The Sabbath Created #1

Introduction to the Series: The Christian Sabbath and the Authority of Scripture

0:03 The following message was preached Sunday, May 17, 1998, to Emanuel Reformed Baptist Church of Sea-Tac, Washington. The speaker is Pastor Robert Martin. This message is the first in a series of 24 titled, The Christian Sabbath.

0:22 Last fall we interrupted a long series on the biblical doctrine of love in order to address two other subjects. The first subject addressed at the initiative of the elders was the subject of church membership, and recently we completed that series.

0:41 The second subject being considered when we put the love series on hold was basically because of your initiative.

0:50 A number of you expressed interest in my taking up the biblical doctrine of the Sabbath. For example, I received a note in the offering box. And the note simply reads, Can we have some teaching on the Lord's Day?

1:09 When I first picked this note up, I have to admit, I was a bit shocked. At that time I had been here for about a year and a half, maybe two years, and kind of thought that's what we'd been doing on the Lord's Day. Then it occurred to me perhaps that the issue is can we have some teaching on the subject of the Lord's Day. Well, in response to that interest, today I want to begin a brief series.

1:35 With the title, The Christian Sabbath.

1:40 Now, as we begin this series, please note that in choosing the title, The Christian Sabbath, I'm trying to reflect the rationale for the series. And what I mean is this. In the course of this series, we will consider the Sabbath institution as it existed in earlier epics of redemptive history. But in the end of the day,

2:09 we're really interested in knowing is what does God require of us under the new covenant established by our Lord Jesus Christ? Is there, in fact, a Christian Sabbath that we ought to observe as a matter of conscience before God? In other words, we're not interested in a mere history lesson. We want to know if the Sabbath is still a divine institution.

2:40 We want to know if the Sabbath is still a divine institution. Obliging us to keep one day in seven holy to the Lord.

The Heart's Resistance to Sabbath-Keeping

2:50 Now, I hope as we set out in our study of this subject, I hope that we're agreed that our authority for establishing our Sabbath doctrine and practice, I hope we're agreed that our authority is the Bible. Our concern is what has God said? We aren't interested in tradition, even revered Puritan tradition, any further than it can be sustained by the teaching of the Word of God. Once we know what God has said, I believe that we should at least have the broad outlines of what we ought to believe and ought to practice on the question of the Sabbath. Now, I ask, brethren, are you committed to that biblical framework, to discovering and following what God has said? And the reason I ask that question, the reason I ask if you are willing to let the Bible shape your thinking on this subject,

4:01 the reason I ask is because there is so much prejudice in the human heart against the idea that God requires, one day in seven, for Himself.

4:17 One of the most remarkable things that I've observed in the years that I've been thinking about the Sabbath question, one of the most remarkable things that I've observed is the number of Christians, otherwise very godly people, concerned to walk in the light of God's Word in other areas of their lives, who become uncomfortable or even hostile when the question of keeping the Sabbath is asked. Now, I realize that many Christians in our day are very poorly taught on this issue. There are denominations, frankly, where hardly the knowledge of a Sabbath day exists. But I'm not thinking about those folks.

5:01 I have in mind Christians who seem aware of the Bible's teaching, and yet have what appears to be an aversion to acknowledging that God requires them to keep the Sabbath holy. Right? And as I've tried to answer the question of why, I think I know something of what the answer is. The problem is not in their head.

5:29 It's not in their understanding. The problem's in their heart.

5:35 When I first understood what the Bible teaches on the Sabbath many, many years ago, I had not only an intellectual, but a moral choice to make. During the first few years of my Christian life, I spent Sunday afternoons in the fall watching professional football. I went to church twice on Sunday. I acknowledged that that time belonged to God.

6:05 That was God's time. But in the afternoons in those years, my focus shifted from the Word of God and from the people of God and from the house of God and from the day of God. My focus shifted to football. That's where my heart was.

6:24 And other things had to take second or third place behind that. That was, in my judgment, my time. And I used it as I desired.

