the father who sent him. Let's pray. God, we thank you for this wonderful word. Jesus, we thank you for showing us who you are, Lord, that you are the glorious Son, the Son of God, God the Son. God, we thank you, Lord, for this time to gather here in this building, Lord, free from persecution, free from, here in this place, the destruction of this hurricane, God, that we can come to a place of solace and comfort and security in your presence, God, and we can hear from you. God, please bless me as I speak to only say what is true. Lord, purge away any vain imaginations that I have brought to this text and guide me, Lord, in your truth. And let everyone who is listening, Lord, let everyone who hears my voice, Lord, let them hear from you. Let them not hear a man up here speaking his own thoughts, but let them hear from You, the Word that You would have us hear. Pierce our consciences, God. Go straight to the heart of us, Lord, and draw us to new repentance, faith, and joy in You. In Christ's name, Amen. You may be seated. Well, we're beginning our sermon today by looking back at part of the narrative that we looked at two weeks ago. I know the last nine days or so have been emotionally, physically, and spiritually exhausting for many of us, as we've been trying to just pick up the pieces after this act of God, as John pointed out. Hurricane Helene. But if you think back to when we were in John 5 last, you'll remember that we looked closely at Jesus's healing of the lame man at Bethesda. Bethesda was the pool where the waters would every so often be stirred up by an angel. And then when that happened, when the waters were churning and bubbling, whoever entered the pool first, he would be healed of whatever sickness or impairment he had. Well, the man in our text had been lame for 38 years, but because he had no one to help him, he was never able to make it into the pool first. And so he never was healed. And so in our current narrative, Jesus has just arrived at the pool and he, probably when he arrived, he was greeted by the sight of hundreds of men and women lying around, lame and crippled. And he picks this one man out and he walks up to him and says, rise, take up your bed and walk. And immediately, John writes, immediately, this man who has not stood up in nearly four decades was made well, took up his bed and walked. Now there's a lot we could talk about just right there, and we have covered it to some extent. But for now, I want you to think about the type of authority that Jesus is exercising here. That's our first point, that the authority of Jesus is on display in this narrative. Who else, who else can give an impossible command and immediately it is obeyed? immediately. There are some people that exist who generally we can say can give an order and it's obeyed immediately. We can think of kings. We can think of presidents and so on. Of course, parents and bosses too. Children, you know you should obey your parents immediately, not waiting around until you feel like obeying your parents. As we tell our children, you are supposed to obey right away, all the way, and with a cheerful heart. But neither kings, nor presidents, nor parents can give an impossible command and have it obeyed right away, all the way, with a cheerful heart. Joe Biden cannot go into the ICU and tell a single sick patient to get up, grab his things, and walk out of the hospital room. He has no power to do that. But Jesus tells a man who has been unable to walk for 38 years to stand up, pick up his mattress. So he's carrying an extra burden. It's not even just his body weight. Pick up his mattress and walk away. And he does it. The man obeys. That is authority. He not only has authority over the actions of his subjects, he has authority over sicknesses, over healing, over their bodily function, over everything. Even as we'll see shortly, Jesus has authority even over death itself. Jesus created everything and therefore he has authority over everything. He's in charge. But the display of authority doesn't just end right there with the healing. Look with me now at verse 14, if you have your Bible still open. John 5 verse 14 reads like this. Afterward, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, see, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you. Now remember, the reason that Jesus came to Jerusalem, the reason the text states that he came to Jerusalem was not, according to John 5.1, to come heal this man. He was there because of a feast of the Jews. And Jesus went in observance of this feast. He was obedient to the law of God. And he was eager to join in the public worship of God with God's people. But Jesus knew that before he was to attend the public worship of God, before he did that, he needed to go heal this lame man who was waiting there. And what does Jesus do? What does the lame man do right after the healing at Bethesda? They both do the same thing. They both get up and they both go to the temple to worship God. This man who had been lame for 38 years, who'd been unable to walk it seems, for nearly four decades. He doesn't go run a marathon. He doesn't just go leaping down the street, showing off his new legs to anyone who will look. He doesn't go seek out his favorite sin that he's been unable to