Sabbath - General Principles (SS Class)

Introduction: Why Address the Sabbath Now?

0:00 Well, what we're going to do this morning, rather than pick up the lesson material where we left off several weeks ago in the area of prayer, and I left you with a homework assignment, mainly the question, is there any special help God has given us to guide us in praying scripturally with reference particularly to petition and intercession? and I'll leave that question with you and God willing we'll pick it up next week but what I want to do this morning is to share some thoughts with you and enter into discussion with you relative to the broad area of the fourth commandment this whole matter of the Lord's Day or the Christian Sabbath now I have two main reasons for wanting to do this number one is that in the Friday night class

0:46 that's conducted out at the Casey's home They've been listening to a series of taped sermons by Pastor Chantry expounding the Ten Commandments. And when they came to the Fourth Commandment, it was quite evident that this was a very sensitive area, and there was a lot of discussion, and several weeks ago I had 0, 4, 5, 6 people at least speak to me, and others have spoken to Mr. Rogers, who leads that class, indicating that some sensitive nerves were being pinched and some rather burning light was being focused upon the conscience in this area. So the thing that has provoked the decision to use this class time today for this area of study

1:37 is, first of all, that immediate matter flowing out of that Friday night class But then there is a more general reason, and it is this. One of the characteristics of our own generation is that expressed in the words of Jude, that they despise dominion. As we saw several lords days ago when I was trying to open up the passage in 2 Peter, the characteristic of our age is unbridled lust and blatant lawlessness at every level. and because this lawlessness shows itself with reference to the entire spectrum of God's moral law, there is in our day a blatant disregard for the fourth commandment

2:25 which necessitates our thinking clearly about this subject lest unwittingly we become conformed to the spirit of our own age. coupled with this has been the bad influence of dispensational teaching over the past 75 to 100 years in evangelical circles in which law and grace have been set against one another not in a biblical sense but in an unbiblical way. Granted, our acceptance before God must never be regarded as a matter of law or performance and certainly that note has been sounded, as far as I know, with vigorous biblical clarity in this place. But when we carry that on so that we think in terms of God's law having nothing to say to the believer,

3:18 binding him with no obligations, then we are thinking in a very unscriptural way. And one of the features of dispensationalism as a system of biblical interpretation, and it comes out even in the dispensational concept of seven dispensations, which are like vertical categories, in which the principles of one do not carry over into the other. You have a so-called dispensation of law, which extended from Mount Sinai to the cross, and then you have the so-called dispensation of grace, and these things are never to mix. Well, one of the practical and negative results of that mentality has been a lack of appreciation for the binding nature of the ten words of Moses upon the people of God.

4:10 And then there is a third thing under a general reason as to why we need to consider this, and it's what I'm calling the increased complexity of life. There was a time when strict Sabbath observance was much easier as far as the outworking of its principles, but so much of our life is bound up with transportation systems, with the power that we're receiving right now to operate tape records and lights and microphones, etc., the communication system. and the increased complexity of life demands that we think through with freshness the whole matter of Christian Sabbath keeping.

4:53 So because of that more immediate reason, the relationship to the Friday night class and the obvious interest in this field of concern, and then this more general reason rooted in these three principles, the lawlessness of our day, the bad influence of dispensational teaching, the increased complexity of life, I think it is part of pastoral wisdom to take a class and deal with the subject of the Sabbath. Now, what I propose to do this morning is simply to lay out some broad principles for our consideration. As with any issue, do not start, if you may liken the issue to a tree, with its roots, its trunk, its main branches, its leaves, its twigs, and its foliage.

Methodology: Focus on Root Principles, Not Twigs

5:42 When you come to any issue, don't start with little twigs and with leaves.

5:50 I don't care what the issue is, don't start here. Don't even start with the main trunks or branches. But try to go down to the root issues which support the entire structure. And the moment you mention the matter of the Christian Sabbath or the Lord's Day, immediately people's minds begin to be agitated about leaves and twigs.

6:14 What is wrong with blank on the Lord's Day? Why should I this on the Lord's Day? Why should I not that? These are twig and branch issues.

6:27 Now I want today some cooperation from you. And that cooperation is to keep a hatchet in your hand. And every time you start thinking of leaves and twigs, lop them off and say we're going to go down to root matters. Now the difficulty is our mental furniture, our emotional furniture, or our emotional communication system, these things are usually so agitated by leaf and twink matters that we can't get detached from them long enough to be rational about rude issues.

7:08 And that's one of the great problems of learning. Because when the mind is agitated, when the emotions are stirred, it's seldom that much light comes to the judgment if there's too much heat in the spirit. So we've got to turn down the temperature so that rationally and calmly we can assess root issues. All right? What I propose to do then is to lay before you three principles, if time permits. If time does not permit, I will go as far as we can, and that's the blessing of a sustained ministry. We can always think of another Lord's Day if God is pleased to keep us and bring us to one. All right? And the first principle is this. We must recognize that the Sabbath privilege and obligation is a creation ordinance.

