Sabbath in the 10 Commandments

Introduction and Prayer for Reception of God's Word

0:00 All right, let's begin our time today by going to the Lord in prayer. Let's pray.

0:07 Our Father, as we have gathered here again on another Lord's Day, we've come to acknowledge you and to worship you, the one true and living God, the God who has created all things, the God who is three in one, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the God who has redeemed his people through the redeeming, saving, atoning work of your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We acknowledge you as the covenant God who has made promises to his people, the God who cannot lie, and this is our hope, all of our hope and our salvation. And we do come to you depending upon your promises, depending upon your Son, and praying that you would cleanse us from all of our sins, that you would grant to us today the help of your precious Holy Spirit, that we might be enabled to properly communicate your word and to receive it with believing, receptive hearts. Even those of us who are Christians, we must confess with shame that there still remains within us pockets of resistance and enmity toward your law. We pray that you would remove them by your Spirit.

1:27 We pray that we might be enabled to say with the Apostle Paul that I delight in the law of God after the inward man. We pray for all of our Sunday school teachers. We pray that you would help them, strengthen them, give them faith in your word as they teach it. And we pray that you would give faith to those who they teach, and that your word would bring forth fruit in the lives of all of the children.

1:50 And now we commit these things to you in Christ's name. Amen. Amen.

The Abiding Authority of the Fourth Commandment: A Controversial Test Case

1:56 Well, we return. We return again to our ongoing study, Foundations. We're still in this section. The church's ethics, a commitment to the abiding authority of the moral law as the rule of life for the believer.

2:14 And in our first part of that consideration, we focused upon seeking to demonstrate by various biblical arguments the abiding validity and authority of the Ten Commandments under the New Covenant and for the Christian. Amen. And now that we've done that, we're now taking up a test case, as it were, or focusing upon one of the Ten Commandments, the one that tends to be the most controversial, the Fourth Commandment. Here's the basic outline that I'm trying to follow.

Historical Context: The Decline of Lord's Day Observance in America

2:46 So, without any further ado, we'll press on in our consideration of the subject of the Fourth Commandment. Robert Baird, he's a man who wrote a book. I believe this book was written in the 1840s. Originally entitled Religion in the United States of America.

3:04 He did a detailed study. It's very interesting. Very detailed study of Christianity in America. And writing as late as 1855, he said that there was no subject on which American Christians were more happily united than that of the proper observance of the Lord's Day.

3:25 He found that every state in the Union had made laws in favor of proper observance of the Lord's Day. Because the whole economy proceeded on the principle that America was a Christian country. And because the courts had pronounced Christianity to be part and parcel of the laws of the land. He said that he uttered the language of every American Christian when he said, Woe to America when it ceases to be a Sabbath respecting land.

3:53 Well, this reminds us that there was a time in our country when the importance and special nature of the Lord's Day was a generally accepted principle.

4:06 Laws were passed in most, if not all, states that became known as blue laws. Governing the activities of businesses on Sundays. By the way, apparently they were called that because they were originally printed on blue paper. I don't know if you knew that.

4:20 That's why they were called blue laws. Some of you may remember some of those blue laws. It's not been long ago when many of them were still in force in South Carolina. As well as many other southern states.

4:32 A few may still be in some counties. I believe they are in some places. Some of you may remember when most businesses were closed on Sunday and the few businesses that were open were limited in what they could sell by law. For example, grocery stores would rope rope off certain aisles and they were only allowed to sell certain items of necessity and nothing more.

4:55 Now, that may sound really strange to some of you younger folks, but that's the way it used to be. Not very long ago in our country and in this, there's many people living and people here in this congregation who can remember when it was that way, these were all laws intended to protect Sunday as a day of worship and rest. Well, obviously, this has become a relic of the past. Our culture is becoming increasingly secularized.

