and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the 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. So turn forward with me now from the book of Genesis all the way through the Old Testament into the New and to the Gospel of Mark, chapters 2 and 3. We'll read beginning in chapter 2 and verse 23. One Sabbath, he, and now for some important context, the he there is Jesus. One Sabbath, he was going through the grain fields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. And the Pharisees were saying to him, look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath? And he said to them, have you never read what David did when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him, how he entered the house of God in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him. And he said to them, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath. Again, he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. And they watched Jesus to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man with the withered hand, come here. And he said to them, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill? But they were silent. And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, stretch out your hand. He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him. How to destroy him. Please pray with me. Gracious Heavenly Father, who made the heavens and the earth in the space of six days and rested on the seventh. What an extraordinary thing, O Lord, that as human beings made in the image of God, you call us into your Sabbath rest. That is the goal and purpose of our existence, Lord God, to enter into your rest and to abide with you forever. And we praise you that in the Lord Jesus Christ, a rest that we forfeited has been regained and secured for us by our Savior. We praise you that there yet remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. And that on that day, we shall at last rest from our earthly labors and we shall be like you. Lord Jesus, we shall be like you, for we shall see you as you are. We long for that day, and we pray that as we consider the glory of the meaning and significance of the Sabbath day in our lives, that we would set our hearts yet even more fixedly, oh Lord, on the rest that you have promised in Christ. And we pray this in his name, amen. We return this morning to the seventh day of creation, the day on which God finished his work and rested from all of his work that he had done. Last week, when we looked at Genesis 2, verses one through three, we thought about the theology of the Sabbath. In other words, what is the meaning of the Sabbath day? What is the overarching significance of the Sabbath in the plan of God for human beings with regard to both creation and redemption. And we can't go through all of that wonderful material again, but we need to bring it all with us this morning as we turn now from considering the meaning of the Sabbath to the keeping of the Sabbath. What does it mean for us now as New Covenant believers to keep Sabbath? As divine image bearers, our God rested from his labors and we are called likewise to keep Sabbath. He has blessed the Sabbath day, he has sanctified it. What does it mean for us as image bearers to keep it? Now, of course, that is a huge topic that would take many sermons to thoroughly treat, but we will begin at least the conversation this morning from the Word of God. And now I have a goal for us. Once both of these sermons, last week's sermon on the Sabbath day, this morning's sermon on the Sabbath day, I have a goal for us. Once they're finished, they're behind us, something that I want to linger and to work itself out in our lives. Now, before I get straight to that goal, a little bit of context. When you hear the word Sabbath, or to put it even more generally, when the word Sabbath is spoken, what do most people think about? Where does your mind go? Or better yet, when you hear the phrase Sabbath-keeping. Right? Minds go to a list of do's and don'ts. What am I supposed to do? What am I not supposed to do? we can be bent toward an inordinate preoccupation with Sabbath-keeping as little or nothing more than just a list of do's and don'ts. What you're supposed to do, and then maybe some special emphasis, what you're not supposed to do on the Sabbath. And maybe, to some degree or another, that's true for you this morning. When you think about keeping Sabbath, it's more or less just about a list of do's and don'ts. And what I want us to see this morning is that that is a dangerous spiritual place for us to be. because one of two things will happen. One, the Sabbath will become for us a bludgeon that we use to beat other Christians that have a different list than us. Or two, the Sabbath will become an insufferable burden to us that we'll want to tear off of our shoulders and be free of. So I mentioned a moment ago that I had a goal for us, and here's what it is, with that little bit of context, that we would experience, as necessary, a complete paradigm shift in how we think about the Sabbath day. not primarily as a day of do's and don'ts, but primarily as a day of glory and salvation. Now, please don't mishear me, because if we have a biblical view of the Sabbath as a day of glory and salvation, then we will absolutely be compelled by the Spirit to examine our Sabbath keeping. We will absolutely take stock of, well, are there things we're not doing that we need to start doing to keep this day holy? Are there things that we are doing that we need to stop doing in order to keep this day holy? That will happen. My point is that that is not where we must start. We must start with being captured by and enthralled with the beauty of the day as a precious gift that God has given to us to teach us about the goal and purpose