Word of God to Hebrews 4 and verse 9. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. As your margin indicates, it is a Sabbath rest. There remains a Sabbath to the people of God. And our subject this morning is entitled, The Olympics, Public Defiance of God. The Olympics, Public Defiance of God. In 1617, James I, returning from Scotland, travelled through Lancashire and became involved in a dispute between the Puritans and the local gentry, many of whom were Papists and Anglicans, and the issue was over the observance of the Lord's Day. Now James, as king, took it upon himself to issue a declaration stating that sports were permissible on the Lord's Day. awfully kind of the King to make such a declaration. It was known as the Declaration of the Book of Sports and shortened to simply the Book of Sports. So pleased was he with this local resolution, he made it a national declaration in 1618. It was to be applied throughout all his realms and dominions. It was a public rebuke to the Puritans who believed and taught that the whole day was given over to spiritual things alone. The Papists and the Prelates, supported by the King, said no. The Declaration of the Book of Sports states that sports such as archery, dancing, leaping, vaulting and anything else along with May games, Morris dancing and setting up May polls and so on were all permissible on the Lord's Day. In 1633, Charles I reissued this declaration, but this time ordering that all ministers publicly read the Book of Sports to their congregations and any who failed to do so would be ejected. Well, of course, all Puritan ministers refused to read such a dreadful thing. and were punished. It was, in fact, the first ejaction often forgotten. For example, William Greenhill, whose name I trust is familiar to all of us, refused not only to read the Book of Scores, but he preached instead upon the Four Commandments, for which he was duly removed from his pulpit. Well, today, and throughout all of August, every Lord's Day, the City of London will be host to a public display of openly defying God. In the name of sport, millions will be involved in this open defiance of God. And there's a certain irony, isn't there, that after almost 400 years, what James I and Charles I wanted, what the Papists wanted, what the Prelates wanted, is now being done on a vast scale, costing millions and millions of pounds so that millions of people can participate and billions of people on television and on the radio become participants as well in this open public defiance of God and trampling upon the Lord's day and the Lord's command. So we're going to look afresh today at this fourth commandment. This particular statement made by Paul, there remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. First of all, the ordering of time. I picked the word time simply because it's so crucial to the Olympics and Olympic sports and also to remind you of Eric Liddell of past days for whom time was important two-fold. But the ordering of time. God who owns all because he made all is in charge of time. That is demonstrated in the following ways. First of all, the division of time into night and day. Genesis chapter 1 verse 3, and God said, let there be light and there was light. and God saw the light that it was good and God divided the light from the darkness and God called the light day and the darkness he called night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. So here we have the division of time into night and day. And secondly, the grouping of days into weeks. or a period of seven days. Our English word week and seven are the same. So in Ezekiel 45, 21, we have the phrase, a feast of seven days. That word seven is translated in Daniel 9, 27, in the midst of the week. So God is the originator of a week of seven days, that period of seven days called the week So God's in charge of time. He divides time into night and day, and then he groups days into periods of sevens. It's called a week. And thirdly, the division of the week into six plus one. Look again at Exodus 20 verse 11. In six days the Lord made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day. In these three ways we see that God is in charge of time. He orders time. He is the author and the orderer and the governor of time, because he is the creator of our time. Dividing the night from the day, grouping the days into a week, and then making a distinction within the days. Six plus one. Which brings me to the second point, the filling of time. How is all this time to be spent? What are we to do with all this time that God has given us? Well, there are three things. First of all, night is given for sleep and day is given for work. That may seem pretty obvious nowadays, but we must remember its origin. How do we fill the night and how do we fill the day? We fill the night with sleep and the day with work. Genesis 28 verse 11. Here is Jacob verse 10. He laid it upon a certain place and tarried there all night because the sun was set. And he took up the stones of that place and put them for his pillows and lay down in that place to sleep. Nice example of the purpose of the night. Job speaks of the night when sleep falls upon men. Job 4 verse 13. And when we turn to the book of Psalms, Psalm 104, Psalm 104 verse 23. He speaks of the sun, verse 22, arising. Man goeth forth unto his work and is labour until the evening. The sun rises, daylight has come. What do we do in the daylight? We labour, we work until the evening. When the evening comes, we retire for the night. we go to bed and we sleep. Perhaps one of the drawbacks with electricity is that some of us tend to stay up later and later because we're reading something that we find so satisfying and we keep on reading. Maybe that's electric is not always so wonderfully beneficial, but In God's kindness we have it. So night is given for sleep and the day is given for work. But then secondly, six days for labour, one for rest. Again Exodus 20 verse 9 and 10. Six days shall thy labour and do all thy work. Verse 10. