We have come to that portion in our liturgy where we will confess the faith together, first with the help of our catechism, then by reciting the Apostles' Creed after some catechetical teaching. Remember, we are considering the Ten Commandments. We have come now to the fourth and to question 65 of our catechism which asks, how is the Sabbath to be sanctified? Answer, the Sabbath is to be sanctified by a holy resting all that day. even from such worldly employments and recreations as are lawful on other days, and spending the time in the public and private exercises of God's worship, except so much as is to be taken up in the works of necessity and mercy." Our reading from the Scriptures is Isaiah 58, verses 13 through 14. Here God's Word says, If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, and the holy day of the Lord honorable, If you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly, then you shall delight in the Lord. And I will make you ride on the heights of the earth. I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken." This is now the reading of God's Holy Word. May He bless the teaching of the faith today. Questions 62-67 of the Baptist Catechism are about the fourth commandment, which is, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. With the help of Catechism questions 63-65, we learned that the practice of Sabbath keeping was not unique to Old Covenant Israel, but is for all people living in all times and places. The command was given at first to Adam, remember. It was not first given to Abraham or to Israel through Moses. All people ought to worship God alone, not with images, with reverence for His name, setting one day and seven apart as holy unto the Lord as a day for rest and worship. This is what the first four of the Ten Commandments teach. On which day is the Sabbath to be kept? From the creation of the world until the resurrection of Christ, the Sabbath day was the seventh day, which we call Saturday. The seventh-day Sabbath fit the covenant of works that was made with Adam in the garden. Remember, it communicated that faithful work would lead to eternal rest. Adam failed to enter that rest. But the seventh-day Sabbath remained, one, as a reminder of what Adam failed to obtain, and two, as a reminder of the promise of God to provide a Redeemer from the seed of the woman, a second Adam, who would, in the fullness of time, earn eternal rest through His faithful obedience. On which day is the Sabbath to be observed now that the Messiah has come, has finished His work and has entered His rest? The Sabbath day is now the first day of the week, which we call Sunday. Christ met with His disciples after His resurrection, on which day? He met with them on the first day of the week to establish this pattern. See especially John's Gospel. The early church assembled on the first day and they called it the Lord's Day. See Acts 20 verse 7 and Revelation 1.10. And this practice has remained throughout the history of the church. The first day of the week, Sunday, is to be regarded as the Christian or Lord's Day, Sabbath. All of that is review. Now we ask, how is the Sabbath to be sanctified? In other words, how are we to go about keeping the Sabbath day holy? What should we do and what should we not do on the Lord's Day Sabbath? You will probably notice that our catechism does not provide a detailed list of things appropriate or not appropriate for the Sabbath day. Instead, it presents broad principles. And of course, we must apply these principles in a specific way, and that will require wisdom. How is the Sabbath to be sanctified? Answer, the Sabbath is to be sanctified by a holy resting all that day. The word sanctified means to set apart as holy. The Sabbath day is not a common day, it is a holy day. In our culture we have many holidays, but which holy day is the Christian bound to observe? It is not Christmas, it is not Good Friday, it is not Easter, and neither is the New Covenant Christian bound to observe the many holy days that were given to Israel under the Old Mosaic Covenant. Paul makes this very clear in Colossians 2.16 saying, "...therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival, or a new moon, or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ." He's writing to Christians saying, let no one pass judgment on you as it pertains to these things. By the way, and this is a big by the way, The word Sabbath in that text, in Colossians 2, 16-17, is plural in the Greek. Let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, and with regard to a festival or new moon, or Sabbaths is a literal rendering of that text. It is a shame that it is rendered as a singular in the ESV. Here what Paul is referring to is all of the festival days of the Old Covenant. The New Moons, the Sabbaths, the many Sabbaths that the people of God were to observe under the Old Covenant. according to their liturgical calendar. The Christian is not obligated to observe those days, and neither is the Christian, hear me please, bound to observe the seventh-day Sabbath of old. The Christian is not bound to observe what we might call the Old Covenant or Jewish Sabbath. One day and seven was set apart as holy for Adam in the garden. One day and seven was set apart as holy for Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the Old Covenant Israel under Moses. And one day and seven is set apart for all who are united by faith to the second Adam, Jesus Christ the Lord. Our catechism is clear that the Sabbath day is a day for rest. It is a holy day. It is a day for rest. But the question must be asked, rest from what? Is the Sabbath day a day for sleeping? I've said this to you before, naps are permitted on the Sabbath day, if needed, but truly it is not a day for sleeping. It is not a day for inactivity. I'm afraid that some are confused about this. Some Christians, professing Christians will think, well the main purpose of the day is for me to get more sleep therefore I'm feeling tired, I'm not going to church. Others, I've noticed this, think well it is a special day, it's a family day. It's a family day. And so I'm going to spend more time with my family." It is not. It is a rest day, it is true, but we must ask the question, rest from what? And here I am saying to you that the day should actually be a very full day. It is not a day for inactivity. It's a day for a particular kind of activity. And the word holy helps us see this. Not only is it a day set apart for rest, it is also a day set apart for holy purposes, namely worship. Leviticus 23.3 clarifies this, saying, �Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work. It is a Sabbath to the Lord in all your dwelling places.