Anyway, so let me begin immediately by saying that my emphasis tonight will probably be different than you might have expected. And already I wanted to communicate that by the title of my presentation tonight, deliberately calling the Lord's Day the Son's Day. In other words, Sunday is the Son's Day. And so rather than spending an evening about the do's and don'ts of the Lord's Day, what we may do on the Lord's Day, what we ought not to do on the Lord's Day, I really want to consciously focus on the theology of the Lord's Day. Because we must understand the theology of the Lord's Day in order for us to observe the Lord's Day correctly. And that's for all areas of the Christian life. Our practice, our practice must be informed by theology, by proper theology. At the very end, and probably in response to some of your questions, we will look at some practical aspects of it. But I very much want to focus, I want you to grasp something very foundational about the Lord's Day, so we understand why this day is indeed so significant. And so I would argue, I will try to stick as closely to my outline as I can, I've quoted many Scripture passages in support of it as well. I would argue that abortion is not the only moral issue of the day. I know we can think of many others. I would argue that the desecration of the Lord's day is a highly offensive thing to God himself, because we will see. The Lord's Day played an extremely important role in God's original creation order. And hopefully I will succeed in explaining to you why. And so when we desecrate the Lord's Day, we are guilty of supremely dishonoring the God of the Lord's Day who ordained that day for a very specific purpose. So in Jeremiah 7.28 we read, this is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the Lord their God, nor receiveth correction. Truth is perished and is cut off from their mouth. And I believe that one of the reasons why the moral decline in our Western culture, also in our United States, has been so alarming and so precipitous has a great deal to do with the Lord's Day. I would argue that about 100 years ago, a century ago, the majority of Americans still went to church every Lord's Day. And that had a sanctifying effect on all of society. That means regularly Americans still came to the house of God, regularly they heard an exposition of the Word of God and would carry that with them into the week. As a result, the moral caliber of every aspect of society was far higher than it is today. And now we are in the midst of what we could call the great apostasy, the great falling away of our Western culture. A Western culture that has been so profoundly influenced by the Word of God and by the Reformation. The Apostle Paul talks about that in 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 3. That day, the day of Christ's return, but also the day that the man of sin will be revealed in the world, that day shall not come except there come a falling away first and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. And so what's happening is that our culture, also in North America, is very rapidly returning to its pagan roots. And I'm sure that some of you are aware that the names of our days are a reminder of our pagan past. Every single day of the week is named after one of the old gods that were worshipped on the continent of Europe. Sunday is obvious, the worship of the sun, the day of the sun. Monday is the day of the moon. Tuesday is T.U.' 's day. And T.U. was an English-Germanic god of war and the sky. That's T.U.' 's day, Tuesday. Wednesday is Woden's day. Now, Woden was the chief of the Germanic gods. He was the leader of all the gods. Woden's day, Wednesday. Thursday is Thor's day. Thor was the Greek of thunder. He represented as riding a chariot drawn by goats and wielding a hammer. Thor's day, Thursday. Friday is Freyja's day. Freyja is a word from which even our word free has been derived. It's a goddess of fertility, a goddess also of unbridled sexuality. Friar's Day, Friday. Saturday is Saturn's Day. Saturn, of course, was the Roman and Italic god of agriculture. He's believed to have ruled the earth during an age of happiness and virtue. So every name of our days is a reminder of our pagan past. And of course, we are now rapidly returning to the worship of those pagan gods that for a season have withdrawn themselves and are coming now back with a vengeance. And that spiritual bankruptcy that now grips our nation and our culture is in no small part related to the fact of the widespread desecration of the Lord's Day. Now, if only the ungodly were guilty of it, that's one thing. But also among evangelical North America, it's alarming how many play fast and loose with the Lord's Day. How many of them, how many people today, how many professing Christians have what we call an antinomian view of the Lord's Day. There are those who argue since the fourth day is the only commandment, or the fourth commandment is the only commandment not repeated in the New Testament, that therefore the fourth commandment is no longer binding on the Christian. Of course that's a nonsensical argument. The reason it's not repeated, it didn't have to be repeated. That's so basic and it's so foundational. As a matter of fact, we need to realize that the commandment to keep the day of God, the Sabbath day holy, predated Exodus 20. Because