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Please open your Bibles to Deuteronomy
chapter 5 and we'll be reading verses 12 to 15. This is of course the fourth
commandment. Verse 12, observe the Sabbath
day to keep it holy. As the Lord your God commanded
you, six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the
seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. you shall
do no work. You, nor your son, nor your daughter,
nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your ox,
nor your donkey, nor any of your cattle, nor your stranger who
is within your gates, 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, by an outstretched arm. Therefore,
the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day." Let's
pray. Oh Lord, that we had such a heart
in us that we might fear you. and keep all Your commandments
which You've commanded us, that it may be well with us and with
our children forever. Lord, protect our hearts in this
time. Protect my tongue. Help us to
see the heart of the matter in this very disruptive commandment. Amen. We have another opportunity
to stand before God and His Word to be informed and also reformed
regarding the Sabbath. After all, tis the season for
afternoon soccer, for 24-hour businesses, and for the sacred,
most highly attended Sabbath day of the church calendar year,
the sacred Super Bowl. This commandment marks our distinctiveness
among our neighbors. The rest of the world would rather
golf or spend a dollar or do anything else than to use their
time this way regarding the Sabbath. After all, we have many mentors
in this life. Many rich and famous and powerful
men like Bill Gates who would say, just in terms of time allocation
of resources, religion is not very efficient. There's a lot
more I could be doing on a Sunday morning. And so we have many
role models regarding this principle that we find here. And we are
faced, first of all, with a direct command in verse 12. if you look
at it, observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy as the Lord your
God commanded you. This obviously is an imperative. By the way, it's the longest
commandment. And it reaches into every day
of the week. It reaches into every home in the world. It reaches
across all culture and business lines. And it's also for the
family. It's a command for the family. It's a way that a man
and a wife would govern their household. Everyone under their
household, a husband and wife are placed as authorities over
their households. And all those under their government
also are to fall in line with this great commandment. It's
a very challenging commandment. I think we should acknowledge
that. Yesterday on Saturday, my fellow
Elder Jason Dome and I were corresponding on the Fourth Commandment just
briefly, and he asked me how my studies were going. And I
replied that I was so thankful to have such a kind blessing
from God as the Sabbath day for such a people as we are, a distracted,
storm-tossed, harried, often beaten down people that we need
a day. of rest like this, and he replied
to my email, he said, too bad it doesn't apply to today. It applies to tomorrow. That's
what he said yesterday. So, when we come to this commandment
in the sequence of our study, we're forced to consider many
relevant issues. Let me tell you how this command
affects me as a man, as a child of God. It's on this day, on
this day, For 40 years, God has blessed me with 40 years of Sabbath
days where I had a consciousness and a love for God in my heart. Where I celebrated the Sabbath
day from my heart. Not only was this the day that
Jesus was resurrected, not only was this the day that the Holy
Spirit was poured out, not only was this the day in time past
where the apostles gathered money for the poor and for the needs
of the church, But for me, for Scott Brown, this has been the
day where I have been taught for 40 years. I've been confronted
here on this day. This is a day of mercy, because
I've been taught many things that were over my head, or over
my heart, and I wasn't understanding, I wasn't applying. God continued
to have mercy on me though. He continued to teach me, even
though I didn't get it, many things. Even though I fell short
and had many gaps in my knowledge about things, He continued on
these Sabbath days to teach me, to keep pouring into me even
though I was clueless in so many areas. It was a day of mercy
and will continue to be a day of mercy for all of us as we
sit under the teaching of the Word of God. And we'll get all
we can. We'll get all that God will reveal
to us. And yet there's still more. And so there's another day of
mercy ahead where God doesn't say, you don't get it, you're
out of here. No, He doesn't do that at all.