� The word �convocation� means �formal assembly.� a holy convocation, as an assembly for worship. So no, the Sabbath day is not a day for sleeping in or napping, it is a day for Corporate worship. Corporate worship and also private worship. If your view of the Lord's Day Sabbath is that it is primarily a day for physical rest and rejuvenation, I'm afraid you've missed the point entirely. It is for that too, brothers and sisters. I pray you are physically rejuvenated on the Lord's Day, but it is about so much more So again, I ask what are we to rest from? Our catechism is right to say that we are to rest from such worldly employments and recreations as are lawful on other days. In other words, the Sabbath day is a stop day. It is a day to cease or rest from a certain kind of activity, namely common work and common recreation, so that we can devote ourselves to another kind of activity, namely public and private worship. Common activities are to be set aside. Holy activities are to be taken up. The Lord's Day Sabbath is not a day for common work, brothers and sisters. The Lord's Day Sabbath is not a day for common recreation. What then is it a day for? Our catechism is right to say that we are to spend the time in the public and private exercises of God's worship, except so much as to be taken up in the works of necessity and mercy. I like the word spend. It reminds us that time is spent just like money is spent. We only have so much of it, and we do need to decide how to spend it. On the Lord's Day, we are to spend the day, the whole day, in the public and private exercises of God's worship. as has already been mentioned. The Sabbath day is a day for holy convocation or assembling. That is what public exercises of God's worship refers to in our Catechism. The Church of Christ is to assemble on the Lord's Day for corporate worship. And this is why the writer of Hebrews exhorts us, saying, �Do not neglect to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encourage one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.� Hebrews 10.25. The day is to be spent in public exercises of God�s worship, and after public worship is over, however much time the church decides to devote to that, Christians are then to spend their time in private exercises of God's worship. I take this to mean that we are to continue in a spirit of worship as we go our separate ways on the Lord's Day. We are to think upon the Word of God that was read and preached. We are to pray. We are to read Scripture. We're to talk about Scripture together. We might even continue to sing. Are we to worship God privately on the other days of the week too? And the answer is yes, of course. But the Lord's Day Sabbath is a day set aside for this. By resting from common work and common recreation we are freed to worship the Lord corporately and privately in a pronounced and focused way. If you are struggling spiritually, brothers and sisters, one question I would ask is this, are you honoring the Lord's Day Sabbath? And if the answer is no, if you're allowing it to be overrun by common work and by common recreations, I am not surprised that you are struggling spiritually, for you are not doing business with the Lord in the way that the Scriptures call you to. One day out of seven there is this pattern and we are to live according to this pattern. to state the matter differently. On the other days of the week we are often consumed with work and distracted by recreation. Work and recreation are not bad things. In fact, approached rightly and within their proper boundaries, they are very good things. It is even possible to honor the Lord in our work and in our recreations, Monday through Saturday, but on Sunday we are invited And I use that word carefully, invited, because it is a blessing. To set these common things aside, to fix our attention squarely on the Lord, to worship Him and to delight in Him, as the Isaiah passage we read earlier says. Now to be clear, I do not know of any individuals or families that spend the entire Lord's Day in strict private or family worship after assembling with the congregation. If that is what is intended by our catechism and our confession, then I would have to confess that I fall short of it. I would like to think, and perhaps I'm wrong, that our catechism is simply saying that we must not run off from corporate worship to common work and recreation, but to continue to keep the day, the whole day, as holy unto the Lord by thinking and conversing about things of God in private in a way that is pronounced when compared to the other days of the week. Lastly, our Catechism mentions two exceptions, except so much as to be taken up in the works of necessity and mercy. A work of necessity is a work that absolutely cannot wait until the following day. If your ox falls into a ditch, I know not many of you have oxen, but if you did, and if it fell into a ditch, You would be right to pull it out of the ditch to preserve the life of your ox and your property. If a water pipe bursts under your house, you should fix it. If your neighbor is experiencing difficulty like this, you should help them on the Sabbath day. An act of mercy is similar. It is an act of kindness done for someone in need. The Lord's Day Sabbath is a very good day for this, as Jesus demonstrated by healing the lame and the sick on the Sabbath. And it should also be recognized that some people are engaged in