commit since he's been lame all this time. He goes to the temple, he presents himself before the Lord and he worships. Because of the ceremonial laws of the Old Covenant, this man most likely had not even stepped foot or been carried into the temple in all of these 38 years. He had been deprived of God's special presence to his Old Covenant people through his temple for 38 years. It's possible that he has not even been into the temple since he was a little baby. He might not have any memory. He might have no idea what the temple looks like even, we don't know. But as soon as he's healed, he goes to the temple and presumably he joins in this feast of the Jews. Maybe Passover, maybe another feast, we're not sure. Think of how wonderful that experience might've been for him. to attend temple worship whole and clean. And then Jesus, who does not, as far as we know, have any direct active leadership in this temple feast, he's, yes, of course he is God, he is king, but he's attending as a normal Israelite man. He has no direct leadership role here. He looks at the man in the temple and he says to him, look, you're healed now, but don't think that being whole and coming to the temple is going to save you from suffering further. Jesus says you have to abandon your sins entirely just as you left your infirmity behind at the pool never to go back to that again. You also have to just leave those sins behind. Leave an old life behind. Leave it all behind at the pool. Now, whether or not this man obeyed Jesus in sinning no more, we don't really know. The narrative does not tell us enough to know whether this healed man was also truly born again. But we see Christ's authority in two ways here in particular. First, Jesus is in the temple. He is declaring a man to be healed and he is commanding him to live a holy life. That is exactly what a priest does. That is a priestly authority that Jesus is putting on display here. And we know Jesus has not descended from the priestly line of Aaron. He is not a Levite. but he is showing himself nonetheless to have a high priestly authority. And then secondly, Jesus not only has the authority to command a fellow Israelite to sin no more, he also has the authority and the ability to empower him to truly obey that command. The Lord can enable his people to live godly lives in Christ Jesus. And we should not be afraid to proclaim this and to trust him for this. Sure, there are abuses of this doctrine that God empowers us to live holy before him. There is a belief that is infiltrated some Christian churches and seminaries that once you are saved, you won't sin anymore. or that some Christians can attain this special state of spiritual perfection in this life. That's not what I mean when I say that Jesus can empower us to live holy lives. What I mean is when the spirit of God is dwelling in you, and when you are sanctified by the blood of Christ, you can have real victory over sins that in your flesh you would be totally incapable of turning from, no matter how hard you tried. I was just reading on Friday night, just preparing my heart for this. I was reading on Friday night about a man from Martin Lloyd Jones's first congregation who could not for the life of him quit cursing. And the story is so powerful and fits so well here. I wanna read you an excerpt here about how Christ worked in this man's life. Let's see. Okay. This is the man who could not quit cursing. He cursed worse than the worst sailor. He was still struggling with his lifelong use of bad language. It was not that he meant to use it, but a sentence without oaths and blasphemies was as foreign to him as cravats and starched collars. He could not help it, writes Mrs. Lloyd-Jones, and he could not stop it. The truth is that he did not know that he was doing it until the words were out. And then the realization that these horrible terms and words came from his own lips sickened and shamed him, and he was driven to a frenzy of despair and abject misery. It may seem strange that he never sought the help of a fellow Christian in this matter, but he was too ashamed, and he suffered for some weeks, little dreaming that deliverance was at hand. It came about in this way. He was getting up one morning and gathering his clothes together to get dressed, but there were no socks among his clothes. He went to the bedroom door and shouted to his wife, I can't find my blank socks. Where are the blank things? As he heard himself speak and realized what he had just said, a great horror possessed him. And he fell back on the bed in a paroxysm of despair and cried aloud, Oh Lord, cleanse my tongue. Oh Lord, I can't ask for a pair of socks without swearing. Please have mercy on me and give me a clean tongue. And as he lay there, And as he got up from that bed, he knew that God had done for him what he could not do for himself. His prayer, his cry of agony was heard and answered. And it was his testimony that from that moment to the end of his days, no swear word or foul or blasphemous word ever passed his lips again. And I think we've heard of stories like this before. And we know this is anecdotal for sure. But what wonderful things God can do. He didn't only work miracles like this in the time of the apostles. God is still doing wonderful