He says, come unto me, I will teach you. My burden is light
and I will instruct you and I will teach you in the way in which
you should go. It's been a day of friendship
for me where Many relationships have changed my life, changed
the direction of my life. I think of the many dear brothers
and sisters in the church who have had such a profound effect
on my life, and my life has gone in a good direction as a result
of their influence and their presence in my life. I think
of the Sabbath days celebrated in my home church in California,
in Calvary Church of Placentia. where my dear and faithful pastor,
John Tabay, engaged his teaching of the Word of God and collected
me up into his life and lived before me in a way on the Sabbath
day and in the days in between and in calling me, calling me
each Sunday to come and find myself in the fellowship of the
church. On this day, I've been nourished,
I've been cherished, I've been washed, I've been discipled. This is a very sweet, sweet day
to me, as I look back on 40 years of Sabbaths, where God has always
cared for this child of His. And I'm so grateful for it. I'm
grateful to be here, even today, to speak about these very precious
things. This commandment, though, has
many challenges connected to it. First of all, it forces us,
it jams us into a box canyon to try to force an issue to the
surface on how we view the whole Bible. You can't read this commandment
without having to think about the whole testimony of the Old
and the New Testaments. And secondly, we have to consider
our own traditions. It's very challenging. We've
all grown up in different ways thinking about this day, and
so our personal perspectives, traditions, patterns, perhaps
even idolatries are connected to this day that we have. And it challenges our understanding
of the term rest. What is it? Is it leisure? Does
it have anything to do with slothfulness? Is rest corresponding to sleep
or couch potatoing your day away? Is that what it is? It forces
us to consider lots of different issues. We're forced to ask our
believers under this commandment and many other questions that
are associated with that one. Now, it's also a threatened commandment
because here, We are commanded to keep it, to guard it, because
it wants to run away. It wants to cease. And it means
that we have to build a fence around it and not allow anything
else to run over it. Because there's a public war
and a private heart war against this commandment in us. With
all the commandments, the devil is always waging war. And it
is true with the fourth commandment. He places many stumbling stones
in our way to keep this commandment, to disfigure it, to eliminate
it, or to keep us from it. And so we're commanded to observe
it, to keep it going. You know, in the French Revolution,
they abolished the Sabbath. Because they believed, as the
pagan Enlightenment philosopher Voltaire said, that if you wish
to destroy the Christian religion, you first must destroy the Christian
Sunday. If you want to destroy Christianity,
it helps to destroy the Sabbath day. And that it would not be
holy. There's so many things coming
at us regarding the Sabbath day. Fear. Fear would overrun it. Our greed would overturn it.
Our obsessions would overwhelm it. Our ungodliness would overthrow
it. These are the things that happen
to us as we attempt to keep this commandment. It has to be kept
safe from the barbarians of the heart and of the culture that
would seek to destroy it. And believe me, there are many
sweet things that would seek to destroy it and poison it.
Many lawful things would want to harm it and not keep it holy,
not keep it completely dedicated unto the things that it was created
for. Further, let's consider this.
This is a life and death issue. We know from the overall context
of this commandment is the Ten Commandments, but it's the whole
testimony of the book of Deuteronomy and the speeches that contain
the threatenings and the warnings and the blessings that are there.
In Deuteronomy 30, 19, Moses sums it up. He says, I call heaven
and earth as witnesses today against you. that I have set
before you life and death, blessings and curses. Therefore, choose
life that both you and your descendants may live, that you may love the
Lord your God and that you may obey his voice and that you may
cling to him for he is your life and the length of your days,
that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your
fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to give them. This is a life
and death issue. The fourth commandment isn't
just some interesting thing to discuss or to consider from a
theological standpoint. It's something that has to do
with life and death for the family and for the individual in the
family. There are so many amazing things
that I have ended up reading this week regarding the Sabbath
day. Thomas Watson said, The Jews
call the Sabbath the day of light, so on this day the sun of righteousness
shines upon the soul. The Sabbath is the market day
of the soul, the cream of time. How's that? It is the day of
Christ rising from the grave and the Holy Ghost descending
upon the earth. It is perfumed with the sweet
odor of prayer, which goes up to heaven as incense. On this
day manna falls, that is angels' food. This is the soul's festival
day on which the graces act their part. That's Thomas Watson. the
great Puritan. I personally have the identical
understanding of the Sabbath as many of the Puritans did,
as did Thomas Watson. Thomas Watson said this, when
we are about the Sabbath exercises, we are dressing ourselves and
putting on our wedding robes in which we are to meet with
our heavenly bridegroom, the Lord Jesus. And is this not delightful? On the Sabbath, God makes a feast
of fat things. He feasts the ear with the Word,
and the heart with His grace. Well, then we may call the Sabbath
a delight, to find His holy delight, to be in the Spirit on the Lord's
Day. Now, if you're familiar with
what Scripture says about the Sabbath, you know that Watson
imported many phrases from passages of Scripture all over the New
and the Old Testaments. Jonathan Edwards, the Christian
Sabbath is one of the most precious enjoyments of the visible church. Christ showed his love to his
church by instituting it, and it becomes the Christian church
to be thankful for it. The very name of this day, the
Lord's Day, Or Jesus Day should endear it to Christians and it
intimates the special relation it has to Christ. And so the
design of it, which the commemoration of our dear Savior and his love
to his church in redeeming it is there. And so. On and on I have pages of these
very blessed quotes. Jonathan Edwards says this, no
Christian therefore should rest till he has satisfactorily discovered
the mind of God on this matter. If the Christian Sabbath be a
divine institution, it is doubtless of great importance to religion
that it be well kept. And therefore, that every Christian
be well acquainted with this institution. And he goes on to
say, forget what your parents said about it. Forget what your
surrounding friends do about it. Look to what Scripture says
about it. And then he goes on and he makes
an argument that the Christian Sabbath is a reality that it
does apply to today and that it should be kept holy from all
other engagements except for the things determined in Scripture. Now, not only is it a threatened
commandment, it's also a threatening commandment. It's possible to
break the Sabbath even while sitting in church. And there
are many judgments against it. While sitting in church, one
may be constantly thinking about their work and detached from
the glory of God. You may be breaking the Sabbath
at this very moment. The wrath of God may be upon
many of us in this room because we're breaking the Sabbath even
though our bodies are here. We're having an out-of-body experience.