Principle 1: The Sabbath as a Creation Ordinance

7:59 Now I've chosen my words carefully and purposefully. The Sabbath privilege and obligation is a creation ordinance. Now let me exegete the words of my first statement, and then we'll turn to the Scriptures. when we talk about the Sabbath when I talk about the Sabbath I'm speaking of the concept that life is constructed in seven day cycles with one day being a day of peculiar and special engagement in the acts of rest, of worship and those matters relative to the cultivation of the inner life

8:44 when I use the words privilege and obligation I'm using them purposely and I'm putting them together. Because until you get over the idea that anything that is obligatory is not a privilege, you'll never understand the matter of the Sabbath. It is my privilege to love my wife and my children. I count that one of life's great and high privileges to love my wife and my children.

9:12 But it is also my obligation. I am obligated to love my wife as Christ loved the church. I am obligated to love my children. Now the obligation does not negate the high privilege.

9:27 Nor does the delight in the privilege cancel the very real obligation.

9:36 Obligation and privilege are not contradictory. One does not cancel out the other. And therefore when we come to the matter of the Sabbath, we are dealing with something that is both privilege and obligation. And the wonder is that in the heart of a Christian, the operations of grace enable him to embrace with delight what is his obligation so that he regards his obligation as a privilege.

10:09 Alright? Alright, principle number one then, the Sabbath is a, as a privilege and obligation is a creation ordinance. Turn please to the book of Genesis. Now we're dealing with roots.

10:23 Guess what? Go get your hatchet working, alright? Just start cutting off all those things. Going down the roots.

10:33 You say, Pastor, have you got a monitor on my brain? No, I've just got one on my own. and I know how it operates. Okay.

10:41 Genesis chapter 2 and verse 1. And the heavens and the earth were finished and all the hosts of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had made and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it because that in it he rested from all his work which God had created and made.

11:15 Now this passage is obviously loaded with many theological and practical doctrines and the whole doctrine of creation as something that is finished and the providence by which God governs and directs his world is never to be confounded with creation. It cuts the nerve of the evolutionary concept in which creation is, as it were, a continual process. No, God finished the work of creation, and having finished it, he sanctified and hallowed the seventh day. Now, without going into the moot question, that is, the oft-debated, discussed question, the unresolved question, were these days 24-hour days, were they epochs, etc.?

12:00 bypass all of that and get hold of one thing, that at the very dawn of creation, God stamped his created order with the concept that there was something special in the seventh day. God sanctified and God hallowed it because it reflected something of his activity as creator. And so God wove into the fabric of the created order that which would be a continual monument of the pattern by which he created. One day in seven was sanctified and hallowed because God created in six days. Now notice how this thought is picked up and underscored in the

12:50 giving of the law as recorded in Exodus chapter 20. Exodus chapter 20, verses 8 through 11.

13:04 Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work. why because that's what God did you're a holy nation you're to show forth the virtues of him who's called you out of darkness into light God says to Israel I've placed you in the midst of the nations to be a reflection of what I am like now you're to work six days because I worked six days I brought my world into being in six days you are to labor in my world in six days you're to be like me. But furthermore, but the seventh day is a Sabbath unto the Lord thy God, for in it thou shalt not do any work. Why? God did no work on that day. There was no creative work.

13:55 There was the sustaining of his work in providence, and later, of course, after the fall, there is his work of redemption. Jesus said, my Father worketh hitherto, and I work in the work of redemption, which properly goes on on the Sabbath in spite of the woolly thinking of the Jews, but he says, in this day thou shalt not do any work, nor thy son, thy daughter, thy manservant, thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor the stranger that is within thy gates. Why? For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day, wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

14:33 You see how he picks up this whole matter of creation with reference to the one day in seven, the seven day cycle, and says in essence, you are to be like your God. And if your God worked six and rested the seventh, you are to work six and you are to rest the seventh or the one in seven. And you'll notice that the passage is very careful just to emphasize that cycle of one in seven. Now, was this concept of one in seven instituted before or after the fall?

15:13 Before. Before or before In other words the necessity of the Sabbath does not arise from man fallen state but it arises from the relationship he bears to the Creator as a creature and therefore any thinking of the Sabbath that causes it to stand as it were primarily upon the feet of Jewish institution or primarily upon the feet of some facet of redemption denies this fundamental principle that the Sabbath was a creation ordinance light was to be bound up in these seven day cycles with one day a day of peculiar rest and refreshment.

16:03 Therefore, when our Lord speaks to the issue of the Sabbath in the New Testament, he gives what is, I think, perhaps the classic word in the New Testament on the whole subject of the Sabbath, Mark chapter 2 and verse 27. Mark chapter 2 and verse 27. It's in the context of a Sabbath controversy. Our Lord and his disciples are working in the work of redemption.

16:34 And they're passing from one place to another in a preaching mission. And in the course of so doing, they do what was perfectly proper by Jewish law. They take some of the gleanings from the grain field. The old Pharisees look down their snouts at them.

16:49 And they say, Aha, breaking the Sabbath. And our Lord begins to answer them masterfully, showing that he was not breaking the Sabbath. But what he was doing was in perfect keeping with the spirit of the Sabbath. And we're not going to go into all of that.