things like this to deliver his people today. Now, Christ may not deliver you from the sin you're struggling with, like he delivered that man in Lloyd-Jones's congregation. He may give you slow deliverance. where you gradually, baby step by baby step, conquer a particular sin over many years. But two things are for certain in this regard. Number one, if you are saved, you will grow in holiness. To some extent, you will grow in holiness. You will not reach perfection. You may not even have victory over the sins you hate most in this life. Romans chapter 7 may at some points seem like it was written just for you. but you will grow if you're in Christ. And then number two, Christ can, if he chooses, give you immediate deliverance from the power of sin. So if you're struggling through a besetting sin and you just can't seem to make any forward progress whatsoever, ask the Lord to give you this type of freedom that he gave this man. And if it doesn't come, it's not because he's not faithful. Just continue to press forward with all your might, strive for perfection, seek holiness, run to win the prize, not in your own strength, but in the strength that Christ supplies through His Holy Spirit. Even if the deliverance doesn't come fully or easily or quickly, know that the same Spirit who has conquered death can conquer your sins if He is living in you. Christ has authority not only to command you to be holy, but also to empower you to be holy. He has a great authority and it's on display in several ways here in this narrative. The next main point that I want us to look at is the divinity of Christ and his unity with God the Father. Christ is divine and he is one with God the Father, which is another way of saying Jesus is God. Beginning in John chapter five, verse 16, our text says this, for this reason, the Jews persecuted Jesus and sought to kill him because he had done these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, my father has been working until now and I have been working. Therefore, the Jews sought all the more to kill him because he not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was his father, making himself equal with God. And we'll talk in just a few minutes about this claim of Jesus breaking the fourth commandment. But first, just look at Jesus's reasoning for why he healed a man and commanded him to rise, take up his bed and walk all on the Sabbath. Christ essentially says, of course I work on the Sabbath. Why do I do it? Because my father works on the Sabbath. Why wouldn't I do that if that's what my father does? And if you are confused and say, wait a second, God rested on the Sabbath. No, God rested from his work of creation on the Sabbath. God has never rested from his work of providence, of his upholding of all the heavens and the earth. If God rested for a single second from his work of providence, we would cease to exist. All of our lives, all of our salvation, all of our existence, everything you look at and everything you can't see, is contingent, depends upon the upholding work of God for us. Nothing exists by its own right, it's all God. Well, this claim that God was Jesus's father, because my father works on the Sabbath, this claim that Jesus was the son of God made the Jews even angrier than they were before. Jesus was not saying here, and the Jews understood this, Jesus was not saying that, well, God is my father in a general, Many liberal theologians of just a few generations ago insisted that the concept of the fatherhood of God was really just God's general fatherhood of all of his creatures. He made us all and we're all his children. So a slogan that those early 20th century liberals were known to have is the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, that's the sum of Christianity. It's a common sentiment even today. The influence of that type of thinking has crept into just about every sphere of life. You hear it, especially in the time we're in now, election season, politicians love to throw that around. We're all God's children. We all serve God. Nonsense like that. And it's true, of course, that we are all God's creation. And God does have a general love for his whole creation. That's absolutely biblical and true, but we are not all God's children. Many people, the Bible says, are not children of God. In fact, they are children of the devil. But even those who are God's children by faith, us here in this room who have trusted in Jesus, even those of us who are God's children by faith are not God's children in the sense that Jesus is talking about here. No, Jesus is asserting that God, in a particular and unique way, is His Father. That He has a unique, one-of-a-kind relationship with God. As we learned in John chapter 3, Jesus is the only begotten Son of God. You and I are not begotten sons and daughters of God. We are adopted sons and daughters of God. Doesn't make us second-class at all. but it's different than being the begotten son of God. And the Jews realize what he's saying. They realize what he means here. And they get infuriated because if Jesus is saying that he is God's only begotten son, then they know that what Jesus is really saying is that he is God himself. We might say, well, how do you make that leap? How do you go from being God's son to God? I mean, just being someone's son doesn't make you the father itself, does it? Well, think about this. What type, and children, if you want, you can answer this, just answer it, okay? What type of children do dogs have? They have other dogs, right? Or what type of children do birds have? They have other birds, right? They have birds. And what type of child therefore would God have? He'd have, he'd have God. But we know there's only one God. That's the central claim of the old covenant worship of God's people. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. There's only one God. Jesus himself proclaimed this so clearly. He upholds this truth. So if there is only one God, and Jesus is his only begotten son, And the son of God must be God. Well, what have we got here? Jesus is God. The Jews understood it. They're following this line of thinking perfectly. He just said that his father was God. He's saying he's God himself. He's making himself equal with God. Remember how John begins his gospel account that we've been going through here. This was months ago now, but Think of John 1.1. In the beginning was the Word, and we of course learned that that means Jesus. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Jesus, miraculously and mysteriously to our limited minds, was with God, and he was God. Not another God. The same one God. Jesus is not saying, I'm a God. He's not saying I'm a godlike creature. Jesus is not saying I'm an angel. He's saying I am. Modern scholars are sometimes a little slow to pick up on the fact that Jesus is claiming to be God here, but those old covenant Jews who misunderstood so much of what Jesus said and did, they got this one instantly. They had no doubts about what he meant here. They were confused even about the Sabbath here, but this one they got. They realize and they get angry because no one has the right to call himself God, but God alone. And how, they foolishly think, how could this poor man standing before us be God himself? So you think Jesus is not only a Sabbath-breaker, but a blasphemer. A blasphemer is someone who speaks irreverently and heretically about God, who speaks about God in a way they should never speak about God. And Jesus goes on in our passage to make it even more clear that he's claiming to be God. Most assuredly, Jesus says this, The son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the father do. For whatever he does, the son also does in like manner. For the father loves the son and shows him all things that he himself does. And he will show him greater works than these that you may marvel. For as the father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the son gives life to whom he will. For the father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the son, that all should honor the son just as they honor the father. He who does not honor the son does not honor the father who sent him. Jesus says, you're upset at me for working on the Sabbath, but I'm not doing anything that the Father isn't doing. We do the same exact works, and God is going to do even greater works than me. I'm sorry, even greater works through me than the one you just witnessed, and you'll marvel at it. Now, we might say, well, what greater work is that than healing a lame man on the Sabbath? That's an enormously wonderful, phenomenally great thing. Well, what does Jesus talk about next? Raising the dead. Of course, raising the dead is a greater work than healing a man who's still alive. Jesus says, I'll give life to whomever I will. Now, who is it? Who has the authority to raise the dead? Who is it that has absolute authority over the grave? Who is it that death poses no hindrance to whatsoever? Well, it's only God. Only God has the authority of life and death in His hands like that. Only God has the power to raise the dead. And Jesus says, Whomever I desire to raise from the dead, I will. Because I and the Father, He would say later, are one. I believe that primarily what Jesus has in view here, when he talks about these greater works of raising the dead, I think primarily what he has in view is the spiritual life that he gives to all of his children. How we are all dead in our trespasses and sins apart from Christ, but when Christ saves us, he brings us up from the dead. He raises us totally from the dead. Jesus and no one else gives new life to those who are his. And this new spiritual life is even better than physical life. Jesus did, of course, raise a number of people from physical death, from the grave. And that, of course, was His display of His divine power and of His mercy. But everyone in the Bible, except for Christ, everyone that was raised from the dead physically, that is, their body died, but He brought them back from death, everyone in that category still had to die again. Have you ever thought about that? Lazarus was raised from the dead. It was a great mercy to Martha and Mary. He had to die again. Jairus' daughter died again. The widow of Nain's son died again. These people, properly speaking, were not resurrected. They were really resuscitated, which is what happens when someone's body dies and then you bring them back for just a period of time, only for them to die again. These people were resuscitated. They had