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. everything that mankind needs to do, God has said, I give you six days to do it. But I set apart one day from the rest. God has given us out of seven, six whole days to do all the work and all the jobs and of all the recreation that we need. So if you want to do archery, leaping and bolting and anything else along with all the other chores that must be done, God has given us six days in which to do it. But thirdly, under this filling of time, a day of rest for spiritual things. a day of rest for spiritual things. Leviticus chapter 23, and in verse 3 we read, 6 days shall work be done, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest and holy convocation, ye shall do no work therein, it is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings. Notice In the first place, that the Lord's Day is a day of rest from the labours of the other six. A day of rest from the labours of all the other six. So all the tasks and duties pertaining to the other six days, they cease on this day. And secondly, notice that the Lord's Day is specifically set apart for spiritual activities. A holy convocation. Holiness pertains to this day. And negatively, he says, no work therein. And positively, a holy convocation. You see, whenever God says it is a Sabbath of rest, he doesn't mean do absolutely nothing. That's not what rest means. No, it means don't do that work, but do this worship. And this is to be a deliberate act by the Christian there is to be a deliberate choosing by the Christian of spiritual things on the Lord's Day in preference to anything else. Even those things which in and of themselves ordinarily you may like to do, and they are lawful to do, but the Christian deliberately sets them to one side. Isaiah 58, verses 13 and 14. If thou turn away thy food from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call the sabbath a delight the holy of the Lord honourable, and shalt honour him, 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 of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." Here is a word, all of scripture is spoken by God. But Isaiah draws our attention to this specific word spoken by God, this specific word in relation to the Sabbath day. Isaiah tells us, turn your feet from doing the following on the Sabbath, from doing thine own pleasure, from going thine own ways, from seeking thine own pleasure, from speaking thine own words, from all these turn your feet from, on the Sabbath, those things which are lawful on the other six days of the week." That word pleasure that Isaiah uses refers to that which is acceptable, to what is desired, what is acceptable, in other words, for the other six days of the week. There are many activities that are wholly appropriate on all the other six days of the week, quite acceptable to be done on the other six days of the week. And if you like archery, as some do, well you have Monday and the rest of the week to do it, but on the Lord's Day you hang up your bow and arrow for the next week. And if you like, vaulting, maybe it's pole jumping or whatever. Some of these things are acceptable at other times, but not on the Lord's Day. He tells us that time is to be spent in honouring God and shall honour Him. So what we do on the Lord's Day is out of honour to God, We want to honour Him who is our Creator. And if we're Christians, Him who is our Saviour and Redeemer. If you want to honour God, then you will use God's day as God requires. We are to give ourselves wholly unto God. We are to be quite determined about this. turning our feet from all these other things on the Sabbath day, and to give ourselves wholly unto God. So in these ways, all the time that God has given us is being filled. We fill the night time and we fill the day time. We fill the days of the week, six for work, and we fill the Lord's day with worship. We are filling the time that God has given to us. In other words, we are redeeming the time. We are filling it as God gives it to us. But then thirdly, the defiance of time. You know, man as a sinner hates giving God time. hate giving God one whole day for God. They hate the thought of being commanded and ordered by the Great Being, God Himself, that one day is to be set apart for God. Sinners hate that. And they find it irksome. And they're constantly fighting against it. The gentry in Lancashire in 1670 fought against this principle. King James I and Charles I with their archery, their leaping and their vaulting and amorous dancing and so on hated the thought of giving God one whole day and they acted in defiance of God. In the Olympics Under the International Olympic Committee, our present monarch, Prime Minister and Lord Mayor are equally acting in defiance of God. That's what they're doing, they're defying God. They're saying, we are taking the day and we are going to use it as we want to use it. We want to use it for our pleasure, We want to use it for the interest of certain businesses. We want to use it in our own interests. Let's look at some examples of sinful defiance. of time. Exodus chapter 16 verses 27 and 28. For context we would need to read from verse 22. And it came to pass that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers 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 ye will bake today. See that ye will see. 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 bade. 