We're walking through Walmart instead of actually being here.
We may be transported into a game or a financial statement or something
like that. Thomas Watson has, I believe,
over a dozen ways that Christians break the Sabbath while they
are at church. One may be moving the mouth and
singing and yet having an out-of-body experience at the Super Bowl.
In the same way that you can be a murderer and never actually
kill someone, in the same way that you can be an adulterer
and never find yourselves in the arms of a harlot, you can
be an idolater without finding yourself bowing in front of a
statue. You can be a Sabbath breaker
by not making it holy, by not giving it its focus that it was
intended. Another thing just to say about
this commandment is that it's consistent with the other nine.
All the commandments are for blessing and all of them can
be summarized by the word love. And so, with the fourth commandment,
we go deeper into the loving heart of God, His desire for
His children to regulate their lives in a way that's wiser than
any way that they could even conceive of in their own brains.
And so, God desires rest for His children. A tender-hearted,
nourishing God desires His children to break away from their own
ways and enter into His ways. To think His thoughts, not their
own. His words, not their own, to
do something better, to upgrade their weak in a way that would
be a blessing. And so this command is intended
to give a rhythm that would be a blessing to us. It's designed
to exercise our use of time in a way that would nourish our
souls and refresh us, so we wouldn't find ourselves living our lives
any old way we wish, but we would find something greater. than
what a human mind could conceive of. We so exalt our own thoughts
about life that we think that we do better on our own. Poor God. He has such limiting
ways. And yet, that's not true at all.
Poor us for how limiting we are. And how wise and perfect God
is in all of His ways. And so, it is consistent with
all the other nine. And so He, in this commandment,
brings us to the reality that we would not bow down to our
own logic about this life and about our schedules, but that
our feelings would be found, put under His authority. And that we would find that God
would call us out of fear for our provision, out of senseless,
meaningless activity, into depth and neat. and something very
nourishing for the soul, and to keep us from laboring on atheistically. Another element of this commandment
that is so critical to understand is that the breaking of it brings
judgment. You remember in Numbers 15 when
we were moving through the Pentateuch, the man who was gathering sticks
on the Sabbath day was killed. Is the Sabbath a big deal? I
think it is. I don't think we find anything
in Scripture to say that the Sabbath doesn't apply to very
much. It has enormous significance.
Another element that we need to consider is that the Sabbath
was given for rest. God would keep His people from
ceaseless labor. He would keep us from workaholism.
That there remains a rest for the people of God, so says the
writer of Hebrews. For he who has entered his rest
has himself ceased from all his works. as God did from His. And so, God brings His people
out of workaholism and into a time of rest. Christ fulfills, of
course, all the commandments. And when one comes to Christ,
he receives rest eternally. God is the God of rest, keeping
us from all workaholism. Another thing that we need to
consider is this. The Sabbath is one of the clearest examples
of how Jesus interpreted the law. If you want to know how
Jesus viewed the law, here's one place that you can go. This
is a very important subject in our day, in the day of antinomianism,
the day which hates the Old Testament, the day that says that all the
commandments have passed away. If you want to know how the law
applies, look at how Jesus applies it. Look at how the Apostle Paul
applies it. They apply it. They don't chuck
it. They work it in everyday life. And so, Jesus provides us one
of the clearest examples of how the law should interpret it. Now, we should ask ourselves
this question. We who might think or have always
thought that the Sabbath doesn't apply. If so, why is it that
for 2,000 years of church history, the church has been celebrating
the Sabbath on Sunday? To say that the Sabbath is not
for today is to overthrow about 2,000 years of Christian practice. Now, if that's what you want
to do, then I think you should just carefully consider what
that means. No, the church was not always
right in every generation about everything. But you have to ask
yourself, why is it that for 2,000 years this has been the
subtle practice of the church? And then to think, well, no,
that doesn't apply, actually is a running contrary to what
has been seen as the wisdom of God throughout Christian history. Of course, in our church, we
subscribe to the Second London Baptist Confession of 1689, which
has statements to interpret what we've just read in verse 12.
This statement reads like this, as it is the law of nature, that
in general, a proportion of time by God's appointment should be
set apart for the worship of God. So, He has given in His
Word a positive, moral, and perpetual commandment binding upon all
men in all ages in this effect. That's what I believe about the
Sabbath. I'll read it again. He has given in His Word a positive,
moral, and perpetual commandment binding upon all men in all ages
to this effect, that he is particularly appointed one day in seven for
a Sabbath to be kept holy for him from the beginning of the
world to the resurrection of Christ. This was the last day
of the week. And from the resurrection of
Christ, it was changed to the first day of the week and is
called the Lord's Day. This is to be continued until
the end of the world as the Christian Sabbath. The observation of the
last day of the week having been abolished, the Sabbath is kept
holy by those who, after the necessary preparation of their
hearts and prior arranging of their common affairs, observe
all day a holy Rest. You're familiar with the
half day Sabbath. Well, the Second London Baptist
Confession speaks of all day. And this is also the conviction
that I hold that I would encourage all of us to consider. To rest
from their own works, words, and thoughts about their worldly
employment and recreations, and give themselves over to the public
and private acts of worship for the whole time and to carrying
out duties of necessity and mercy. So as far as the official statement
of our church, the view of our elders, you've just heard it
here. Now, everyone in the church doesn't have to subscribe to
this, but this is the direction in which we would desire to lead
our people to consider. And yes, a person can be a member
of our church and not hold this view. But we would cast a vision
for something that's a little bit different, though, for it.