physical life brought back into them, but they lost it once more. But everyone, church, everyone that Christ gives spiritual life to is different. If Christ gives someone spiritual life, they can never spiritually die again. Never. They're not just resuscitated. They're completely and wholly revived. When you were born again, you were born, as Peter says, not of corruptible seed, not a seed that can go bad or get sick or die, but of incorruptible seed through the word of God, which lives and abides forever. I can give life, Jesus says, that can never ever be taken away. The lame man at the Pool of Bethesda eventually died. And before he died, he probably, like most of us, declined in health. Maybe he got quite sick. Maybe he lost the ability to walk again. And before his death, he even became lame, just as he was before. In one sense or another, he did ultimately return to his previous condition. And then a worse thing did befall him because he died. But Jesus says he can do greater works than this because his father can do greater works than this, than just resuscitating a man or bringing him back to health. Jesus and his father give people life that is incorruptible, imperishable, and unfading. I think that's Jesus's primary meaning when he speaks of giving life to whom he will, being a greater work that his father performs. But I think we can also look at these words of Christ and be reminded of the great truth of Christ's resurrection himself, his bodily resurrection. That in fact is the greatest work that Jesus performed while he was on earth. The Bible is clear that God the Father raised Jesus from the dead. The Bible is also clear that Jesus himself raised himself from the dead. He said, I have authority to lay down my life and I have authority to take it back up again. And when he rose up from the grave on that first sanctified Lord's Day 2000 years ago, he was not merely resuscitated. He rose rather as the first fruits of the eternal resurrection that one day all of his children will share in, both body and soul. And this work of raising from the dead, more than any other work, causes people to marvel at Jesus. If there was any doubt that people had about Jesus' identity, if any other of the amazing miracles did not quite convince people as to who He was, the resurrection was an infallible proof that this was in fact the Son of God. And Christ here not only shows His authority, His divinity, and His unity with the Father, but also here we see Christ's exclusivity. That's our next sermon point, that Christ here shows His exclusivity. Now that's a big word. That means that Jesus' love for his people is for a limited or exclusive group of people. It's not for everyone regardless of what they do or what they believe or what they think. His love is exclusive. It's for a particular group of people and not everyone gets to be in that group. Not everyone is included in Jesus's special mercy. Verses 22 and 23 that I just read say this, I'll read it one more time. For the father judges no one but has committed all judgment to the son, that all should honor the son just as they honor the father. He who does not honor the son does not honor the father who sent him. Here Jesus says that the Father has given the Son the unique authority to sit on the heavenly throne at judgment day and pronounce who will enter eternal joy and who will be cast into the lake of fire. What amazing authority and what amazing proof yet again that Jesus and God are one being. No one but God could do that. Jesus is the judge of the universe, and we must honor him, as our text says, just as we honor God the Father. God the Father does not receive any more honor than Jesus Christ. You might sometimes have heard even, even truly born again Christians can actually make the mistake of thinking, well, because Jesus submits to the Father and because the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, therefore the Father should get the most glory. He's the Father after all. The Son should get glory, but certainly a little less. And then the Spirit, perhaps the lowest of all. But Jesus is crystal clear. It is the Father's will, the Father's will, that the Son receive the same honor, glory, and praise as Himself. That the Son receive the same as the Father. Jesus does not receive any less glory than the Father. Why? Because they are one. Because they are one. The Father, the Spirit, and the Son are not three different beings. They are one God. And therefore, if you do not honor the Son, Jesus Christ, it is impossible impossible for you to honor the Father. You cannot get to God without going through the Son. No one comes to the Father, Jesus would say elsewhere, except through me. And this cannot be done unknowingly. Now, what do I mean by that? Unknowingly, unknowingly honoring the Son. There are those that believe in the church. Actually, the Pope made a big deal about this recently. He really made a big mistake here. There are those that believe that, yes, Jesus is the only one that saves, Jesus and God are one, yes, but you can still be confused about Jesus being Lord, and nevertheless, you can be saved by him. You can be what's called an anonymous Christian. This is the doctrine that's descended from the Second Vatican Council of