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 ye shall not find it in the field. Six days ye shall gather, but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, in it 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. The Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? You see, sinful defiance, God said, Here are six days. Every one of those days I will give you manna. And on the sixth day gather twice as much as every other day, because on the Lord's day I will send you none. and what you hold over until the Sabbath day, it will be fine to eat. Don't bother going out to look for any on the Lord's Day. In fact, don't go at all. There won't be any. But you see, there's always some. Those who say, well, we know what God said, but we're going to go anyway. We're going to do it anyway. And they went out to gather. They went deliberately Out to do what God told them not to do. Even though nothing was sent by God, yet still they went out. Oh, the defiance in the human heart. Wanting to do what God says should not be done. Numbers 15, verse 32. Numbers 15, 32. And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the Sabbath day. Here again, God had already told them what to do. Six days for labor, seven days for rest. All the things that were lawful on the other days of the week, don't do it today. But here was a man, wanted to do his own thing. And he went out. And of course, God said in verse 35, the Lord said unto Moses, the man shall be surely put to death. All the congregation shall stone him with stones without the count. And all the congregation brought him without the count, stoned him with stones any time, as the Lord commanded Moses. The law of God was clear. Six for labour, one for worship. But the sinner will defy God. And then in the book of Nehemiah, Nehemiah 13, verses 15 and 16. Nehemiah says, In those days saw I and Judah some treading winepresses on the Sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and leading asses, as also wine, grapes, and figs, and all manner of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. And I testified against them in the day wherein they sold vittles. There are dwelt men of tar also therein, which brought fish, and all manner of wear and soles on the Sabbath, unto the children of Judah and in Jerusalem." So here you have the Israelites themselves doing all these activities, all this work. They were making wine and gathering grapes and all other kinds of burdens on the Sabbath day. And they not only gathered all these things, but they proceeded to sell these things on the Lord's Day. And then you have the foreigners, the men of tar, these immigrants who came in. They came to trade on the Sabbath day. It was a day of business. They were treating it like any other day. And Nehemiah says, I testified against them. I protested. I denounced them, I preached against them, and I warned them and threatened them. This should not be done on the Lord's Day. Now let me turn to Jeremiah chapter 17. Jeremiah 17 verses 21 to 23. Thus saith the Lord, Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem. Neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day, neither do ye any work, but hallow ye the Sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers. But they obeyed not neither inclined their ear, but made their necks stiff that they might not hear nor receive instruction. What was their greatest sin? They refused to keep the Lord's Day. They disobeyed. They went further. They closed their ears to the words of Jeremiah the prophet. They hardened their hearts against the law of God. We will refuse, they said. We will not even listen to you. It was, of course, for this sin that God brought them destruction. Verse 27, But if ye will not hearken unto me, to hallow the Sabbath day, and not to bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched." God says, I will burn your city. I will burn every palace, every great building, I will burn it all. I will burn the entire city." And that's what he did. When the Babylonians came, they burned the city. As God said, why? Why? Because they refused to keep a day for God. I will bring ruin to your nation. When men and women are made to stop work for the Sabbath day. You know what the sinful say? In the words of Amos chapter 8 verses 5 to 6 they say, when will the Sabbath be gone that we may sail and buy? That's what the sinful say. We're tired of the Lord's day. We can't wait to get back to work. You would think the sinful really wanted to work. They don't want to work. Because they hate getting out of bed to go to work. But on the Lord's Day, they can't wait to do some work. They can't wait to get into working, to get at something. They'll do anything on the Lord's Day. But you couldn't drag the sinful to do the same activities the other six days of the week. Because there is a hatred in their hearts for God. A hatred for God's day. That day set apart reminds them you are not your own. You are not in charge. God is in charge and God orders your life. He orders your time. You're answerable to God. And the sinful hate that. They hate the whole idea that they have to give God a count for every second. So we have the Olympics. aided and abetted by the state, openly and publicly defying God, insisting on abusing the Lord's day for their own pleasures. Well, let's come to applications. First of all, God is Lord of time, not man. Matthew 12, verse 8. And you know that is a public rebuke, is it not? That very statement in Matthew 12.8 that tells us that Christ is in charge of this day. Our nation And the Olympic Committee are saying Christ is not in charge of this day. We are robbing him of that power. We are taking away from him his own authority. We are claiming this day for ourselves. That's what they are saying. They're saying away with Christ and away with this day. They are publicly defying King Jesus. That's what they have done and will do for as long as they remain in this country. But then secondly, objections to time. Needless to say, there are always objections to those against keeping a day for God. And there are three kinds of objections. The first is, there are