Keeping the Sabbath #3

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

Martin uses the examples of preparing for a picnic on a state holiday or a serious fisherman preparing his tackle the day before to show that preparing for the Sabbath is not legalistic but efficient and serious, just like preparing for other important days.

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 who prepares for his state holidays by planning a picnic, buying the hot dogs and hamburgers the day before. The serious fisherman is not called a legalist because he buys his bait the day before, lays out his fishing, tackles, fills up his gas tank in his car because he knows no filling stations will be open when he takes off at four in the morning. He is called a serious fisherman.

10:28 - 11:12 Read in full sermon

The point: Utilize the Lord's Day for the social means of grace, including quality family time and hospitality.

Martin quotes a pastor who said he would create a Sabbath if God hadn't, for his own sanity and soul. This illustrates the spiritual relief and freedom from worldly pressures that the Sabbath provides, allowing one to 'stick your tongue out' at undone tasks.

If God had not created one, I'd make one to keep my own sanity and to keep my own soul. And he went on to say how blessed it was to know that when he walked by the pile of work that needed to be done on the house, the shingle that was loose and needed to be fixed, the car that needed to be cleaned and waxed, and a host of other things, and felt during the week the pressure of the backlog of all kinds of duties crawling for attention to be able, as it were, to look them all in the face on the Lord's day and stick your tongue out at them. And just say, yeah, yeah, you have no claims over me toda...

18:30 - 19:12 Read in full sermon

The point: Dedicate an entire day to God as your appointed day of rest, regardless of the world's calendar.

Martin draws an analogy between Roman Catholics who attend early Mass and then treat the rest of Sunday as 'Funday,' and contemporary evangelical Christians who do the same after early services, highlighting a degeneration 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. In the summertime, the Roman Catholics would all go to early Mass and then count the rest of Sunday Funday.

27:57 - 28:20 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. Not Lord to destroy it, but Lord to strip it of all of its peculiar mosaic elements, to pull away all the pharisaic and rabbinic encrossments, and then to adorn it with all the glor…

An anecdote about Presidents Polk, Grant, Taylor, and Hayes refusing to take the oath of office on a Sunday illustrates a historical national reverence for the Lord's Day, even among the unsaved, contrasting it with modern disregard.

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 home. Both Presidents Polk and Grant, their terms of office officially ended on Saturdays.

35:43 - 36:07 Read in full sermon

The point: Sanctify Jesus Christ as Lord in your hearts, demonstrating this by honoring His day.

A story about a wedding reception where the attendees' joyful, yet holy, conduct (no alcohol, no risqué jokes) led a waitress to ask about their church. This illustrates how sanctifying Christ as Lord in all activities, including social ones, opens doors for witness.

Sanctify, set apart Jesus Christ as Lord in your hearts, ready always to give answer to every man who asks you a reason concerning the hope that is in you, yet with meekness, and fear, having a good conscience. Now let me tell you something that happened yesterday. 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

39:05 - 39:48 Read in full sermon

The point: Let your consistent Sabbath observance be a witness to your neighbors and the world.

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

So you set him apart as Lord, 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. But after being there only two or three weeks, they knew that the playground was empty on Sunday.

42:19 - 42:47 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The truths of God, and the holiness of his precepts, must be pleaded and defended, though the world dislike them here, and perish hereafter. His law must not be made to lackey after the wills of men, nor be dissolved by …

Martin quotes John Owen to counter the argument that modern society makes Sabbath keeping impossible. Owen's words emphasize that God's commands must not be accommodated to corrupt human ways, but upheld regardless of worldly dislike.

with reference to your marital relationships, your business dealings, all of your ethics, so with respect to his day, oh, sanctify him as Lord with respect to his day. But you say, Pastor, I mean, this is the complex, mechanistic society, and the world is so encroached upon the day, there's no way we can. Ah, 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.

43:31 - 44:16 Read in full sermon