the Roman Catholic Church. You can maybe in name be a Muslim or a Hindu or whatever, but really without even knowing it, you can be serving and being saved by Christ. That is the theology of our much beloved C.S. Lewis, as displayed so clearly in that final judgment scene in the last battle, where the man thought he was serving Tash all his life, but lo and behold, he was serving Aslan. It might sound sentimental, but there's nothing good and true about that account. This is the theology, however, of many pastors and theologians and Christians all over the world. But Jesus here says so clearly, this is impossible. This is not how it works. This type of thinking is a deadly lie. If you do not honor Christ in this life, he will not save you. He will not give life to you. He will exclude you. Jesus' love is exclusive. He will not honor you if you do not honor him. Now this does not mean that Jesus is not going to save people unless they obey his law perfectly. No, no, no, no, no. He knows that that's impossible for his creatures. He did that for us. He obeyed the law perfectly for us. Remember what we discussed earlier, no one can be sinlessly perfect in this life. It is impossible. But what it does mean, It doesn't mean you have to have perfect obedience to be saved. What it does mean is that if you do not trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and God, you cannot be saved. And when you stand before Christ as your judge on judgment day, you will not be accepted into his eternal kingdom. There will be no anonymous Christians. There will be no one surprised that Jesus is on that throne and that he is saving them. There will be no Christians who really believed in Christ even though they didn't know it. It's a very strange doctrine. I don't know how anyone could have been convinced of that reading the Bible to begin with. Everyone whom God has appointed to eternal life, will receive in this life the gift of faith in his son. And nothing, nothing, nothing can stop God's plans of saving his people. If he has elected you, he will give you the gift of faith. Not even the spiritual death that all of us are born into or the innumerable sins that all of us commit could stop God from saving every one of his children. And that brings us to the final point of our sermon today, and that is this, Christ shows us the proper use of the Sabbath. In this narrative, Christ shows us the proper use of the Sabbath. Jesus does not assert that he works on the Sabbath because he's God and therefore he doesn't have to obey the law because he's above the law. No, he asserts that he works on the Sabbath because as God's son, he always does the works of God. And the works of God are the perfect fulfillment and perfect display of the righteousness that the law requires. God will never ever break his own law. I heard a pastor recently say that God broke the law for love. That is heresy. God will never break the law. He can't break the law. God can only do his holy will. That doesn't limit God. It's a revelation of who God is. God's law is a reflection and a revelation of his character. How could God act contrary to God? God will never break his own law. He will never negotiate with his own holiness. The Jews of Jesus's day were in one sense very strict with their Sabbath keeping, but they were so woefully mistaken as to how particularly the Sabbath should be kept. The Ten Commandments were written in stone, and they were placed inside the Ark of the Covenant, showing that keeping these commandments were the unchanging standard by which we must live and honor God. that God's covenant people were to look here at these tablets for how to live rightly before their creator and redeemer. But the interesting thing about the Sabbath command, that when the Sabbath commandment was originally given in Exodus chapter 20 on Mount Sinai, the reason God says that his creatures must keep this day holy is because God created the heavens and the earth in six days, and then he rested from his work of creation on the seventh. So from the dawn of time, humans were to work for six days and then rest on the seventh. But in the second giving of the law in Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy is just a word that means second law. Moses is, all of Deuteronomy is basically just Moses preaching to Israel about the will of God for them. And he repeats the 10 commandments in his sermon. And for nine of them, Moses repeats them almost word for word from the original commandments written on stone. He does like very slightly expand the fifth commandment to honor your father and mother just by inserting the phrase that it may go well with you. But really there's no change. Nine of these 10 commandments, it's almost word for word the same. But with the fourth commandment, that's the Sabbath command, we see a significant difference between Deuteronomy and Exodus. In the original giving of the law, what is actually written on the stone tablets, God says you must keep the Sabbath holy for in six days the Lord made the heaven and the earth. God is pointing back to creation. He's pointing back to this pattern laid down on that first creation week for why we should keep the Sabbath holy. We should follow in the footsteps of our creator. But in