The Sabbath is Made for Man

Introduction: Jesus' Conflict with Pharisees over the Sabbath

0:12 For our subject this morning, let's turn to Mark chapter 2. I'm going to begin reading at verse 23 and read into chapter 3 and verse 6. Mark chapter 2, beginning at verse 23. 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.

0:43 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 hungry, 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.

1:30 Therefore the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath.

1:36 And he entered again into the synagogue, and there was a man there which had a withered hand. And they watched him, whether he would heal him on the Sabbath day, that they might accuse him. And he said unto the man, Which hath the withered hand, stand forth. And he saith unto them, Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath day, or to do evil, to save life, or to kill?

2:07 But they held their peace.

2:10 And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their heart, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored whole. And the Pharisees went forth and straightway took counsel with the Herodians against him, how they might destroy him. Our principal text for this afternoon will be chapter 2, verses 27 and 28.

2:48 The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath. The Sabbath. The Sabbath.

3:03 It is the Sabbath. The Sabbath. The Sabbath. The Sabbath.

3:03 The Sabbath. The Sabbath. The Sabbath. The Sabbath.

The Contemporary Assault on the Sabbath and its Historical Roots

3:04 of revival. And all kinds of revival are not good or desirable. Recently, there has been a revival, a very old assault against the biblical requirement of one day in seven being devoted to the worship of the Lord our God. It will not be the last attack on the biblical commandment. But what is striking in the new opponents of the Lord's day Sabbath is that they have virtually no new arguments with which to resurrect objections against the commandment. That I have to hasten us to add that we have no new arguments in favor of the commandment. The number of biblical passages on the subject can be perused and studied in the Bible. And the number of biblical passages on the subject can be perused and studied in the Bible. And the number of biblical passages on the subject can be perused and

4:11 read more quickly than one can peruse all of the literature that's been written on the text in the history of the church. This is one reason why young men who are entering the Christian ministry are highly advised to study systematic theology and church history. There are revolutions of human thought, that is, cycles of human thought, in both the support of biblical doctrine and the opposition to biblical doctrine. And those who are speaking against the commandments that men observe a Sabbath day weekly in our generation are resurrecting old and worn lines of reasoning that were already ancient and well-known three and four hundred and four hundred and fifty years ago when the great creeds of the church were written. Some of the recent works have a flair for obsessive words, new terminology like the word biblical theology, which can shake men to the foundation and make them say, have I missed something in the study of God's word?

5:24 But when one looks into the new biblical theology, one finds very old lines of logic being employed beneath the appearance of learning. In this new opposition to the biblical doctrine of the Sabbath, we believe there are the seeds of antinomianism, a favor misunderstanding of the relationship between law and grace in all of the covenants that have been introduced since the fall of man. As you see from the text that I've selected this afternoon, the New Testament does have a good bit to teach about the Sabbath. The New Testament is a book of the gospel. But also in the epistle.

6:17 Each of the synoptic gospels records our Savior's conflict with the Pharisees that had differing views on the Sabbath.

The Origin of the Sabbath: Made for Man at Creation

6:29 In the account of the sacred scripture that's before you this afternoon, we have some definitive teaching from the lips of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ on the subject of Sabbath. And within his teaching, the origin of the Sabbath. In verse 27, he said unto them, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.

7:01 The main point of our Lord Jesus Christ was not to discuss the time when the Sabbath was instituted. He seems to assume that he and the Pharisees agreed on the time when the Sabbath was instituted. But he does speak of the Sabbath being made. And if the language of our Savior is to be understood, our minds must run backward to when the Sabbath was made.

7:29 The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.

7:36 This is one of the hotly contested issues between those who believe that man is under an obligation to devote one day in heaven to the worship and service of God, and those who deny that there is such a commandment binding on any but the Hebrews, and on them for a brief period of history. When was the Sabbath made for man? Our Lord asserts that it was. When was the Sabbath made for man?