5:27 And when you join this to this, the fact that even among professing Christians, there is a great deal of confusion. And when you join this to this, the fact that even among professing Christians, there is a great deal of confusion. And caving in to the world on this matter. And the result is that the fourth commandment has fallen upon hard times.

Reading the Fourth Commandment and Reaffirming its Creation Ordinance Basis

5:42 Well, these are all good reasons for us to carefully consider what the Bible actually teaches on this subject. As we began last time, a consideration of this particular one of the Ten Commandments, the fourth commandment. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. And you may want to turn over to Exodus chapter 20.

6:03 Let me just read it to us as it's given there.

6:12 This Bible is, this is an old raggedy Bible that I have.

6:17 I preached it in the Ten Commandments at Easley not too long ago. And apparently the 20th chapter of Exodus has fallen out of the Bible. So I was afraid there might be, I knew there were some pages missing in this Bible. That's why I brought this one with me too.

6:33 But I like it because it has bigger writing and I don't have to wear my reading glasses to read this Bible. But Exodus chapter 20. Verse eight, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy six days. You shall labor and do all your work.

6:49 But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God in it. You shall do no work, you nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates for in six days. The Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them and rested the seventh. Day.

7:11 Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it or sanctified it. All right, let's just use this Bible and forget about this one. Now, again, the first thing that we're doing is I'm seeking to set forth a biblical basis for the continuance of the Sabbath. And last week we got started with the first argument, namely that the Sabbath was instituted at creation.

7:51 It was demonstrated. By careful consideration of the Genesis account of God setting apart the Sabbath, verse 11 of our text here that we just read and also the words of Christ and looking at those three things, we saw that the Sabbath was a creation ordinance, just like the creation ordinances of marriage and labor and procreation. And we saw that whatever God has ordained at creation applies to man as man, not merely to Israel. And generally and normally, whatever is creational is perpetual.

8:28 So this is the first argument which I pointed out, which one could say really clinches the case, I think, already. However, there are several other arguments that confirm this. Now, I was the Sabbath principle instituted at creation. It was included in the Ten Commandments, which is what we're going to focus on this morning.

The Sabbath as a Covenant Sign for Israel and its Abolitionist Argument

8:48 And then later we'll see that his continuance is also predicted by the prophets appell by the Lord Jesus. As well as we'll at least touch on the fact that's indicated in the New Testament epistles. But again, this morning we come to the second argument, the Sabbath is included in the Ten Commandments. Now, some of those who argue that the Fourth Commandment no longer applies to Christians, they put great emphasis upon the fact that the Sabbath was a covenantal sign for Israel.

9:19 And one of the passages they point to is Exodus 31. They point to passages like this. Exodus 31. Let's turn over there.

9:40 Verse 13. This is the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, verse 13, Speak also to the children of Israel, saying, Surely my Sabbath you shall keep, for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you. Look down at verse 16. Therefore, the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant.

10:06 It is a sign. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed. So we have this language here of the Sabbath being a sign of God's covenant with Israel.

10:23 Now, those opposed to its continuance argue from here that since the Sabbath was a sign of God's covenant with Israel, therefore, when that covenant was fulfilled in Christ and the new covenant was established, the old covenant sign was abolished. OK, that's the argument. The weekly Sabbath was abolished, just the same as the special Sabbath, religious festivals, the new moons, the sacrifices and other aspects of the ceremonial law passed away. Well, let me begin by saying that I don't disagree that many old covenant, ceremonial and civil attachments to the fourth commandment have passed away, as we're going to see.

The Sabbath as Both Perpetual Moral Law and Covenant Sign

11:06 Neither do I disagree that the Sabbath did function. Function as a covenant sign, a sign of God's covenant with Israel. But as I hope to show, it was not only a covenant sign for Israel, it was also a statement of perpetual moral law. You see, the problem is when people start talking in terms of either or as though it must be either a moral law or a covenant sign.