6:39 When I finally saw what the Bible taught about the Lord's Day, intellectually I knew that those hours belonged to the Lord and that watching football was not among those things that constitute a holy use of the day.

6:59 Now, here's where the rub came. My mind was convinced that the day belonged to the Lord, but my flesh did not want to follow my new convictions of truth.

7:14 My flesh still wanted to keep those hours for self and use them for entertainment.

7:24 And following the truth for me meant that my flesh had to be mortified. It meant that self had to be denied. It meant that God's will had to consciously be chosen over my own will.

7:43 And in the end of the day, believing what the Bible taught about the Sabbath meant that I needed to give the whole day to the Lord.

7:55 Now, I believe that not a few Christians who see the issues,

8:01 who know what the Bible teaches, not a few are unwilling to endure, to endure the pain of mortifying the flesh when it comes to how they've been using the day.

8:16 So they begin to make excuses for their disobedience or they latch on to some supposedly enlightened anti-Sabbatarian argument to persuade themselves that keeping the Sabbath isn't their duty after all.

8:35 Now, that may be. I don't know any heart in this auditorium but my own. But that may be. That may be where some of you are right now.

A Call to Berean Nobility in Studying the Sabbath

8:45 Or perhaps some of you honestly have never considered in any comprehensive sense what the Bible has to say on the subject of the Sabbath.

8:55 But in either case, I want to ask you, I want to plead with you to have the Spirit commended in the Bereans as Luke says of them, these were more noble than those in Thessalonica in that they received the Word with all readiness of mind. Amen. Examining the Scriptures daily, whether these things were so.

9:21 I do not intend to say anything to you that I cannot reasonably found upon the teaching of the Word of God. I ask that you be eager, ready to receive the Word.

9:34 Examine the Scriptures. If I am misleading you from the Scriptures, do not follow me. But if I am handling accurately the Word of God, rightly dividing the Word of God on this subject, have the nobility of the Bereans to receive it and to walk in the light of it.

Approaches to Studying the Sabbath and Martin's Chosen Starting Point

9:57 Now there are a number of places where we might begin in answering the question, what has God said about the Sabbath day? For example, we could begin with the fourth commandment found in the Ten Commandments in the book of Exodus. We could begin with the fourth commandment and approach the Sabbath question with primary reference to the moral law of God. Written on tablets of stone at Sinai.

10:25 And that is basically Walt Chantry's approach in his book called The Sabbath of the Light.

10:32 Or we could begin with the institution of the Sabbath at creation and move forward from there. And that basically is Daniel Wilson's book in his classic work, The Divine Authority and Perpetual Obligation of the Lord's Day. Or we could do as Joey Piper does. In his book, The Lord's Day, a recent publication.

10:58 Piper begins with Isaiah 58, verses 13 and 14. He begins with what he calls the great purpose of the day, which is to delight in the Lord.

11:10 Now of these books, and these I believe are the major books still in print, if you could only read one, I would commend to you Wilson's classic work published in Great Britain, available in this country, but published by The Lord's Day Observance, Society.

11:27 Now in general, I'm going to follow the approach in this book. Looking first at the Sabbath at creation, then turning to the Sabbath under the Old Covenant, and then the Sabbath under the New Covenant. But I want to begin this morning with our Lord's words recorded in the second chapter of Mark. And so please turn with me there to Mark chapter 2.

11:54 We'll come back to take up Wilson's, basic approach in the studies to come. We'll begin today and follow through in the studies to come. But I want to begin not with the statements found in the Old Testament, but with what I believe is the pivotal statement found in the New Testament. And I'll read Mark chapter 2, verses 23 through 28.

Jesus' Foundational Statement: The Sabbath Was Made for Man

12:22 And it came to pass that he, that is Jesus, was going on the Sabbath day through the grain fields. And his disciples began as they went to pluck the ears. That is, the ears of grains.

12:38 And the Pharisees said to him, Behold, why do they on the Sabbath day that which is not lawful?

12:47 And he said to them, Did you never read what David did when he had need and was hungry, he and they that were with him? How he entered into the house of God when Abiathar the high priest, or when Abiathar was high priest that ate to show bread, which it is not lawful, to eat except for the priests, and gave also to them that were with him.

