Sabbath - Practical Implications (SS Class)

Driving home: There are two great concerns of that religion whose name thou bearest, the profession of its truth and the practice or the exercise of its power, and these are mutually assistant unto each other.

Martin commends John Owen's treatise 'An Exercitation Concerning the Name, Original, Nature, Use, and Continuance of a Day of Sacred Rest' as a helpful resource for understanding the Sabbath as part of the moral law.

And we looked at some of those. We looked at some of those peculiarities last week. If you want to examine the thing further, I commend to you volume one of John Owen's exposition of Hebrews in which he has at the back of this book a treatise on the whole subject of the Christian Sabbath. It's called An Exercitation Concerning the Name, Original, Nature, Use, and Continuance of a Day of Sacred Rest.

2:23 - 2:54 Read in full sermon

Driving home: There are two great concerns of that religion whose name thou bearest, the profession of its truth and the practice or the exercise of its power, and these are mutually assistant unto each other.

Martin quotes John Owen on the two great concerns of religion – profession of truth and practice of power – to underscore the Sabbath's role in practical godliness.

And then thirdly, the third pillar upon which the biblical concept of the Sabbath rests is this, that serious regard for the Sabbath has been and is, a vital part of practical godliness. And again, John Owen has some most perceptive things to say. I shall only read a paragraph in his introduction to this treatment of the Sabbath. He says, There are two great concerns of that religion whose name thou bearest, the profession of its truth and the practice or the exercise of its power, and these are mutually assistant unto each other.

4:15 - 4:54 Read in full sermon

The point: Avoid sinful accommodation to the world's lowered standards regarding Sabbath-keeping.

Martin uses the example of being considered 'crazy' for taking the first, seventh, or ninth commandments seriously in modern society to illustrate that Christians should not accommodate to lowered standards regarding the Sabbath.

There must first of all be an avoidance of the extreme of sinful accommodation. There must first of all be an avoidance of the extreme of sinful accommodation. There must first of all be an avoidance of the extreme of sinful accommodation. Because the world has lost its conscience with reference to Sabbath keeping, we may feel, well, if you really take the Sabbath commandment seriously, people will think we're crazy.

8:47 - 9:04 Read in full sermon

The point: Avoid Pharisaic legislation, where you begin to legislate in specifics where the Word of God is silent.

The Pharisees' detailed, extra-biblical rules for Sabbath-keeping and their constant scrutiny of Jesus are used as a warning against legalism.

We must avoid, on the one hand, the tendency to sinful accommodation to the lowered standards of our day, and, on the other hand, Pharisaic legislation. The Pharisees went far beyond what God required, and they had their long list of how far you could walk and how far you couldn't walk, and all of these foolish things, and they were constantly following the Lord Jesus and his disciples with their little checklist. And every time they didn't conform, they put a little black mark, and then they'd come and say, how come? And so the Lord had to just show them from the Scriptures that they were vio...

10:00 - 10:40 Read in full sermon

The point: Cultivate a heart and mind sensitive to the broad principles of the Word and the present ministry of the Holy Spirit in all aspects of Christian life, including Sabbath observance.

Martin uses the example of fundamentalists forbidding commercial movie theaters but allowing similar 'garbage' on home television to illustrate the hypocrisy of legalism that misses broad biblical principles.

Stringing at mass, swallowing candles. We see it, by and large, in the cross-section of American fundamentalism. Thou shalt not attend the commercial motion picture theater. And the same people sit in their own living rooms and watch garbage that was in the motion picture theater on the avenue three years ago, and they watch the same garbage and let their kids watch it night after night in their living rooms, and it never couples their conscience.

11:57 - 12:21 Read in full sermon

The point: Direct Sabbath energies towards the worship of God, spending more time in the Word, family religious instruction, and works of mercy.

He uses God's 'rest' after creation, which was not a cessation of all activity (e.g., providence, redemption), to explain that human Sabbath rest is a redirection of energies, not mere idleness.

This brings us, of course, into the whole question of what is the nature of the rest appointed for that day. And certainly, if we take the pattern of the creation ordinance, and the principles that we see in the development of the Sabbath doctrine and the scriptures, it certainly does involve rest from our normal labors. Now, rest does not necessarily mean going off into the land of Nod and sleeping. A mind that has exercised all week with specific disciplines in the place of legitimate employment, whether it's a mother with her washing and her ironing and all of her household duties, or wheth...

13:34 - 14:59 Read in full sermon

The point: Direct Sabbath energies towards the worship of God, spending more time in the Word, family religious instruction, and works of mercy.

Martin shares his family's practice of children napping on Sunday afternoons to be refreshed for further acts of worship, illustrating how physical rest can serve spiritual ends.

There's a general letting off because they're usually in bed. The girls are at 8 o'clock and Joel about 9.30, so everybody goes down for a nap for an hour, hour and a half on the Lord's day afternoon. And this is the reason we do so, that we might be refreshed to give ourselves more fully to the further acts of worship that are before us.

16:40 - 16:59 Read in full sermon

The point: Use sanctified imaginativeness and ingenuity to discover appropriate Sabbath activities for children, considering their age, temperament, and energy levels.

He shares the example of his family taking walks on a Lord's Day afternoon to enjoy God's creation and family intimacy, offering a positive suggestion for Sabbath activity.

There are certain times of the year we have found it very profitable. There's a lovely, walking trail over there on right off Bradford Avenue, between Ridge and Upper Mountain. And just pull your car in. No, no, it's not there.

33:57 - 34:12 Read in full sermon

The point: Where possible, Christians should exercise legitimate civil liberties and responsibilities to enforce legislation that recognizes the sanctity of the Sabbath.

Martin recounts the story of a strict Scottish Highlander who lay down in front of a ferry to protest the introduction of Sunday service, illustrating a Christian's responsibility to resist societal erosion of the Sabbath where possible.

For instance, suppose you're in a community, and I think now of a very clear example of this, where for years there has been no transportation on Sunday. The instance I think of was ferry service in a place way up in the Highlands of Scotland, and they had no ferry service on Sunday, which, in turn, discouraged...

39:27 - 39:48 Read in full sermon

The point: If an employer or master asks you to do something dishonest, you must refuse, stating you will not violate the law of God.

Pastor Blitz shares an anecdote about counseling a newly converted wife who was attending church too frequently, leading to marital strife, and how wise, temporary accommodation led to her husband's eventual conversion and support.

Yes, Pastor Grace. I think the answer is correctly put, no or yes. Let me give one example. There was a lady once, the Lord graciously saved her.

49:08 - 49:22 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Doug shares his personal testimony of wrestling with Sabbath work as a bus driver and in a petrochemical plant, highlighting God's providence in changing his circumstances. He…

Doug shares his personal experience as a bus driver and refinery worker, wrestling with Sunday shift work and how God providentially changed his job to accommodate his desire for Sabbath observance.

Now, you were talking about both the bus drivers and petrochemicals. So, in the past eight and a half years, I've spanned both. And I've had to wrestle starting out as a bus driver with so many drivers. And although I took a lot of people to work, I cringed so we wrestled with this in prayer.

52:09 - 52:37 Read in full sermon