11:32 But I hope to show that it is both moral law and covenant sign. And there is a sense I hope to show in which it continues to be both even today under the new covenant. So I want us to consider, first of all, the Sabbath in most honest to consider the Sabbath in Moses under these two headings. First, the Sabbath in Moses as a statement of perpetual moral law and then the Mosaic Sabbath as a covenant sign.

12:08 So we look at it from both those perspectives. All right. First of all, the Sabbath in Moses is a statement of perpetual. Moral law.

Arguments for the Sabbath's Inclusion in the Perpetual Moral Law

12:17 And this is seen by the simple fact that in the law of Moses, the Sabbath was included in the Ten Commandments. This in itself establishes that it is more than a temporary ceremonial law and more than just a covenant sign. It's part of that moral law of God summarized in the Ten Commandments, the authority of which continues to abide today, as I sought to demonstrate. Now, how do we prove this about the Ten Commandments and therefore about the fourth commandment as part of the Ten Commandments?

12:45 Well, we've already done that. Really, in the last several weeks. So some of this will just be a reminder. But first of all, this is demonstrated by the abiding authority and unity of the Decalogue Ten Commandments as an expression of God's universal will for all mankind.

13:09 And here I simply remind you of what's been covered in great detail in the first six or seven lessons on the abiding authority of the Ten Commandments. What were the arguments from Scripture that demonstrate its abiding authority? Well, obviously, I'm not going to teach those six or seven lessons over again, but let me just just briefly review. Then there they are on the board or on the whatever you call that screen.

13:33 We don't use a board anymore. We use screens. So so thinking of a blackboard, I think. First of all, we saw that the moral law was woven into the consciousness of man from creation.

13:43 And we saw that that moral law was essentially one in the same with the Ten Commandments existing as a rule of life from the very beginning before there ever was. A mosaic. Covenant. This was demonstrated from a careful exposition of Romans 2, 12 to 15, and also from a survey of that period of redemptive history between Adam and Moses, in which we saw that every one of the Ten Commandments was already in force before the mosaic.

14:09 Covenant was established, so they were not summarized and codified in the written form of the Ten Commandments until the time of Moses. Secondly, we saw that God was very careful to clearly and dramatically. Distinct. Wish between the Ten Commandments and the rest of the mosaic laws.

14:26 And how did he do that? Well, first of all, in the manner in which the Ten Commandments were given, for example, of all the various ordinances and statutes that were given by Moses, only the Ten Commandments were directly and audibly spoken by the voice of God himself. Only they were addressed to the people and not indirectly through Moses. Furthermore, only the Ten Commandments were written upon stone by the finger of God himself.

14:52 None of this can be said of any of the other laws that God gave to Israel. The Ten Commandments had a special play, a unique importance, and God underscored that in the way they were given in a. Had a place of distinct importance in comparison to all the other laws God gave Moses. This is not only in the matter in which they were given, but in the manner in which they were preserved, the Ten Commandments.

15:20 And they alone were deposited in the arc of the covenant. And in the ark, they were placed. within the veil of the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle and the mercy seat over the ark is where the blood of the sacrifices on the day of atonement was sprinkled. And above the mercy seat guarding, as it were, the Ten Commandments was the cloud of divine glory that indicated the special presence of God with his people. All of that in the preservation of the Ten Commandments and the special place given to the Ten Commandments make it, I think, extremely obvious that there is a great distinction to be made between them and all of the other Mosaic statutes and judgments. And we also saw that believing Israelites, many of them recognized that there was such a distinction. And we saw that in the writings of David. We saw it in the prophets. They make that

16:09 distinction. Thirdly, we saw from Jeremiah's prophecy of the New Covenant in Jeremiah 31, 31 and following, that the law under the New Covenant is the same as the Ten Commandments, that the law that is written on the tables of Israel is the same as the Ten Commandments. Tables of our hearts, that is, we're given a new heart, delighting in that law, is the same law that was written on tablets of stone. And we saw that, we opened that up, it's been a whole class opening up that.

