The Sabbath #2

Introduction: The Secularization of Sunday and the Question of Obligation

0:00 We look at verses 23 through 28 of Mark chapter 2. This is speaking of Jesus Christ. And it came to pass that he went through the cornfields on the Sabbath day. And his disciples began as they went to pluck the ears of corn.

0:20 And the Pharisees said unto him, Behold, why do they on the Sabbath day that which is not lawful? And he said unto them, Have ye never read what David did when he had need and wasn't hungered, he and they that were with him? How he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and did eat the showbread which is not lawful to eat, but for the priests, and gave also to them which were with him. And he said unto them, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.

1:01 Therefore the Son of Man is Lord even or also of the Sabbath.

1:08 Let us bow in prayer.

1:15 O our gracious God, we do desire to have thy presence with us this week, and to have thy Spirit enlightening our minds and teaching us. And thou hast told us in the word that if any man will do thy will, he shall learn of thee concerning thy truth. Amen. Amen.

1:36 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

1:36 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

1:36 Amen. And as we come before thee, we confess that we are a miserable lot of sinners, and surely it would be just if thou should send us empty away. But all be merciful to us in the name of Jesus Christ thy Son, and exalt the glory of thy grace by giving to us enlightenment in spite of our sinful deviation from thy truth, and grant that we may become more holy through it. For we ask it in Jesus' name.

2:06 Amen. Amen.

2:11 Amen. you are quite well aware, tomorrow is America's fun day. The highways and the parks will be thronged, and your churches will become increasingly empty, at least the churches in America in general. For many, it's become the family day, the day to go out on a picnic, the day to visit relatives, increasingly a day to go on an extra vacation for the weekend, and especially camping. Sunday belongs to the New York Mets or the Baltimore Colts, or for

2:47 the kids, it belongs to the ball games that are going on in their own sandlots near home.

2:54 Sunday is no longer a day in which laborers rest from their earthly tasks to delight in God, but it's become a day in which men turn from necessary work to anything that will indulge their own pleasures and their own desires.

3:13 For the avowed church of Christ is not much different from this. Christians usually fail to mention the obligation to worship God one day in seven in their churches. Most do not believe that there is a biblical obligation to worship God. I'm speaking of Christians.

3:32 Most do not believe there is such an obligation to give God one day in seven. There's an utter silence about the Lord's Day among the best churches. Some believers actively attack Sabbath observance, and they are pious men and holy men. They are men who do believe God's Word and study it and seek to draw the pattern of their life from the Word of God. But they

3:58 tell us that all days are alike to the Christian, and they encourage converts to do as they please on the first day of the week. The church has fallen into the habit of imitating the world, even in worship. Christians work on Sunday with very little urging from their employees. They go to church for an hour, and then they rush home to join the world in its special delights of the day. And as soon as they can get the best clothes off, they settle into

4:29 an easy chair with a great big newspaper, or they turn on the ball games and they watch the best of the pro ball games or the golf matches. And if the big one is over on time, then they give God a bonus hour at night. The church has eagerly sought the enticing delights of the world that are available on a Sunday. Then the church wonders why the world does not join them in worship of the Almighty on the Lord's day.

4:59 This evening we're going to look at to the question of whether there is an obligation to Christians to worship God one day in the seventh? I wish for you to give attention to this, because if you believe that the Christian is not obliged you ought to examine God's Word again. And there are many Christians that are not sure because of the arguments that they've heard. And so out ofawat, certain Christians, in particular, do not believe that the Word of God is not doubt they perhaps do observe a Lord's day, but not heartily and not fully and not with the spirit of commitment that they are.

5:31 Then I hope that we will be able to look at just one principle which ought to permeate your life on the day which God has appointed. First then is the question, is there an obligation for the Christian in 1971 to observe one day in seven unto the Lord? Is there any reason to be unhappy with the increasing secularization of Sunday, at least any more than we are unhappy with the increasing secularization of Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday? There are godly men, good men, who deny that the Christian is under obligation to keep the Sabbath holy.

Refuting Arguments Against Sabbath Observance: The Sabbath as Ceremony

6:10 What are their arguments? Well, they argue along three lines. First of all, they tell us, and I think perhaps you have heard this, that the Old Testament Sabbath was a ceremony. It was a memorial law fulfilled in Jesus Christ, and thus it's been eliminated, as were the sacrifices in the temple of the Old Testament.

6:31 Second, they tell us the New Testament is silent about the Sabbath and does not urge it upon Christians.

