Sabbath Controversy #2: Observations / Applications

In this part of the sermon: Martin reviews the previous sermon's exposition of Mark 2:23-28, detailing the disciples' actions, the Pharisees' objections, and Jesus' two-part response: citing David's actions…

A congregation member's memory of plucking and eating grain as a child illustrates the disciples' innocent action and its commonality.

namely simply to open up and underscore and isolate, the basic facts established by the passage and to explain the meaning of the words of the passage. And this morning I will briefly review the highlights of that exposition and then we will move on to consider together some vital observations and applications of the truth contained in the passage. In our study last Lord's Day, we noted in verse 23, this simple account of the activity of Jesus and his disciples. He, with them, was going through a field of standing grain on a Jewish Sabbath day. And as they went through that field of standing g...

1:28 - 2:48 Read in full sermon

Driving home: I, Jesus said, am the Lord of the Sabbath. That appointed day of rest, marked out, blessed and sanctified at creation as a gracious gift to mankind, that day of rest reinstituted in the wilderness for the well-being of t…

Martin quotes Morgan to summarize the Sabbath's ancient origin, its rooting in human nature, and its transformation from the Jewish Sabbath to the Lord's Day, reinforcing the sermon's foundational points.

And now dressed in all the glorious robes of the new covenant realities of his redemptive activity with its new day, with its new name, the Lord's Day, no longer the Jewish Sabbath, but the day of the Lord. And in a very wonderful way, G. Campbell Morgan has summarized so beautifully everything that I tried to establish. In some 55 minutes of exposition last week, and now I've given you in about 10 minutes of review, and I'll conclude the review with just reading this paragraph from G. Campbell Morgan.

13:04 - 13:48 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not fall into the snare of legalism by asking for neat little packages of regulations for Sabbath observance, as this negates God's law.

Martin quotes John Owen, who humorously describes how excessive man-made rules for the Lord's Day make it an insufferable burden, illustrating how legalism undermines the very command it seeks to preserve.

undermining that appointed day of rest and turning it into a day of insufferable and oppressive and constricting heaviness. Now, the most classic statement I've ever read on that fact comes, it'll surprise you for its source, from John Owen, the great giant of Puritan theologians. And I've read hundreds, probably thousands of pages of John Owen in my life. And I've read hundreds, probably thousands of pages of John Owen in my life.

24:10 - 24:44 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not dread the appointed day of rest through ignorance; it was made for you as a gracious gift for spiritual, emotional, and physical refreshment.

The devil prejudicing Eve's mind against God's good stipulation about the tree of knowledge is used as an analogy for how Satan prejudices people against the goodness of God's appointed day of rest.

you can gather with his people in the livingness of his own presence, and rejoice in him and give the whole day to his worship and to your own refreshment spiritually, emotionally and physically. But it also, you see, attacks this dread through prejudice. And it is interesting to note that as I was meditating upon this passage, I think it is accurate to say, in a very real sense, sin entered the world when the devil prejudiced the mind of our first parent toward the goodness of God in giving them a stipulation about a certain tree. Remember what God had said?

34:07 - 34:51 Read in full sermon

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

Martin quotes John Owen on the historical correlation between conscientious observation of the Lord's Day and the promotion of holiness and religion, illustrating the importance of the Sabbath for spiritual vitality.

and he not only spoke perceptively to undermining the day with legalism, but listen to what he had to say. You'd think he was speaking to this present hour. Let men in whose hearts are the ways of God seriously consider the use that has been made under the blessing of God of the conscientious observation of the Lord's day in past and in present ages unto the promotion of holiness, righteousness, and religion universally in the power of it. And he goes on to underscore that whenever the church has known days of blessing and power in the nearness of God, there has been a serious regard for the s...

41:56 - 42:51 Read in full sermon