16:36 And that, of course, is the Ten Commandments that were written on tables of stone. Fourthly, we saw by careful exposition of Matthew 5, 17 to 20, that Christ, during his earthly ministry, did not dissolve, but enforced and strengthened our obligation to obey the Old Testament moral law. And then we surveyed the use of the law by the apostles. And in that survey, we saw that the New Testament epistles make repeated references to the Ten Commandments in their ethical teaching, and that they treat the Ten Commandments as a unit.

17:05 And that the underlying assumption in their ethical instruction is that the Ten Commandments as a unit will still apply to the new covenant people of God today. So, this is the first reason. We spent, I guess it was actually about eight or nine weeks establishing this first reason. That the inclusion.

17:23 Of the Sabbath in the Ten Commandments supports its continued authority for today. So there's the fact of the abiding nature and unity of the Ten Commandments as the expression of God's will for all mankind for all time. Let me give some additional arguments.

17:39 Secondly, the content of the Ten Commandments is not ceremonial.

17:45 If we leave aside for a moment the Sabbath, it is clear that there is nothing ceremonial about any of the other nine commandments. Therefore, why should we? Assume that for some reason. The fourth Commandment is different.

18:00 Fourth commandment is ceremonial. It's true that as given by Moses, there are temporary or typical aspects to some of the enforcements and applications of the Ten Commandments in the old covenant. And we're going to come back to that point when it. Comes to the seventh day and the change of the day under the new covenant.

18:20 But the commandments themselves are moral, so there's the abiding nature and unity of the Ten Commandments as an expression. of God's universal will for all mankind, for all time. There's the fact that none of the other nine commandments are ceremonial. Thirdly, there's the scope of the fourth commandment as it is given here in the Decalogue.

18:40 Notice beginning near the middle of verse 9, back again to Exodus 20, it says, In it you shall do no work, you nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your stranger within your gates. Now, this reference to a stranger within your gates is language that's used to refer to a foreigner, a Gentile.

19:15 Now, it's interesting when you study the law of Moses, the Mosaic Covenant, the unconverted Gentiles were not allowed to take part in the ceremonial feasts. They were not allowed to take part in the temple worship, in the sacrifices. But they were expected to keep the Sabbath. Again, putting the Sabbath in a different category than that of temporary Old Covenant ceremonies and also showing that this law not only applied to Jews, but as is true of the rest of the Ten Commandments, it applied to Gentiles as well.

19:53 It applies to all men. And it was to be applied to any Gentiles living in the land. And then fourthly,

20:03 I want to remind you again of the creation basis God gives for this commandment in Exodus 20, which brings us right back to what we saw last week, that the Sabbath is a creation ordinance. It's rooted in creation. Verse 11, For in six days the Lord made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

20:27 So the Sabbath of the Ten Commandments is clearly related here, here to the Sabbath instituted at creation, which reminds us again that this is a perpetual moral law and not merely a temporary ceremonial law unique to Moses. Now, brothers and sisters, it seems to me that this is too massive an array of evidence to be simply brushed aside or ignored. The Ten Commandments are moral law with abiding authority and the Sabbath is included in the Ten Commandments. All of this strongly contradicts the view, that the Sabbath is ceremonial or only a covenant sign for Israel.

21:13 Now, are there ceremonial or civil aspects attached to it in the law of Moses? Yes, we're going to see under Moses there were. Was it a covenant sign for Israel? Yes, it was, as we'll see in a moment.

21:26 Does that mean that it's not a moral law? No, it was instituted at creation and it was included in the Ten Commandments, which have abiding authority. For all time. All right.

The Sabbath as a Covenant Sign: Its Threefold Reference

21:39 So we've considered the Sabbath in Moses as a statement of perpetual moral law. Now, let's consider more briefly the Sabbath as a covenant sign for Israel. And I want to do this because I think it will help keep you from being confused when opponents of the Lord's Day new covenant observing of the Sabbath, when they bring this up, I want you to be prepared. And let me make a couple of preliminary comments.