professions that involve doing acts of necessity or mercy on the Lord's Day. Emergency room doctors, police officers, perhaps even water district employees will sometimes need to work on Sundays Christians are to engage in professions like these, and if they do, they should do their very best to have Sundays off whenever possible. However, they do not sin by engaging in these works of necessity and mercy when they do. Brothers and sisters, it is no secret that Christian individuals, families, and churches sometimes struggle to know what exactly should be done and what should not be done on the Lord's Day Sabbath. And so I'll conclude by offering a few pieces of advice that I hope will help. First, think about the purpose of the day and ask, does this activity, whatever it is, fit with the purpose of the day? I think that is the very best question you could ask as you're trying to discern what you should be doing on the Lord's Day Sabbath. Think first about the purpose of the day and ask, does this activity fit with the purpose of the day? This general question will serve you better than a strict and detailed list of do's and don'ts. Most of the time the answer will be very obvious. Does playing in a baseball league fit with the purpose of the Lord's Day Sabbath? I hope the answer is obvious. No. Does zoning out on a movie or the Super Bowl fit with the purpose of the Lord's Day Sabbath? No. What about working on the house remodel, or doing some other chore or task that can easily wait till Monday? Again, I say, it's hard to see how these sorts of activities could possibly agree with the purpose of the day. These are clear examples of common work and recreation that ought to be reserved for the common days of the week. Secondly, when trying to encourage others to keep the Sabbath day holy, appeal to the goodness of the thing." And this is what I try to do as your pastor, by that I mean emphasize what it is that we get to do on the Lord's Day Sabbath, namely we get to delight in the Lord in a very pronounced way on this day. It is important to emphasize this rather than what we don't get to do on the day. The day was designed to be a blessing and a delight to us, and so this is what we should emphasize. Let me state it one more way very quickly. If hearing all of this teaching makes you feel like, what a bummer, what a downer, I have to treat this day as holy unto the Lord and fix my attention upon God in a pronounced way that reveals something about your heart and your soul, doesn't it? That it is far from God and the things of God. I acknowledge that we all struggle to keep this day holy unto the Lord. We all fall short of it. But I would hope and pray that as a child of God, your impulse would be to say, this is good. It is a blessing. Thirdly, I will say, be careful with the little ones. Do not expect more out of them than they can give. Little ones do need to play. They have a limited ability to focus when compared to adults. I hope our children delight in the Lord's Day as they grow up in the church. I hope they consider it to be the best of all the days. Brothers and sisters, we must be careful not to frustrate them with unreasonable expectations. Now with that said, we should encourage our children to keep the Lord's Day with more and more care and seriousness as they grow older. Paul's words in 1 Corinthians 13, 11 seem to apply here. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. But when I became a man, I gave up childish ways. Our expectations of our children ought to be reasonable. At the same time, we do need to encourage our children to go on toward maturity in all things, including honoring the Lord's Day Sabbath. Fourthly, be patient with others even as you remain resolute in your convictions. Very few Christians today honor the Lord's Day Sabbath. We do need to leave room for others to grow in their understanding of this doctrine and in their application of it. Is there a place for exhortation? I say, yes, of course there is. That's what I'm doing now. I'm delivering an exhortation. When you see a brother or sister violating the Sabbath in an obvious way, it is right that you encourage them to turn from sin, for that is what it is, and to obedience in Christ. But we must be loving and patient with each other. In all that we do, I think one benefit we have here at Emmaus is this. Most of us did not grow up in the reformed tradition. Most of us did not grow up with this view. And so we know what it is to come to understand these things. And we know what it is to struggle to work towards consistency in our walk. So show graciousness and patience to others. Fifthly, leave room for differences of opinion regarding the particulars of Sabbath keeping. I think you would agree with me that there are activities that clearly do not agree with the purpose of the day. The Lord's Day is not a day for common work, it is not a day for recreation. I hope you all agree with that, but in my mind there may be some activities that some would classify as recreation that may in fact serve the purpose of the day. I'm thinking of things like a walk, a hike, a drive, a game of catch with your kid, or a bike ride with your children. All of these activities, I do think, can be done in such a way as to encourage conversation and contemplation concerning the things of God, and to ultimately serve the purpose of the day. Now it may be that you are convinced that these things ought not to be done on the Lord's Day, and that is perfectly fine, but I would encourage you not to attempt to bind the consciences of others on these matters of conviction, but to consider them matters of opinion. Sixthly, and finally, we must call the Sabbath a delight. I think it is right for us to view the Lord's Day Sabbath as a celebration, a festival, maybe even a feast day. It is to be a joyous day, it is. But note this, the Sabbath day is to be a delight to us, not because we spend the day pleasing the flesh. but because we feed the soul by delighting ourselves in God and in Jesus Christ, who is the Lord of the Sabbath.