13:10 And he said to them, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath, so that the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.

13:29 Verse 27 again. The Sabbath, Jesus says, was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath, so that the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.

13:44 Now, at appropriate places in this series, we're going to consider the rest of this passage that's been read. Especially what Jesus meant when he said, and not man for the Sabbath. Or what he meant when he said, the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.

14:03 But this morning as we begin, I want you to focus on the words of our Lord, the Sabbath was made for man.

14:14 Know first of all about these words, that Jesus, Jesus says that the Sabbath institution was made. That is, it was established.

14:25 And what this means is that the Sabbath day did not always exist.

14:32 At some point in history, the Sabbath day not previously existing, then was established and came into being. The Sabbath was made.

14:45 It did not exist before the incident, the time that our Lord refers to, in this verse. Jesus does not say when it was made. He does not say who made it. He only tells us here that the Sabbath day was created.

15:03 It was established. He says the Sabbath was made for man.

15:10 But note secondly, that Jesus also says something about the purpose for which the Sabbath day was established. The Sabbath, he says, was made for man. That is, for the sake, for the sake of man. For man's benefit.

15:27 Now notice that our Lord, speaking to Jewish Pharisees, living under the Old Covenant, did not say that the Sabbath was made for the Jews. He does not say the Sabbath was made for Old Covenant Israel. No, he says the Sabbath was made for man, or for mankind.

15:51 He chooses the word Anthropos, Anthropos, the broadest, most general, most universal term at his disposal. The Sabbath was made for mankind, not just for Old Covenant Israel, not just for the Jews.

16:08 Now in this statement, the Sabbath was made for man, Jesus clearly refers to the Sabbath day as an institution established for the benefit of mankind at a certain point in history. He does not again say, who established it. He does not say when it was established, but that he didn't need to. He is speaking to Bible scholars who knew the Scriptures very well.

16:40 And they, as well as he, understood the who and the when. The who is Jehovah, the living God who made heaven and earth, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who indeed had made covenant with Israel, who indeed had made covenant with Israel, at Mount Sinai. The when, however, was not when Moses received God's law on tablets of stone at Sinai. God made the Sabbath day not at Sinai for the children of Israel, but in the beginning, at creation, not just for the sons of Israel, but for Adam and for all his children. The Sabbath, Jesus says, was made for man or mankind. The when was the seventh day of creation, when God established the seventh day, or the Sabbath day, rather, as the very first institution that he created after he made man in his own image. Now, my point in starting with Jesus' words in this text is because our thinking about the Sabbath must begin where Jesus' thinking about the Sabbath began.

18:06 There's a method to my madness. There's a purpose in my approach. The reason for beginning here with the statement, the clear statement of our Lord, the Sabbath was made for man is because our thinking about the issue of the Sabbath needs to begin where Jesus' thinking about the Sabbath began. If we start with the giving of the law to Israel, to Israel at Sinai, if that's where we begin, we will not have gone back far enough in history.

18:47 And because of this, we may run the risk of thinking of Sabbath keeping, as so many do, as a duty binding on the Jews, but not upon us, or as binding only as long as the old covenant stood or was in effect, but not on Christians under the new covenant. Those opinions are wrong. The Sabbath is not just binding on the Jews. It was not binding just as long as the period which was framed by the old covenant was in effect.

19:24 Those opinions are wrong. And one of the reasons that they are wrong is because those who hold them don't see the Sabbath as Jesus saw it. The very first thing that Jesus says on the subject of the Sabbath is the Sabbath was made for man. It's a foundational statement.

The Sabbath's Institution at Creation (Genesis 2:1-3)

19:44 Now at this point, turn with me to the book of Genesis. Let's go back to the when. Genesis chapter 2 verses 1 through 3. Here is the account of the seventh day in God's creative week.

20:10 And the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them. God has now made everything that He intended to make, except for one thing. He has created the heavens and the earth, He has created the lights that give light, He has created the animals, He has created man. But now we read, the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them.

