Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Exodus 20 verse 8 through 11. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt do no work, you nor your son or your daughter, your manservant nor thy maidservant, nor your cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the seed and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Wherefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it." In the modern day, it is commonplace for the professing Christian to utilize this day of rest as a means of self-indulgence. It begins commonly for the professing Christian to get into church mode. I remember prior to my regeneration that the Sabbath day was not as I had kept it as a practicing Jew. It was almost like a ritual of an odd sort. The day would begin with the shower, breakfast, getting dressed, heading off to the megachurch some six or seven miles away from where I lived in Westminster, Colorado. I would attend the day's service and have the rest of the day to myself. This may sound familiar to some of you, if not all of you. Perhaps it is the same routine, more or less, that you observe and stick to. Now, the purpose of this message is to have a look at the scripture and expound it in its biblical context. We'll start at the verses in scripture where the Sabbath day are mentioned and illustrated. We'll then get into the interpretation that is intended for us as a church regarding the Sabbath day and whether we are to keep it as commanded or that, as some have said, we are to rest in Christ. Still don't know what that is, but I'm sure some of you have heard of it. I'll be using the King James Version as my scripture text, and no, I'm not a King James Version onlyist. It's just that the King James is in the public domain, and I won't get sued for quoting from it liberally. I'll also be utilizing commentaries from John Gill, John Calvin, B.H. Carroll, J.C. Pink, the Geneva Bible footnotes, and Bishop Usher's Annals of the World to put everything into a biblical context and also a historical context. I'm also putting the PDF up on the Sermon Audio page and there will be links to the Wikipedia page on the Sabbath from which I will use a quote or two from and also some additional links for your perusal. Section 1, Creation Ordinance of the Sabbath, Genesis 1-5, Part B. And the evening and the morning were the first day. I start off here in Genesis 1-5 to set the presupposition of the ordaining of the days. The creation itself took place in six actual days. The day, as stated in every translation of scripture, is quoted, and the evening and the morning were the first day. This is perpetual. It is forever and ever, so that the beginning of the day actually starts at evening time. James Usher, author of Annals of the World, wrote this regarding the first day of creation. On the first day, that's Genesis 1, 1 through 5, of the world on Sunday, October 23rd, 4004 BC, God created the highest heaven and the angels. When he finished, as it were, the roof of this building, he started with the foundation of this wonderful fabric of the world. He fashioned this lowermost globe consisting of the deep and of the earth. Therefore, all the choir of angels sang together and magnified his name, Job 38, verse 7. When the earth was without form and void and darkness covered the face of the deep, God created light on the very middle of the first day. God divided this from the darkness and called the one day and the other night. John Calvin writes, The first day here the error of those is manifestly refuted, who maintain that the world was made in a moment. For it is too violent a cabal to contend that Moses distributes the work which God perfected at once into six days, for the mere purpose of conveying instruction. Let us rather conclude that God Himself took the space of six days for the purpose of accommodating His works to the capacity of men. we slidingly pass over the infinite glory of God, here which shines forth. Whence arises this but from our excessive dullness in considering his greatness? In the meantime, the vanity of our minds carries us away elsewhere, For the correction of this fault, God applied the most suitable remedy when he distributed the creation of the world into successive portions, that he might fix our attention and compel us, as if he had laid his hand upon us, to pause and reflect. For the confirmation of the gloss above alluded to, a passage from Ecclesiasticus is unskillfully cited, he who liveth forever created all things at once. It was from John Calvin. John Gill also writes about that first day. And the evening and the morning were the first day. The evening, the first part of the night, or darkness, put for the whole night, which might be about the space of 12 hours. And the morning, which was the first part of the day, or light, put also for the whole, which made the same space. And both together, one natural day consisting of 24 hours. what Daniel calls an evening morning, Daniel 8, verse 26. And the apostle, a night day, 2 Corinthians 11, 25. Thales, being asked which was first made, the night of the day, answered, the night was before one day. Number one, the Jews begin their day from the preceding evening. So many other nations, the Athenians used to reckon their day from sun setting to sun setting. Number two, the Romans from the middle of the night to the middle of the night following. As Galleus 3 relates and Tacitus 4 reports of the ancient Germans that they used to compute not the number of days but of nights, reckoning that the night led the day. Caesar, number five, observes of the ancient Druids in Britain. that they counted time, not by the number of days, but nights, and observed birthdays and the beginnings of months and years. So as that the day followed the night, and we have some traces of this among us, as when we say this day Sinait, or this day Fortnight. The