Now, there are at least three main views of the Sabbath. I'd
just like to talk about them. Verse 12, look at the can of
worms that verse 12 opens up. We've been talking about so many
of the issues that spin out of this one simple statement in
verse 12. And, of course, there are many views of it. There's,
first of all, the abrogation view. That's a view that could
be called the antinomian view, that grace abolishes all law,
that the Sabbath was revoked at the cross. It's based on the
belief that there's a radical discontinuity between the Old
Testament and the New Testament. The Anabaptists, Quakers, Mennonites
and other antinomian denominations. I call them antinomian because
they do actually reject the law. and believe that grace somehow
overwhelms and nullifies all law, yet in practice that's impossible. No one lives that way, but it's
a nice idea that many people have. And then there is the transference
view. So you have the abrogation view
that grace destroys all law and the Sabbath was revoked at the
cross. That's one view. We obviously don't hold that
view as leaders in our church. Then there's the transference
view where there's a continuity between the New and the Old Testament
and the Sabbath should be observed. And it holds that there's a ceremonial
aspect of the Sabbath that's been fulfilled in Christ, but
it's still part of the moral law and given to the church for
her blessing. Presbyterians, English Puritans,
Methodists, John Calvin held this view and It takes that there
are two elements in this commandment, the ceremonial law, which was
fulfilled in Christ. And then there's the moral aspect
which is perpetual. And then the third view would
be the permanence view and that is that the New Testament does
not nullify any aspect of the Sabbath that every aspect of
the Sabbath is in play. And if you want to divide up
between the moral and the ceremonial they both apply in that sense. Perhaps the Seventh Day Adventists
take this view only they take that the Sabbath is on Saturday.
So there's a rigid view of the Saturday celebration of the Sabbath
many of our spiritual forefathers like Thomas Watson and Richard
Baxter and some of these others also had this view with some
modifications in Contrary to all this is the view that we're
probably very familiar with and I think it's expressed in really
dense Language by Warren Weir's be who is a blessed author. He's
a dispensationalist, but he explains why people would reject the Sabbath
day for today. And he says this, 9 of the 10
commandments are repeated in the epistles for the church to
obey. The exception is the 4th commandment about the Sabbath. And therefore, because it's not
repeated, and I would just argue with that because Jesus kept
the Sabbath. I believe it's repeated all over
the New Testament. But because this explicit command
in the same words is not repeated in the New Testament. It's thrown
out. And so what I would just like
to argue with is that the Ten Commandments were written in
stone by the finger of God and it's not for us to take filler
and fill up one of them. And with this commandment you're
filling up a lot of the space because it's the longest of all
the commandments. This is how people get to the view that the
Sabbath does no longer apply. It's the law grace dichotomy. What we have here today, I believe,
is a gigantic contradiction, and that is that you have believers
today who have no problem with nine of the ten commandments.
They certainly do hope their wives are faithful to them, and
they certainly do hope that nobody breaks into their house and murders
them, but they care nothing about the fourth commandment. It's
gone. It's kicked over the wall for some technicality. That's
the way I view it. And so, I don't believe that
the abrogation view is logical at all. Honestly, I would like
to give you seven reasons why I believe the Sabbath is for
today. The first is it takes us back to creation. The principle
of the Sabbath was given long before the law. It's a creation
order principle. God rested as a pattern. Christ rested and so do his children
rest. That's the logic. God, Christ,
man. That's the authority structure.
And this creation order, ordinance, is found in Genesis 2-3. And
God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it. He made it holy.
And so should we. That's the principle. So, we
don't even need the Ten Commandments to see that this is a principle.