17:02 We want to drive towards one principle, and it's this. And he said unto them, the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. In other words, our Lord says that the Sabbath was the loving provision of God, not for sinful man, but for man as man.

17:31 Therefore, the only way you can truly avoid the Sabbath principle is to unmanned man. The Sabbath was made for man. And as long as man is man, even if he had never fallen, there would have been this necessity of the hallowing and the sanctifying of the one day in the Sabbath. Now, this also indicates something else.

17:56 That God, who made the creature, has the right to order all of the facets of the creation that he has made and to apportion any day as he sees fit. And if God decides to lay special claim upon the creature with reference to one day in seven, that is his right as the creator. He could have sanctified and hallowed every other day. And it would have been his perfect right so to do.

18:27 And in the light of the whole doctrine of creation, if God had done so, it would have been the best interest of man, the creature, for God beheld all that he made and it was good. So when we think of the whole matter of the Sabbath, I would like to suggest that we think of it in this way.

18:49 As God creates, and let this line represent his creating act, he establishes the principle of one day in seven having peculiar significance by divine provision and divine commandment, privilege and obligation. Therefore, as we move through the history of redemption, as we move through the progress of revelation, these are terms that are used to describe the progress, the unfolding of God's will and the revelation of his will to his creatures, whatever peculiarities attach themselves to the Sabbath in the days of the patriarchs,

19:36 in the days of the giving of the Mosaic Law, whatever peculiarities attach themselves to the Sabbath with reference to the coming of Christ and the establishment of the new covenant and the new order, we must see that the underburdened foundational structure for all of these things is the Sabbath as a creation ordinance. Now, God in his sovereignty has the right to say that the creation ordinance shall have peculiar dress and clothing during the period of the law, or during the period, let's say, of the old covenant. I like the biblical term better. Then, under the dispensation of the new covenant, God is perfectly free, as a sovereign God, to alter certain aspects of Sabbath observance, Sabbath privilege, Sabbath obligation, in keeping with the revelation of himself in Jesus Christ.

20:34 But the altering of any of these details does not cancel the fundamental principle which undergirds the Sabbath in every age or in every dispensation, namely, it is a creation ordinance. until, of course, we enter what is commonly called the eternal Sabbath, that final rest for the people of God, which will not be sitting on a cloud half asleep like you are high on marijuana plunking on a heart. It will be full of tremendous activity, but it will be, of course, the activity utterly free from all stain and taint of sin and weariness and the other things that are the result of the fall. All right, that's the first principle I would like to establish with you.

Principle 2: The Sabbath as Integral to the Moral Law

21:20 The Sabbath as privilege and obligation is a creation ordinance. Secondly, and just hold off on your questions, I want to let the lawyer present his case before we open for cross-examination. All right? Secondly, the Sabbath privilege and obligation is an integral part of the moral law.

21:40 the Sabbath privilege and obligation is an integral part of the moral law that is when God expressed in simple succinct terms the scope of man's duty heavenward and manward he incorporated as a part of that definition of the whole duty of man the Sabbath principle.

22:15 And it should be obvious to any, even cursory reading of the Old Testament, that the ten words of Moses that came upon those two tables of stone have a qualitative difference than all of the other rules and regulations that God gave to the nation of Israel. The context in which God gave them, the manner in which he gave them, He wrote them with his own finger. The place that he said they should have in the worship. What was laid up in the Ark of the Covenant?

22:48 Not the whole ceremonial law. The two tables of stone that formed, as it were, the moral basis of God's dealings with his people. Which showed the necessity of the sacrificial system. Which showed the end to which the sacrificial system should lead.

23:05 namely the satisfaction of the angle of God against the sins that were breaches of his holy law. And when we move into the New Testament, it is obvious that there is a place afforded to the ten words of Moses that is not afforded to the ceremonial law and to many facets of the judicial code, etc. And so without pausing to go into a lengthy explanation, because I don't believe any of you have any basic problem with this, I want to assert that the Sabbath privilege and obligation is an integral part of the moral law. Now then, that being so, it is against the fourth commandment, as well as every other commandment,

23:51 that the human heart is set in its state of impenetence. When Romans 8, 7 says, The carnal mind is enmity against God. And how does it express that enmity? For it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be.

24:13 The enmity of the human heart is expressed just as much in its rejection of the fourth commandment as it is of the first, of the seventh, of the ninth, or any other of the commandments. and therefore any disposition on my part to balk against God's right to impose upon me obligations with reference to the Sabbath ought to be looked upon with suspicion if I know anything about my native corruption.

24:50 There ought to be a prejudice in favor of assessing my Sabbath hangups as a reflection of my sinfulness and not a reflection of some dual legalists who are trying to strap me with some of the trappings of the old economy. Since the fourth commandment is an integral part of the moral law, it is that to which man rebels in his native unregeneracy. Also, it is at this point that the influence of God's regenerating work will be seen.

25:35 When we read in Hebrews 8 and Hebrews 10, quoting of course from Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 36, that in the new covenant God says, I will blot out their sins. I will write my laws upon their hearts, and I will cause them to keep my statutes and do them? Does that mean God does not write upon the heart this disposition to honor the Sabbath principle? Far from it.