when God gave the fourth commandment, He says, remember the Sabbath day. And you know that prior to Exodus 20, you already have the incident of where God gave the manna. And he gave a double portion on Friday so that they would have enough money on the Sabbath day. This was before he actually gave the Ten Commandments from Mount Sinai. So I would argue, my dear friends, my dear congregation, is that the hallowing of the Lord's Day is at the core of true Christianity. The hallowing of the Lord's Day is at the very core of genuine godliness. And so rather than viewing the Lord's Day as our ungodly culture does, by referring to it as the weekend, the weekend, no. For us, the Lord's Day is the week beginning. And I would argue that it's not only the beginning, The Lord's Day is to be the centerpiece of our life. The Lord's Day is the one day elevated above all other days around which the rest of our lives should revolve. And so biblical Christianity throughout the ages has always regarded the Lord's Day as such. So, I want to look at this seventh day of rest. Now, in your outline, I also printed out for you, of course, the passages of Exodus and Deuteronomy... ...where we have the detailed account of the fourth commandment. We find in Exodus 20, and it's repeated in Deuteronomy 5. What's interesting that in Exodus 20, the focal point is on creation. In other words, the fourth commandment is a creation ordinance. In Deuteronomy 5, the focus is on redemption, because the argument that is used there is that they were to remember, they were to keep the Sabbath, and by the way, let me quickly add here, that the word Sabbath does not mean Saturday. Why do I emphasize that? Because the Seventh-day Adventist would argue that we are violating the Word of God by resting on the first day of the week rather than the seventh day of the week. And I hope to address that in a moment why we do that. Because the word Sabbath simply means rest. So what the fourth commandment requires of us is that after six weeks of work and labor, pursuing our lawful daily calling, there should be one day of rest. And so God deliberately from the very beginning implemented a regular rest cycle. That's by divine ordinance. Rest is a very important part of our daily life cycle, but also of our weekly life cycle. In Israel, there was, of course, the Sabbath year, where every seventh year, by divine commandment, the land would have to rest. Because God created us in such a way that we can only function properly spiritually and physically by observing that divinely ordained rest cycle. So when we now observe the first day of the week, we are not at all violating the fourth commandment. We are resting after six days of labor. But there are very important theological reasons why we now observe the first day of the week rather than the seventh day of the week. So first of all, in Genesis 2 verse 3, it says, and God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it. That statement alone should immediately inform us how supremely important that day was. In other words, God from the very outset set this day apart, consecrated this day. He blessed it. He set it apart for a very special purpose. That's why in Exodus 20. It says, remember, the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, four. In other words, here comes the argument. Here comes the theological argument. Four in six days, the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the Sabbath day. Wherefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. Now again, God himself is speaking here, simply repeating what is stated also in Genesis 2, verse 3. And so the question that I've been asked many times is why did God rest on the seventh day? What does that mean that God Himself rested on the seventh day? Because that's what He clearly argues in the language of Exodus 20, is that God Himself established the pattern. He worked six days and rested the seventh day. Obviously, that does not mean that God was somehow fatigued by the momentous work of creation. Rather, it was a day in which He delighted Himself in the work of His own hands. Now I want to come to the very first and foundational theological point that I want to make tonight. What was it that God found so delightful on that seventh day? What was it about His creation that filled His eternal heart with unspeakable joy? And we have to ask ourselves, for what purpose did God create the universe? I'm going to focus briefly on something that I will focus on many, many times, as often as the Lord gives me the opportunity. We need to realize that everything God ever has done, does, and will do, all flows out of the fact that the Father loves His Son. I cannot emphasize that enough. That simple statement. that the father loves his son, a statement that is repeated throughout the Gospel of John. That statement is the fountain out of which all theology flows, all of it. That is what explains who God is and why he does what he does. And so I don't want to get into the doctrine of the Trinity, I just want to say something very briefly. I hope to expound it in a couple weeks when we come to Lord's Day Eight. And so the Trinity is a love relationship between the Father and the Son. But the emphasis of the Gospel of John is on the Father's love for His Son. Because in the Son, the Father sees the perfect reflection of Himself. In