of human existence. And that's where we have to start bringing in everything from last week, right? God on the seventh day, having completed his work, he entered into his rest. We read from Genesis 2, and we went to Hebrews 4, and we saw how the author of Hebrews brings in Psalm 95, right? To teach this incredible reality that God is calling us into his rest. The verses here in Genesis 2, they're not only descriptive of what God has done, Amazingly, they are also prescriptive. They tell us what God is calling us to do as his image bearers. We are called to enter into his rest, a rest that is yet future, the eternal Sabbath of the life that is to come, but that Jesus Christ has secured for us and gives to his people. as a precious gift of redemption. Hebrews 4 9, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. And the dynamic in our present lives is simple, remember. We still have a one-day-in-seven Sabbath observance because we're not yet in glory. And so long as we are not yet in glory, we need the blessing of the Sabbath day, which in the new covenant we have blessedly as the Lord's day, the day of new creation, the day on which our Savior rose again from the dead. And so the author of Hebrews concludes, verse 11, let us therefore strive to enter that rest, that no one might fall by the same sort of disobedience. And it's an amazing thing to think about. When we think about striving to enter God's rest, what does that mean for us? What is our striving as New Covenant believers? We strive, brothers and sisters, to cling. to cling to Jesus. We don't strive as though in our own strength we're going to scrap our way into God's rest. No, we strive to cling. We strive in order to abide in the Lord Jesus Christ. We strive to flee to him as our tower of refuge and to hide in him as he keeps us under the shadow of his wings. Christ has done all, and we strive as New Covenant believers simply to abide in the Lord Jesus Christ. In the storms and temptations and trials of this life, we strive to cling to him and to abide in him. Now, we read this morning from the Gospel of Mark, chapters two and three, and I want us to spend some time thinking about those passages. It's a bit of an extended introduction, so I'm going to read again from Mark, chapter two. Not every verse, but remember the context? It's the Sabbath day, Jesus and his disciples are walking through the grain fields, plucking heads of grain, and the Pharisees say, look, we got him. They're doing that which is unlawful on the Sabbath. And listen again to Jesus' response. Have you never read what David did when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him? how he entered the house of God in the time of Abiathar, the high priest, and ate the bread of the presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priest to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him. And he said to them, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath. Now, what I'd like us to do in addition to Mark chapter two, is read a passage from Matthew chapter 12. Because Matthew gives to us the same account, but Jesus said more on that occasion that Mark does not include, but that Matthew does. Have you not read what David did when he was hungry and those who were with him, how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? Or have you not read in the law how on the Sabbath, the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. And if you had known what this means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. Now there's a lot in both of those passages that we cannot consider now this morning in this context. But I do want us to see the force of the exact point at which Jesus presses the Pharisees for their self-righteousness. They were quick to condemn others for Sabbath-breaking, but according to their man-made rules, according to that which they had added onto the Scriptures, And what they had done was in their zeal to uphold their own rules, they had neglected what Jesus will call later in Matthew's gospel, the weightier matters of the law. Do you remember that phrase that Jesus uses? Matthew chapter 23. In that great discourse where Jesus brings divine condemnation against the Pharisees for their hypocrisy. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you tithe mint and dill and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faithfulness. Justice and mercy and faithfulness. That's the force of what Jesus says there in verse 7 of Matthew chapter 12. If you had known what this means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the guiltless. The Pharisees had become so exercised about their set of rules concerning what Sabbath-keeping is supposed to look like, that they were completely blind to the fact that they were withholding from others the weightier matters of the law. They were withholding justice, they were denying mercy, and they were forsaking faithfulness. They were blind to their hypocrisy because of their zeal for their man-made rules. And therefore they condemn the guiltless. But Jesus has an important reminder for them, as recorded both in Matthew and in Mark. The Son of Man is the Lord of the Sabbath. It's just, at the end of the day, the most... It would be funny if it wasn't so blasphemous and idolatrous. He created the Sabbath. They're standing before the one through whom and for whom all things were made, and they are lecturing him about Sabbath-keeping? No, Jesus says, for I am the Lord of the Sabbath. I am the very God who on the seventh day finished his work and entered into his rest. Now, another thing that means for us is when we hear Jesus proclaim that he is the Lord of the Sabbath, well, Jesus doesn't become the Lord of anything just to abolish it, you see. We do not read anywhere