The Christian Sabbath

Isaiah's Prophetic Indictment and Promise of Revival

0:00 Isaiah chapter 58, beginning with verse 1.

0:06 Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.

0:20 Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God. But they ask of me the ordinances of justice, they take delight in approaching to God. Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? Wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge?

0:48 Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labors. Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with a fist of wickedness.

1:01 Shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high? Is it such a fast that I have chosen, a day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day of the Lord?

1:24 Is not this the fast that I have chosen, to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens? To let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? When thou seest the naked, that thou cover him, and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?

1:50 Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thy health shall spring forth speedily, and thy righteousness shall go before thee. The glory of the Lord shall be thy rearward. Then shall thou see the Lord, and thou shalt see the Lord. Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer.

2:05 Thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity, and if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul, then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday. And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones. And thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.

2:41 And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places, and shall raise up the foundations of many generations, and thou shalt be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of paths to dwell in.

2:55 If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath, and call the Sabbath, and call the Sabbath, and call the Sabbath, a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable, and shalt honor him, 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 cause 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. This 58th chapter of Isaiah is one of the most excellent, examples that we have of Old Testament prophetic preaching. It was a sermon put into the mouth of Isaiah to be preached to the Jews of old. He was to thunder it in their ears, to cry it aloud as with a trumpet voice. And the trumpet was not meant only to be a din within the ears, but as he begins to preach, and as we have the record of his message, you notice that he absolutely dissects the inner man, and that his words reach down into the soul and the intents of the heart, and show us something of our own motives, and our own attitudes of soul. The terms are direct, they are vivid, they are concrete.

4:18 But with the indictment of sin, there is the glorious gospel context in which Isaiah is presenting to the Jews of old, the great promise of revival, a promise of revival. A promise of revival. A promise of revival. A promise of revival.

4:34 A promise of revival. A promise of overflowing blessing, if only they will follow his direction for repentance.

4:42 But the echoes of this message are still kept in the word of God, because the Holy Spirit perceived that it was not of a mere local importance. And it is recorded because the God who wrote the book intended for you to have your soul searched by the same message. And it's to that we come this morning. You will notice in verse 3 of chapter...

The People's Complaint and God's Crushing Indictment

5:07 In verse 3 of chapter 58, that the preacher proposes a question for consideration.

5:13 He is really reading the minds of those who are listening. And you will find echoes of the questions, the wonderings of your heart in these very questions. Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest none? Wherefore have we afflicted our souls, and thou takest no knowledge?

5:36 We fast, you say. And God doesn't take any notice of it. We afflict our souls, and there's no heavenly recognition. What's wrong?

5:47 Why is the blessing of God not upon us?

5:52 Is it not a question that you've asked? Why is the heavenly blessing not on your Christian assemblies, on your churches? Why is the church of Jesus Christ not mighty and powerful? Why haven't we been the restorers of the paths to dwell in, those that make up the breach and build the old places?

6:11 Why is the power of God withheld? Why is the glory of his own presence not seen in our midst? What is it that's withholding? The Jews complain, we kept the fast.

6:23 We kept the feast. And you say, well, we're a church-going people. And we sometimes go to spend whole weeks to listen to sermons. Where is the blessing of God?

6:34 And why is not his hand more evidently upon us? Well, hard on the heels of the question comes the answer. At the end of verse 3, the Lord God Almighty speaking, Behold, in the day of your fast, ye find pleasure and exact all your labors.

6:54 To the consternation of those who teach homiletics,

7:02 Isaiah had a two-point sermon.

7:06 There were two great sins found in the people who were seeking God, but two sins that needed to be taken note of. And it was a crushing indomitian. And it is an indictment that's needed in this assembly that's gathered here this morning. Number one, your religion is an outward formality and not spiritual reality.

7:29 In the day of your fast, ye find pleasure.

7:35 With all of the outward observance of my Sabbath, you are still seeking your own things. That's what it means in finding your pleasure. You are still doing your own things, and not really giving, Yes, you do bow your head to the ground as a bulrush bent over in the wind, but that's outward. Inwardly, you are still seeking your own things.

7:59 On these very days, when you have sackcloth on your body, your spirit is still wandering after your own things.

8:08 Secondly, not only is your religion unspiritual with all its outward formality, but the prophet goes on to say, Your spirit, your religion is impure, impractical, as well as unspiritual. Because in the very day when you are fasting, you continue to oppress the poor.

