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Here's one that hurts, but I know it's meant in good spirit. Methodologically speaking, what the Pharisees were doing with the Sabbath, remember in Mark's gospel, isn't it pretty much what the Westminster standards do? No! is the answer. Now, I will say that we get this at Presbytery. You get some snarky hipster guy, and he takes an exception, not to the Sabbath. This has been proved. You cannot be licensed in our Presbytery and deny the Sabbath. But they take an exception to the recreation clause. And so many people do it that it kind of goes over. But then the young guy fresh out of his seminary goes, that's because the Westminster divines were Pharisees. And I go, OK, don't blame me for what's about to happen. in the next half hour. I mean, I'm like, you should have stopped while you were ahead. No. Now bear in mind with the Pharisees, there's two big things going on. One is they believe, and they're coming out of the Hasmonean era, and they believe that they need to get the Messiah to come, as they wrongly conceive of it, and the kingdom of God to come, and particularly the Sabbath. Why? Because when Judas Maccabeus against Atticus Epiphanes, one of the things that they were dying for they literally died for was they would not violate the Sabbath. God bless them. If you read 1 Maccabees, an unbiblical but a very interesting and reliable historical record, it's thumbs up on the Maccabees. And so that becomes a huge part of their piety and so far so good. But they de-spiritualize it. That's the biggest problem we did, I think. It wasn't about God's wrath. It's just a rule. It's just a transactional thing. And it's just total behaviorism. And then they create all their rules, so what they do is they fence the law. Well, the Bible says you shall not work, so what's work? Well, and so they give all these, you know, tying your shoes, that's work. 600 and whatever it is, classes of it, and all these rules. And so they've totally behaviorized it. They've made it more burdensome to the people. And they've disconnected it from any notion of grace. Westminster standards are not doing that. In fact, a larger catechism devotes a whole whopping three questions. Three questions. You know, the question and answer. There's three questions about observing the Sabbath. It's not 650. It's like this much of text. So it's not like the Pharisees, which I mean is they're not being nitpicky. They're not trying to take control of every aspect of life. In fact, the things that they mention are the things that the Bible mentions, and the categories, and they don't fence the law. So the Westminster divines do not give a code, and that means that, you know, you can only walk so far. That means, you know, as long as your knee's only bent at a 45-degree angle, they don't give me any of that. They go through the biblical data, and it's not just the Fourth Commandment itself. It's things like Isaiah 58, which is called the Sabbath of the Light, and those sorts of things. They do not create a detailed code. But most importantly, they stress the spiritual nature of it, the positive aspect, the market day of the soul, the privilege of having a day out of seven to commune with God and to be with His people is completely different from the Pharisees. And they did not usurp God's authority by creating their own laws, rules, but they explain what Scripture actually says about it. We don't currently have any, we have some seminary students. I recommend in your presbytery floor examination that you not say, well, the Westerners are divine for just like the Pharisees on the Sabbath. Don't blame me for what happens next if you do.
Pharisees & the Divines on the Sabbath
Series Ask the Pastor
Sermon ID | 119231431291142 |
Duration | 03:53 |
Date | |
Category | Question & Answer |
Language | English |
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