20:45 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 or sanctified it because that in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. In this passage, we find God's record of the establishment of the Sabbath day as a special day blessed and hallowed by the Lord at the very beginning of the world's existence. Having created the heavens and the earth and all that in them is the Lord as His last creative act, created the Sabbath as an institution for man. Again, as our Lord Christ affirms, the Sabbath was made for man. Here is when it took place. On the seventh day.

21:48 And in the progressive unfolding of God's revelation on the topic of the Sabbath, this is the first text that we ought to consider in answering the question, what has God said? If you want to begin at the beginning and work your way all the way through the Scriptures on the subject of the Sabbath, here is where you begin. Though this text, these verses, do not contain all that the Bible teaches on the subject of the Sabbath, it does contain basic principles which must regulate our thinking and guide us in our interpretation and application of all else that follows in the Scriptures on this subject. We need to begin here. We need to begin with what our Lord was talking about when He said the Sabbath was made for man. Now this text, of course, explains the origin of that cycle of activity and rest that we call a week. Every other cycle in our calendars has a natural origin.

22:58 The length of a year is derived from the number of days needed for the earth to revolve around the sun. The seasons are likewise associated with that cycle of the earth's revolving cycle. Months, for the most part, are determined by the cycles of the moon. Days are determined by the rotation of the earth upon its axis.

23:26 One rotation equals one day. But there is no natural cycle reflected in the existence of a seven-day week. No natural cycle whatsoever. The concept of week exists only because of the pattern of God's behavior at creation.

23:50 There He established, by His own example, the cycle of six days' labor followed by one day of holy rest. And our seven-day week is an imitation of that pattern. It is not a natural cycle. It is one which follows the pattern of God's own behavior.

24:13 Now when we come to this passage and we examine it, there is a temptation, perhaps, to say, well, this only has to do with that first week and has nothing to do with us. But we must not think that Moses is saying that God merely blessed and sanctified the seventh day of the creation week and that this has nothing to do with anything after that. That would be to misread what Moses is doing. As is clear from all else that God says in the Scriptures about the Sabbath, here God establishes a cycle which man, as his image-bearer, is to imitate. A cycle, like God, of six days' labor followed by one day of holy rest. That is to be the pattern of man's behavior. It was the pattern of God's behavior.

25:10 Man is to imitate God. Man is the image-bearer of God. We are to reflect his character and behavior. And that is the rationale that we find behind the fourth commandment.

25:23 If you look into Exodus chapter 20, we find the giving of the fourth commandment. We find that the rationale is to take us back to creation, not merely to speak about that one creation week, but to show us a pattern for every week which was to follow. We read in Exodus 20, verses 8 through 11, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shall you labor.

25:53 Right in the law there is the application of that creation week. It is shown to be the model for our week, for that cycle in our life. Six days shall you labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath unto the Lord your God.

26:09 In it you shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor the stranger within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested, or Sabbath on the seventh day. Therefore God blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. This is not just an interesting record in these opening verses of Genesis 2.

26:36 It's not just an interesting record of a single seven day cycle that existed in God's creative work. It is a model. It is a model to be imitated by the whole human race. Now in considering this passage in Genesis 2, in considering the institution of the Sabbath that it describes, I want to suggest three things to you this morning.

The Sabbath as a Special, Holy Day

27:06 Three things that God created when He made the Sabbath for man. Three things that He created the Sabbath to be when He made the Sabbath for man. First of all, it is clear from this text in Genesis 2 that God created the Sabbath to be a special holy day. Indeed, He created the Sabbath that it should be His own.

27:36 That is, that it should be, to borrow the language from the New Testament, that it should be the Lord's day. The very first lesson to be derived from this passage is that God created the Sabbath to be a special, a different, a holy day. He created the Sabbath to be His own, to be the Lord's day. Our text speaks of the Sabbath as a special day.

28:02 That is, Genesis 2 describes the Sabbath as a day that is different from the other six days of the week. According to the Bible's account here of the Sabbath's creation, what made this day different was that God blessed the Sabbath day, and now note this language, and He hallowed it. He sanctified it. According to the meaning of the Hebrew word there, He made the day holy, separate, different.