6:39 Thirdly, they tell us that there are some texts which directly cancel this practice, and they cite Romans 14, 5, and 6, Galatians 4, 10, and 11, Colossians 2, 16, and 17. How is that possible? How is that possible? However, if you look carefully at Mark chapter 2, and especially at verses 27 and 28, you will find that these arguments can be easily turned aside.

7:06 The context of these verses, of course, is a meeting between Jesus Christ and the Pharisees. And perhaps you have met modern counterparts of the Pharisees, people who spend their Sabbath days looking at how other men spend theirs and commenting upon it. Some of their Sabbath days are the Sabbath of the Pharisees. Some of their descendants of these Pharisees would be shocked that Jesus even walked through fields of corn on the Sabbath.

7:35 The Pharisees only condemned him and his disciples for picking the corn, but some today would go so far as to say he shouldn't have been walking through the fields of corn in the first place. Our Lord reminds such shackled legalists that God made the Sabbath for man's welfare. The Sabbath was made for man. Man wasn't made to be fit.

7:57 Man wasn't made to be put into the pigeonhole of the Sabbath. It was not intended as a strict rule to bind and to terrify. It was not devised to impose harsh restrictions. It was meant to benefit mankind, to meet the deepest needs of his being as God created it.

8:17 But incidental to this main point, Jesus Christ remarks that God did make the Sabbath day. God did create the institution. The Sabbath was made for man. And the question that could easily come to your mind is, when was it made?

8:38 Was it made when Nehemiah threatened to take hold of the merchants who sold on the Sabbath day and to drive them out personally and to give them a good drubbing with his own fist? Was that when it was instituted? Was it instituted when Moses entered into the thick cloud of Sinai and God's finger inscribed Ten Commandments? Was it instituted on stone?

9:01 Well, every good Pharisee that was standing near Jesus Christ would have looked further back in history than these incidents when he heard Jesus say, the Sabbath was made for man. When was it made? The Pharisee knew when it was made. It was made at the very creation.

9:18 In Genesis 2-3, at the moment God's creation work was completed, we read, God blessed the seventh day and he sanctified it. He set it apart unto himself as a holy thing. Because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. For the first man, Adam, there was made a cycle of time in seven days by the word of God.

9:43 And it's interesting that man has always had a sense of the cycle of time called a week. We can explain the day. There are astronomical reasons for saying that a day should be 24 hours. There are astronomical reasons for stating what a month is.

10:00 As you notice, the rotation. There are astronomical reasons for saying how long a year should be. But there are no astronomical reasons for having a seven-day week. Yet this is imposed upon man from the very beginning by the commandment of God.

10:15 He hallowed one day in seven and set it apart to himself and thus the revolution of a seven-day week. This was instituted for man. God made it for man. For what man?

10:27 Well, for Adam and for all of his posterity. That's what man it was. Made for. It was not just made for the Jew on Sinai.

10:35 It was made for all man at creation. For Adam in his state of innocence and all of those who would come from his loins. Had man never sinned, he would have lived under the obligation of the Sabbath observance. If Adam's innocence lasted 24 hours, then he kept the Sabbath as it was instituted at creation.

10:55 There was no picture of Christ in the institution. So you see, as you look at the very institution of the Sabbath...

11:02 It utterly shatters the theory that the Sabbath is a ceremony fulfilled in Christ and thus passed away in the new covenant.

11:12 In Genesis chapter 2, there is no pointing forward into Christ. Genesis 2-4 interprets the symbolism and it looks backward at a completed act of God in creation, not forward to a work of Christ in redemption. There was as yet historically no need for the redemption of man because Adam had not fallen. It is not looking forward to Christ.

11:35 It is looking backward to the created work of God. Man was to imitate God's cycle in creation by a weekly cycle of work and then rest. Even later in the Decalogue on Mount Sinai, the reason for the Sabbath observance is clearly given, Exodus 20-11. In six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day.

12:01 Wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath. The Sabbath day and hallowed it. Not because there was a Savior to come who would fulfill the symbolism of it, but because God had fulfilled the symbolism of it in creation in time past. It's a blessed day and a sacred day to man because of the finished creative work of God.

12:23 This explanation is absolute nonsense if it is a narrow Jewish observance. All Jewish ceremonies are rooted in the history of the nation. The day of atonement, the day of Passover is rooted in the historic event of the Jews being redeemed out of Egypt. But there's nothing specifically Jewish about creation.