8:31 You rise up from your sackcloth to smite with a fist. You are ruthless in your business dealings. You have no compassion upon those who are around about you. And then you will notice that in verses 4 to 12, Isaiah expands on point two, that the religion is impractical.

The Sin of Sabbath Desecration: Trampling God's Holy Day

8:49 Exposing the hard-hearted social spirit, Exposing the hard-hearted social spirit, Exposing the hard-hearted social spirit, of the day. Calling to compassion and to generosity.

9:01 Promising spiritual revival, if they will repent of these sins. And this is a particular area that would call for as much of our attention as it did in Isaiah's day. But we are going to give our attention to his expanding on the first point that he mentioned in verses 13 and 14. That the religion is unspiritual.

9:23 There is a desecration, there is a desecration of the Sabbath day among the people of God. Now the method of the prophets handling this in verses 13 to 14 is very evident. He exposes the sin, he proposes repentance, and he promises spiritual revival upon the repentance. So let us this morning expose the sin.

9:51 It comes in the first verses, the first words of verse 13. It comes in the first verses, the first words of verse 13. The prophets had a way of just turning a phrase and drawing a whole picture in a few words. And that's what Isaiah is doing.

10:07 If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, he is suggesting God has a complaint, and that is, my Sabbath is being trampled upon. My Sabbath day is being trampled underfoot. You only trample under your feet and grind under your heels, those things that you hold in contempt.

10:32 You know, of course, from the scripture and from ancient times, that to put the neck of an opposing king under your heel is the sign of conquering and of holding that enemy in utter contempt. You remember also what Jesus said of the salt that has lost its savor. It is good for nothing but to be cast out and trampled underfoot. When you trample something underfoot, it is good for nothing in your eyes.

11:01 You only walk on that which you have no regard for. Perhaps you are not consciously holding it in contempt as an enemy whose neck is under your heel. But if you walk on any surface, you have no particular regard for the thing that you are walking on. And that's the picture that God is giving.

11:21 My Sabbath is being trampled under the feet of men. And if you have to drive a few miles on Sunday, Sunday morning to church, you know that if anything, this indictment is too mild. Because Sunday has become golf day. It has become tennis day.

11:42 It has become party day. It's become football and baseball day. It has become picnic day. It has become my relaxation day, my cutting the lawn day.

11:54 It has become business as usual day for the merchants. But few and far, far between are those who regard it as the Lord's holy day. And even among the evangelicals who trust in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, there is given to the Lord an hour at church or two hours for Sunday school in church. But among few, there is a day given to the Lord.

12:26 And even in reformed circles, you find those who justify the breaking of the Sabbath. You find those who justify the breaking of the Sabbath. You find those who justify the breaking of the Sabbath. You find those who justify the breaking of the Sabbath.

12:33 You find those who justify the breaking of the Sabbath. With many arguments that sound more like excuses to evade than they do of sound reasoning.

12:41 But we must not forget the context. Because Isaiah is addressing a people who say, but we have kept the Sabbath. The Jews were aware that the other nations did not, but no Jew would dare to carry on business as usual, or some zealous leader like Nehemiah in the Old Testament would threaten, to lay hands on them. You remember Nehemiah's doing that to the merchants of Tyre who came outside the city of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day.

13:12 And no Jew would openly, outwardly, in the presence of all, go on with labor that was considered improper. Or Moses would lay hold of him and he would be stoned, as you remember the young boy in the Old Testament who gathered firewood on the Sabbath. And so they were saying, well, we do keep your Sabbath. We do keep them.

13:38 Now, why are not we receiving a blessing? And what Isaiah is saying in these verses is that it is possible to fill an entire 24-hour Sabbath with activity that is outwardly acceptable to the strictest Scottish Highlander. And he would find no fault with you. While all the time, seeking your own pleasure.

14:07 And that is the phrase to which he returns in verse 13.

14:13 If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath from doing thy pleasure on my holy day.

14:24 Many a church attender who would never think of going to the ballpark or the gas station on Sunday tramples the Sabbath by doing his own pleasure. The negatives resume. At the end of verse 13, you will notice there are three phrases. Not doing thine own ways.