in Jesus' teaching that he abolishes the Sabbath. As the Lord of the Sabbath, He has come to rescue it. That's what He's doing in conversation here with the Pharisees. He is rescuing it and restoring it and explaining its true meaning and purpose. It made me think of a fun word that if you haven't heard it before, we can add it to the arsenal. If you ever heard the word repristinate, It's not used very much, but it's a wonderful word for this context because it means to restore something to its original purpose. That's what Jesus is doing here with the Sabbath. He's repristinating it. He's rescuing it from the spiritual abuse of the Pharisees, from the way they've twisted it and perverted it, and restoring it beautifully and gloriously to its original purpose. Now let's think some about Mark chapter three, verses one to six. It's still the Sabbath day. Jesus enters the synagogue and there's a man with a withered hand. And Jesus already knows, he knows what's in their hearts, right? He knows that they're watching him to see if he's going to heal that man on the Sabbath. And so he bids the man to come to him And then he addresses the crowds. Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm? To save life or to kill? And you see the effects of their self-righteousness in the deadness of the silence that follows Jesus' question. The Pharisees had become so self-obsessed with the man-made rules that they had used as a bludgeon to beat others, that when confronted with such a question, knowing its answer even in their heart of hearts, knowing the answer, they cannot speak a word. And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart. And I want to pause there for a moment. The way we approach Sabbath-keeping, if we follow the self-righteous ways of the Pharisees, we'll incur the anger of the Lord of the Sabbath, you see. He looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, stretch out your hand. And the Pharisees, they don't fall on their faces in repentance, but instead, due to that hardness of heart, they go out and they conspire with the Herodians, which is a story for another time, but the Pharisees and the Herodians would have never been caught dead talking to each other, but here they're so angry with the Lord of the Sabbath that they conspire, even with their enemies, how to destroy him. And again, what do we see in this passage? Jesus isn't, and now let's put our new word into use, he's not abolishing the Sabbath, he's repristinating it. He's taking it and rescuing it and restoring it to its original meaning and purpose. It is a day made for man, a day for justice and mercy and faithfulness. He doesn't attack the principle of Sabbath-keeping. He attacks those who have perverted Sabbath-keeping into something it was never meant to be. And so when we think in our own lives about keeping Sabbath, The worst thing we can do is to neglect the deep meaning and significance of the day in God's purposes and just go straight to a list of questions, or what we're supposed to do and what we're allowed to do, what we're not allowed to do. And yes, Sabbath-keeping means addressing those matters. but not as of primary importance, lest in the multiplication of rules, we forget the true meaning of the day and we slip into the self-righteousness of the Pharisees. And as we think about Sabbath-keeping, For all the members of this congregation, I'll remind all of us, myself included, of the fifth vow of the Covenant of Church membership. To the end that you may grow in the life, in the Christian life, do you promise that you will diligently read the Bible, engage in private prayer, keep the Lord's Day, regularly attend the worship services, observe the appointed sacraments, and give to the Lord's work as he shall prosper you. We have vowed before the Lord to keep holy his day. And so to that end, I want to give us two principles, two principles of Sabbath-keeping that we might glorify the Lord on the day that he has blessed and sanctified. Principle number one, call the day a delight. Do you remember that phrase from our scripture reading earlier? Isaiah chapter 58, verses 13 and 14. If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, and the holy day of the Lord honorable, if you honor it not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly, then you shall take delight in the Lord. And I will make you ride on the heights of the earth. I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. And in order to do that, brothers and sisters, we have to remember. And here's a good a time as any to remember the fourth commandment, which deals with the Sabbath keeping of God's people. It's the first commandment that is not phrased as a negative, thou shalt not. We get to the fourth commandment, and what does God say? Remember. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Remember it. The first commandment in the 10 commandments with a positive command. Well, why remember? Well, first of all, it's because we're prone to forget, right? As we live our lives in this world so filled with the mud and muck of sin, We forget. We forget the overarching purposes of God, why humanity was created, where we're headed, what we're called to do in this life. That's one of Satan's primary tactics, is to pile onto the church so much of the mud and muck of the world that we simply forget. And so the fourth commandment says, remember the Sabbath day. Well, why is that so important? It's because this day teaches us so much about God's purposes in humanity, where we're headed, and what His gracious purposes are for us. Call the day a delight. What loving child doesn't leap for joy at a thought of a day with their father, uniquely set apart to spend with their father? We call it special time in our house. Brothers and