22:14 First of all, I don't deny that the Sabbath was a covenant sign. It was a peculiar sign of God's covenant with Israel, as we saw earlier in Exodus 31. This is also brought out in other passages. So as a sign, what does that mean?

22:28 What it means similar to the rainbow, the rainbow was what was the rainbow was the sign of what covenant? The Noahic covenant circumcision was the sign of what covenant? The Abrahamic covenant.

22:45 Well, the Sabbath served as a sign of God's covenant with the nation of Israel. The Mosaic covenant had a symbolic significance for Israel like that of the rainbow and circumcision. Now, the question is, what was it symbolic of?

23:05 What did it point to?

23:08 Secondly, just to say again, the fact that the Sabbath is a sign of the covenant does not mean that the Sabbath is not a moral law. Again, as I pointed out earlier, a lot of confusion comes when people think of this in terms of either or. But we must not do that. It's not either or.

23:25 It's both. And it's not either moral law or a covenant sign. It's both moral law and covenant sign. Yes, it was a sign of the Mosaic covenant.

23:38 But I would argue that the new covenant Lord's Day Sabbath is also a covenant sign. It is a sign of the new covenant. You see, the Mosaic Sabbath as a covenant sign had a threefold reference. What did it symbolize?

23:56 First of all, creation. It pointed back to God's act of creation, thus identifying the God of Israel as the God who created the world. All right. And this is clear in the text of Exodus 20 that it was pointing back to God's act of creation, that they were the people of the one true creator God.

24:19 Secondly. It also pointed back to God's act of redemption.

24:26 When God introduces the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai, he first speaks of his redeeming them out of bondage. I am the Lord, your God, verse two, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. And you remember we saw last week where we have the repetition of the Ten Commandments that's given in Deuteronomy chapter five. There the Sabbath is grounded in God's deliverance of Israel from Egyptian bondage.

24:51 It was. It was a memorial of that redemption. It was a sign of their unique relationship to God as his people whom he had redeemed from slavery with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Now, our creation and redemption realities that were only true of old covenant Israel.

25:16 No, they equally apply to the new Israel, the new covenant people of God, but in a new way. The new covenant covenant Sabbath on the first day of the week points to the new creation established by the finished work of God's son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And it points to Christ's accomplishment of our redemption, not from Egyptian bondage, which was a type of that, but our redemption from the bondage of sin, a redemption that was finished and secured on that day when Christ rose from the dead. The Lord's death.

25:56 Furthermore, thirdly, the Sabbath not only pointed back to creation and redemption for the people of God, it pointed forward to the rest of God to be entered into at the end of creation or consummation. Consummation.

26:21 It typified the rest of God to be entered into at the end of history, the coming rest of the age to come. God's rest at creation. Pictured that process. Promised rest.

26:34 It's interesting that in the creation account, God never records the ending of the seventh day. I don't know if you've ever noticed that the first six days in Genesis all repeat this same cycle says in the evening, in the morning or the first day and the evening, in the morning or the second day and so on. But there's no record of the ending of the seventh day.

26:59 Now, of course, the literal seventh day did end. But that eternal rest to which that day pointed. Has not yet been entered, and we find that the end of that day is not recorded. You remember that, of course, that we could go in a lot of detail here and I'm trying to cover highlights.

27:16 But you remember that Adam, Adam in his original sinless state was in a period of probation.

27:30 God offered to Adam and his descendants essentially eternal life or glorification, a higher state of bodily existence. God offered to Adam and his descendants essentially eternal life or glorification, a higher state of bodily existence. Free from even the possibility of sinning. But Adam failed the test by eating from the tree.

27:48 And when Adam fell, we all fell with him. But Christ, the second Adam, has secured for his people that eternal rest that Adam forfeited when he fell.

28:03 For the Israelite, the weekly Sabbath pointed to the fact that God would provide a greater redemption. That he would provide an eternal rest. Of which the land of Canaan was only a picture, only a type.