In the same way that the two shall become one flesh, so is
there a day sanctified. So is there a day of rest. So,
we go back to creation as the first reason for why we hold
that the Sabbath is in effect today. Secondly, we go to the
giving of the law on Mount Sinai and its repetition here as it's
recorded in Deuteronomy. It's a law given to the children
of Israel. Thirdly, the prophets speak of
it and tremendous judgment is meted out upon the people of
God because of their rejection of the Sabbath. And the prophets
speak very clearly and very passionately about the Sabbath. You can go
to Nehemiah 8.18. You can go to Jeremiah 17.19
and read of what the prophets say about it. You can read in
the Psalms. and other places. You can read
in the prophet Isaiah 58 about the Sabbath and what should be
happening there. So, the third is that the prophets
speak of it. Fourth, Christ observed the Sabbath
Himself. Matthew 5.17 makes that very,
very clear. Do not think that I came to destroy
the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy but
to fulfill. And He came to fulfill these,
to carry them out in a right way. The Pharisees had it all
wrong. And they built all kinds of wrong
interpretations around their view of the Sabbath. And insane,
insane views adding, adding, adding, adding to it. And we
have to be very careful. This is the sin that we have
to be careful of when we deal with the Sabbath, that we will
become just like the Pharisees. But Jesus observed the Sabbath.
Many of Jesus' miracles were performed on the Sabbath. I think
most of them were. Jesus Himself said, pray that
your flight may not be on the Sabbath. And He was talking about
at the end of the age. It didn't end. Jesus didn't somehow
think that after He died and went to heaven, it would all
end. No, He believed that after His resurrection and His people
would be fleeing for their lives, that they would still be keeping
the Sabbath. Jesus believed that the Sabbath
was something that was going to be kept until the time of
His second coming. And so I believe that the Sabbath
is for today because Jesus observed the Sabbath and believed in it.
Next, number five, the testimony of the apostles makes it clear
that they acknowledge the law as a schoolmaster to bring us
to Christ. That the law should be used lawfully. And that it has its purpose to
drive us to obedience and faithfulness and blessing, and at the same
time, to drive us to a knowledge of our own bankruptcy and sinfulness,
and how poorly we are at keeping all of His commandments, and
how needy we are of Jesus Christ and His blood to cleanse us from
all of our unrighteousness. And then there is the practice
of the Apostles. Not only is there the testimony
of the Apostles, but the practice of the Apostles You can read
in Acts chapter 20, on the first day of the week, the church is
gathering together to break bread. In 1 Corinthians 16, 2, when
they gather together, as is their normal practice, they take a
collection of funds for the work of the church. In Revelation
chapter 1, in verse 10, we find that the apostle John is in the
Spirit on the Lord's Day. John was practicing the Lord's
Day after Christ was resurrected. So, the apostles were practicing
the observance of the Sabbath. And then, seventh The state of
the future also argues for the relevance of the Sabbath. In
Isaiah 66, we find a testimony, a prophecy of the last days. And in the last days there will
still be keeping the Sabbath. Isaiah 66, 22 says, For as the
new heavens and the new earth, which I shall make, shall remain
before me says the Lord so shall your descendants in your name
remain and it shall come to pass that from one new moon to another
and from one Sabbath to another all flesh shall come and worship
before me and they shall go forth and look down upon the corpses
of the men who transgress me for their worm does not die and
their fire is not quenched they shall be an abhorrence to all
flesh." This is a picture of the end of the age and the Sabbath
is still being celebrated at that time. So, those are the
reasons, seven reasons, I believe that the Sabbath has not passed
away, it's not been abrogated and we should not get our body
putty and stick it on the stones that have been carved by the
finger of Jesus and fill it in and put in our own thing in there. And that's what we have done
in the modern church in America. We have accepted a false doctrine
that has led many to erase this commandment, to expunge it from
the record and say that it no longer applies while they desperately
hope that their wives do not sin against them in adultery.
And it's a terrible contradiction. So, this is the perspective that
Believe is communicated in verse 12 observe or remember or keep
the Sabbath day to make it holy and so as we come to Take in
verse 12 We have to understand that we've come to a command
that is very disruptive and then in verse 13 We find further instruction
six days Shall you labor and do all your work? God has ordained
a great blessing for mankind. That they would have six days
of work. And this gives us a piece of
the biblical doctrine of the use of time. How should you use
your time? God does want to govern your
time. Your time is not your own. You don't own your week. God
owns it. And He sends you out to do certain
things in that week. And the week is not an invention
of man. It's a command of God. So when
in the French Revolution, they want to overthrow and turn to
everybody to attend a week, it was a wicked thing. They were
overthrowing the creation order. And so here we find a time management
principle that God owns our time. He has authority over our time
that he desires to regulate it and that he desires us to work
during these six days. And so there is a rejection of
idleness and the Fourth Commandment. is designed to affect every day
of your life, to give you a vision every day that you wake up in
the morning. You know what you're doing. You are laboring for six
days and you're driving to the Lord's day. And so the command
should affect every day of your life. This is also part of what
the Bible says about leisure. We live in a world where people
work 60 years and then they quit working and contradict this fourth
commandment. It's not right for men to quit
working. We were meant to labor for six
days on some meaningful activity. And so it rages against the retirement
subculture that rules America today. We're coming here to the
commandment that makes us a very distinct people. It makes us
very different. It makes us contrary to the ways of the world. Even
our old men's lives are transformed by this commandment so that they
don't fall into retirement. Just yesterday, I was speaking
with my own dear parents about this issue. What kinds of labors
do they feel the Lord would have them grabbing on to this year? Are there any new labors? Are
there labors of the past that they want to continue pressing
on? Because they do labor. They're not just hanging around.
