The Sabbath Before Sinai

The point: Do not causelessly burden men's consciences regarding the Sabbath, nor approve of the neglect of any duty God requires.

Martin quotes John Owen's defense of a comprehensive approach to studying the Sabbath, where Owen describes his lengthy treatise as a 'small pittance' to emphasize the depth and importance of the subject, justifying Martin's own detailed exposition.

he is going to try to unturn every rock or overturn every rock and look at every text, I want to plead my case before you for the necessity of taking what I believe or I hope will be a very comprehensive approach. And as I was reading this week, I came across a statement by the Puritan author John Owen, where Owen, in opening up a very lengthy treatise on the subject of the Sabbath, he makes the comment that he is going to cast his might into the sanctuary. A very small pittance on the subject of the Sabbath, and then proceeds to write about 300 pages on the subject. But in opening, in the int...

2:06 - 2:51 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Arguments from silence ought always to be suspect. The dictates, it is always risky to say anything from nothing generally holds true for a reason.

Martin reads an extended passage from Daniel Wilson's work on the Lord's Day, which argues against using the silence of Scripture to negate the existence of a law, citing examples like marriage, sacrifices, and circumcision, which are not continuously mentioned but were clearly practiced.

I would like to read to you just a paragraph or two from the classic work by Daniel Wilson on the Lord's Day as he's treating of this very issue. Speaking of the argument from silence that is often brought to bear on this material. And he's, making the assumption just for the sake of argument assuming that Moses was completely silent on the subject of the Sabbath after Genesis 2 until we come to Exodus 20.

25:38 - 26:04 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin warns against arguments from silence, citing Daniel Wilson and A.W. Pink to illustrate that the absence of explicit mention of the Sabbath in certain periods of Scripture…

Martin quotes A.W. Pink, who observes that the early chapters of the Bible cover vast periods of history fragmentarily, meaning we should expect only 'hints and occasional notices' for many themes, including the Sabbath, rather than detailed histories.

in a little pamphlet entitled The Christian Sabbath makes these observations.

30:17 - 30:21 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin expounds Exodus 16, arguing that God's provision of manna and His rebuke in verse 28 ('How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws?') imply that the Sabbath…

Martin uses the example of a parent rebuking a child for the first time for not observing a newly instituted command to read Scripture. He argues that a parent would say 'why' not 'how long,' illustrating that God's 'how long' in Exodus 16:28 implies a pattern of prior disobedience, not a first-time transgression.

Is how long do you refuse, is that the language of rebuke for first time transgression?

51:49 - 51:56 Read in full sermon