the Son, the Father knows Himself. That's why in Hebrews 1 it says that he is the brightness of his father's glory and the express image of his person. What this means is that because the father loves the son, that everything he does is for the glory of his only begotten son. And so what Colossians were told, that God made everything by His Son and for His Son. This is so important, so important to grasp. So God created this vast universe for His Son, for the glory of His Son. We could say that this universe was the Father's love gift to His only begotten Son. That's why in Ephesians 3 we read, that all of creation bears witness to the Son, that all things in heaven and on earth are named after Him. And so when God was finished with the glorious work of creation, He rested and He beheld in all of His created work, He beheld the glory of His only begotten Son. That's why, of course, When He created man as the masterpiece of His creation, He created man in the image of His Son. And so Adam and Eve before their fall supremely reflected the glory of God's Son, more than any other part of creation. And so God created a creature in the image of His Son. in whom he would have a relationship with his creature, Adam and Eve. That's why John 1 verse 1 is so important. It's so that God revealed himself from the very outset to man in the person of his son. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God. Here's something that you may not have thought of. So Adam and Eve were created on the sixth day. So how did their life begin as human beings? The first full day of their human existence was the Sabbath. So the seventh day of the week was for them the first day of the week. And so their life began with a day of worship. And out of that first day of worship came the first week in which they actively were engaged in the work to which God had called them. And of course, as a result of sin, that blessed relationship between God and His image bearer, that blessed relationship was interrupted. But God did not change. God's purpose did not change. And so before the fall, God communed with Adam and Eve in His only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. So before they fell, especially on the seventh day of rest, they would have delighted themselves in beholding the glory of God's Son in everything they created. And God communed with them. He communed with them in the person of His Son. Because that's another very essential theological truth that we need to grasp, that all of God's interaction with man is in the person of His only begotten Son. From all eternity, God begot His Son because He eternally purposed. that He would create a creature with whom He could have a relationship in the person of His Son, to whom He could reveal Himself in His Son. Why do I emphasize all this? Because my goal is for you to understand why I call the Lord's day the Son's day. Because that's the day on which God Himself originally found His infinite delight in beholding the work of His hands, in beholding the glory of His Son, by whom and for whom He created the universe. And so how was it that God and His creature interacted with each other on that first Sabbath, that first day of rest? It was in the person of the Son. It was in the Son that God drew near to Adam and Eve. It was in the Son that He revealed Himself to Adam and Eve. It was in the Son that Adam and Eve worshipped the God who had created them in His image. Now, the amazing thing is that the law reveals clearly that God's original purpose and intent has not changed. And so the reason why God has ordained that there be one day of rest is in order to give His creature, even His fallen creature, a day in which they could delight themselves in the God who created them. And in Israel's case, who redeemed them, a God who also in the whole work of redemption again comes into a relationship with His creature in the person of His Son. That's why it was the Son, not the Father, not the Spirit, who became man in the fullness of time so that in the person of His Son, And by virtue of His incarnation and through His redeeming work, that God again could have a love relationship with the children of men. So that's why God blessed this day. That's why God consecrated this day, because the point I want to make tonight. is that this day is first and foremost about God's Son. God wants His Son to have the preeminence. That is true for all of life, but that's especially the purpose of this day of rest. And I will begin to unpack that a little bit further on. And by the way, that's why I believe God ordained the morning and evening sacrifice. Because by means of the morning and evening sacrifice, God simply perpetuated the pattern that He established in paradise. The pattern that He communed with Adam and Eve morning and evening. And of course that would particularly and especially have been true on the Sabbath. Also on the Sabbath there was a morning and evening sacrifice. And so though it does not say anywhere in Scripture, thou shalt worship morning and evening, I believe that's the biblical pattern. I believe that's God's pattern. That's the pattern that was established in paradise. In the cool of the day, morning and evening, God communed with Adam and Eve. And when through sin, God and man were separated, God institutes this amazing sacrificial system. And but