14:45 Not spending your energy for things that have to do with yourself. Not finding your own pleasure. The repetition of that term is not saying you're not meant to enjoy yourself or smile on the Sabbath day. No, no, you are meant to delight yourself as we'll see in a few moments.

15:06 But it is your pleasure as opposed to God's pleasure. It is earthly, human pursuit as opposed to divine and heavenly enjoyment. Finding your own earthly pleasure in your mind, in your rest that no one could criticize. In your thoughts, in your conversation when you're being rather inactive on that day.

15:33 Not satisfying your selfish desires is the emphasis. And then the third phrase, not speaking. Not speaking your own words. And you will notice in that phrase that the words thine own are in italics.

15:46 And when any words are found in italics in the King James, they are not in the original but have been added by the translators for your understanding. And so literally it is, not speaking words. Or more literally, not talking talk. Which really means not being found in idle conversation.

16:09 Not being found in idle conversation. Now here are the negatives. Not doing your own ways. Not seeking your own desires.

16:20 Not being trapped in idle talk. And I can imagine that your minds will leap into specific wondering because this is extremely restrictive. Maybe the Highlanders were right. Maybe you shouldn't talk about the weather on the Sabbath day.

16:41 And you begin to make a checklist of do's and don'ts. Well, I suppose it's all right to talk about preachers because they have to do with the Bible and church on the Lord's day. But I'd better not talk about my vacation. But what if I want to talk about what preacher I visit on my vacation?

16:58 Now there's a good one for a little debate as to whether you do or whether you don't on the Lord's day. And the human mind runs to these kinds of questions. Well, not being found in idle talk. What's idle?

17:12 And you get into all the outward details. But please turn off your little computers in the back of your brain that are legalistic because the fallen human mind loves to run, constantly run, to the outward do's and don'ts and the specifics. And that kind of thinking only proves the point of Isaiah. You would love to be just absolutely sure that your do's and don'ts were so well in line and your outward performance on the Lord's day was just right so that you could relax.

17:52 He is saying the very point of the Lord's day is to give the day to the Lord and to have such a heart that is devoted to Him on His holy day that there is no seeking of selfish things. Isaiah was not tightening the outward requirements for Sabbath keeping with a new code of strictness that would make the Pharisees' eyelashes curl. He was rather getting to the heart of the matter. What you do, what you desire, what you say reflects what your attitude of soul is on this day.

18:32 His point is that the heart of even those who come into the congregation of God, the heart of such people is often directed to selfish wonderings that no one else can see, to one's own pursuits in the mind and in the words and in the relaxations of the day rather than in seeking the Lord their God. Orientation to self on God's day is the sin and it's an attitude of heart. Well, the exposure of the sin becomes more apparent as we propose the repentance that Isaiah proposed. And there's a profound contrast between the negative, not doing thine own pleasure, not finding thine own ways, not speaking idle talk, well, what should we do, Isaiah? Verse 13 gives us very specific instructions. And everything that he suggests on the positive side is so spiritual, inward of the heart. And it is not of an outward sort.

The Repentance Proposed: Calling the Sabbath a Delight

19:43 Although he does say to call the day a delight, to call the day holy of the Lord, to call the day honorable, in which he is suggesting again the very way that you talk, the very way that you express yourself about the way, the day, will indicate something of the heart. But it must be in the heart if you are going to keep the specific terms that he is suggesting. And in verse 13 he suggests, first of all, that the day be a delight. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, a delight.

20:26 The Hebrew word suggests delicate luxury as a delight. An exquisite dainty. I suppose if you were to try to illustrate it by mundane things, you would say that it's a term that is very close to your favorite dessert that's rich and fattening. He's saying the Sabbath day ought to be to you something that sets every nerve of expectation on edge, that when you think about it, you begin to dream about it with delight and anxiety and with a desire to have it.

21:09 That's what the Sabbath ought to be to you in your heart. It is quite possible for you as a Christian to say, oh, I must not do these things on the Lord's day. Oh, the Lord's day is coming and I can't do this, I can't do that. And if you've grown up in a Christian home with parents who've made rules for you, it's very easy to say, oh boy, here comes the Sabbath when we can't watch TV and we can't do this and we can't do that.