26:07 One of the effects of regeneration is to put within a man a desire to comply with the fourth commandment as much as God puts within a desire to comply with the first commandment, namely to have no other God but the living and the true God. God says, I'll write my law upon the heart. What law? That law defines its succinct expression in the ten words of Moses.

26:31 So again, when people talk about the work of God in grace, freeing them from Sabbath obligation, I say my friend what God is writing what law upon your heart?

26:47 What would you think of the man who says well now that I'm in a state of grace it doesn't make any difference how I regard honesty. You say wait a minute God says I'll write my law upon my heart that law that finds expression in the ninth commandment namely I shall not bear false witness. Well you see if you begin to apply that principle to the rest of the Decalogue you come up with nothing the blatant antinomianism, turning the grace of God into license, into lasciviousness. When the psalmist could say in Psalm 40, verse 8, I delight to do thy will, O God, yea, thy law is within my heart.

27:25 That included this facet of the law. So the second great principle that lies at the roots of sorting out this matter of the Christian's relationship to the Sabbath is the recognition that the Sabbath privilege and obligation is part of the moral law. Ah, but someone who knows his Bible a little bit says, but Pastor, don't you know that all the commandments are repeated in the New Testament, but the fourth isn't? Yes, I've read my Bible too, and I'm very much aware of that.

27:52 And there are very good and wise reasons for that. But I'm not going into them now because that's an attempt to bring up something that will get you off the hook, and I'm not even going to honor you by focusing upon that attempt. The issue as to why the fourth commandment is not repeated as such in the New Testament has been very ably dealt with with competent godly scholars and Bible students, and there are wise and good and pastoral reasons as to why the Lord soft-pedaled any explicit reference to this in the New Testament. But I would not want to take the posture of trying to dispose of this broad second principle that the Sabbath privilege and obligation is no part, no integral part of the moral law.

Principle 3: Serious Regard for Sabbath as Vital to Practical Godliness

28:43 The onus is on the man who takes that position to show he has a right to wrench the fourth commandment from that unit of God's revelation of his mind and will for his creatures. All right? Then the third principle, and we're moving along at good enough pace that I think we'll get through from this morning, is this.

29:05 Serious regard for Sabbath privilege and obligation is a vital part of practical Godliness. Serious regard. Now you notice I did not say absolutely uniform regard,

29:23 nor did I say legalistic regard. I said serious regard. for Sabbath or towards the Sabbath privilege and obligation is a vital part. I didn't say it's the only part, but I'm not saying it is an inconsequential part.

29:45 It is a vital part of what? Of practical governance. I did not say it is a vital part of whether or not a man is in a state of grace. Errors of judgment might lead to gross errors of conduct, and still a man be in a state of grace.

30:03 But I am asserting it is a vital part of practical godliness. Now, why do I say this? Well, here's my line of reasoning. If God made unfallen man to operate in this seven-day cycle, one day of peculiar significance, then I cannot be a true man if I deny that.

30:26 Now what is practical godliness but the work of God by the Spirit in cooperation with all the faculties of the renewed creature in Christ becoming more and more what he was intended to be as a man You see redemption does not negate my humanity It releases me to be a true man Sin has walked me. Sin has twisted me. Sin has crippled me. And in redemption, God is restoring me.

30:59 Therefore, if I do not seriously regard the Sabbath privilege and obligation, then I must be hampered in practical godliness because I am not regarding that which is essential to me as a man, as a woman, a creature made in the image of God. My second line of reasoning is this. If fallen man is given the same obligation and privilege of a day of holy rest, then how much more essential is it that he sees it from that day because he has so many factors pulling him away from his God and from a life that is pleasing to God.

31:43 If unsfallen man needed a Sabbath, fallen man trebly, quadruply needs a Sabbath in order to be refreshed and renewed in spiritual exercises.

31:58 Therefore, the man who's so spiritual is not to welcome one day in seven for his own good and advancement either is crippled with one of the most terrible forms of self-delusion or he's attained degrees of spirituality concerning which I'd give my right arm and my fiat to get a seat. I didn't say my wife and my kids but I said my kids.

32:28 The man whose heart is set upon God and Christ and the realm of the Spirit and the Lord to come? Does he not welcome a day in which he can without any pangs of conscience?

32:42 See that storm window that needs to be repaired and say, well, hallelujah, whenever I should get to it, it is today. One thing I know, Lord, I'm willing to do it today. The woman who sees her pile of laundry and she sees the sewing basket with clothes that need mending and Monday through Saturday she's torn. well shall I do the next load of clothes or shall I mend these clothes shall I do and she's always restless with watching what a wonderful thing to walk by the whole business on the Sabbath and say well hallelujah one thing I know God doesn't want me to do any of that on this his day the healthy soul welcomes such a day when with legitimacy that mother can sit with her children and sing hymns and read and know the ironies there and not feel that she's neglecting her God given duty

33:28 but she's performing her dream in giving that day over the whole day frankly I don't understand the mentality that it says I'm not talking facetiously one of the reasons too is we never learn to labor properly and that's one reason why many people in today's generation have been treated at seven is that they have never learned to labor for the six days the concept of pleasure is a continual Yes, we're going to come at that, John, in the application, but that's a good point. The man who takes seriously the first part of the commandment to labor for six days, man, he's about had it. When those six days are done, he says, well, thank God for a day of holy rest that's coming. But we live in a pleasure man society that doesn't take seriously the first part,

34:15 therefore there is not the built-in pressure to take seriously the latter part. But serious regard, then, for the Sabbath privilege and obligation is a vital part of practical godliness because of these things that I've mentioned. All right? Now, in the light of those three principles, let me give you a few practical guidelines.