first day of creation, according to James Capellas, was the 18th of April, but according to Bishop Usher, the 23rd of October. the one beginning the creation in the spring, the other in the autumn. It is a notion of Mr. Whitson's that the six days of creation were equal to six years, a day and a year being one and the same thing for the fall of man, when the diurnal rotation of the earth about its axis, as he thinks, began, and in agreement with this, very remarkable is the doctrine Epidocales taught when that when mankind sprung originally from the earth, the length of the day, by reason of the slowness of the sun's motion, was equal to ten of our present months. Number six, the Hebrew word Arab, rendered evening, is retained by some of the Greek poets, as by Hesiod, number seven, who says, out of the chaos came Erebus, and black night, and out of the night, either, and the day. Aristophanes number eight whose words are chaos night and black Erebus were first and wide Tartarus But there were were neither earth air nor heaven But in the infinite bosom of Erebus black wing at night first brought forth a windy egg Etc and Orpheus number nine makes night to be the beginning of all things That was John Gill so as we Now I've learned the first day is not as we observe it in our day and age. It begins at the evening and ends at the following evening. As the Jewish Sabbath is observed, the Sabbath day begins at sundown on Friday and ends at sundown on Saturday. This is practiced by Jews all over the world. However, it is not as the sun rises and falls in Jerusalem, but rather as the sun falls and rises in the time zone that the observant Jew lives in. It is worthy of notice that the sun and the moon were not created on the first day, but rather the fourth day. And we read Genesis 1, 14 through 19. And God said, let there be lights in the firmament of heaven to divide the day from the night and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years. And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light on the earth. And it was so. And God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night. And he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth and to rule over the day and over the night and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. OK, now that we have the creation ordinance of light, days, nights, sun, moon and stars, we will now fast forward to the seventh day. Genesis 2 verses 2 through 3. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. Now if you noticed I had stated that the creation of the world were ordinances. Now here's the definition of the word ordinance according to Webster's 1828 dictionary. Number one, a rule established by authority, a permanent rule of action. An ordinance may be a law or statuette of sovereign power. In this sense, it is often used in the scriptures. Exodus 15, Numbers 10, Ezra 3. It may also signify a decree, edict, or a rescript, and the word has sometimes been applied to the statutes of Parliament, but these are usually called acts or laws. In the United States, it is never applied to the acts of Congress or of a state legislature. Number two, observance commanded. Number three, appointment. Number four, established rite or ceremony like in Hebrews 9. In this sense, baptism and the Lord's Supper are denominated ordinances. This now being defined, it is understood that whatever God commands into existence must be obeyed. We see in the creation of the earth that all things have remained as God had ordained it. I'm going to come back toward the end of the message to get some further insight from our panel of historians on the matter. Section 2, the Sabbath day, is illustrated in the Law of Moses. After Moses had led the children of Israel out of Egypt, we see them complaining about the lack of food. We read in Exodus 16 verse 3, And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full. For you have brought us forth into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger." Now at this point we see that the Lord is beginning to test the people to see whether they will obey his laws. Verse 4 says, Then the Lord said unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them whether they will walk in my law or no. Now to set the context for the administration of the creation ordinance of keeping the Sabbath, I'm going to read this up to verse 30. And it came to pass that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily. And Moses and Aaron said unto all the children of Israel, at evening, then you shall know that the Lord hath brought you out of the land of Egypt. for that he hears your murmurings against the Lord. And what are we that you murmur against us? And Moses said, This shall be when the Lord shall give you in the evening flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the full, for that the Lord heareth your murmurings, which you murmur against him. And what are we? Your murmurings are not against us, meaning him and Aaron, but against the Lord. And Moses spake unto Aaron, Say unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, Come near before the Lord, for he hath heard your murmurings. And it came to pass, as Aaron spake unto the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness. And behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel. Speak unto them, saying, At evening you shall eat flesh, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God. And it came to pass that at evening the quails came up and covered the camp, and in the morning the dew lay round about the host. And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, the face of the wilderness there lay as a small round thing, as small as the hoarfrost on the ground. And when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, It is manna, for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat. This is the