28:20 Well, that rest has been secured for God's people by Jesus Christ. However, we still have not entered it yet. Not fully.

The 'Already and Not Yet' of the New Covenant Rest

28:30 We are living in that time of the overlapping of the ages. What Jesus taught in his parables that the kingdom of God, the kingdom he came to establish, that it comes in two stages. There's the soul. There's the sowing stage.

28:47 The parable of the sower. The sower goes out. There are some who are converted. There's the stage where the tares and the wheat are together.

28:58 And in the end comes the judgment. And there's the two stages. You see, John the Baptist, this is one of the things that confused John the Baptist. He was expecting the judgment to come now.

29:08 Christ has come. The Messiah is here. He's going to separate the wheat from the chaff. But judgment wasn't happening.

29:16 And it was in response. It's just after John asked his question and sent his servants to ask Jesus, are you really the one we're to be looking for? That Jesus begins to tell these parables of the kingdom, explaining that the kingdom comes in two stages. There's, it's like leaven that's placed in a lump that gradually leavens the whole lump.

29:36 It's like the mustard seed that's small, eventually grows into a great tree. It's like the sower who goes forth to sow. And there's the sowing period. And then there's the reaping at the end.

29:47 And so we're in this period of the overlapping of the ages. The already and not yet. Christ has come. He has secured for us our eternal rest.

30:01 It is ours in one sense by faith in our position in union with Jesus Christ. Paul could say that we are seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus positionally. But it's not ours fully in our experience yet. We have not entered.

30:18 We have not entered into that eternal rest. And that's the focus of that passage in the New Testament. Hebrews chapter 3, verses 16 through chapter 4, verse 10. And you're probably familiar with that passage where the writer says, there remains therefore a rest, a Sabbath for the people of God.

30:40 And as the writer of Hebrews points out, that rest is not the land of Canaan into which Joshua brought Israel, Canaan is only a picture of that rest. That rest is the eternal rest that Canaan typified. The eternal rest of the world to come. And just as we have not entered that rest yet, a Sabbath pointing to that rest still remains.

31:10 The new covenant Sabbath is a sign to the new covenant believer of the eternal Sabbath that is yet to come. So my point is that, yes, the Mosaic Sabbath was a sign of God's covenant with Israel. But that doesn't mean that it's not a moral law. It was both.

31:29 And it continues to be both under the new covenant. It is a moral law and it is a covenant sign. With this difference, it is now a sign of God's new covenant with the new Israel, the church. And therefore, those aspects of the Sabbath under Moses that were strictly old covenant, have been changed and have been replaced by a new covenant application.

Temporary Aspects of the Mosaic Sabbath that Have Passed Away

31:57 Now, that raises the question, what were some of the temporary aspects of the Mosaic Sabbath as a covenant sign that have been changed? Well, my time is quickly passing, so I'm just going to be brief.

32:09 I may come back to this in more detail later. But first of all, the ceremonial enlargements of the Sabbath were only temporary and have passed away. What do I mean by ceremonial enlargements? Well, as you read the rest of...

32:22 The Pentateuch, the books of Moses, you'll find that there were special ceremonial Sabbath days and feasts like Passover, the Feast of the First Fruits, the Day of Atonement, and so on.

32:38 These were all fulfilled in Christ, as the writer of Hebrews makes clear. The same is true of special Sabbath years, like the year of Jubilee. These were all temporary attachments to the Sabbath as a sign of the old covenant. Now, there are several considerations that make that clear.

32:54 One is that none of these originated with creation.

33:00 They're not part of the Ten Commandments.

33:04 They're connected with aspects of the old covenant that were typical and temporary.

33:09 All right.

33:11 They either tied to the ceremonial worship, to the land inheritance, or to Israel's position as a theocratic state, all of which ended in the transition from the old covenant to the new.