They have things to do, and they do many things for our church
as well. They labor in different ways for the ministry of this
church. It is for us to think about life properly, and it includes
this doctrine of work. Rhythmic cycles of work and rest
are part of God's plan for mankind. In one of the commentators, I
read a story of a man who is walking down the street. And
this man, he's going down the street and he comes into a beggar
with his hand out. And he looks at the beggar and
he reaches into his pocket and he picks out, he has seven dollars
in his pocket. And he keels off six dollars
and hands it to the beggar. And the beggar takes the six
dollars, smashes in the face and grabs the seventh and takes
off. Now, what do you think of that
beggar? What kind of man do you think that is? And then what
kind of, how would you think of one who has been given a gift
of six, but grabs the seventh and says, no, that's mine too.
I'll use it any way I want. That's exactly what we have here.
We often find ourselves with the same impulses that are really
sort of astonishing to us. if they were applied in real
life. And so we have to ask ourselves
questions regarding this rhythm of work and rest. And that takes
us to verse 14. We know that we should work six
days. And we should raise our children to know that they have
been blessed to be able to work. Even the unemployed, those who
are out of work, even those who are disabled should be working
in some way. All of God's children should be at work in some manner. It's not right. for children
or parents not to work. And children should be trained
to be engaged in this blessing of work. Work is good. Work is
a blessing. And so what do I make of verse
14? But the seventh day is a Sabbath
of the Lord, your God. And so we find a number of things
here. First, we find a contrast. We find the contrast between
life under The care of God and life under Pharaoh. Pharaoh gave
no rest. Pharaoh made them work seven
days. But God says, no, this is not my will for my people.
I will rescue them from a restless life and I will give them a day,
a Sabbath day on the seventh. God does not say more bricks,
less straw. God says, come unto me, all you
who are weary and heavy laden. and I will give you rest." So
what does this mean? What does it mean to make the
Sabbath day holy? What can I do on the Sabbath?
Can I catch up on my work? Can I coach my soccer team? Can
I watch TV? Can I travel in an airplane? Can I go to a restaurant? Can
I wash my car? Can I play frisbee? Can I golf? Can I work an afternoon job?
Can I play on a sports team? These are the questions that
have to be grappled with. Thomas Watson says that when
you ask these questions, it reveals that you're just looking for
a loophole. That's what he says. He says somehow something has
grabbed our affections and we've loved something more. than making
the Sabbath day a holy day. Not to do your own work, not
to say your own words, not to do your own thing, but to seek
the Lord during that whole day. And so, we come to verse 15,
or actually, we're still on verse 14. What happens in this day
has to do with the government of your family. We have many
fathers and mothers here. And this passage implies that
there's a government in the home. Notice that the wife is not mentioned
in our household over the years. We've had discussions. How come
the wife doesn't get any rest? Hey, how come it's just the son
and the daughter and the servants get rest, but the wife gets no
rest? Well, actually, the implication here is that there's a household,
and that household is governed by a husband and a wife. And
all those under the household have a day of rest. And so, parents should not be
taskmasters and keep their children working every day of the week.
Parents should make sure that their children have a day of
rest and that those who work for them have a day of rest.
Those who, if you have a company and you're a Christian, you must
provide a day of rest for your employees. You should do. How
could you call yourself a Christian employer and not give your employees
a day of rest? I think that's the question that
we should consider here on this. Someone has called this the first
workers' bill of rights. He gives every worker a day of
rest, the weary workers. I would also say this is the
first animal rights bill as well. All of God's creatures are given
a pleasure of rest. Even the oxen get rest. All the
animals get rest. God cares about your animals.
Now, you don't want to work your animals into the ground. Of course,
in our day, animals are more like play toys and companions
rather than laborers. So, I don't know. I mean, our
dogs are resting all the time, you know. Are we breaking this
commandment by giving our dogs rest all the time? You figure
that one out. I don't know. I don't really
care. I just think that these dogs are dogs and they're going
to rest. So, this command has to do with
family unity and the way that you govern your realm as a husband
and a wife. Govern it the way God has given
you to govern it. It has to do with your visitors,
your servants, or people who are working for you. And then,
what should be done on that day? Now, modern thinking is that
time is ours, we do with it what we please. The philosophy of
leisure and play has crept in to our understanding of this
day. And my guess is most of us have grown up in a world that
rest means doing nothing. But that's not what this text...
This text isn't about doing nothing. It's actually about doing something.