21:39 But that very attitude is breaking the Sabbath. If it is not a delight to you and the phrase kills any theory that the Sabbath should be a somber day without smiles, the Davids of God ought to dance before the ark on this day, making it a delight. You ought to give vent to all the joy in the Lord that is possible in a Christian heart on the Sabbath day. Not a black foreboding time, but a spiritual festival is the Sabbath of the Lord.

22:16 And we should look forward to the day with anticipation and gladness. If you call the day a delight, the next phrase, the holy of the Lord. And that's why it's so pleasurable. It is the holy of the Lord.

22:32 And it again is interesting in contrast with our own. God says it is my holy day, not thy day, but my day. And that's what ought to make it a delight. Because on other days of the week, you do have to give your attention to household details.

22:51 You have to give your attention to your estate, to your calling, to so many outward details of life and even to recreation. But God says, I give you six days for that. And I stake my claim upon one in the seven. This is my day.

23:11 One day is to be given to me. It is holy. And the word holy means separated unto God. It is consecrated for Jehovah.

23:23 It is not yours. It is his. And that's why the day is meant to be a day of such joy. You can give all of your attention and time and energies to serving your maker and redeemer.

23:37 And if you're born of God, that is liberating and that is a matter for joy. Today I let my soul delight itself in spiritual fatness. Now if that sounds like strange talk to some of you, and it very well can, how can people say that a whole day spent in thinking about God and religion, a whole day, what kind of people are they? If that thought even comes into your mind, it's a revelation of your own attitude within.

24:10 It's a revelation of how much you have cramped down the soul of man and given your attention to the outward, physical, material aspects of life. But you are a soul as well as a body. And it ought to be a delight to feast your soul one day when your body has been receiving so much attention on six. Today I shed my work jeans and put on these clothes to eat and become a priest of Almighty God.

24:41 And we become a whole kingdom of priests who stand as the sons of Korah in the temple of the Old Testament all to sing praises to the great God who made us and rules this universe. That's how you ought to conceive of yourself. This is the day in which I am called into my priestly course. You remember the Old Testament priestly courses.

25:04 Some priests would serve for a while and they would leave. Others would come in in their course. But all the while praises and sacrifices would be offered up to God and your attitude ought to be the Sabbath day. Now it is my course to enter into the temple of God to become a priest of God to lift up my thanksgivings and my praise to his holy name.

25:28 Today I bolt the door to sin in the tumult of the earth and I shut myself into the purity and peace of God's presence. Today I turn my face from the cares of earthly riches and I search the treasure house where I have an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away. It is reserved in the heavens and I have a day in which I can go and survey my riches which are eternal. Today I put aside the weight of necessary earthly worries which hold down my soul and I'll tell you you have them.

26:05 And it's a delight to be able to say now wait on the Lord's day I'm not going to think about that one today. You've got some worries don't you? Maybe part of your problem is that you don't say on the Lord's day I'm not going to take up these earthly worries but give myself to God. And that's how Isaiah's word fits into Jesus' word.

26:26 You see how Isaiah emphasizes this is the holy of the Lord. Well what did Jesus say? He said the Sabbath was not made for man was not made for the Sabbath but the Sabbath was made for man. Now how can they fit together?

26:39 It is the holy of the Lord the Sabbath was made for man. Why just hear that man can give himself in delight to the Lord and know him on this holy day. Do you ever catch yourself justifying what you do on the Sabbath day by saying it's the only day I have to whatever you put in the blank it's the only day I have to sleep so I sleep all afternoon it's the only day I have to take care of this and so I don't think that God will be upset with me if I do. You see that is getting right to the heart and the point of the sin.

27:20 It isn't a day that you have for anything. It is God's day. And when you find yourself excusing yourself by saying well now I'm sure God wouldn't mind because it's the only day I have to God says don't be finding your pleasure this is my day. This is to be devoted to me.

27:41 I have given you six days. Cram it as full as you will of all the desires of your heart and all the things you think you need cram it full of those things which are legitimate but this is my holy day. Don't find a way to fit yourself in the outward boundaries of what you can and cannot do while still pursuing your own things. But make it my day is the emphasis of the text.

The Repentance Proposed: Honoring the Lord on His Day

28:13 A day that's a delight. A day that is the Lord's. And thirdly a day that is honorable. You shall call it a delight the holy day of the Lord and honorable and shall honor him.