12:49 All men were created and therefore all men are bound under this commandment. All Old Testament ceremonial laws figured the redemptive work of the person of Christ and the work of Christ. The sacrifices you see, the priest was picturing Christ. The lamb was picturing Christ.

13:08 The blood was picturing Christ shedding his own blood on Calvary. And thus we now have no priest, no altar, no lambs, no sprinkling of blood. But the Sabbath was not pointing ahead to Christ, but backward to the creation.

The Sabbath as a Moral Creation Ordinance

13:24 The institution of the Sabbath in the garden displays the most basic moral nature of this commandment. Adam in the garden was told about the sanctity of work, which is the opposite of stealing. He was to subdue the earth faithfully before God. He was informed as to the sanctity of marriage, be fruitful and multiply.

13:49 Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave unto his wife, and the two shall be one flesh. He was instructed as to this basic moral institution for the human society. And he was told of the sanctity of worship, and it was revealed in the Sabbath foundation. This was the platform.

14:10 This was the platform for the ethic of worship in humanity. Adam was told one day in seven belonged to the worship of God. Now these were the basic commands given to man in the state of innocence. These were the kind directions of Almighty God, which would best fit the nature of man as a moral creature.

14:29 These orders perfectly suited the needs of man in the state of his sinless perfection. And it's one of the most elementary moral responsibilities to worship God one day in seven. It's rooted in the very creation of man. Christians today tell us piously, well, now that my heart is right before God, I'll worship God every day.

14:51 Adam worshipped God every day. But even when he was sinless, God commanded that one day in seven be given to himself.

15:01 When Adam's heart was right before God, and his desires flowed out to God, God graciously gave him this commandment. Well, then we're not surprised to find the Sabbath embedded. The Sabbath is embedded in the heart of the finest moral code ever delivered.

15:17 The Sabbath is incorporated in the two most central records of moral duty. Where do you expect to find the moral duties of man laid down in the foundation work of creation when man was first told what was expected of him? And you find the Sabbath there. And on Mount Sinai, in that excellent summary of the moral law of God, you find that the Sabbath ordinance is right.

15:45 It's the heart of the whole code. And if you simply read Exodus 20, you'll find that keeping the Sabbath is a perpetual obligation. It's a demand which God made on all men of all ages. It's just as moral as thou shalt not steal.

16:01 It's as essential to righteousness as thou shalt not kill. One day in seven belongs to God. Six are given to you for your work. But one is to be set apart to him.

16:13 The law binds you to cease. From your own ways and devote one day to the Lord and his work and his worship. God has staked out a claim on one day in seven. And he commands that all men give that day to him.

16:27 In Isaiah 58, 13, he calls it my holy day.

16:33 The law then was engraved on stone with the other nine. And if you are familiar with the Ten Commandments, and you think about the other nine of the commandments, just think about the dignity that surrounds this commandment. Not merely this commandment of the Sabbath was not merely given along with the ceremonial institutions, there is no other ceremonial law given in the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20. It's thrust into the midst of laws which have the highest importance and the most durable character.

17:04 It dwells in the midst of the most sacred laws ever spoken and draws dignity from them. All of its fellows in Exodus 20 are permanent obligations for all the human race. All of its fellows in Exodus 20 are permanent obligations for all the human race. All reflect the essential elements of holiness and are pillars of morality.

17:22 All reflect the righteous character of God. All are absolutely necessary for human holiness. And it's only reasonable to expect that the fourth in this list will bear the common character of the other nine. If the fourth commandment is to be amputated from this most sacred revelation of God's moral law, a thoroughly convincing argument must be drawn from the Scriptures.

17:48 If a gaping blank is to be placed in the midst of Sinai's code, and if this part of the table is to crumble to powder because it's only ceremonial, then strong evidence must be brought from God's holy word to do so. But you will find no such reasons in the page of Holy Writ. So determined are some men to deny the perpetual obligation of the Sabbath that they have denied the perpetual obligation of all of the Ten Commandments. Amen.

18:17 And only because of the fourth commandment. But no such reasons are in the page of Holy Writ. Sober study of God's word will not allow such violence to that code which is required to bring a knowledge of sin, according to the New Testament. The fourth is one of the laws used to stop the mouths of men and to make all the world guilty before God.

The Prominence and Reasonableness of the Fourth Commandment

18:43 It's a standard of holiness that Christ followed and the Christians ought to follow. It's the only one of the Ten Commandments. It's the only one of the Ten Commandments that has a reason attached to it. Most of the commandments have no reason, and it's the most lengthy of all of the commandments in the Ten, very interestingly.

