The Sabbath: Positive Duties/Privileges, Part 2

The point: Make deliberate physical, mental, spiritual, and material preparations for the Lord's Day Sabbath.

Compares the diligent preparation of a serious fisherman or an efficient housewife for their leisure activities to the preparation a Christian should make for the Lord's Day, arguing that such preparation is not legalism but seriousness.

And then secondly, there must be deliberate preparation for the day, even as the children of Israel made preparations. For their mosaic Sabbath, so we must make preparations for our Lord's day Sabbath. And that preparation breaks down into three simple and obvious categories, physical and mental preparation, spiritual preparation, and material preparation. And I hope you will remember the silly, homey illustrations that no one calls anyone a legalist.

10:04 - 10:44 Read in full sermon

The point: Fathers, seize the Lord's Day to nurture your children and take your proper high profile as priest and king under Christ in the home.

A brother's testimony that he would create a Sabbath even if God hadn't mandated one, just to maintain his sanity and spiritual life, illustrates the privilege of setting aside worldly duties for spiritual cultivation.

This particular brother said, Pastor, I don't understand all of this discussion. He said, If God had not mandated a Sabbath, I'd make one just to keep my own sanity and my own spiritual life. If God had not created one, I'd make one to keep my own sanity and my own spiritual life. If God had not created one, I'd make one just to keep my own sanity and my own spiritual life.

18:11 - 18:34 Read in full sermon

The point: Sing hymns and praise God with your whole heart, pouring your entire soul into it, not offering half-hearted praise.

Alludes to God's rebuke in Malachi about bringing halt, lame, and blemished sacrifices, applying it to half-hearted, unenthusiastic worship on the Lord's Day.

We shall honor it, not doing our own ways, nor finding our own pleasure, nor speaking our own words. You see, the whole motif of that verse is wholeheartedly giving over to the sanctity, and to the privileges of God's appointed day of rest. Oh, how God cried out against His ancient people. You remember what He said to them?

22:02 - 22:28 Read in full sermon

The point: Engage in prayer with spiritual intensity and agony, not only when led but individually.

Uses the Greek word 'agonizomai' and the image of two well-trained, oiled athletes grappling in an arena to describe prayer as an 'agony' or spiritual intensity, emphasizing wholehearted engagement in prayer.

You make them pay attention, and you're training them that they are to wholeheartedly attend to the Word of the living God. And when we are led in prayer, prayer is a labor. It's called such in Scripture, that Greek word agonizomai, to describe what is very vivid in our minds at Olympic time. It describes what would happen when two well-trained athletes with oiled bodies would get in the arena.

25:19 - 25:48 Read in full sermon

The point: Remember the Sabbath day to keep the entire day holy, not just a quarter or half of it, avoiding worldly activities like Sunday sports or excessive leisure.

Compares the historical practice of Roman Catholics attending early Mass and then treating the rest of Sunday as 'fun day' to the modern evangelical practice of attending early services to free up the day for worldly recreation, highlighting a decline in Sabbath observance.

The issue is that we give an entire day to Him. Now, it's very interesting. When I was a boy, you could always tell the difference between Christians and Roman Catholics in many ways. But here was one way.

28:01 - 28:12 Read in full sermon

Driving home: How you regard the Sabbath is an index of how you regard the whole of Christianity.

Quotes John Calvin's sermons on the Fourth Commandment, revealing Calvin's strong condemnation of professing Christians who profaned the Sabbath, using it to show that rejection of Sabbath observance is a sign of a carnal mind.

Calvin experienced it in his day when he preached on the fourth commandment and he did sermons on Deuteronomy. Today, John Calvin, so-called non-sabotarian, listen to what he says to the professing Christians of Geneva. Now let us consider whether those who call themselves Christians require of themselves what they should. There's a large group that thinks Sunday exists for the purpose of enabling them to attend to their own affairs and to reserve this day for that purpose as if there were no other.

31:29 - 32:09 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: An anecdote about U.S. Presidents Polk, Grant, Taylor, and Hayes refusing to take the oath of office on a Sunday illustrates a past national reverence for the Lord's Day…

An historical anecdote about U.S. Presidents refusing to take the oath of office on a Sunday illustrates a past national reverence for the Lord's Day, contrasting it with the current lack of regard.

In conjunction with your sermons on our studies on the Sabbath day and the holiness of the Lord's day I thought you might find the following bit of trivia interesting perhaps even a bit saddening. At one time our nation held such a high regard for the sanctity of the Lord's day that on two occasions in our history the office of the President of the United States was vacant. Boy that caught my eye. I said I've got to read on.

35:32 - 35:58 Read in full sermon

The point: Sanctify Jesus Christ as Lord in your hearts, ready to give an answer for your hope with meekness and fear, letting your conduct be a witness.

A story about believers at a wedding reception where their joyful, holy conduct (no alcohol, no ribald jokes) led a waitress to ask about their church, illustrating how sanctifying Christ as Lord in all activities opens doors for witness.

A number of people met at a restaurant and I'm sure the barkers would not mind me saying they wish they had a restaurant big enough and enough money to have invited the entire church family and I hope no one has a bent nose or a spirit contrary to grace. In that matter. But it was such a blessed and happy time so much so that one of the waitresses commented to one of our men saying she never saw anything like this. There was a bar in that particular hall that obviously would have been the open bar at the average wedding reception.

39:31 - 40:12 Read in full sermon

The point: Let your consistent observance of the Lord's Day be a witness to your neighbors, opening doors for evangelism.

Pastor Martin's personal story about his children's backyard being a neighborhood playground during the week but empty on Sundays, illustrates how consistent Sabbath observance can be a quiet but powerful witness to neighbors.

Then you'll set apart his day. And when you set apart his day and the neighbors see that every Lord's day morning out you go with your family. You come back and out you go again. I can remember when our children were younger our backyard was the Meadowbrook Lane playground.

42:22 - 42:41 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not accommodate the commands of God to the corrupt courses of men; plead and defend the truths and holiness of God's precepts.

Quotes John Owen on the necessity of upholding God's commands against worldly declension and corrupt interpretations, reinforcing the call to maintain the sanctity of the Sabbath despite societal pressure.

society and the world is so encroached upon the day there is no way we can. Oh listen to John Owen the world indeed seems to be weary of the just, righteous, holy ways of God and that exactness in walking according to his institutions and commands which it will be one day known that he doth require. But the way to put a stop to this declension is not by accommodating the commands of God to the corrupt courses and ways of men the truths of God and the holiness of his precepts must be pleaded and defended though the world dislike them here and perish hereafter.

43:51 - 44:35 Read in full sermon