Ceasing from economic activity, stopping the making money and
striving after provision, trusting God that He's your provider,
and then entering into spiritual meditations and activities and
relationships. And a day completely free of
economic activity. That's what that's about. The
Sabbath can be profaned. Let me read you J.C. Ryle on
how it can be profaned. There are two kinds of Sabbath
desecration. I would like to expose some of
the ways that the Sabbath is profaned. One is that more private
kind of which thousands are continually guilty and which can only be
checked by the awakening of men's consciences. The other is of
a more public kind which can only be remedied by the pressure
of public opinion and the strong arm of the law. Of course he's
writing in a different era. When I speak of private Sabbath
desecration I mean that reckless thoughtless secular way of spending
Sunday which everyone looks around him must know is common. How
many take the Lord's Day a day for giving dinner parties a day
for looking over their accounts and making up their books a day
for going on unnecessary journeys and quietly transacting worldly
business. A day for reading newspapers
or novels. A day for talking politics and
idle gossip. A day, in short, for anything
rather than the things of God. That's J.C. Ryle. Now, all of
this sort of thing is wrong, decidedly wrong. Thousands, I
firmly believe, never give the subject a thought. They sin from
ignorance and inconsideration. They only do as others. They
only spend Sunday as their fathers and grandfathers did before them.
But this does not alter the case. It is utterly impossible to say
that to spend Sunday as I have described is to keep it holy.
It is a plain breach of the fourth commandment, both in the letter
and in the spirit. It is impossible to plead necessity
for mercy in one instance of a thousand small and trifling
as these breaches of the Sabbath may seem to be. They are exactly
the sort of things that prevent men from communing with God and
good and good from his day. He continues, When I speak of
public desecration of the Sabbath, I mean many open unblushing practices
which meet the eye on Sundays in the neighborhood of large
towns. I refer to the practice of keeping shops open and buying
and selling on Sundays. I refer especially to Sunday
pleasure excursions by public transport and the opening of
places of public amusement and to the daring efforts which many
are making in the present day to desecrate the Lord's Day regardless
of its divine authority. Remember the Sabbath day to keep
it holy. Now, I read this to you just
to recommend that what is so normal and acceptable to us was
unthinkable to people of another time. So, what do we do? Do we
in this church make laws for all of us to check the boxes
to make sure that everyone is not doing these certain things? Don't believe that's what we
do. But we must understand that God has called the Sabbath day
to be holy. And you have to ask yourself, is this activity making
the Sabbath day holy? The whole day holy? We have to
answer questions about other more complicated matters. What
do you do regarding medical care? What do you do regarding various
occupations that require action when the weather turns? or the
burglars show up, or the fire begins to burn, or something
like that. I think we have to recognize that there are things
that you have to consider that are beyond the bounds of what's
normal in this consideration. If you have a heart attack, is
it lawful for medical personnel to take care of you? I just believe
it is. If someone's breaking into your home, is it lawful
for you to call the civil government for help? I just believe it is.
Maybe everybody doesn't. I think we have to struggle with
how to apply this. But let's at least struggle with
it. Let's don't just go on our merry way and walk out the same
people that we were when we walked in here on this commandment.
I recognize how threatening, how disruptive, how strange this
commandment is. I realize how it puts its finger
on some of the most sacred things in our minds. And believe me,
I understand how touching some of these sacred things can be
and how hard it can be on your family. and your church and things
like that. So we have to be very careful.
Let me give some applications to keep and sanctify the Sabbath.
We should consider as a church the culture that we have regarding
the Sabbath. I want to recommend that we let
Scripture inform the culture of this church somehow in this
matter. That we would let the commands and the statutes and
the judgments of Scripture to help us. I think we should go
to Isaiah 58 and get very dialed in on what is said there about
what we should do because it gives positive affirmations of
what we should do. And so, we should keep and sanctify
this day as a culture in our church. We should learn how to
keep the Sabbath day to make it holy as a whole church. And
I realize that there will be some variable applications to
this. And I personally have no interest in telling men and families
how they should keep and not keep the Sabbath. Scripture has
given this vision. And each of us stand before Almighty
God in this matter, but we must keep it. Now, it means, secondly,
that we should prepare for it. I would just recommend that we
see the week the way that God has established it, that there
are six days of labor driving toward this first day of the
week. And it's a new day. It's a day of looking back and
looking forward. It's a day of repentance. It's
a day of the word of God, fellowship. It's all the things that God
would embed in it. Prepare for it. Prepare your
families for it on Saturday nights. One of the ways that I apply
this is that I very, very rarely will ever accept an invitation
out of our home on Saturday night. Our time is kind of getting calibrated
and ready in different ways for the next day. The Jews celebrated
the Sabbath from sundown to sunset, and that's a good practice. I
don't believe that, you know, if you miss sundown to sunset,
you've somehow earned the wrath of God. But there's this rhythmic
view of life, and it's legitimate to think of it in terms of sundown
to sunset. Sundown on Saturday night to
sunset on Sunday night. That's a legitimate way to view
it. And then be careful not to profane it. Even as we've been
sitting here, I know, I know because I have sat in a congregation
on a Sunday as you are now, not being the speaker. And we can
profane it in a number of ways. We can profane it by being distracted
in our hearing. The Word of God is being preached,
but we're not listening. We don't care about it at all.