19:02 God could have been as terse as he was in the sixth law when he said, Thou shalt not kill. He could have said, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. But he was not satisfied with that. He expands it at length.

19:13 He takes pains to show that the law is reasonable. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. It's reasonable that if you have six days, you give one to the God who made you. There is minute detail used so that there will be no mistake as to what is meant.

19:33 In it thou shalt not do any work, thou nor thy son nor thy daughter nor thy manservant nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle nor the strangers that are within thy gates. Extremely minute detail.

19:47 Then an explanation is affixed to inscribe the law in the heart into secure, unflinching obedience. Because God made the world in six days and rested the seventh day, therefore he sanctified and hallowed it. Now this length is not accidental. There's nothing so attacked as the worship of God in the morality of man's heart.

20:12 It's the most essential ingredient of morality to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and soul and strength in mind.

20:22 And Satan starts to attack man's worship of God with time. You ought to know that if you've struggled to have a daily devotional time. What's the first thing that Satan does? He takes away the time.

20:34 He makes you too busy. And so right in the moral code, after God tells us that we must worship him alone, that there is a proper way to worship him, that there is a proper attitude in which to worship him, he tells us that there is also a certain designated time to worship him. Because time is the place that Satan starts to erode your devotion to God.

21:00 Conscience is prone to slight discommandment, and so God gives great length to it. If you commit adultery, your conscience will scream at you. But if you spend the day in fun and games, the Sabbath day, you're likely to have no murmur from your conscience. And so God goes to great length to say, you think the Sabbath is a small thing, but I don't think it's a small thing.

21:20 Notice the prominence that I've given it in my holy moral code on Sinai. I may rush past the sixth and the seventh and the eighth laws. Because these are reinforced by the conscience. But I'm going to camp on the fourth law and explain it and express exactly what I mean in it, because you're apt to overlook it.

21:41 And as already noted, the explanation does not narrow the observance to one nation in one dispensation. It broadens it out to all men of all time under the creation work of God.

The New Testament is Not Silent: Christ's Lordship and a Remaining Sabbath

21:53 Well, perhaps it is not a mere ceremony fulfilled in Christ then. Perhaps it is embedded in the moral law. Perhaps it is a creation ordinance. The Sabbath was made for man at the very beginning.

22:10 But what of the silence of the New Testament? Isn't this strange for a moral precept that the New Testament should be so silent? Well, the New Testament is not altogether silent, though many would like to dismiss the verses that are found to support Sabbath observance in Matthew 2, 28 and Mark 2, 28 and Matthew 12, 8 and Luke 6, 5. All of them are silent.

22:34 All of them say the same thing. The Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.

22:41 And if you'll turn to Matthew chapter 12 for a moment, I'd like you to look at a few verses in that place. The Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath. The Son of Man is a messianic term indicating our Lord's rule over all men. And this verse in the three Gospels tells us that the Sabbath has a place within the sphere of His Lordship.

23:04 There is a place in the messianic kingdom. For a Sabbath. And He is Lord over it.

23:12 We find in Matthew chapter 12 in verses 5 to 8 the suggestion that Jesus Christ is now the Lord to be served on the Sabbath day. Notice those verses, 5 to 8 in Matthew 12, where Jesus is arguing in the same instance where the disciples plucked corn. He said, Have you not read in the law how that on the Sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are blameless? In other words, it's obvious that on the Sabbath day, the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath day.

23:40 The priests work harder than any other time, just like your preacher. That's the hardest day in the week for the priest. He had to receive all the sacrifices and offer them. He sweat on that day.

23:51 But he was blameless. Why? He was serving God in the temple. Well, Christ goes on to say, But I say unto you, in this place is one greater than the temple.

24:00 He was speaking of Himself. And He was saying, If my disciples sweat and toil in service to me, they are as blameless as the priests who sweat and toil in service to me. If my disciples sweat and toil in service to me, they are as blameless as the priests who sweat and toil in service to me. in offering sacrifices up in the temple.

24:13 And there's a hint in this place when he goes on to say the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath. That the fact that He is Lord of the Sabbath draws attention to Himself and says, I am the one to be served and praised on the Sabbath. And it gives us a hint of turning attention from the creation work of God to the redemption work of Christ in the Sabbath observance. We'll talk more about this tomorrow morning.