on the basis of the sacrifice, on the basis of shed blood, on the basis of the death of a lamb, God was able to commune with His people morning and evening. And if that was to be the pattern of every day, it certainly was the pattern of the Sabbath day. And it certainly is the pattern of the Lord's day. And so in Adam's life, in Adam and Eve's life before they fell, Those moments were the highlights of their day, when God would meet with them in the morning, when He would meet with them at night, when to commune with them, and certainly on the Sabbath day. And so it is obviously God's pattern, God's design that every day we begin our day with God and we end our day with God. But that's especially true on the Lord's day. That's why throughout the centuries, it's always been understood by the people of God that we worship twice on the Lord's Day. And there's a reason for that. And so many of us don't realize, they think it's just a wonderful tradition, but I personally believe that this is rooted in God's original structure, the structure that he established from the very, very beginning. And you know what's happening? I began by talking about the antinomianism that's manifesting itself in North America, also among evangelical Christians. Antinomian means that you are against the law, those who have this foolish notion that the Christian is set free from the law. And that antinomianism manifests itself in how many Christians observe the Lord's Day if they do it at all. I think of the area I just came from, Northwest Iowa, which once was known as staunchly reformed and conservative, where the vast majority of churches only worship once on the Lord's Day. And even then, their services are not well attended. And so I want to argue that this is not arbitrary. In other words, Those two worship services, and we're going to delve into the nature of the worship services, those are the two anchors of the Lord's Day. Everything in the Lord's Day revolves around these two sacred moments when God meets man. That's what's happening on the Lord's Day. That's what's happening when we come into the house of God. So it's interesting in Deuteronomy, when Moses, of course, repeats the original law, repeats the fourth commandment, that the focus is now on redemption. And that brings us to the reason why we now worship the Lord on the first day of the week. Actually, on the eighth day. So in the Bible, the number eight is the number of a new beginning. And so let me give you some reasons why we have transitioned from the Sabbath to the first day of the week, from the seventh to the first. First of all, is it not remarkable that the Lord of the Sabbath died on Friday? And he rested in the grave on the Sabbath day. So the Lord of the Sabbath literally took the Sabbath into the grave. And he comes out of the grave on the first day to mark a new beginning. So he takes the Sabbath into the grave and comes forth on the first day of the week, the new beginning, on the third day as he had prophesied. That's why it's not arbitrary that not only did He appear to His disciples on the first day of the week, but again a week later, again on the first day of the week, He meets with them. That's why it's not arbitrary that the Holy Spirit was poured out on the first day of the week. So the resurrection was on the first day of the week. the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, whereby, as we will see Sunday, whereby the exalted Christ renders His ministry fruitful in the hearts of sinners on the first day of the week. But how about Revelation 1? What do we read there? It says, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day. So very, very quickly That new Christian Sabbath became known as the Lord's Day, as the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. And why is Revelation so significant? Well, Revelation marks that moment when the exalted Christ appears to John and gives him the final piece of Revelation. The final concluding book of the Bible is given to the Apostle John. And again, it begins on the Lord's Day. It begins on the first day of the week. So in multiple ways, Christ Himself sanctioned that first day. as the new beginning, as the day in which we now look back. So in the Old Testament, the church anticipated the coming of the Messiah. We now, on the first day of the week, on the Lord's day, on the day of the Lord Jesus Christ, we now rest in the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so again, it's not accidental or arbitrary that we read in Acts 20 verse 7, and upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them. 1 Corinthians 16 verse 2, Paul exhorts the Corinthians upon the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him in store as God has prospered him. So they came together to hear the Word of God, to give their alms, but the first day, because very, very quickly, and church history affirms that, immediately the New Testament believers recognized that Christ himself had sanctioned that first day. And so the first day of the week became the day of rest. And it's remarkable, is it not, that that first day is the day of a new beginning. Christ established a new beginning. The outcome of which will be a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness will dwell. And I can assure you that in that new heavenly reality, when a redeemed humanity will