28:31 That's how it's honorable. A day in which we bring honor to him. Now when we come to the fourth of July especially in 1976 we say that's an honorable day. That's a great day.

28:43 It's a weighty day. It's a day when we honor the independence of our nation. We're going to honor the nation. There is some weightiness to it.

28:52 God is saying my day is a great day. It's an honorable day. And it ought to be looked upon you as a special day. A day to give honor to Jehovah.

29:08 Have you ever been in a banquet where awards are being given and a particular dignitary is there who has achieved something on earth and the whole of the meeting is showing what he has done whether it be in sports whether it be in politics whether it be in some area of endeavor and they're trying to perhaps give toasts to this individual. They are reviewing what he has done and you happen to be sitting next to someone and every time something is said he nudges you and says that reminds me of the time that this happened to me. And here you are trying to honor this individual and Mr. Nobody sitting next to you keeps drawing attention away from the one who is being honored to talk about himself. It just is inconsistent. And that's the picture that is being given. This is an honorable occasion when Jehovah who spoke and the world came into existence and the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who sent His Son to shed His blood is to be remembered.

30:12 Now is your creation and your redemption so insignificant in your eyes that you can turn to idle talk at the moment when He is to be honored? When He is to be praised? Are you going to turn your attention to some little thing that you desire? When will God receive the honor that He deserves from us?

30:35 So lofty and exalted is the Triune God that the day of His honor ought to be a day of delight to us and it ought to be a day devoted to Him and not to our own things. Well then, you see, as you sit here and think of the Sabbath or if it's a new question to you as a Christian, I know you have 500 questions. Is it right to do this on the Sabbath? Or shouldn't we do this on the Sabbath?

31:05 You don't need another Christian to give you a list of what you should and should not do. Here is the test. If you can maintain this attitude of soul delighting in the day, devoting it to God and making it a day in which He is honored, while you're doing the thing that you wonder about, then go ahead and do it and don't even think about it a second time or worry about it. But if the activity detracts from this mood of heart in which you delight in the day, honor the Lord, devote it entirely to Him, then by all means turn aside from doing it.

31:49 Furthermore, your dos and your don'ts and mine are not going to be identical because people are different. And we are not meant as a people to shove one another into the mold of what helps us to keep the day honorable and a delight and in the service of the Lord God. Now this became particularly evident to me in our situation. We've lived near other Christian families during the years that our children have been very young and we'll say to our children, now we don't want you doing this on the Lord's day.

32:27 And lo and behold, some of our Christian neighbors who do keep the Sabbath day may allow their children to do those things. And at first I thought, now this is awkward. How does the little child understand that we don't allow them to do this and some other Christian does? How can they understand the point?

32:48 Well, I found it more a tool to get to the heart of the problem than I did find it a problem. To explain that we as a family, are wrestling with how to keep it as a special day for God. We are attempting to make it a day in which we delight in spiritual things. We are trying to honor the Lord on this day.

33:11 And God doesn't say to the children, you can't go out and sit on the swings on Sunday. But we made that rule to try to help you. And if they don't find that a problem, then it's not for us to give them the orders. You see, the whole point, it can be a great means and tool of instruction.

33:33 And being at a conference like this can sometimes immediately seem awkward. But secondly, rethink your dos and your don'ts for the Sabbath day. And see if you're getting to the heart of the attitude rather than to the outward standard. Secondly, in saying this doctrine of Isaiah regarding the Sabbath, you've seen that his emphasis is not on the external, but on the inward.

The Inward and Spiritual Nature of Sabbath Keeping

34:01 It is not a material Sabbath that he has in mind. He has granted to the Jews that materially they keep the Sabbath. They bow their heads like bulrushes. They put on sackcloth and ashes.

34:14 They keep the day outwardly. He has granted that. He is getting at something which is inward and spiritual. Not something which is national and ceremonial and material.

34:26 His idea of the Sabbath is one day in each Sabbath, a doctrine in which the soul skips for joy in giving itself to honor the Lord. Nothing harsh and legalistic and repetitious and heavy and burdensome and mosaic about this passage dealing with the matter of the Sabbath. As a matter of fact, in this whole section of Isaiah, it is a very gospel atmosphere in which the whole doctrine is presented. This being true, I have a question for some of you who doubt that Christians are meant to keep the Sabbath day holy.