24:39 And you might turn to Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 9, which presents to us another plain text commending Sabbath observance to Christians.

24:50 Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 9. And we're only going to read the one verse. Tomorrow, if the context is confusing to you, tomorrow morning I hope to deal more with the context in this chapter.

25:02 Verse 9 says, There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. And if you have marginal notes, you'll notice that that word rest is better translated, there remaineth therefore a keeping of a Sabbath for the people of God. There remaineth to the people of God a keeping of the Sabbath. It tells us straight out that Christians are to observe a time of rest.

25:31 It's unfortunate here in Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 9 that the translators use simply the term rest in English. And it's unfortunate because the term rest is used typically. There are ten other times in the context between verses 7 of chapter 3 and verse 11 of chapter 4. The word in verse 9 is unique to the New Testament.

25:57 It's a transfer of a Hebrew word into Greek letters.

26:03 It's a Hebraism that's very close to another one that's found in the New Testament to refer to the Sabbath day. And the Hebrew word in the New Testament transliteration of the term Sabbath always refers to a time of abstinence, observing rest.

26:20 Usually it's a day to observe a rest. Sometimes it's a week. Sometimes it's a year. It's a sacred time in which to observe a rest.

26:31 It never refers to rest in general in any other place in the Scripture, but to a time of rest. The word that is used ten other times in the context, the other word for rest, is referring to a posture of rest or a place of rest or a rest in general. But this, this word has clearly the meaning of a time of observing rest. The author isn't just seeking variety, for there were other words for rest in the Greek language which he didn't use.

27:02 And you will remember that Hebrews is written to Jews, not to Greeks, not to Gentiles. It's written to the Jews. And the Jew would not mistake the use of a Jewish word, Sabbath, in the midst of his discussion. At once they would think of the fourth commandment.

27:20 And even if a Jew didn't understand all of the context, he would see that there was still for the Christian a time of observing rest. There remaineth the observing of a Sabbath to the people of God.

27:34 Indeed then, the New Testament is not silent about the Sabbath. Our Lord turns attention to the inward and spiritual aspects of this commandment just as he did to the other commandments in the cases of murder and adultery and in serving the Lord. And there is at least this one text that positively states that the people of God in the New Covenant are to observe a time of rest.

Addressing Texts Seemingly Canceling the Sabbath

28:03 Well, but aren't there some texts which seem to directly cancel the Sabbath observance in the New Testament? We'll turn to only one of them, the most potent, Colossians chapter 2, verses 16 and 17. And as you're turning to Colossians chapter 2, verses 16 and 17, I'll read for you the other two instances that are used to say that the Sabbath has been canceled in the New Testament. Romans 14, 5 and 6.

28:35 And I quote, One man esteemeth one day above another, another man esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord. He that regardeth not the day to the Lord, he doth not regard it.

28:53 In that section, Paul is addressing himself to things which are indifferent in themselves, he's speaking of some days that are considered special and sacred by some of the Christians at Rome. But he claims that they are not necessary observances. Now, he does not mention the term Sabbath day in particular. In Galatians 4, 10 and 11, he says, Ye observe days and months and times and years.

29:18 I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain. Again, there's no mention made of the Sabbath in particular. And the context suggests that all of these observances were in order to gain merit before God in the favor of God. He's writing to insist that a man is justified by faith alone.

29:39 In Colossians chapter 2, however, we have a different matter. And this is parallel to both of the foregoing texts and our treatment of this passage will give hints as to how we would treat the other passages.

29:53 Notice verses 16 and 17. Let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days, which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ.

30:13 So there is a clear mention of the term Sabbath in this text. He's talking about days, including Sabbath days, which discriminate against the Gentiles.

30:27 If you will notice, back in verse 14, he says that Christ has blotted out the handwriting of ordinances, that was against us, which was contrary to us who are Gentiles, and took it out of the way, nailing it to the cross.

30:44 There were Old Testament observances that were against the Jew. All of the ceremonies of the Old Testament were against the Gentile. Excuse me, not against the Jew. The Gentile was excluded from the temple and thus all of the sacrifices instituted by Moses automatically were against Gentiles.

31:03 They were exclusively for Jews. Furthermore, the ceremonies spoken, spoken of in Colossians 2, 14-17, were shadows and Christ is the substance foreshadowed in these ceremonies.