33:23 There's also the civil sanction of the Sabbath, or punishment, which no longer exists in the New Testament. There's also the civil sanction of the Sabbath, or punishment, which no longer exists in the New Testament. Which no longer applies, at least not in the same way. You remember that under the old covenant, the people of God were a nation.

33:39 Israel was both a civil and a religious entity at one and the same time, what is called a theocracy, ruled by God. And in the Old Testament theocracy, the punishment of death was required for public and flagrant violation of the Sabbath. Well, the people of God are no longer a theocracy, and the civil sanction of the Sabbath is. They passed away with the other civil judicial laws of the theocracy.

34:07 Now, under the new covenant, the people of God are in all nations. And the people of God now come to visible expression, not in any particular civil state, but in the church. The church is the new covenant Israel, and the church is not given, in the New Testament, the authority to execute people who break God's moral laws. However, we can say there is a new covenant application.

34:33 Of the Old Testament civil sanction that Paul brings out in his epistles. And what is that? Well, the church is given the authority to exercise church discipline. But the church does not have the authority to exercise capital punishment.

34:48 Well, there are other things we could touch on. I may come back to this. But for now, I hope we have seen this morning that the continuance of the Sabbath is demonstrated not only by the fact that it was instituted at creation, but also by the fact that it was included. In the Ten Commandments.

The Lord's Day as a Command and a Covenant Sign for New Covenant Believers

35:06 Next time, God willing, we're going to see that it's also predicted by the prophets upheld by Christ and indicated in the New Testament epistles. But let me just underscore a couple of lessons before we close here.

35:21 First of all, what we've seen today should be a reminder to every one of us that as one of the Ten Commandments, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, being one of the Ten Commandments, it is not a suggestion. It's not a suggestion.

35:40 It is a command of God, just like the rest of the Ten Commandments. It is just as much a command as you shall have no other gods before me. Honor your father and mother. You shall not commit adultery and all the rest of the Ten Commandments.

35:59 And that's the first reason why we ought to observe it, because God commands it. And secondly, we also see today this morning. I trust a further motivation to faithfully observe the Lord's Day. And that is that it's not only a moral law, it's also a covenant sign as the keeping of the Sabbath.

36:24 The Mosaic Sabbath was a sign of God's old covenant with Israel, a tangible symbol of their unique and special relationship to him as his covenant people. In the same way, the keeping of the Lord's Day is a sign of God's new covenant with us, with his church, with believers in Christ. In the Old Testament, and it still does this today, to me it's a standing miracle that the Jewish people still exist as a separate entity and unique people. And one of the things I believe that has preserved that are the practices of these, continued practices of these ceremonies and laws that God gave to Israel that were intended to keep them separate from the nations of the world. And have continued to do so, really, down the road. And through the ages, even to this day, at least with practicing Jews.

37:23 In the Old Testament, the observance of the Sabbath function is a sign to all the surrounding nations, marking out Israel as the special people of God. Marking them out as a people who belong to the God who created the world in six days and rested on the seventh. The God who redeemed them from Egyptian bondage. Well, in the same way, while it's a moral law.

37:47 Well, binding upon all men, the Lord's day may also be viewed as a covenant sign. A sign that we are the people who belong to the God of creation. The God who has established a new creation and has made us new creations in Christ. The God who by his son has redeemed us from our sins and has made us his own special people.

38:12 The God who is bringing history to its consummation in that eternal Sabbath of the world. Our observance of the Lord's day, my dear brethren, should be viewed as a sign. It is to be a sign and a testimony to our neighbors that we belong to the blood-bought people of God. A testimony of our devotion to him.

38:37 A testimony of our love to him. And that ought to be a powerful motivation to our hearts to keep this commandment. This is one of the reasons that we ought to rejoice in it and delight in it. Because this is one of the ways that we show.

The Lord's Day as a Visible Testimony and Banner of Allegiance

38:49 That we belong to him. It's like a wife with her wedding ring. Why does she wear her wedding ring? Or why does the husband wear his wedding ring?