dwell upon a fully restored earth, There will be a day of rest every seventh day. We will continue to be creatures of time. There will be a regular cycle because ultimately what God is doing in the work of redemption is restoring His original creation order, except that the restoration of it will be far superior. But God's method and God's pattern will remain unchanged. And so now, on the first day of the week, we reflect on what Christ has done to lay the foundation for that new beginning, for that new reality that is coming. And so now we come together on the Lord's day. That's why the original church always referred to it as such. Now there are many today who call it the Christian Sabbath. And I have no problem with that per se, as long as we keep in mind that the word Sabbath means rest, a Christian day of rest. But I personally prefer to call it the Lord's Day, or as my title says, the Son's Day. It is preeminently the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so when Christ says of himself in Matthew 12, verse 8, For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath day. He is Lord of the rest day. You know that he said that in a context where he was dealing with how the Pharisees had utterly perverted and corrupted the observance of that day of rest. Totally lost sight, if you will, of the theology of that day and strictly focused on the externals of that day. And I fear that that happens far too often. That's why I've deliberately decided to focus tonight on the theology of the Lord's Day. What this day means, we need to grasp what this means as far as God is concerned. We need to grasp in some measure why this day is so central to God's purposes, why this day is so significant that God blessed it and sanctified it, consecrated it. And if we begin to grasp that the ultimate focus of the Lord's day must be on the Lord of the Sabbath. It's the Son's day. It is the day on which God wants us to cease from all of our weekly activities, to come to His house in order to behold the glory of His Son unveiled to us in His precious Word. So we read in Colossians 1 verse 18 and 19. But God wants His Son in all things to have the preeminence, for it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell." So that means that at the core of the Lord's day, of the Son's day, is God's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything on the Lord's day must revolve around Him. The purpose of that day of rest. is that we would cease from all other activities and that we would focus on God's revelation of Himself in His only begotten Son. That's what's happening on the Lord's Day. That's why our worship services are sacred events. They are sacred moments. We come here by God's divine ordinance. We come here. in order to behold the glory of His Son. That's our task as ministers of the gospel. And that brings me to my fifth point. I'm moving a bit quickly, but I have to. That brings us to the whole connection between God's Son and the proclamation of the Word of God. Because that is. the great moment of our worship services. That's what the Reformation did. The Reformation recovered the centrality of the Word of God. That's why when Roman Catholic churches were transformed into Protestant churches, what would happen is that the pulpit would be given a central place. Because through the Reformation, the Word of God again became central. That's why, folks, that's why we have such a simple liturgy. Because our entire liturgy is designed to highlight on the centrality of the Word of God. So what we sing, what we read, and our prayers are all focused on the proclamation of God's Word, because that is the great moment. That's what God did to our first parents. He communed with them. He revealed Himself to them in the person of His Son. And that's the amazing reality that we experience every Lord's Day. That God in His Son, whom He sent to be the Redeemer of the world, that God can do to us what He did to our first parents. That He can draw near to us, reveal His countenance to us, open His heart to us, reveal to us who He is in His only begotten Son. That's why you will often hear me emphasize, when it fits. the crucial connection between the Lord Jesus Christ and the Word of God. Because as you know, He is the living Word. He is the eternal Word. He is the eternal expression of God's being. And as human beings, God is only knowable in His Son. Only in His Son do we know God. In His Son, God has revealed Himself. He revealed Himself in His Son to our first parents. That's what happens every Lord's Day. Through the proclamation of the Word, God draws near to us. He enables us to behold His glory in the face of His only begotten Son set before us in His Word. And so as you have already heard me said frequently, the written word of God, that's what we do as ministers. We proclaim to you on the Lord's Day, we proclaim to you God's written word. We expound to you God's written word. For what purpose? That you may behold the glory of the living word. My friends, we will never understand scripture correctly. We will never understand the purpose why God has given us His written Word. If we do not understand that it is God's desire that we should know His living Word, that we should know His only begotten Son, that's God's desire. Because the Father loves His Son, and because He loves His Son and has