35:07 Can the Old Testament be filled with the idea of a people who enter the exquisite pleasure of a whole day each seven devoted to God in spiritual communion and praise and honoring of His name while the New Testament releases His people from that awful restriction and necessity? Does that sound to you like the difference between the Old Testament and the New? By no means. Isaiah is speaking of no heavy burden, but of a great privilege.

35:44 And do not try to pass off the pious, well, every day to the Christian is like that, that we devote them all to God. No, you do not. Not in this sense. If you have any spiritual desires at all for God, as our brother was preaching last night, on a thirst for God, you admitted in your heart that you have not thirsted after God and that that very thirst has been blotted out of your mind by the press of business and responsibility and the hurry and scurry of life.

36:18 And it is. As a creature, not as a sinner, but as a creature, your material needs tend to squeeze out and push your spiritual needs to the side. And that is why God instituted the Sabbath not on Mount Sinai, but in the Garden of Eden. Now, as a fallen sinner, the problem is doubled.

36:45 Or as a fallen creature, the problem is doubled. But merely as a creature, there is this tension between the material and the spiritual. And God has said to give one day in seven to Him. No, I have not met those who devote whole days to delighting in the Lord and honoring Him when they have denied that God has required it.

Parental Responsibility in Teaching Sabbath Delight

37:18 And parents, this is a very important lesson for you. Your job is to teach this attitude to your children. You are very good at the do's and the don'ts, what you expect of them outwardly on the Sabbath day. But do you labor to make the day a delight to your children?

37:41 Well, you can say, they need a changed heart to delight in it. Well, that is part of the answer, but part of it has to do with how sacrificing you will be to make that day a delight to young children. Do you help the little people to spend the hours for the Lord and not for themselves? Do you show them how to approach their Maker with honor?

38:07 Do you even express it in the way that you address them in your own attitude toward the day? And do you take the time and you have to spend more time the smaller the children to help them to honor the day as they are meant to do? Well, you could say, how do you do it? How do you spend time with them?

38:30 How do you help them? And again, we could get very specific. But why can't you be inventive about this thing? The world is extremely inventive about delighting in material things.

38:42 There are probably 15, 20 new products that are sweeping the nation now with new delights of some material sort. There are playthings every year that come on the market. You just marvel at how they thought of some new gadget to fascinate the bodies of men. Now, Christians, you have the same genius that the world has and you are meant to become inventive with your children at finding ways of making that day a delight to them.

The Promise of Spiritual Revival and Blessing

39:13 But it takes your time on the Sabbath day. The prophet exposes the sin and he proposes repentance. And then he promises spiritual revival. Verse 14.

39:32 Then, when? When you have repented of an unholy attitude, when you no longer trample my day under your foot, then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord. And I will cause 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.

39:57 Jehovah hath spoken it. He hath promised and pledged his veracity upon the fact that he will bless his people when they begin spending Sabbaths in this fashion. And if you think these promises are merely the ornaments of Israel in the Old Testament that have been buried in the sands of the Far East, of the Near East, with the badger skins of the tabernacle and the basins of the temple, then I, for one, would like to say that I would like the promises excavated that are mentioned here. Notice how spiritual the first one.

40:39 If you keep the Sabbath as God intended, then shall you delight yourself in the Lord. Do you see what he's saying? It's almost a play on emphasis in the words. If you delight yourself in the Lord's day, you will delight yourself on the Lord's day and on every day.

41:05 He is saying, if you delight yourself in the day, you will know the joy of the Lord in a full outpouring of the same. This is nothing less than a promise of knowing God. You say to yourself, why is my thirst for God unsatisfied? If you drew near to God, He would draw near to you.

41:30 He has promised it. Draw near to me, I will draw near to you. How do you draw near to God? One way is to keep the Sabbath day as belonging entirely to Him and as being devoted entirely to these pursuits.

41:44 Sometimes, under the awfulest sermons that have ever been preached, there are a few people who get a deep spiritual blessing and it never ceases to amaze the preacher who is quite sensitive to his lack of the presence of the Spirit, to his driving hard like the Egyptian wheels through the mud, the mud of the Red Sea, barely being able to keep on through his preaching. And someone gets blessed deeply and yet we know how to explain it. They've come into the house of God and at least we've used the Scripture. And when you seek God with all your heart, He has promised you will surely find Him. And when the people of God seek Him with all their heart on His holy day, they find, even when the preacher has gone amiss on that particular day. This is our portion. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

42:50 Why not? Even when I pass through the valley of the shadow of death, Thou art with me. I can delight in God. Or David in Psalm 84, A day in Thy courts is better than a thousand.