those who say any day will do. As the Puritan William Twist long ago pointed out, if such liberty is equally communicated to each particular congregation, it will follow that the English could have Monday, the French Tuesday, the Dutch Wednesday, the Germans Thursday, the Danes Friday, the Swedes Saturday and the Poles Sunday. What an intolerable scandal amongst Christians. Thus our liberty opens the way to revive the Jewish Saturday or to concur with the Muslims who make it Friday. If the heathen see no agreement amongst Christians What an intolerable scandal to them and will harden them against the gospel. William Twist also reminds us, to change the day now would be the greatest scandal of the church, seeing that the church has kept this particular day since the resurrection of Christ. But then there are those who of late, a recent objection perhaps some might think, those who don't just say any day will do, but they say in fact there is no day at all. It's called New Covenant theology. Every Christian can decide for himself which day, if any, they wish to keep. So here we have these clever 21st century Christians who say, well, if you want to keep a day, that's fine. If they don't want to keep a day at all for God, that's fine too. And yet, this attitude contradicts the Saviour who tells the disciples in regard to the destruction of Jerusalem. Matthew 24, 20. Pray ye that your flight be not in the winter or on the Sabbath day. In other words, just as the Jews had winter and Sabbaths, so Christians will have winters and Sabbaths. Yet here are these new Christians who reject all this. They also reject what Paul tells us in Hebrews 4.9, there remaineth therefore, in light of all that I have told you from verse 1 of chapter 4 about the gospel, about entering into this spiritual, eternal, heavenly rest in Christ, in light of this there remains a Sabbath day of rest. In fact, it is fundamental and crucial to you as Christians that you maintain this principle, that you keep one whole day, a Sabbath day, to God. There remains to the people of God. In other words, a Sabbath and the people of God are so locked together, you cannot separate the two. You cannot separate being the people of God from the Sabbath day. And yet, that's not all the objections. There's one more. There are Christians and congregations who today are teaching and practising the very same view held by the Lancashire Gentry, shall we say, in 1617, who teach, believe and practise that once you have worshipped God on the Lord's Day, the rest of the day you may do as you please. You may do what James I said. go archery, vaulting, leaping, Morris dancing, but nowadays they add shopping and going to restaurants. Who would have ever thought that evangelicals would ever become papists? And yet that's what they have done. Who would have ever thought that evangelicals would have become Anglican in total? saying, well we've done our bit, we've been, we've sung praise to God, we've read the word of God and now let's all go shopping, let's all go to the games, so to speak. Who would ever have thought that the 21st century evangelical would have embraced the book of sports? and our purest and forefathers were being punished, fined and imprisoned for daring to say the Lord's Day is exactly that, it's the Lord's Day. And God will punish a nation for not keeping it. God did punish the nation by the way. But that's another story. How astonishing that any evangelical would turn papist. And thirdly and finally, the observance of time is a test of our submission to God. That's what it is. Every Lord's Day that comes, it's a test that stays to us What will you do today? Verse 13 of Isaiah 58. Call the Sabbath a delight. The holy of the Lord, honorable. Is this what you will respond with in relation to the Lord's day? Shall we delight ourselves in the Lord this day? It's a test of our submission. What are we going to do today? Do you find it a delight? Let me ask you quite bluntly, do you find the Lord's Day a delight or do you find it all a bore? John Bunyan once found it a bore. Every Lord's Day he hated it. Having to keep a whole day, he struggled with it. It was such a bore. He fought against it. What could he do, even secretly, in order to try and pass the time until he was converted? And then when he was converted, he suddenly changed. Oh, it's a delight, he said. I love the Lord's Day. I long for the Lord's Day. What about you? What's your response to the Lord's Day? Is it a delight? Or a disaster? A drag? Oh, what a test of how we stand before God. Will you whittle away this time today? You know, we've got all these gadgets and we can even use them to try and pass our time. And what are we doing? We're being distracted from spiritual things. God has given us a book and believers from it have written many great books that we may Call the Sabbath a delight so holy of the Lord and honourable, and shall honour him. Will you honour God today? Will you? Oh, as you have done, then I urge you, keep on doing. The pressure is building. The pressure is piling on Christians. Forget about Christ. Forget about his day. But do you know what happens? people cease to find rest. They no longer have rest because they're filling their time all the time with all kinds of things and instead of the Lord's Day bringing rest to their weary bodies and engaging in the worship of God so that they are renewed and reinvigorated and refreshed Men and women are becoming weary, tired. People talk about being depressed, being unhappy, finding no fulfilment. Well, how can they find fulfilment unless they find it in God? Unless they start by keeping the Lord's day, then thou shalt delight thyself in the Lord. I will bring to you, he says, renewal and refreshment and blessing. May we know this blessing that God speaks of through the prophet Isaiah in verse 14. Amen. Thank you.