sisters, we have one day in seven of special time with our father. We are his children and we are to call the day a delight because he has given it to us as a precious gift for our growth in grace. That as divine image bearers redeemed by the blood of his Son, we might do as our Father does and strive to enter the rest to which we are called. Second principle, and it's a pair. So I'm sort of cheating, but I wanted to keep these two things joined together. So the second principle is a pair. Don't neglect Sabbath-keeping on the one hand, and don't twist and pervert Sabbath-keeping on the other. First, don't neglect Sabbath-keeping. In other words, we do, as we call the day a delight, we do then need to look at our lives, to examine our lives and our practices on the Lord's holy day. Don't neglect Sabbath keeping. And here's a question for us to maybe probe our hearts a little bit as to whether or not we're neglecting the Sabbath day. When was the last time you prayed for forgiveness, for a failure to remember the Sabbath day? When was the last time you prayed that God would sanctify your heart to keep the Lord's day as he has sanctified it and made it holy? We should be doing these things. If we are honestly examining our lives and our practices, we should be finding places where we need to repent and to ask the Lord's forgiveness for not remembering the Sabbath day. And we need to be praying to the Spirit that we would be sanctified in this matter, as we pray in all matters of God's law, that we might be sanctified according to the image of our Savior, that we would be more like Christ in our remembering of God's holy day. And so don't neglect Sabbath-keeping, but also don't twist and pervert Sabbath-keeping. This is why we spent the time we did in Mark chapters two and three. It's possible to, and notice the scare quotes, remember the Sabbath day. The Pharisees certainly hadn't forgotten the Sabbath day in terms of its existence. In fact, they delighted to remember it, but only according to their man-made rules, that they had turned into a bludgeon to beat others that didn't agree. And so we are not to neglect Sabbath-keeping, but neither are we then to twist and pervert it. And what we see tragically in the Pharisees is that as they used the Sabbath simply according to their man-made rules, it led to an entire overturning of the true purpose not just of the Sabbath day, but of all of God's law, the true purpose of God's law as a reflection of his heart and character. Remember the weightier things of the law, justice and mercy and faithfulness, in their self-righteous fastidiousness for their man-made rules. they had neglected the weightier matters, and had therefore turned God's law exactly contrary to its true purpose. It's meant to be a reflection of the God who is justice, and who shows mercy, and who practices faithfulness. But instead, they just used it for their own selfish purposes. Instead, we are to remember. We are to remember the Sabbath day as it points us and takes us to our Father, and reminds us of His purposes in human existence, and gives us an opportunity week by week to reorient ourselves to who we are in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you're struggling to call the Sabbath day a delight, think of it this way. Is life easy? Is that your testimony this morning? That going through the trials of this present age, it's just been a walk in the park and you haven't experienced any of the pain or suffering or tribulation of this broken age. That's not true for any of us, right? Week by week, right, days two through six, one after another after another, we are bombarded by the sin of man. The sin out in the world, the sin left in our own hearts. Man's power and plans and purposes, not for glory and peace and righteousness, but for his own self-exaltation and self-indulgence. But praise be to God, he's given us a day of rest from that, where we can come into his presence as the body of Christ to be reoriented to his purposes. and to what He's doing in all the earth, and to remember, because we forget. We forget there is so much in this world dragging us away from His grace and His glory. What a joy you see. What a delight to have a day of rest that we might remember what He has done for us, what He is doing in us, and what He will do with us when the Lord Jesus comes on that day to be glorified in His saints. And one last reminder for us, Christ is our Sabbath keeper. When you examine your heart and you find, Lord, I have not remembered the day as I should. Christ is your righteousness with regard to the fourth command, just as much as he is your righteousness with regard to the other nine. He is our Sabbath keeper. and he is the Lord of the Sabbath. And we celebrate this one day of rest in seven in anticipation of the eternal Sabbath that Christ our Lord will bring to us. Let us call it a delight and let us rejoice in his day. Let's pray together. Gracious heavenly Father, We are yet sojourners and pilgrims in a land that is not our eternal home. We are simply making our way through, Lord God. And there are many difficulties, many dangers, many trials. What joy and what blessing that on the midst of our pilgrimage, you have given us one day in seven to remember, to reorient ourselves to your grace in the gospel of Jesus Christ and your purpose to bring us into that eternal rest. And we thank you, Father, that Christ has done all. that the Son of Man is the Lord of the Sabbath, and it is His great purpose to bring us to be with Him where He is, and to see the glory that He has had with His Father from before the foundation of the world. Let us call this day a delight, for the new creation has begun. and we await our Savior to bring us home to himself. We pray this in his name. Amen.