43:05 Do you believe that? A day? Well, Lord, maybe 40 minutes. A day in Thy courts?

43:15 I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. Can you say that? Where is your joy in the Lord? Where is your joy in the Lord?

43:27 It's left with broken Sabbaths, I guarantee. If you delight in the Lord, you will receive delight in the Lord. And he mentions, if you honor God on this day, you will be honored by God. Because the Lord honors those who honor Him.

43:45 I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth. This is a picture of someone riding triumphantly over his enemies. And I will feed thee with the heritage of Jacob, thy father, prosper you in your portion. Of course, the imagery here is from the Old Testament.

44:09 That all the nations of Israel round about would look upon the people of God and see them triumphant. And that they would enjoy the heritage of Jacob, the land that was promised to them. But to the Christian, there is no less promise of triumph, and of blessedness in spiritual things on the earth. Why doesn't God answer our prayers for revival?

44:37 Why doesn't He make the church appear mighty and glorious on the earth? Why do the enemies of Christianity not even take notice of us in this generation? Why is it that the powers of darkness are not staggering backward before the word of truth and the testimony of His people? Why, when we rebuke sin, does it not even give a twinge of shame and alarm to the hearts of those who are round about us?

45:12 Why is it that we have not in our assemblies the constant feasting upon good and delightful things in the Lord our God? Is it all that the preachers haven't learned how to be clever enough to tickle our fancies every time they step in the pulpit? Or is it, my friend, look into your heart, is it that you have trodden the Sabbath day underfoot? The people of God have done so who claim that we are keeping them, if anyone is, but have not maintained this attitude of soul even on His holy day.

Sabbath Attitude as an Indicator of Spiritual Condition

45:53 Will God honor our churches? Will our churches stop trampling the Sabbath is the same question. God give us grace to take His word to heart and His great promise for the mouth of the Lord, Jehovah, has spoken it. Just one final word in closing, and that is that your attitude toward the Sabbath is very indicative of your whole spiritual frame of mind and heart.

46:31 Christ died for those who are His people that they henceforth should not live unto themselves but unto Him which died and rose again.

46:44 And this selfishness spills over onto the Sabbath day so that you can barely wait to get back to your own things and you find it a great task to give a day to reading and seeking for God and praying and being with God's people in fellowship and going out and witnessing and finding ways to serve God. If one day spent in that fashion seems to be too much of a burden to you, then you are indeed in a sad condition. And if you do not even wish that you could spend a day that way, and if there is not even a desire that you should be so spiritual as to be able to drench your soul in the rain of His goodness on the Sabbath days, then I wonder if God has ever done a work of grace in your heart. And what is your view of your spiritual condition? How will it be when you face God if you have no desire to be with Him on earth? Do you think that will change in the day of judgment?

48:01 If you have no desire to progress in holiness and to serve Him, do you think that you are a suitable candidate for that place where no thing that defiles is allowed to enter and His people cease not day and night to praise Him before the throne? Perhaps you need this day to use this Sabbath day to seek the Lord your God and to ask that He would change your heart and to seek the cleansing of your selfish soul in the blood of Jesus Christ that you might have spiritual blessing. Let's bow together in prayer. Our Lord and our God, we are aware of such depth of sin within us that we would bemoan the fact that our inward corruptions are so strong. And we are not speaking now of specific ways in which we have broken the Sabbath before, though You know that they have been so many and so grievous in Your sight. You have a right to complain against us.

49:19 But what is worse to our vision is that inward root of corruption which constantly drags us in the tendency to seek outward, earthly, material, selfish things. Oh, that we were freed from this great love of ourselves and that we could be filled by Your Spirit with the love of the Lord our God so that our entire energies on Thy Sabbath days may be devoted to Thee. And it would be evident to our children, to the congregations where we meet, and it would be evident most of all to Thee that we are a hunger for our God. Lord, grant us this as a means to our riding upon the high places of the earth and delighting in the Lord our God and having the heritage which is ours in Jesus Christ. We pray it in Thy blessing. Amen.

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