Practical Guideline 1: Think Positively of the Sabbath

34:33 It'll take me just about five, seven minutes, and then I'll give us a good 20 minutes for discussion. All right? Here's practical guideline number one.

34:41 Think positively, and I don't mean Norman Vincent Peale style, So think positively with reference to the Sabbath commandment, obligation, and privilege, whatever you want to call it. And I think the passage that is most helpful in helping us to think positively is Isaiah chapter 58. Isaiah 58. Many of you are familiar with it.

35:10 But I shall simply read briefly. Verse 13 and following. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath from doing thy pleasure on my holy day. God says, I've got a peculiar claim on the Sabbath.

35:26 Ah, but someone says, every day is holy to the Lord. Well, God knows that. You know, that kind of attitude. maybe I'm carnal in some of the ways I'm saying it my conscience has even bothered me a little bit that I may be striking out in a way that's not holy of the spirit I don't know sometimes it's hard to sort out your own spirit but frankly when I hear that something in me just gets unhinged doesn't God know that every day is to be holy unto him where'd you get that notion well you got it from God who says but this is my holy day in a very special way this is my holy day.

36:03 The God who says whatever you do eat or drink or sleep or anything do all to the glory of God that God has not negated the necessity of putting special significance upon this one day. And in the very real sense your ability to keep every day as a Sabbath rest upon how seriously you keep the one day as a Sabbath. But anyway he says turn away from doing diaposition and call the Sabbath a drudgery. a legalistic imposition of pure puritanism.

36:36 Is that what he says? No. Call the Sabbath a delight and the holy of the Lord honorable. You see that positive mentality?

36:46 Call it delight. Why? Because you were not made for the Sabbath but the Sabbath was made for you. It's the loving gift of a loving father to the children whom he loves.

36:58 not only with general creative love, but with peculiar redemptive love. Honor it, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words. Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord, and I will make thee to ride upon the high places of the earth and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken. It's beautifully expressed in that name.

37:26 safely through another week God has brought us on our way let us now a blessing seek waiting in his courts today day of all the week the best emblem of eternal rest that's the biblical mentality day of all the week the best emblem of eternal rest so let me encourage you try to think positively of God's intention in giving the Sabbath your good, his glory, the refreshment of the inner and the outer man so that God may be more glorified in the fulfillment of the first half of the command to labor in the other seven. At this point, let me encourage you to read the larger catechism. Again, the longer I live with those old Westminster standards,

Practical Guideline 2: Think Horizontally (Witness to the World)

38:14 the more I admire them for their balance biblically and for their richness in a pastoral sense and in the questions in the larger catechism, how should the Sabbath be spent? It's a wonderful, wonderful exposition of this very thing. Second practical guideline is this. Think horizontally as well as vertically with reference to how you keep the Sabbath.

38:41 We are called upon, as was Israel, to be light, to be salt in the midst of darkness and in the midst of putrefaction. We are told by Peter that we are to show forth the virtues of him who called us out of darkness into light. Now God says you are to be like me, not only in the presence of each other, and with reference to my claims over you and your relationship to me in covenant and reciprocal covenant obligations, but you are to be light. There is a horizontal dimension to the Christian life.

39:16 Now God says, our lives are to be light exposing the darkness of the world around us. Our lives are to be the means by which the conscience of the world is somehow kept to some degree sensitive to the obligations that God has laid upon us. In that office, when everyone else takes a box of paper clips, takes paper, takes other office things and nobody thinks a thing about it, but you never do, you're a witness to the binding obligation of God's commandment, thou shalt not steal. when you refuse to take 20 minutes for a 15 minute coffee break and you come back from the little snack shop before everyone else

40:01 and you're at your desk or at your bench doing your work you are a living monument to the fact that you're committed to God's law thou shalt not steal you're not going to steal in the lawyer's time and all the gals gather in the powder room and talk about their weekend affairs and you're either silent or you're absent from it, you're a barb in their conscience that Almighty God says, Thou shalt not commit adultery. Now in the same way, child of God, you are to be a monument of commitment to the fourth commandment in a society that says God has no claim over any day. And what has happened to the Sabbath in our own society? It has become the sports day.

40:48 It has become the recreation day. It has become the TV day. It has become the puttering around the house day. Do you look upon that as just an innocent pastime?

41:00 I hope you don't. It is simply another manifestation of the spirit of Psalm 2. Let us break their bonds asunder and cast away their cords from us. Almighty God is not going to tell me how to order any of my days.