28:37 Now, according to the well-established meaning of the word translated hallowed or sanctified, what this means is that God separated the day from ordinary use and set it apart for His own for a special use. And I want you to turn to a couple of passages in the Scripture where this word hallowed or sanctified is used so that we can establish that's exactly what it means when it says God hallowed or sanctified the seventh day. 1 Kings 9, verses 1 through 3. Please turn with me.

29:13 1 Kings 9, verses 1 through 3. Now, I realize that much of what we're doing in these early studies especially, especially this morning, is going to be somewhat academic. There's not going to be a lot of practical application up front. There's going to be plenty to come in sessions to come.

29:38 We're laying a foundation. We're trying to understand what did God make the day to be? Well, the first thing we learn is that He made it a special day. He hallowed it.

29:50 He sanctified it. He made it holy. 1 Kings 9, verses 1 through 3. And it came to pass when Solomon had finished the building of the house of the Lord and the king's house.

30:03 The building of the temple wasn't the only building project in which Solomon was engaged. But he built a magnificent house for himself. It came to pass when Solomon had finished the building of the house of the Lord and the king's house. And all Solomon's desire, which he was pleased to do, that the Lord appeared to Solomon the second time as He had appeared to him at Gibeon.

30:25 And the Lord said to him, I have heard your prayer and your supplication that you have made before Me. I have hallowed this house. That is, I have sanctified this house which you have built to put My name there forever and My eyes and My heart shall be there perpetually. I have hallowed this house He is referring to the temple that Solomon had built.

30:55 Now in the case mentioned in this text, God's hallowing of the temple separated it, made it different from every other building in the land. Made it different even from Solomon's magnificent house. Solomon's house in many ways was as splendid in its size, in its materials, in its workmanship as was the temple. And yet by God's hallowing the temple, by His sanctifying it, by His setting it apart, He made the temple different from every other building in the land.

31:37 God's hallowing of the temple, His sanctifying of the temple, not the craftsmanship of the workmen, not the desire of the king and the people. It was God's activity that made it God's holy house. The fact that it was magnificent, made of magnificent materials, the fact that it was large, the fact that it was expensive, the fact that it was impressive, none of those things made it God's holy house. Solomon's house was magnificent and costly and impressive.

32:16 God hallowed the temple. He separated it. He made it to be His holy house. It is He that separated it by His blessing from ordinary use to be the place of special use where He would be worshipped according to His law.

32:37 God hallowed that house. Now look also in Numbers chapter 3. Again to understand what is the meaning of this word hallowed. What is God saying when it says in the Bible when Moses says, when God says in this passage He hallowed the seventh day.

32:58 In Numbers chapter 3 verses 11 through 13 the Lord spoke to Moses saying, And I, behold, I have taken the Levites that is the tribe of Levi from among the children of Israel instead of all the firstborn that opens the womb among the children of Israel and the Levites shall be mine. For all the firstborn are mine on the day that I smote all the firstborn in Israel. In the land of Egypt I hallowed to me all the firstborn in Israel both man and beast. Mine they shall be.

33:34 I am the Lord. Now in the case mentioned in this text God had hallowed. He had sanctified. He had separated all the firstborn for His own.

33:50 And now instead of the firstborn He hallows the Levites. He separates them. He takes them in place of the firstborn. With the result that they are now different from all the rest of the Israelites.

34:06 That act of God, His taking them, His hallowing them made them different. He now claims them as His own. He separates them from their ordinary work that they might serve Him in the worship of the tabernacle. He makes them different by this hallowing.

34:30 Now my point in taking you to these texts is to underscore the fact that when Moses says that God hallowed the Sabbath day his Hebrew readers and remember that the book of Genesis was originally written for those who were to receive the law at Sinai. Who understood the framework who understood the meaning of the words being used in that broader context of God's dealings with mankind from creation up to Sinai. Who understood what God was saying when He hallowed the Levites and when He hallowed the tabernacle, etc. Moses' Hebrew readers understood Him to be saying when they read Genesis 2 that God had made the Sabbath different from the other days of the week. That in hallowing it, in sanctifying it He had made it different. And they understood Him to be saying that He claimed the day as His own in a way that He did not claim the other six days. That He claimed the day in fact as the Lord's day.