declared, this is my beloved Son in whom I am all pleased, because He loves His Son. And therefore, we cannot honor Him more than when we delight ourselves in that same Son of God. And so, Adam and Eve did not need a written word. Adam and Eve were fully capable of beholding the glory of God's Son reflected in all of creation. But as fallen sinners, we are blind to that glory. We're blind to God's Son. So God has now given us His written Word so that through His written Word we might become acquainted with the living Word. That's why the opening words of Hebrews 1 are so powerful. Under heading 5B there, God who at sundry times, various times and in diverse manners, spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds. He made the universe. And so the written word, is the Father's record of His Son. And the purpose of that written Word is to acquaint sinners with the living Word, the Lord Jesus Christ. Because when God revealed Himself in His Son to Adam and Eve, there was no sin issue. But now you see in His written Word, God unveils His Son now as the Redeemer and as the Savior of sinners. But God's ultimate desire is that through His Son as mediator, that He would bring us back to Himself. Because God's eternal good pleasure is to have an intimate love relationship with the human beings He created in the image of His Son. And that's why when we as ministers of the gospel, if we don't preach Christ, we are not preaching God's Word, because the written Word is about the living Word. And so our sacred calling is to expound the written Word that you might know the living Word, to expound the written Word in such a way that the glory and the beauty of the living Word becomes evident, because it is the Father's desire that we would know His Son, and that we would believe in His Son, and that through His Son we would be reconciled to Him. That's the purpose of the ministry of the Word. And so the purpose of the written Word is to acquaint sinners with the living Word. Beautiful how the book of Acts ends, two passages from Acts 28. He, that is Paul, expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus. Here we go. Both out of the law of Moses and out of the prophets, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ. That's it. And so the Spirit who is the author of that written Word is the Spirit of whom we know from John 16 that His preeminent goal is to glorify Christ. So let's look at these three verses a moment, 13, 14, and 15. How be it when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth, for He shall not speak of Himself. Number one, verse 14, he shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine and shall show it unto you. Number three, he shall take of mine and he will show it unto you. And therefore, we have an incredible obligation as ministers of the gospel to expound the written word. in such a way that Christ has the preeminence because that's the preaching the Spirit of God will join Himself. The Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ who leads us into the truth of Christ, who draws us to Christ, who takes out of Him and shows it unto us, that Spirit is attracted to the faithful exposition of His own Word. And so we can say of the whole Bible that the Spirit's goal is to glorify Him through the written Word. His goal is to take out of Christ by means of that written Word and to show Him unto us. Why? It's because everything in God's purposes revolves around His Son. And that's why. I don't want to spend my time tonight on all the do's and don'ts. I want you to understand the significance of this day. What this day means to God. How very central that day is. How this is at the very core of the purpose for which we were created. God wants our lives to revolve around His Son. And that's why the Lord's Day, the day of rest. is to be the axle around which our whole Christianity revolves. And that's why we have to take the Lord's day serious. It is His day in the supreme sense of the word. It is His Son's day. That's why in the Old Testament some of the penalties for transgressing that day were so serious indeed, because when people violated the Sabbath day, they thereby supremely dishonored God. That's why I began my presentation by saying, it's not just abortion we should worry about, or all of the sexual perversion we should worry about, but the desecration of God's day is supremely, supremely offensive to Him. And so that brings me to number six, the fourth and the second commandment. What's the connection there? So what's the second commandment all about? There's a very important connection between the two. Often people look at the second commandment and they think it's about idolatry. No, the first commandment is about idolatry. The first commandment tells us whom we should worship. The second commandment tells us how we should worship the only God. So the second commandment is what regulates our worship. God does not leave that to our imagination. And so the bottom line thrust of the second commandment, and you all hear me repeat that often, is that we are to worship God not according to our imagination. but according to revelation. Not imagination, but revelation. That's why God in the second commandment forbids every type of false representation of Himself. That's why God was so offended by the golden calf. Because you have to realize that