31:18 As you read in verse 17, Christ is the substance offered to the Gentile as well as the Jew. Now already we have seen that the one day in seven Sabbaths does not fit the description here of ceremonies which are fulfilled in Christ and therefore unnecessary any longer for believers. If you follow, follow through the rest of the scriptural teaching, it would seem strange for this one text or these three little texts to speak against this strong institution at creation in this way. What can the apostle mean by Sabbath?

31:57 Well, besides the one day in seven, there were other Jewish ceremonial days and whole years that were called Sabbath. For instance, the Day of Atonement in Leviticus 16.31 is called a Sabbath. These Sabbaths did point forward to Christ, were fulfilled in Him, and were done away with the coming of our Lord.

32:20 If the Jews continue to observe these ceremonial days, as to the Lord, fine and good. If the Gentiles ignore the Day of Atonement and other Sabbaths like it, fine.

32:34 If anyone observed them, Jew or Gentile, in order to gain the favor of God, which only faith in Christ can do,

32:42 then it's the denial of the Gospel, as we read in Galatians 4. And if anyone binds them as necessary upon the Gentiles, Paul will react in the spirit of Colossians 2.14-17. But there is no necessity of taking this text as referring to the Sabbath that is one day in seven.

33:01 And very good reasons to look elsewhere for the Sabbaths, and they can be found in the Scripture as we've mentioned.

33:10 The Sabbath was made for man while he was still righteous. All of man. All of man. All of man.

33:15 All of man. All of man. All of man. All of man.

33:15 All of man. All of man. All of man. All of man.

33:15 All of man. All of man. And to be reminded of it in the moral law after his fall. And the lordship of the day is shifted to the Messiah under the new covenant.

33:25 But as Hebrews chapter 4 tells us, there remaineth a keeping of a Sabbath for the people of God. It's not a mere option under Christ's lordship, but it's one of the basic aspects of biblical morality. It's one of the four subheadings to loving God with all of the heart and soul and strength in the commandments of Sinai. So there is an obligation.

The Sabbath as a Delight and Blessing for Man

33:50 There is an obligation upon everyone here to give unto God one day in seven.

33:56 What then is the way of observation of this Sabbath day? I'd like to call your mind back again to Mark chapter 2 where our Lord was speaking to the Pharisees. Remind you of the statement with which we began.

34:15 The Sabbath was made for men, not men, for the Sabbath.

34:23 The Sabbath was made for man.

34:28 It was made for man's good.

34:31 And the parallel to this statement of Christ on Sinai is that God blessed this day unto man. God blesses man by giving him the Sabbath day.

34:49 We read in Isaiah 58, 17 that believers are to call the Sabbath a delight. It was made for man. It is a blessed day to man. It is for the good of man.

35:03 The unconverted won't understand this. And it's very difficult to show the children how a day set apart to God should be a delight. And you parents ought to labor to teach your children that it's a delightful day. You ought to labor to read good books to them, to talk to them, to walk with them, walk through the fields with them.

35:23 Tell them about the God of creation. Have spiritual conversations. Labor to make the day a delight. A delight to your children so that they long to keep it.

35:32 But the unconverted will never understand it. How can a day of preaching and reading the Bible and praying be enjoyable?

35:42 You people are an anomaly. How you could come up here to spend a whole week listening to preaching if the world doesn't understand? And they don't understand how the Sabbath can be a delight. But it was made for man.

35:53 It was made for our good. It was made to minister gracious things unto you. But the servant of God says with David in Psalm 122 in verse 1, I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord.

36:11 Somebody comes and says, how about going to a football game next Sunday?

36:15 Your attitude ought to be, sorry, I don't want to miss church. That's the day that I spend with the best people on earth. That's the day that I spend drawing near to God. That's the day that I give my mind to the things that are the deepest and most satisfying to my soul and my whole body.

36:32 They're the most necessary for me. Oh, I can't miss the Lord's house and the worship with my family on that holy day.

36:42 The world comes and says, oh yeah, you Christians have to spend Sunday reading the Bible and stuff like that. What a drag. What a drag for teenagers. But there's nothing gruesome about the Sabbath.

36:55 There's nothing gruesome about reading the Scriptures. The Christian says, Psalm 119.21, thy testimonies are my delight. The worship of God is my delight if I know Him.

37:08 And a man with a heart after God won't find worship and its disciplines inconsistent with joy.

The Sabbath as a Necessary Spiritual Respite

37:15 You may have some intellectual problem with isolated decisions that you have to make. You know, some of the questions that people bring up are really not germane to themselves. When you speak to people about the Sabbath, you start getting questions like you get from people when you start telling them the Gospel. You start telling a man it's your duty to believe and repent.

