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.