35:46 And that He separated the day to a special, extraordinary use. And God hallowed the seventh day. He made it different. He separated it from the other six.

36:06 He made it His own. He set it apart to a different purpose. It's a special, different, holy day. And as God's image bearers created to be the living, visible representations of the character of their Creator Adam and Eve and all their descendants were to imitate the pattern which the Lord established by His own use of the Sabbath day.

36:39 While there's yet much to be discovered from other texts when it comes to the question how is the day to be kept? From this text the basic principle is clear. This day is to be treated differently from the other six days of the week. God created it and He hallowed it as His own day to be used for a holy, separate, sanctified purpose.

The Sabbath as a Day of Rest

37:09 The first lesson from the text is this. God created the Sabbath to be a special, holy day different from the rest belonging to Him to be used in a special way. But now secondly, it is clear from this text that God created the Sabbath to be a day of rest. That is abundantly clear it seems to me from the text.

37:38 God created the Sabbath to be a day of rest. The principle, or this principle, lies at the very heart of the Sabbath ordinance. It's embodied in the very term Sabbath itself. Did anyone notice that in Genesis chapter 2 verses 1 through 3 that in our English translations the word Sabbath never appears?

38:02 Ah, we've got you, Pastor. Not a word about the Sabbath. Oh, wait a minute. Let's read along.

38:11 We're going to see a word here. On the seventh day God finished His work which He had made and He rested. Underscore that word rested. He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made.

38:27 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. The word Sabbath comes from the Hebrew word Shabbat which means to rest. That's what the word Sabbath means. The Sabbath therefore, whatever else we may come to understand about it, is a day of rest patterned after God's own example at creation.

39:00 Having finished His creative work in six days, God Sabbathed, God rested on the seventh day. And were you to translate these verses simply saying God Sabbathed, you would not be doing violence to the text whatsoever. Again, read it in that way. On the seventh day God finished His work which He had made and He Sabbathed on the seventh day from all His work which He had made.

39:27 God blessed the seventh day, hallowed it because that in it He Sabbathed from all His work which God had created and made. At its very foundation, the day is a day of rest. And in imitation of God, we are to Sabbath one day in seven. That is, we are to rest from our ordinary labors.

39:55 Now that principle lies at the very foundation of the Sabbath ordinance established at creation. One day in seven, like God, we are to Sabbath. We are to rest from our ordinary labors. Now in order to come to a full understanding of the nature of our Sabbath rest, we will need to look beyond this text to other portions of the Word of God.

40:23 We will need to look to the Law and the Prophets. We will need to look to the teaching of the New Testament. And there, for example, we will learn that we are to rest physically and mentally from our ordinary labors. Yet we will also learn that the Sabbath is not rightly observed by consuming the day with inactivity.

40:43 We need to be careful how we define the concept of rest. And we are going to pattern the Sabbath after that, after God's own example. We will see that instead that man's Sabbath rest was created and sanctified, not that he might continue in his ordinary labors, but that he might engage in a special way in the worship of God. We'll see that.

41:11 We don't see it necessarily here in Genesis 2, but we'll see it as we work our way through the rest of the Scriptures. We will also see, especially when we come to the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ, we will see that Sabbath rest that it is compatible, nevertheless, with works of mercy and necessity, though not compatible with the pursuit of recreations and entertainments. And though we will need to understand the Bible's view of Sabbath rest in terms of the Bible's larger description of the concept, at its heart, though, the Sabbath is a day of rest from our labors and activities to do this work when we areils so that we continue what we might do on sabbath in those other six days. That's a day of rest and we are to cease from what we do in the other six days. Alright, so the second principle, it's clear from this text that God created the sabbath to be a day of rest. But now third, it is clear from this text that the Sabbath day is a blessed day blessed of the Lord.