37:34 And he says, well, what about the native over in Africa? That's not his concern.

37:39 And you say to people, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. And they say, well, now, what about this fellow that has to work over here and this fellow that has to do...

37:48 Usually it's not your problem. Stop picking specks of lint off your brother's Sunday suit and look to the Lord for a day of delight. If you hunger and thirst for righteousness, you need a day. And it will be a blessing for you.

38:06 Monday to Saturday are filled with more business than you can handle. The calendar is loaded with social appointments. So many plans for your career and your family and your recreation. You can't possibly do them all.

38:20 No doubt your plans for your vacation this summer include so many things you'll never get it all in. You need a day that you'll spend unto the Lord. You're moving at such a fast pace in America that there's no time to seek God as you should. You say, I wish I had more time to pray.

38:41 But you have to be to work early in the morning.

38:44 I wish I had more time to study the Word. But when I get home from work at night, my wife has something that needs repaired in the house. I have to do it. Or the kids want to play a ball game.

38:54 But I can't answer the problems, the spiritual problems of my own heart. I wish I could just sit down and answer the mental problems and the spiritual difficulties that I'm having. But then my club has a drive for fun. I've got to go out and work with them.

39:11 Well, God in His grace says, look, here is a day that by my command, my commandment is to be set aside for the good of your soul. Here is a day in which you can seek me. A day in which you must seek me. A day that may not be spent in all of these other pursuits, but your mind must be drawn out to me and delight in me.

39:31 A blessed day. Here is the one day of each in the seven that you can spend in spiritual duties. An entire day for devotional, spiritual, heavenly things.

39:44 The Christian whose heart is right doesn't find one day enough. He has public worship with the other saints, private reading, worship with his family, instruction of catechism, meditation on the Word, self-examination, prayer, and the Sabbath becomes too short if your heart grows and you seek God in sincerity.

The Danger of Worldliness and the Need for a Dedicated Day

40:05 Some have said all days are alike to the Christians and that sounds right pious, doesn't it?

40:11 It's usually said by preachers who have every day to spend in reading the Word and meditating on it and praying.

40:20 But let me tell you, even preachers need that day of worship with God's people.

40:25 And there's an existential blessing in the right sense of that term existential that comes to a preacher when he's met with God's people that's unlike that which he finds in the study when he's alone. God comes and he meets his people where they're met together.

40:44 God is more wise than men who say every day can be alike. He knows that you need one day in seven. As a matter of fact, he knew that Adam when he was innocent and without sin needed one day in seven to worship him. He'd be too busy with the garden, too busy with his family.

40:59 He needed a day to give unto the Lord. You need a day away from the office lest you love money and it rule your heart. You need a day away from studies and school, teenagers, lest you be beguiled with the philosophies of men. A day to give to the Word of God.

41:17 You need a day away from the routine and the world of activity to remember that this world is not your home you're passing through. There's a heaven, there's a judgment to face. There's a God that you must answer to with your time and your talents.

41:32 You need a day away from the clamor of people to get close to God. And God knows you need a Sabbath day and He gives you a vacation from the world to draw near unto Him. Now isn't this really the heart of the problems that are related to the Sabbath day?

41:52 A teenager can say, can I do my homework on the Sabbath?

41:56 Well, just ask yourself the question, can you separate a day from common use and devote it to God while you're writing a paper that's due on Monday?

42:07 Can you breathe after the Lord and seek Him and fellowship with Him while you're writing about history? Can you? Do you feel that the Sabbath is special and different from others? Is it a delight to you?

42:20 I haven't ever heard any teenagers saying to their boyfriend when they go out on a date, do you mind if I write a paper tonight on history that's due on Monday? That's a time of delight. They want to be with that person. They want to spend time with them.

42:31 Their soul is just bent to being with that person and having a good time. Today is a delight to the Christian.

42:44 Let me ask you, Christian, haven't you missed a real blessing when you spent a day watching a ball game?

42:50 Have you felt at the end of that day that you've met God and your soul's been blessed?

42:55 It's not illegitimate to watch ball games, but can it be a day devoted to God when all of your attention is to those three pro games on television on Sunday?

43:07 Haven't you missed a genuine and lasting and eternal joy? When you use the day to travel? Haven't you lost one of the few opportunities in life? In all of the rush and turmoil and all of the demands upon you, haven't you missed one of the few opportunities to let your soul delight itself in fatness?