41:18 now what are you as a Christian to do you have another obligation other than your vertical in the midst of that you are to shine as lights in what Paul calls a crooked and perverse generation therefore your Sabbath observance cannot be indifferent to what impression you give upon the world around you now you notice I've taken no specific illustrations because people then want to make a law out of the illustration now don't do that please but I do want to illustrate so we can get it out of the abstract and into the concrete how do I as a parent

42:03 and you'll notice that in the fourth commandment there is a peculiar responsibility laid upon the heads of households even God says when strangers come within your gate you tell them how you observe the Sabbath and say you shape up or get out He says, even a stranger within thy gate shall do no work. So, as a father, I have a responsibility, not only to incorporate, by the grace of God in my family, a proper vertical relationship to the fourth commandment, but to make them sensitive to the horizontal dimensions. Therefore, up until a year or so ago, our backyard was frequently the gathering ground for all the kids during the week, and we welcome them. I'd get out and play football with the guys and keep some semblance of order,

42:49 and it would always keep the language a little pure, and the fights a little less fierce, and the rest. And we welcomed that. But we weren't there long before we made it evident, we did it kindly, that we don't play ball in Martin's backyard on the Lord's Day. That my children are not out there playing ball with the others on the Lord's Day.

43:08 Why? Because in a neighborhood where there is total disregard for the sanctity of the Sabbath, We want our vacant backyard on Sunday to be a barb in the conscience of those around us that Almighty God has some claims upon that day. You see? Now, I'm not saying you need to chase the kids out.

43:27 No, please don't take the law out of the illustration. Dig behind the illustration of the principle that there are these vertical responsibilities, I mean these horizontal responsibilities. you may feel with absolute unblemished conscience. At the end of a Lord's Day, or halfway through a Lord's Day, you can go to a public eating place.

43:50 My friend, what impression does that give to the world about you? If that's your pattern, it's not a matter now of you've come tired and hungry on some errand of mercy or in pursuit of the gospel, gospel work which is proper on the Sabbath as Jesus indicated in Mark 2 but it's simply a carnal convenience.

44:12 It's not a physical necessity. You just like to have a little fellowship over my friend, what impression are you giving to that world? That world that says Sunday is no different from the other days if we can make that extra buck on the Lord's Day we'll make it. God has no right to tell me I can't make money on the Sabbath.

44:28 What are you doing? You're saying you're absolutely right. I'll help you to pursue your rebellion against God and I'll put money in your car. You say, I didn't realize that's what I was doing.

44:37 Well, that's what you were doing. Can you imagine trying to bear witness to a sinner in that situation that he's a lawbreaker? You open up the Ten Commandments and you're really right and hurt on him. How should I know that God's before me?

44:50 Boom, boom, boom. And you come to the Fourth Commandment and he looks at you and says, Et tu, Brute?

44:57 What are you doing here? Now, am I saying you should never eat out on Sunday? I am not saying that. And if you go out here and say I did, you're lying.

45:07 You're breaking the ninth commandment.

45:11 What I'm saying is you ought to be sensitive to the horizontal implications of eating out in a public eating place in the Lord's day. That's all I'm saying. And then I have to leave you with God as to what that means in actual practice. No man liveth to himself.

45:32 No man dies to it. We have an influence upon one another, whether we like it or not. And we are to be leavened. And how much yeast do you need to affect the whole lump of bread?

45:43 Don't need a lot. And if Christians will begin to take seriously the leavening influence of their lives and begin with gospel strictness. Now see, those two words aren't common. With gospel strictness begin to keep this day with its vertical and horizontal implications Who knows what good might come to our own generation.

Practical Guideline 3: Don't Neutralize the Principle by Absurd Implications

46:13 And then the third, and this is the last thing, I've gone beyond the seven minutes, it's been eight minutes, nine minutes now. don't neutralize the principle by absurd implications this is a clever trick the Sadducees tried it on our Lord in Matthew 22, 23 and any of you who have had any courses in logic you know what a reductio which is the American way if you're an Englishman you pronounce it differently but reductio ad absurd that's a form of reasoning in which you try to show that your opponent's principle is wrong because if carried to its logical end, it's absolutely foolish. Now, the Sadducees came to Jesus and said,

46:59 ah, we got him hung up. He believes in a physical, bodily resurrection from the dead. Now, we're going to show them how stupid this is. They said a certain man had a wife.

47:10 He died. And according to the old devirate law, the brother was to raise up seed. So he married. And that poor fellow died.

47:17 She must have been some woman that killed off seven of them. I often have what I read about.

47:25 But anyway, they said, now, you see how ridiculous is your fundamental premise that there is a bodily physical resurrection? All seven had her. Who shall she be in the resurrection? Ah, we've got it.

47:39 The implications of the fundamental principle of bodily resurrection are so ridiculous that the fundamental principle must be wrong. If the plank leads you out there, then the plank ought to be chucked. You see? That's the form of argumentation.

47:55 Now, the moment the scripture begins to pinch people's conscience with reference to the Sabbath, you know what they do? They start the same line of reasoning. The reductio ad absurd. Oh, why, if that's true, then, well, you can't even brush your teeth.

48:10 That's working. You've got to go around with your teeth. You know what I mean? Why, if that's true, you'll never turn a light on because someone's breaking the Sabbath by working down with them.