The Sabbath as a Blessed Day

42:25 It is clear from this text that the Sabbath day is a blessed day day blessed of the Lord. 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. Now the world regards the Sabbath as a burden. I know of no plainer way to characterize the common view of the Sabbath that is to be found amongst those who know of such a thing. The world regards the Sabbath as a burden. And wherever they have been able to do so, wicked men have sought to destroy the Sabbath institution. Our own society, for example, once known for carefulness in keeping the Lord's day, and that not so long ago, has virtually banished the Sabbath as God instituted it to oblivion. I'd like to read you an account written by John Payton, the the , deservedly famous missionary to the New Hebrides. At the turn of the century, almost

43:41 a hundred years ago now, or about a hundred years ago now, Payton left the New Hebrides to return to England. And on his way, he passed through the United States, giving account of the conversion of the inhabitants of the New Hebrides. And he found himself on this trip in the city of Chicago at the time that the great Chicago exhibition, or the Chicago World's Fair, was opening. And he leaves us this account of what took place on that occasion. He says the directors, that is, the directors of the great Chicago exhibition, having secured President Grover Cleveland to open the exhibition, desired him to go from Washington by special train on the Sabbath day. Their plan was to utilize the occasion by enormous excursions from all over the United States. And he said, I'll I'll tell you why, I'll tell you why. I'll tell you why. I'll tell you why. I'll tell you

44:38 why. I'll tell you why. I'll tell you why. I'll tell you why. I'll tell you why. I'll tell you quarters on the day of rest. But the God-fearing Presbyterian president went with a usual train on Saturday, took up his residence at a private hotel, and showed his disapproval of their tactics by declining their projected ovation. On Sabbath morning, he attended worship at Dr. McPherson's church. A baptismal service was intimated for the afternoon. The president again attended. He opened the exhibition officially, that is, the next day on Monday, but left the city as privately as he had come to it. And this rebuke was not misunderstood by the community, and was greatly appreciated by decided Christians, to whom the rest of the day of God is a heavenly heritage for all the creatures of earth, which no man may lawfully alienate nor impair. To a man like myself, Peyton said, the results brought a certain retributive joy. The rush of foreigners, that is, not

45:50 of the citizens of Chicago, but those coming from foreign lands, he says, the rush of foreigners after the first two or three Sabbaths was soon over. Then it was discovered that the masses of the working people of Chicago scented themselves on the Lord's day, knowing well that it was not for their benefit that this thing was done. But merely to coin money out of them. I wonder if the present day inhabitants of Chicago would recognize their ancestors. I wonder if the present day occupant of the White House would recognize his predecessor. It's not been but a hundred years when a city the size of Chicago, and Peyton goes on to speak of other travels, he speaks of being in Toronto on the Lord's day.

46:54 From one place to another to appear to speak at a meeting and could not get so much as a cab to take him because there was no public transport on the Sabbath day. A hundred years ago, the Lord's day was honored and loved in this land. But in the minds of most in our day, we're a long way from Grover Cleveland and we're a long way from 1890s Chicago. In the minds of most in our day, the Sabbath is a day of worship. We're a long way from a day of recreation or commerce. Perhaps with a veneer of religion to make their Sabbath breaking look less blameworthy. But few regard the Sabbath as God created it to be. A day blessed of the Lord. In spite of the clear teaching of the word of God, there are few

47:53 in our generation who call the Sabbath a delight and a holy day of the Lord honorable. And who keep it as God's. There are but few in our day. Moses tells us that God blessed the seventh day. He blessed the seventh day. And what this means is that he endowed the seventh day with his own special favor. James Murphy says that God's blessing results in the bestowment of some good on the object that is blessed. And then goes on to assert that the only good that comes from God is the blessing that is given to the one who is blessed by God. they can be bestowed on a portion of time is to dedicate it to a noble use.

48:42 I appreciate Murphy's attempt to wrestle with the words of our text, but I don't think he goes quite far enough. In these words, Moses is not just saying that God gave the seventh day or gave the Sabbath day a noble use, but he is saying that in blessing the day, He made it to be the vehicle of blessing to mankind.