43:26 This is the invitation of the Gospel.

43:30 Why do you labor for that which is not bread?

43:35 Come unto me. Buy bread without money and wine without price and let your soul delight itself in fatness. It takes time to do that.

43:48 I don't know of any mystical principle in the Bible that you can just go about your daily business as always and have your soul drenched in the fatness of the blessings of God.

44:00 You've got to take time to do it. Can you spend all afternoon on balancing your checkbook or making out your income tax and call it holy unto the Lord and honorable? Isaiah 58, 13 again.

44:13 Can you go back to the rat race of commerce and go shopping and still think that the day is special and be drawing near to God? Well, if you can, go ahead.

44:24 But if you think that the day is a blessed day, you'll get the answer to most of these questions. I'm not quibbling philosophically about one thing or another.

44:35 I didn't say that it's a sin to watch 15 minutes of news on the Sabbath day.

44:41 But oh, if you watch all day on that television set, the pro game,

44:48 and you can still say your soul is delighting in the Lord on that day,

44:54 well, you're going to have to talk to me about it. I want to hear something. This entire day is to be reserved from common and earthly use and devoted unto God in heavenly and spiritual things. And it's meant to be a blessing to us, to the soul.

Beware of Legalism: The Spirit of Sabbath Observance

45:10 Of legalism beware. Oh, these Pharisees. That's all they were interested in. The outward details.

45:16 Are you doing this? Are you doing this? Are you doing this? Are you not doing this?

45:20 Aha! Your disciples picked corn. They've broken the Sabbath. Oh, those poor Pharisees.

45:26 All they could do is spend the whole day watching other people. With hawk eyes to find out where somebody broke the Sabbath.

45:33 And they were supposedly keeping it. The heart that's keeping the Sabbath is hungering after God and doing anything that's in pursuit of finding Him and knowing Him. It's God's day. It's a holy day.

45:45 It's a sacred day. That's the principle. To delight yourself in the Lord on that day.

45:53 The spirit of it must be kept if you're going to keep the letter of it. You can't long keep the outward commands concerning this day if you don't have that spirit of wanting to be with God on one day of Sabbath.

46:08 And if you have that spirit, then I can tell you you can do what you want to do on that day. So long as your heart is seeking God and hungering to be blessed by Him and you're thinking this is a special day, a blessed day, you do as you please as long as your heart's in that frame.

46:25 It'll be doing the right things, I guarantee. But that's what Jesus was trying to get across to these Pharisees. Just like all they could think about in adulthood, adultery was the outward act. Jesus said, when you lust after a woman in your heart, you're breaking that commandment.

46:43 All they could think about is whether you pick corn or whether you don't on the Sabbath. Jesus said, look, my friend, it's what your heart is doing. It was made for you as a blessed day. I am Lord of the Sabbath.

46:55 Is your mind fixed upon me? Is it drawing upon the great reserve of my blessings which are provided on Calvary and are being freely given to the church through my Spirit? Which was poured out on the first day of the week? Are you giving your heart to those things?

47:12 You don't have to worry about the outward details so much. Oh, don't let the day be spoiled by these questions that get into quibbling about details.

47:23 Rejoice and bathe yourself in the blessing of the day. Jesus tells us it's not only His day, it's our day. It was made for man. Blessed be God for that revelation.

47:35 Not just for God, it was made for man. It was made for you. You're one of that race of Adam. And may God give you the grace even tomorrow to cash in on some of the blessings that God means for His people to have.

Closing Prayer and Parental Application

47:48 Let us bow in prayer.

47:59 Our Father, we think of all of the children who are here present. And as parents, we confess that too often we've told them don't do this, but it's alright to do that on Sunday. Oh, God teaches His parents how to show them the delights of seeking Thy face, that they may know the Spirit of the day. Oh, may we be as Thy true disciples who know the Spirit of Thy law.

48:25 Send Thy Holy Ghost upon this camp even tomorrow, that we may know the blessings of Thy holy day and devoting it unto Thee and seeking Thy face to feel Thy presence.

48:38 Bless our brother, Professor Gaffin, as he ministers to us tomorrow. Oh, pour out Thy Spirit upon him. Give him the liberty of the Holy Ghost and feed us as we worship and seek Thy blessing on Thy blessed day. May it be the Spirit of the day.

48:51 May it be the special day of all for Thou hast appointed it for the good of Thy people. We believe it according to Thy word and pray these things in Thy Son's name. Amen.