48:20 Oh, listen, my friend. That is nothing but the squealing of your own pinched conscience. And the sooner you face it for what it is, the better off you're going to be. You say, Pastor, you're not very kind.

48:35 No, not at this point, because that's a terrible, terrible evasion of the real issue. Well, it's ridiculous if I...

48:45 All right. But now the issue still stands. Is it a creation ordinance? Yes or no?

48:50 Is it an integral part of the moral law? Yes or no? Is recognition of the Sabbath obligation and privilege a vital part of practical godliness? Then stop all this business of drawing out ridiculous implications and get on your knees before Almighty God and say, God, you've got a perfect right.

49:13 to give to me some specific directions about one day in seven. And now, Lord, I wait to know what that obligation means to me. You see?

49:30 Now, does that mean we will come up with some kind of uniformity? No, that's the genius of the new covenant. That God does not, as in the day in which he was giving this tutoring, in which there was this schoolmaster unto the time of Christ, God does not tell us that we cannot wear mixed clothing of mixed cloth. And God does not tell us how to trim our beards.

49:56 Aren't you glad? Well, you like to trim yours a little different from the way you do, but I can't say. God says you shall not cut the corners of your beards. But he had a right to tell an Israelite.

50:06 Think of it. An Israelite to look in the mirror and say, You know, honey, you'd look better with your beard a little rough. You say, I can't do that. What do you think you can't?

50:12 It's your beard. He says, no, it isn't. It's Jehovah's beard. He tells me I can't cut the corners.

50:19 Yes, that's what God said. Why? Because that's the way the nations wore their beards. And God says, I want even the shape of your beard to be a monument to the fact that you're somebody different.

50:31 You mean to tell me God has a right to tell me how to trim my beard? Yeah, because it's his beard, not his. Oh, when the Christian gets hold of this, you are not your own. You're bought with a price.

50:42 The days aren't mine, they're his. And therefore, in loving response to his grace, I say, Father, how would you have me? Honor this day for my profit and for your glory and for your grace. Well, that's the lawyer's case.

Q&A: Preparations, Necessities, and Legalism

50:59 Now put him on the cross-examining stand, all right?

51:05 Are there some questions? Yes. Are you allowed to go through the exam? Pardon?

51:12 Are you allowed to go through the branches of the tree?

51:18 Yes, but what I may do is not give you an answer, but simply show you how the branch is related to the roots and have you work out your own answer. I'm going to be very, very careful that we don't establish any kind of a legalism. All right? Go ahead, Eugene.

51:34 Well, I would just say, let's say, you know, if you were to go out and buy things in the house, or their houses and things of that nature. I mean, I'm already becoming a legalist if I, you know, say, the Lord says, can I go to the market? Yes.

51:53 Well, I go to the larger catechism. Again, it's beautiful here.

52:02 You see, if I regard the Sabbath as being God's day in a special way, then I will be careful to make due preparations for the Sabbath. You see? And this is one of the things that is brought out beautifully in the larger commandment. What is required in the fourth commandment?

52:21 And then we have the thing, it's to be sanctified by holy resting, etc. And to that end, we are to prepare our hearts and with such foresight, diligence and moderation to dispose and seasonably to dispatch our worldly business that we may be the more free and fit to the duties of the day. Isn't that beautiful? It's a little quaint, but it's beautiful.

52:49 We are with foresight and moderation seasonably to dispatch our worldly business. I mean, it ain't going to kill you to take five minutes to go out and fill your car up with gas on Saturday night. Is it? And in the very doing of that, it shows that the mind is being prepared to say this is a special day.

53:12 You see? It's no big deal if there's something that you see, all right, on the Lord's Day we're going to need thus and thus to eat unless we've chosen to fast. Why? It's no big deal to go out on Saturday and make due preparations.

53:28 And the very fact that we don't shows that we aren't regarding it. Let me illustrate it this way. What would you think of a bride who didn't think about any wedding plans until the morning of her wedding.

53:39 Oh man, today's her wedding day. I don't know what I'm going to do for dress. I wonder what I'm going to do for bridegroom.

53:45 You say that's ridiculous. It's such a special day that she makes preparations for months before. Well, if I believe that the heavenly bridegroom comes to draw near to me in the midst of his gathered people in a special way on the Lord's day, will I not make some adequate preparations? Does that sound unreasonable?

54:04 no alright Eugene yeah yeah that's true but sometimes you might not remember something all of a sudden let's say you need salt you don't believe you're yeah you forgot I think you're getting into the ridiculous now oh well that's what I mean I wasn't seeing a principle yeah I would say that if I through my stupidity forgot to get some salt salt is not necessary one day for my well being suppose I was someone dependent upon insulin I was a diabetic. And through lack of foresight, I ran out of my insulin. Would it be sinful for me to find a pharmacist somewhere who could fill my...

54:42 Of course not. That's pulling the animal out of the ditch. And if it's perfectly proper to preserve animal life in the Lord's day, how much more human life? You see?

54:55 See, if we get that principle, then if I've forgotten, all right, I'll deny myself. That will help me to remember all the more, to make due preparations the next time. Remember, the element of self-denial is no little thing in the Christian life, is it? It's a daily thing.