8:05 The answer to the question will assist us in determining whether it was made for man as a human being, or only for Jewish man during a limited period of his nation's history. There are at least three lines of biblical evidence which a sincere student of the Word of God must face in answering this question. One line of reasoning ought to come from the words of our Lord Jesus Christ in verse 27. The formula of words used by our Lord in this text, the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath, is at the heart of our Lord's argument. The Sabbath was made for the help of man, to serve the interests and well-being of man. Man was not made to be subordinated to the interests and well-being of man. interest and the service of the Sabbath.

9:09 Now, of course, the making of man takes us right back to the creation account, although you know that there are some who dispute that, that any Orthodox Christian believes that it takes him back to the creation account. The formula of words that our Lord Jesus Christ uses suggests also that the making of the Sabbath occurred during the week of creation. I mean, the words themselves and the form of the statement that our Lord makes in verse 27 reminds us of the form of the statement made in 1 Corinthians 11, 9. Neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman for the man, in which the Apostle Paul appeals clearly to creation to establish which was intended to serve the interest of the other. This is exactly the formula. This is the form of words that we would expect our Savior to use if he were appealing to the order of events in the creation week to prove the relationship of two products of that creation, of man and the Sabbath, both the products of the creation itself.

10:36 As a matter of fact, taking the Pharisees back to the Genesis creation account to prove the priority of man to the Sabbath. This is a habit of the Scripture throughout, both in the Old Testament. In the New, when the Ten Commandments are given, and the commandment to keep the Sabbath day holy is given from Mount Sinai, the mind is taken back to the creation, when God blessed it, and when God pronounced a blessing upon the Sabbath day. In the book of Hebrews, when the question of Sabbath is brought up, immediately the writer to the Hebrews runs back to creation in his dealing with the issue of the Sabbath day. Our Lord is doing nothing less. The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath, but calling to our attention the order of the creation week. The second line of Biblical evidence is found in the creation account itself, and harmonizes perfectly with what has just been said in Mark 2 and verse 27.

11:47 Genesis 1, 26-30 records for us God created man, male and female, on the sixth day. Genesis 2, verses 1-3, the Lord God blessed on the seventh day. Furthermore, He went beyond the example of resting on the Sabbath day. He pronounced a peculiar blessing on the seventh day.

12:14 The blessedness given to that day, the happiness, the special privilege and honor given to the day, is not left to our imagination, but is specified in that same passage in Genesis chapter 2. He sanctified it. He set it apart in common. The words of our Savior concerning the making of the Sabbath, it was made for man.

12:49 It was blessed for man, sanctified for man, set apart to holy and sacred service for man's sake. And of course, Exodus 20 and verse 11 calls attention to this historic act of God in enforcing the observance of the Sabbath day. He says he, the Sabbath man, is the same God that set us free. That is, he was a Servant.

13:11 He was the One who saved. week. A third line of biblical evidence must be found also in the Old Testament. In Genesis 4 and verse 3, we are told that the sons of Adam, Cain, and Abel approached God in worship with sacrifices that are used to speak of their bringing the sacrifices to God, indicate that they recognized an obligation of periodically giving special public worship to the Lord with such sacrifices. At the end of days, it was at the end of these periods of time, though the period of time is not specified, at the end of the period of days, that special worship of God was to be given. And of course, later in Genesis, we read in the account of Noah that that creature of righteousness knew perfectly well that there was a seven-day week. Now, we could spend hours in outlining the machinations of men who are determined to deny that the Bible is the Bible. Does anything of the origin of the Sabbath in creation? The reason for denying it is

14:26 perfectly clear. If from the very beginning, all of mankind was expected to devote one day in seven to the worship of God, then the moral character of the commandment takes for itself. We believe that those who argue against the creation ordinance of the Sabbath are against the entire spirit of Scripture. But what does one do, brethren, when one thinks and finds that men who claim to be sincere in the search of the Word of God have opinions different from those of our own when we search the Scriptures and come to a clear conclusion? Do we say, well, then, it must not matter what you heard on this issue because men differ?