38:58 It's to show that I belong to this man. Or I belong to this woman. It's the same thing when the Olympics. And they have the opening ceremony of the Olympics.

39:09 And the various teams representing the various nations. And here comes the American team with the red, white, and blue. And they're carrying the American flag. Which is a sign that they belong to this particular nation.

39:24 This particular people. It's like Clemson orange. I'm a Clemson football fan. But when Clemson's playing, you wear the orange.

39:35 It's a sign that I am a fan. And I belong to that people who support and cheer for Clemson's football team. Well, in a much more significant and profound way. By the observance of the Lord's day.

39:53 We are declaring, dear brethren. Whose side we're on.

40:00 Sometimes there's little outwardly that distinguishes us from our neighbors.

40:07 Particularly in America where everybody. Or at least some parts of America where everybody says they're a Christian. It can be very little that distinguishes us from our neighbors. Since many of them are outwardly moral.

40:18 And some of them are even religious. But there is this one external sign that is given to us. What one has. Is called the banner under which we live.

40:26 And that banner. That flag. That color. That insignia.

40:31 By which we can show our allegiance to Jesus Christ. In a very visible and tangible way. Is the faithful observance of the Lord's day. When we tell that neighbor, I'm sorry.

40:44 But my daughter can't participate in the school car wash today. Because it's the Lord's day. Or I'm sorry, but my son can't participate and doesn't want to participate. In the basement.

40:55 In the baseball game that's scheduled for Sunday. Because that's the Lord's day. Or I'm sorry, but I'm not. I'll not be at the company golf tournament this Sunday.

41:05 Because it's the Lord's day.

41:08 Or I'm sorry, but my business is closed on Sunday. Because it's the Lord's day. You'll have to come by or call on Monday.

41:18 When we find ourselves in situations like that. And we have to graciously bow out. It serves as a testimony to those people. A means of conviction to their own consciences.

41:33 And as an evidence that we are serious about our devotion to Jesus Christ. And it may provide us with the opportunity to give an answer to those who ask for the reason of the hope that is within us. You know, it's ironic, I think, that sometimes it's those churches which talk the most about separation from the world. Who also neglect or even ridicule the careful observance of the Lord's day.

42:01 They often teach the separation that consists of conformity to a long checklist of man-made, non-biblical rules. While at the same time neglecting that which God himself has established as a means of demonstrating our separation from the world. So let us express our separation biblically. And one way we do that is by joyfully resting from our work and worshiping God on that day.

42:33 That God has given to us to be both a blessing to our souls and also a testimony of our devotion to him.

Closing Prayer: Embracing the Lord's Day as a Blessing and Testimony

42:44 Now, God willing, we'll come back to this next week. And continue to build our case for the continuance of the Lord's day as the new covenant Sabbath. Our time is gone, so I'm going to close this in prayer. Our Father, we thank you today for your holy word.

43:01 And we do, Lord. We do not count the Lord's day as a heavy burden upon us. God forbid, but we count it as a blessing. What a delight it is for your people to be here worshiping you on your day.

43:25 And to be able to lay aside many things that are legitimate and yet can so easily distract us from that which is most important. And to be able to lay those things aside with a good conscience. On this day. To enjoy fellowship with the saints.

43:43 To also rest our physical bodies. And to worship you together with your people. And also to engage as we are able in acts of mercy and ministry.

43:57 We acknowledge your kindness and your goodness to us. We also pray that you would help us to embrace the Lord's day as a sign. As a way of demonstrating to the world. Our devotion to Jesus Christ.

44:16 We are grieved that we live in a day in which this particular command is ignored. It's watered down. It's even in the Christian church. We pray you would help us to stand firm.

44:31 Help us, Lord, that we would not cave in to the pressures around us. Give us courage and give us faith to trust in you. And trust in you. Trusting in you.

44:44 To obey you. And we ask it in Christ's name. Amen.