the Israelites were not rejecting the fact that He was Jehovah who led them out of Egypt. That was not the issue. But you see, these people had never known anything else but Egypt. They had always lived in an Egyptian culture, in an Egyptian context. So hey, somebody had a brilliant idea. Let's make a golden calf. They had seen that in Egypt. And so they said about that golden calf, these are thy God. This is the God who led you out of Egypt. And so if God had not dramatically dealt with that, They would have thought of God in terms of Egyptian gods. They would have thought of the God who brought them through the Red Sea in the context of Egyptian idolatry. So that was the transgression of the second commandment. But see this, this applies to the Lord's day. It's not left to our imagination how we should observe that day. No, we are to observe that day according to revelation. And in just a moment we will briefly look at Isaiah 58, where we have one of the clearest statements in all of Scripture, how that observation of the Lord's day must be regulated. But I deliberately didn't put it on here, I kept it for last, because I want to read Isaiah 58. I want to read it in light of everything that I have attempted to say to you. And so with the second commandment, the reason why God stipulated that is to teach us there's only one legitimate image of God. That's His Son. He is the express image of His person. So what the second commandment is telling us The only way we can properly worship God is when we worship Him as He has revealed Himself in His Son. God never wants us to think of Him in any other way except as He has revealed Himself in His Son. That's who He is. That's the proper, the correct image. That's why that commandment, that's why there is that severe penalty in that commandment. Because when God says that he will visit the iniquity of the fathers to the third or fourth generation, iniquity means failure here. He's saying, when a man fails to teach his children to worship me properly, when a man fails to teach his children who I am, That offense will have generational consequences. I will visit that iniquity to the third and to the fourth generation. That's how zealously God guards the worship of His creature, a worship that must only be focused on God's Son, must only be focused on the Lord Jesus Christ. So therefore the proper worship on the Lord's Day must be focused on God's Son. And so Paul summarized his entire ministry in 1 Corinthians 2 verse 2 by saying, for I determined not to know anything about you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Acts 20, I've taught you publicly from house to house repentance towards God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. That was his ultimate goal. No sooner was he converted and straightway he preached Christ. What do we read about the apostles in Acts 5, the last verse, 42? And in the temple and from house to house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. So the point I want to make, folks, we honor the Lord's Day because when we honor the Lord's Day properly, we are honoring God's Son. That's it. That's God's desire. That's His delight. That's why it's not arbitrary what we do with that day. It's not our day. It's not our day. Yes, it is a day of rest, but rest for a purpose. Yes, God wants us to rest. We need that rest cycle. He wants us to rest from our daily activities, but He wants to set us free so that we can focus on what He wants us to focus on, namely the glory and beauty of His Son unveiled in the Scriptures, unveiled to us in the gospel. And that's how we should come to the house of God, realizing this is the place. where God draws near to us in His Son. This is the place where God reveals Himself in His Son, especially as the God of salvation. This is the place where God communicates to us that in His Son, He can be our God and we can be His people. That in His Son, we can be reconciled with Him. That in His Son, we can be restored into an everlasting love relationship with Himself. And so therefore the Lord's day is consecrated to be, by the Father, to be the Son's day, the day of the Son. Look at the passages that I quote here, we need to wrap this up. John 5 verse 23, that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father which has sent him. And when we do not observe the Lord's Day properly, we are dishonoring God's Son. That's why it's so serious. Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father." That's a profound statement. Whosoever denieth the Son hath not the Father. Second John 1 verse 9, he that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. And so the hallmark of apostolic preaching, as I said, is they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. And so my dear, my dear congregation, when we grasp this foundational truth, that will help you immensely in observing this day properly. When you realize that these worship services simply reflect the original pattern that God established in paradise, where He, in His Son, communed with our first parents. And that on the basis of His redemptive work, He is able to continue that pattern, to meet with us, on His day especially, morning and evening. That's why Psalm 92, which we sang together, is called the Psalm of the Sabbath day. That's why Psalm 92 specifically mentions morning and evening. In the