thing which the Lord has commanded. Gather of it every man according to his eating, an omer for every man according to the number of your persons. Take ye every man for them which are in his tents. And the children of Israel did so, and gathered some more and some less. And when they did meet it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack. They gathered every man according to his eating. And Moses said, let no man leave of it till the morning. Notwithstanding, they hearkened not unto Moses. But some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms and stank. And Moses was wroth with them. And they gathered it every morning, every man according to his eating. And when the sun waxed hot, it melted, and it came to pass that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two homers for one man. And all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. And he said unto them, this is that which the Lord hath said. Tomorrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord. Bake that which you will bake today, and see that it will seethe, and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning. And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses commanded them. And it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein. And Moses said, Eat that today, for today is a Sabbath unto the Lord. Today you shall not find it in the field. Six days you shall gather it on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, and there shall be none. And it came to pass that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none. And the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse you to keep my commandments and my laws? See, for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days. Abide ye every man in his place, and let no man out of his place on the seventh day. so the people rested on the seventh day. Now, I would hope that you've been paying attention to where I've been reading here in God's Word. This is a full four chapters before the actual giving of the Ten Commandments, right? We see that Moses is saying that this day of rest, the Sabbath, was indeed an ordinance that was established from time everlasting. It isn't new. And I've still had arguments with professing Christians over the past couple of days on this very matter, yet still they hold on to some ridiculous notion that they are exempt from obeying God in this matter. The next place where we see the Sabbath of Preservance mentioned is in Exodus 28 verse 11. It was given them as a commandment, the fourth commandment. Okay, I'm going to read it again. Exodus 28-11, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them. They rested on the seventh day wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it Now There's something that I want to make mention of which may make some of you easy. It may not bother you at all Okay, but nevertheless Anyone who's listened to me preach before know that I strive to be thoroughly accurate and presenting to you the evidence Okay, breaking the Sabbath Was a capital offense merited the death penalty. Exodus 31 12 through 17, excuse me, and the Lord spake unto Moses saying, Speak thou also unto the children of Israel saying, Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations that you may know You shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it is holy unto you. Everyone that defileth it shall surely be put to death. For whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days may work be done, but in the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord. Whosoever does any work in the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations for a perpetual covenant. Perpetual means never-ending for those who don't know what it means. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed. Now before I continue on I need to point something out. I'm sure some of you know it. Maybe some of you don't. Okay. But the children of Israel were God's chosen people. They were his elect. God called Abraham, not Abraham looked for God. God chose these people. They were his elect. They were his peculiar people. They are no different than the elect of God, which is mentioned by the Lord Jesus Christ. They are no different as far as a people that were elected. I want you to keep that in mind when you the Sabbath because it was a Jewish thing. No. It was, yes, I mean, yes, it was a Jewish thing, but for you to say that it was a Jewish thing, that it doesn't apply to me, then you're obviously separating yourself from the elect of God. Okay, and I'll prove this later on. So anyway, I'm going to continue. We have an incident in Numbers where a man was actually put to death for picking up sticks. Numbers 15, 32 through 36. And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the Sabbath day. And they that found him gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron and unto all the congregation. And they put him in ward because it was not declared what should be done unto him. And the Lord said unto Moses, the man shall surely be put to death. and all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp. And the congregation brought him without the camp or outside the camp and stoned him with stones and he died as the Lord commanded Moses. So now you see that the God takes the fourth commandment or that God takes the fourth commandment very seriously. Okay. To put this into some historical context. Okay. Example that I'm giving is how this has been dealt with over time even up to the present day I'm adding here into the PDF some weekly links for your perusal as Wikipedia It can be accessed for the PDF message on the sermon audio. It's on desecration of the Sabbath Activities prohibited on Shabbat. Okay, so then that way you get an idea throughout some of the 613 mitzvot You know these activities that are prohibited on the Sabbath and I'm