The Fourth Commandment

The point: Recognize that creation ordinances continue to be in force in this present age, and apply this principle to understanding the Sabbath.

Martin uses marriage, procreation, and labor as examples of creation ordinances that continue to be in force, illustrating the principle that what is creational is perpetual.

Now, we've looked at creation ordinances early. Creation ordinances are those laws and those relationships that God gave to Adam and Eve at the very beginning before the fall. Ordinances like marriage, procreation, that's reproduction, procreation, labor. Well, the teaching of Scripture is that whatever was ordained at creation continues.

6:50 - 7:16 Read in full sermon

The point: Recognize that creation ordinances continue to be in force in this present age, and apply this principle to understanding the Sabbath.

Jesus' appeal to the creation account in Matthew 19:4-6 to defend the sanctity of marriage against the Pharisees' questions about divorce illustrates how creation ordinances are perpetual and authoritative.

And this is illustrated. For example, by Jesus' teaching on marriage. Do you remember when the Pharisees came to him with questions about divorce?

7:16 - 7:24 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Now, what does that say to us? Well, it reminds us that what is creational is perpetual. What is creational is perpetual.

Paul's arguments for the unique roles of men and women in the church (1 Corinthians 11, 1 Timothy 2) and the high calling of motherhood are cited as examples of appealing to creation ordinances, reinforcing their ongoing validity.

For example, he appeals to the creation ordinance when teaching the unique roles of men and women in the church. In 1 Corinthians 11, he does this. In 1 Timothy 2, 13 and 15, he roots his arguments in the order of creation. Likewise, the New Testament is clear that the labor ordinance given at creation still continues to this day.

8:57 - 9:20 Read in full sermon

The point: Ask simple questions about God's actions in Scripture to avoid missing obvious truths, such as why God created in six days.

Brian Edwards' comment that 'it would have been no more difficult for God to create in a microsecond than in an hour or a day' is quoted to emphasize that God's six-day creation was deliberate and purposeful, not out of necessity or weariness.

As Brian Edwards comments, it would have been no more difficult for God to create in a microsecond than in an hour or a day. One word, one thought from the sovereign triune creator and everything would have come into being. So back to the question, why did God create the universe in six days? Is it because there's some mysterious value to the number six?

11:48 - 12:10 Read in full sermon

The point: Understand that God communicates His will not only through explicit commands but also through necessary inference and approved example, applying this hermeneutical principle to all of Scripture.

The establishment of deacons in the local church, based on apostolic example and qualifications rather than an explicit command, illustrates that God communicates His will through necessary inference and approved example, not solely direct commands.

For example, how do we know? I think I've brought this up before, but this is, I think, a real easy one to see. How do we know that a local church should desire and seek to have deacons, deacons?

25:37 - 25:50 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin refutes the objection that no one kept the Sabbath until Moses, calling it an argument from silence and noting indications of weekly divisions and Sabbath observance before…

The neglect of divine worship ordinances during the days of the kings (revived by Hezekiah or Josiah) and the Feast of Booths during Nehemiah's time illustrates that the Sabbath's potential neglect before Moses does not negate its institution.

Secondly, even if you could prove that no one kept the Sabbath leading up to Moses, that still wouldn't mean the Sabbath was not instituted. All that would prove is that men are sinners and that men in their sin allowed the observance of the Sabbath to be neglected until Moses revived it. That shouldn't surprise us. Because we see the same thing in our own day.

27:26 - 27:48 Read in full sermon

The point: Be aware of the church's tendency to cave in to culture regarding Christian ethics, specifically concerning the Lord's Day, and resist this trend.

The historical existence of 'Blue Laws' in America and Kelly's experience in Texas where supermarkets had restrictions on what could be bought on the Lord's Day illustrates the past societal consensus on Sabbath observance and its decline.

It was pretty much a unity of conviction about that in America. He even had laws in our country and states. And counties that forbid certain activities on the Lord's day in the in the south. There's still a few of them around.

40:46 - 41:05 Read in full sermon