morning we show forth His lovingkindness, in the evening we show forth His faithfulness. That means that the Lord's day must revolve around those two services. That means we must prepare ourselves properly for those services. We must reflect on those services. One of the things that troubled me sometimes about some of the people in northwest Iowa, not just in Hull, but they said, no, this is our day, this is our family day. It's wonderful to come together with your families. But it's the Lord's Day. Even when you meet with your families, it's the Lord's Day. So when we have fellowship after the service, here or at home, and our conversation is totally divorced from what just happened, we're desecrating the Lord's Day. You see, this governs everything. This governs how we view everything. And so when, also when I was a school principal, the question always came up, can we take a nap on Sunday afternoon? I said, well, it depends on what your purpose is. If you do it to whittle the time away because you're lazy, Or because you desire to have a fresh mind for the evening service when God meets with us again. Then you do it for the right reason, you do it for the proper reason. So that's the whole thing, that's why I began by saying I want you to grasp the theology of the Lord's Day. Because once you grasp the theology of the Lord's Day, it will help you immensely in determining the practice of the Lord's Day. as to what is appropriate and what is not appropriate. So let's open our Bibles to Isaiah 58. Isaiah 58, verses 13 and 14. Verse 13. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing, listen carefully, thy pleasure on my holy day, my sacred day, my consecrated day, and I call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable, and shalt honor him." Whom? Christ, God's Son, not doing thine own ways. nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words. Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord, and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places." And when it says here, delight thyself in the Lord, it's that Lord name with capital letters, and it always points us to Christ. Then thou shalt delight thyself in the God of salvation, the God of redemption, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so it's his day. God gives us six days to pursue our lawful calling and to engage in recreation. But this day is my day. This is a day in which you are not to pursue your own pleasure. And so that means not doing your own thing, not doing your own ways, not finding your own pleasure. not entertaining yourself, nor speaking thine own words." In other words, conversation, conversation that is fitting for the Lord's day. A congregation, I've been guilty of it myself. Sometimes I wonder. How much of our conversation after the service is about what you heard? Sometimes I wonder, over the years, how much of the seed that is sown is taken away already then, very quickly, see? And that's why I know I sound like a broken record. But when I sound like a broken record, I always am encouraged by Philippians 3, verse 1, where Paul writes, for me to write the same things unto you is not grievous, but for you it is safe. So he says, for you it is safe, right? But I'm hoping, I'm hoping and praying, and I will reinforce this in future sermons, okay, is that you grasp, grasp the significance of this day. God graciously, out of seven days, allows us to pursue our interest for six. But he said, this day is mine. This day is mine. This is the day of my son. This is the day you must cease from everything else. Focus on him. That's the same. That's a tithing principle. Just like when God gives us, but he's saying 10% of at least the tithe is mine. The rest you may have, but the tithe is mine. And that's how it should be every day. Part of our day should be tithed towards seeking the Lord. Private worship, as I pointed out on Sunday night. And so my question for you is, I want you to reflect on how you observe the Lord's day. My holy day. My day. My consecrated day. And so that applies to me too. Is the Lord's day the Son's day? Is it a real Sunday with an O? That's what it should be. That's the bottom line, right? And that's why You know, we saw Sunday night the disciples, they were continually in the temple. They faithfully observed God's ordinances. Public ordinances, private ordinances, they faithfully did. That's why we should never leave our place empty unless we absolutely have to. Because what happens here is by divine appointment. And that's why I want to say lovingly, and I've said this in all of my congregations, That's why even when you go on vacation, your children should know, your grandchildren should know that that day is just as sacred as it is at home. The Lord's Day is always the Lord's Day, even when we're camping, even when we're on vacation. Otherwise, what happens, our children grow up with a double standard. We keep the Lord's Day one way at home and we do it a little differently when we are on vacation. That's not how it ought to be. All of this is informed by our understanding of the Lord's Day. When we grasp how important is this to God Himself, hopefully that will help us in honoring the Lord's Day, honoring these special events When God, as you heard me say that, as Calvin was saying, when Christ walks among us in the garments of the gospel. That's it.