telling you the truth. I they really still do keep to it. I know, I lived amongst Orthodox Jews for four years before I became a Christian and they take it very seriously. To give you some more context on it, John Gill here in his exposition of the Bible has this to say about Numbers 15, 32 through 36, the passage that we just read. And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, According to Abenezra in the wilderness of Sinai, for it is a common notion of the Jews that though this fact is recorded here, yet was committed the first year the Israelites came out of Egypt, quickly after the giving of the law of the Sabbath. Hence, Jarki remarks that the scripture speaks of this to the reproach of the Israelites, that they kept only the first Sabbath and on the second this man came and profaned it. but it seems rather to be in the wilderness of Qiran where this fact was committed. After the business of the spies and the discomfiture of Israel, an above laws were given, and stands here in its proper place as an instance of a presumptuous sinner, cut off from his people according to the above law, which it immediately follows. They found a man that gathered sticks on the Sabbath day, plucking them up by the roots, as the Targum of Jonathan, as stubble and the like. For the word signifies gathering straw or stubble or such light things, as Ben Melech observes, and binding them in the bundles for fuel. And this was done on the Sabbath day by which it appears that this was to be kept in the wilderness. Though the laws before mentioned concerning sacrifices and the cake of the first dough were not to be put in execution until Israel came into the land of Canaan, according to the Targum of Jonathan, This man was of the house of Joseph. And in the Talmud, it is expressly said that he was Zelophehad, who was a descendant of Joseph. And that they found him gathering sticks, and they admonished him, as say the Tartum of Jonathan and Jarhi. but he would not desist. Wherefore, they brought him into Moses and Aaron, and unto all the congregation, to Moses and Aaron, and to the seventy elders, who might be at this time met together, to hear, try, and judge causes. For it cannot be thought that the whole body of people are met. And it is most likely that it was not on the Sabbath day, but the day following, that they brought the man to them, who were then sitting in the court, although Abimezra observes that some say they brought him to them the first night. And they put him in ward in a certain prison in the camp, perhaps the same in which the blasphemer was put, Leviticus 24.12, and for much of the same reason, because it was not declared what should be done to him, that is, what kind of death should he die as Jearchi and Amon Ezra. It had been before declared that the Sabbath breakers should die, Exodus 31 15, though some think it was a matter of doubt whether gathering of sticks was a breach of the Sabbath or at least such a breach of it as required death. And the answer of the Lord seems to confirm this as follows. And the Lord said unto Moses, who consulted the Lord upon this affair in the tabernacle, even at the most holy place from above the mercy seat where he promised to meet him and commune with him about whatsoever he should consult him. Exodus 25, 22. The man shall surely be put to death, for as no fire was to be made throughout their habitations on a Sabbath day, gathering sticks for such a purpose was a work that was a violation of the Sabbath, punishable with death. Exodus 35, verse 2. And the kind of death follows. All the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp, as afterwards without the city, of the place and manner of stoning. And all the congregation brought him without the What was done by the order of Moses and the 70 elders is said to be done by the whole congregation, though it was by a few persons only. The man was actually brought out, who were the proper officers to do such business, and stoned him with stones, and he died. He stoned him to death as the Lord commanded Moses. At the time, he consulted him in the sanctuary, which he acquainted the court with, and they immediately ordered the execution, which was accordingly done. breaking the Sabbath is something that we all need to consider very carefully. Look, I've done it. You've done it. We've all done it. Okay? Those of us that are still alive now have a chance to remedy this, and I know I'm certainly going to. Right? It doesn't say that, you know, things won't happen, you know, like emergencies and such, and then of course, obviously, take care of what needs to be done. You know, to just blatantly do the things you want to do because you feel like doing it on the Sabbath and you think, you know, you're resting in the Lord is absurd. And as far as I'm concerned, you're no better than a heathen witch. I mean, to deliberately and willfully break the Sabbath and premeditate it is just, to me, you're tempting God. Okay. Section three, how the Puritans viewed the Sabbath day. Westminster Confession on the Sabbath quotes from theologians and on observance of the Sabbath day I'm gonna go ahead and stop here on that and then pick that up for next week I'm gonna publish the paper Online Not publish it, but I'm gonna put it in a PDF here so that You can go through it. You can check out the links for yourselves and again There's lots of great material that's out there. Lots of great material on keeping the Sabbath. I mean, if you really are seriously looking at, you know, hey, if God made this a creation ordinance, I would think that you would At least consider it. Okay, I can't tell you what to do. I'm not going to tell you what to do. All I'm saying is just consider the evidence and then pray about it. That's all. Anyway, that's all I got for today. May the Lord bless and preserve you all and I'll be picking this up next week.