49:06 And Jacobus comes much nearer to the fuller sense of these words when he says, He blessed it as the day that was to be made the channel of such special blessings to the race.

The Sabbath as a Source of Happiness and Communion

49:19 I want to read a few paragraphs out of Bush's commentary on Genesis, and then I'm done for this morning. We come back tonight, and there will be three lines of application from this text. But I want to read in closing just a few paragraphs from Bush's comments on the words, God blessed the seventh day. Bush says, As a peculiar eminence and distinction are here clearly attributed to the seventh day above the other six.

49:49 For upon it alone was bestowed the express blessing of God. As it cannot be conceived how any particular day can be said to be blessed otherwise than by being made the appointed time for the communication of some benefit or happiness to intelligent creatures. When God, when God blessed the seventh day, He must have pronounced it to be the time for conferring His choicest blessings on man.

50:21 He blessed it therefore by connecting inestimable blessings with the proper observance of the day. He consecrated it as a day of holy rest and worship, as a season set apart for the devout contemplation of the Creator's works and the divine perfections manifested in them. And whoever, whoever honors the day with a corresponding observance will not fail to experience the peculiar blessings of heaven in consequence.

50:53 We shall therefore entertain very inadequate views of this institution if we do not regard the Sabbath as emphatically designed to be a day not of joyless constraint or irksome penance, but a day of positive, happiness to man. The grand scope of the observances of this day is to bring the creature into nearer communion with His Creator and whatever has this effect cannot but be a source of augmented blessedness to the subject of it. The withdrawal of the mind from all worldly cares, the hallowed calm of the season, the exercises of prayer and praise in the closet, the instructive ministry of the Spirit, the sanctuary, the devout perusal of the Holy Scriptures, the fixed contemplation of the wisdom, power, and goodness displayed in the works of creation, providence, and grace, all tend to diffuse an ineffable peace and joy over the soul and impart to it a foretaste of the very bliss of heaven. There where angels and the spirits of the blessed are, it is one continual Sabbath. It is a day, a perpetual day of rest, of holy rest.

52:22 And in that there is perpetual enjoyment.

52:27 And to as many as are waiting and desiring this rest of heaven, the rest of the Sabbath will be a source of happiness. To as many as are sensible of the influence of worldly things, in hindering their growth in grace and preventing nearness of access to God, the holy rest of the Sabbath will be longed for and enjoyed. Far from us, then, be the feeling which would count the Sabbath other than a delight, which would esteem its services grievous and its hours a weariness. The Sabbath was made for man.

53:07 It is among the kindest provisions of heaven for man's happiness. And nothing but a state of mind fearfully estranged from the love of God and at variance with peace can prevent us, from realizing and enjoying it as such.

Concluding Exhortation: Embrace the Sabbath as God's Kind Provision

53:25 God blessed the Sabbath day.

53:31 He calls us, as we shall see when we go further in the Scriptures, He calls us to regard it as a delight.

53:43 The Sabbath was made for man. Start your thinking there.

53:50 Start your thinking there and ask yourself, why did God make this day?

54:02 Again, come back tonight and we'll take up further lines of application.

54:08 But brethren,

54:10 can we turn aside from an institution established at the very creation of the heavens and the earth as though it were a matter of no consequence?

54:25 Well, as we shall see in the Word of God, we must not.

Prayer for Understanding and Obedience

54:36 Our Father, as we draw near again to You on this Your day, we pray, Lord, that You would grant to us understanding of these things and we pray, Father, that You would help us, that we would give ourselves to searching the Scriptures whether these things are so. Father, give us, we pray, a readiness to hear and a readiness to believe Your Word. And Lord, help us to make not merely an intellectual choice, but a moral choice that we would give to You Your day and honor it as You command us to do.

55:13 We thank You, Lord Jesus, You who are the Lord of the Sabbath. We thank You, Lord Jesus, thank You that You have made this day for us. For it is in Your name that we pray. Amen.