Deuteronomy, Moses says this, you must keep the Sabbath holy, quote, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and the Lord your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm. Therefore, the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. So what's Moses doing here? Why would he say something different than what God originally wrote? Well, in the first giving of the law, God emphasizes that the Sabbath should be kept holy to honor God's work of creation and to follow in God's example of resting. But in the second giving of the law, Moses emphasizes that the Sabbath should also be kept, also be kept holy to honor God's work of redemption and to follow in God's example of being merciful. So creation and rest are on display in Exodus and then in Deuteronomy, Moses puts redemption and mercy on display. So when Jesus made a point of healing on the Sabbath, he was not breaking the law in the slightest. He was fulfilling the law by showing that the Sabbath was about mercy and redemption. It wasn't only about ceasing from all your activities and being inactive. It was about not only loving God even through worship, but also about loving your fellow man. So now Christians observe the Sabbath on the first day of the week to honor God's new work of creation in Christ and to remember the culmination of the greatest work of redemption and mercy that the world has ever seen or that has ever been accomplished by God, namely the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So contrary to Jewish opinion, we don't only observe the Sabbath by ceasing from all labor. That's what the Jews were concerned about. You told someone to walk. and carry a burden, which isn't actually forbidden in the law of God. It's the rabbinic tradition that you could not carry a burden on the Sabbath. But contrary to their opinion. It's not only about ceasing from labor, though physically resting is an important and key element of Sabbath keeping, and we don't only observe the Sabbath by attending the public worship of God, though this is also shown in our narrative today and elsewhere as very important for keeping the Sabbath holy, but we also observe the Sabbath by being merciful to one another. Showing mercy is one of the greatest ways that we can follow in the footsteps of Jesus. For a personal example, for our congregation, I was so happy last week that we were all able to come to worship and praise God, even in the midst of the craziness of the storm. And then after we worshiped, we went back to the White's and we had lunch. It was really great and a great time of fellowship. And I noticed Noah, who's sitting right across from me, is like hustling through his food. And I'm just over here like relaxing, just eating my food slowly. Why is he hustling through his food? It's because the young men of our congregation, they left lunch early to go work. to go get dirty and get tired and serve the people of our community who had been affected by the hurricane. They were not breaking the Sabbath by getting in their cars and driving around and doing all these things. And they weren't doing some approved exception of the Sabbath either. Works of necessity and mercy are not an exception to the Sabbath. In fact, actions like that are a fulfillment of the Sabbath command. to be merciful to those who need mercy, to love those who are within your sphere of influence, to serve your fellow man. It's something that God's people need to be reminded of. Frankly, most modern Christians are Sabbath breakers in the sense that they don't treat the Lord's Day as special at all. They don't prioritize Lord's Day worship, or even if they do, it's the Lord's morning. and then the afternoon is spent watching football or NASCAR or going to the store or catching up on whatever tasks they need to do for Monday. But sometimes, even the modern Christians that emphasize, many of our Presbyterian and Reformed brothers, they emphasize a strict observance of the Sabbath. They sometimes think that, well, the Sabbath is all about my personal commitment to Jesus and my personal worship and relationship with Christ, but the Sabbath, Jesus is so clear, is also about how you treat others. Are you not only resting on the Lord's Day, but also showing mercy and working to ensure that others can rest and enjoy the blessing of Christ's redemption as well as you? So on this Lord's Day today, I want us all to meditate well on Christ's authority, on Christ's divinity, on his unity with God the Father, on his exclusivity as our Lord and Savior, And as we rest and reflect on His goodness, let us also follow in His example of showing mercy and love to those around us. Let's pray. God, we thank you for your goodness in revealing yourself to us through this wonderful miracle of healing a man and this wonderful rebuke that you gave through your assertion of your own identity as Lord and Savior to these Jews who totally misunderstood, who did not understand who you were as the almighty God, and who did not understand what it meant to fulfill the Sabbath and love God and love our neighbor, which is in fact the fulfilling of the whole law. God, we ask your continued blessing now as we sing to you, as we receive your blessing, as we dine at your table. In Christ's name.