55:11 And there are times when you have to deny yourself. There's many a night when I've driven back on the Lord's Day from a busy day and I haven't had my supper, and I go by one of these places that sells Italian food, and all my juices start going, I would love to go in there and get myself a pizza or something else, and I know what's at home.

55:32 Well, basically, what's at home is some leftovers from the morning to the cereal, perfectly adequate to nourish me. Well, can't I say no to the claims of my taste buds and my digestive juices for the sake of bearing witness to the fact that I love the God who has claims upon me today?

56:06 Yes, Broke? Can you read up in this book a little bit about what a legalist is? A legalist has to do with the law. we're talking about God's law so then we shouldn't do a crazy thing because of the law for the law's sake yeah well I think basically Grove we use the term legalist at least we ought to because it is a term that has come down and accrued to itself certain basic pivots of theological and practical significance and generally the legalist is the man who A. does things hoping to gain merit in so doing or B, does things with external precision while missing the heart of it, such as the Pharisees.

56:53 They cleanse the outside of the cup and the platter. They tithe mint and acid coming, but they omit justice, mercy, and love. Now, in the sense that we obey because God commands it, in that sense, I am a legalist, and I'm not embarrassed to say so. I obey God's law because he's worthy to be obeyed, and his commandments are not grievous.

57:14 And obedience is obedience. That's why Jesus said, if you love me, do what? Not do what your heart tells you. Do what you feel like doing.

57:23 He said, if you love me, keep my commandments. One of the old purities stated it beautifully. Law is love's eyes, and without it love is blind. And I've added a couplet to it.

57:36 Love is law's heart and soul, and without it law is dead. You see, to keep the Sabbath with no gospel love to Christ, oh, that's a burden. Because my life is in the Word. Now if there's a day when I can't have what my life is, then that's a burden.

57:55 That's drudgery. But if I have love to God through Jesus Christ and because of Christ, then it is a delight to keep that day. Yes, Mr. Clark?

Q&A: New Testament Repetition and Jewish Regulations

58:06 Oh, yes, thank you. I have a good extra time. Yes. I'm just talking about it.

58:11 Yes, or we better do it, boy, it's soon, boy, it's 12 minutes to. Could we do it during the announcement time this morning? I think that might be better, Paul, all right? Otherwise, you're going to be cramped here now, all right?

58:22 Good. Yes, Bob? Will we be able to take this again next week for just a few minutes? Because I do have a theological and implication question dealing with a scripture verse, and I can't find the verse right at this present time.

58:36 The one from Romans? No. One day, one man regarded one day above another. with uh yeah it's in deuteronomy and it deals with what the ten commandments were and what the the uh fact that the staff was given as a sign to israel yeah yeah the basic answer to that is that's not the full statement of what the sabbath is it did have a peculiar sign relationship to israel but that's not all it was right you see it's it's a principle again of partial mention And the part does not necessarily include the whole, whereas the whole includes all of its parts.

59:15 Which is just a good mathematical maxim. Yes. Yes, Noah. I think that happens to be around a pretty much full of a problem.

59:23 Yeah. In which God says, the Sabbaths were assigned, etc. And that would be the Sabbath with its peculiar Jewish regulations. Which were very, very strict.

59:33 So much so that when that guy went out and said, well, God doesn't really mean what he said. I'm going to collect me a few sticks. he ended up dead before nightfall. That's what the dispensationalist says.

59:42 That's why it's not reiterated again in the New Testament. Because it's just that it was just a sign for two. But I think it's again, it's an instance where we're trying to prove a point and so you'll find some ammunition to prove it without grappling with a broader biblical theological development of a whole Sabbath theology. Which I think is absolutely essential in this case. Yes, now Paul White had his hand raised first. Yes.

60:09 We mentioned about the behavior of a children playing outside on Sunday. What about inside the house? Do you have any guidelines especially for all children? Yeah. Well, maybe what we could do next week, Paul, if you'll come then prepared with some of the leaf questions, now that we've dug at the roots, God willing we'll go ahead and discuss them. Do you think it would be profitable to... Yeah.

60:32 Okay, yes. No? I stand for that. I was thinking Exodus 31.

60:36 All right. Exodus 31. All right. Then there was someone...

60:38 Yes, John? In answer to that thing, I forget who I read this, but I wrestled with this many years ago. This in Exodus 20, chapter 8, verse 8, where it says, Remember the Sabbath. And I forget who the writer was.

60:55 It may have been Watson and his book, The Ten Commandments. But he clearly pointed out that the previous ones as a statement of fact, Thou shalt. Then he comes to that when he says, remember. In other words, this commandment, in his thinking, had already existed, whereas the others may not have been clearly existent before that.

61:12 So he doesn't say, thou shalt keep the Sabbath. He says, remember the Sabbath, indicating that the word remember here is an indication that the Sabbath was already in their minds due to the creation order. Yes, it's Watson who makes a point of that, because I reread that in the earlier hours this morning. Yes.

61:30 Well, our time is gone, folks, So we'll just have to bring this to a grinding halt and pick it up next week. Let's pray together, shall we?