That's profaning the Sabbath day. It's almost like the offensive
action of when someone is talking to you and you're looking at
your computer screen and they're saying, hello, hello, are you there? Has that ever happened to you?
Have your children ever done that to you? That often happens
on the Sabbath day. Almighty God is speaking and
someone could say, hello, are you there? Are you just staring
away? Are you having an out-of-body experience again? You care nothing
about the word that's here? We desecrate the Sabbath even
when we come and participate in it. When we have wandering
thoughts, when we have such a life that makes us so drowsy that
we can't even concentrate. Sometimes if you starve yourself
from sleep, you just can't keep your eyes open. And you've desecrated
the Sabbath by your lifestyle on the night before. Because
you weren't ready. You weren't ready and dressed
in wedding clothes for your Savior who shed His blood for you. You
can desecrate the Sabbath by coming to get your ears tickled
just to find out what the hot issue is. Just to consider, to
cogitate, to do some theological work. Dispassionate, I'm going
to hammer out the theological questions here. That's desecrating
the Sabbath. Because the heart of worship toward God is not
there. It's an intellectual exercise. The Sabbath can be desecrated
when we come with prejudiced ears. We only want to hear what
we want to hear. The Sabbath you see is, for example, hated
the doctrine of the resurrection. They didn't want to hear about
it. And that happens to us as well. We only want to hear what
we want to hear. There are certain things that
we like. There are certain subjects we don't like. And if we're on
a subject we don't like, we're out. We're gone. That's desecrating
the Sabbath. That's not coming under the authority
of God and saying, Lord, I have ears to hear. Help me to hear
and do and obey. I would just like to suggest
that when we consider the Sabbath as a half day, that's not what
God said. It's not a half day, it's a whole
day. So we must keep it, prepare for
it, be careful not to profane it. Now, here's another one.
Don't curse your family through your neglect of the Sabbath.
who do not grow up loving the church because their parents
care nothing about this day. I think that's a tragedy. I think
back of 40 years of Sabbaths and the blessing that they were
to me. I participated in these Sabbaths
because my parents, first of all, took me there. And then
when my heart was inflamed, I wanted to be there and nothing could
keep me back from it. Because I loved His Sabbaths.
And children do not grow in the knowledge of the will of God
without having these rhythmic times together. They do not become
as themselves a consistent source of help and counsel to their
brothers and sisters. They do not rest. They do not
trust, but they grasp. They think that You're here to
make your own way in this world any way you want. That's what
happens to children when parents neglect the Sabbath. They think
that life can be lived any way it wants to be lived. And you
don't want children like that. You want children who love, who
hunger, who serve, who counsel, who pray, who do not speak their
own words on the Sabbath, but are a resource of mercy toward
all those there. You want children in this church
who will love to be a blessing for the Kingdom of Heaven. That's
the kind of church that we want. But if parents neglect it and
they think, well, it's an option, then they too will walk in that
way. And then lastly, I think we should ask ourselves this
question. How many Sabbaths have I broken? Now, I have consistently
celebrated the Sabbath, at least in body. for 40 years. But I'm confident that I've broken
the Sabbath many, many times in my life. That I have shown
up to do my own will. That I have spoken my own words
on the Sabbath. That I have worried rather than
rested. That I've worked rather than
rested. That I've had an out of body
experience. My brain was on the balance sheet. while the Word of God was being
preached. I stand here as a man who has broken the Sabbath thousands
and thousands of times. I am stained. I am condemned. I am a wretch. I have no hope
except for the blood of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ kept every
Sabbath. He kept it perfectly. Well, He
was the Lord of the Sabbath. And He made the Sabbath for man
that He might bless them, that He might cause them to rest.
that He might give them a better life than they ever could conceive
of on their own. And so, as we consider this whole
subject of the Sabbath, we're always taken back to the cross. Every commandment finds a trail
right back to the cross of Jesus Christ and what He has done. He has taken all of our infirmities,
all of the times we've broken the Sabbath, either wittingly
or unwittingly, And He has become our sacrifice. He's paid the
price for all of our sins, all of our distractions, all of our
out-of-body experiences. His blood covers it all. He's
taken all of our sins and put them as far as the east is from
the west. And so, when we consider the
Sabbath, we always have to end up in the place that Christ has
established. And that is, it is a place of
rest. I pray That now, as we continue on in the day, it can
become, even after this very disturbing and threatening talk
that we've just had to endure, that it would be a day, not of
our words, not of our will. but that the Lord Jesus Christ
would work in this place all day, and that His people would
find rest for their souls. Would you pray with me? O Lord,
we see Your law, we see the dramatic shortfalls in our
lives. We see Jesus Christ, our precious
Savior, who has cared for us every Sabbath day. We Sabbath
breakers. You, the great promise keeper,
to give us Your rest. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Fourth Commandment - A Commandment for the Governing of Time
Series The Sabbath Day
| Sermon ID | 217091122140 |
| Duration | 58:45 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Deuteronomy 5:12-15 |
| Language | English |
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