15:19 Or do we have the firm belief that those who with simple sincerity, wishing to do the will of God, having the spirit within their hearts as a teacher, coming and pondering the plain statements of the Word of God without preconceived prejudice, will know what the Word of God does teach? We believe firmly that they will conclude that the Sabbath was instituted at creation for man, for all mankind, centuries later for Hebrew man only, for a limited period of time. The moral requirement from the beginning is incorporated in the great living of the moral law, that comprehensive statement of the moral law. The moral law is the law of the world. The moral law is the law of the world. The moral

The Continuation of the Sabbath: Christ as Lord of the Sabbath

16:14 law is the law of the world. The moral law is the law of the world. The moral law is the 10 commandments given at Mount Sinai. I say the origin of the Sabbath is intimated in the statement of Mark chapter 2 and verse 27. Furthermore, the continuation of the Sabbath is intimated as well, especially in verse 28. After our Lord Jesus Christ looked backward to creation, he looked forward also to the gospel era under his own dominion as the Lord of the Church. Therefore, the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath. Will you notice the word therefore, the connector's word between the two verses? Literally, it is so that, as a necessary consequence, because

17:10 the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath, as a necessary consequence, the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath. What was made for the good of mankind comes under the authority and lordship of the Son of Man. That's the whole center and thrust of what our Lord Jesus Christ was saying. The Sabbath was made for the good of man. The Son of Man delights to take up the Sabbath into the kingdom over which he rules. Good for man is placed under his throne and scepter. And there is only the wildest dispensational hermeneutic that could interpret this passage as saying that the Son of Man became Lord of the Sabbath in order to abolish it, because it was no longer used to man. The plain teaching of our Savior is that it is of the utmost good for man, and therefore the Son of Man has become Lord of the Sabbath day, because the Sabbath was a

18:27 creation instituted to do man good, to serve his best interest as a human being, and because it continues to do man good. Therefore, the Messiah, the Son of Man, became Lord of the Sabbath. You never find in the New Testament the formula that the Messiah was made Lord over the law in order to abolish certain portions of the law. You never find that thought within the New Testament. Galatians 4.4, made of a woman, made under the law in order that he might redeem those who were under the law, which was not in the interest of those who had come of age and received the fullness of the Holy Spirit. He was not made over the law in order to abolish the law. He was made subject to the law, obligated to fulfill all of its requirements on behalf of others, and thus to abolish it on their behalf. It's quite a different concept than becoming

19:45 Lord over the law in order to abolish the law. It's been a difficult bondage appropriate only to saints in their minority. Unnecessarily rigorous. For the mature saint, having now the fullness of the Holy Spirit, then it would have been appropriate for the Son of Man to take that yoke off of man, and he would have done this by being made under the law, but you never find any statement in the New Testament of Christ becoming Lord of the law to abolish the law.

20:24 The formula that we have before us in Mark 2, verses 27 and 28 is that what is in the best interest of man in the reign of Christ is the title of the Messiah, which we find in the book of Daniel. The title that takes to itself the glory of Daniel's prophecies concerning the Messiah will follow the brutal rulers of the earth, who come in succession one after another, as you find in the book of Daniel, that when the Son of Man appears, he will set up the everlasting kingdom of grace and glory. So when we find the title,

21:20 the Son of Man, applied to the Messiah in the New Testament, it brings us to an anticipation of the new order, to the glories of the kingdom which he will institute. And as the Son of Man, he came to do man good, and his kingdom contains all that is good and blessed for man. And that is the logic of the text. Because the Sabbath was made for man and for his good, and not man to serve the Lord.

21:58 Therefore the Son of Man takes up into his kingdom, to rule and reign over the Sabbath. It is inconceivable that the logic of these verses would refer to our Lord Jesus Christ clarifying how the Jews ought to keep the Sabbath for a few more years, while he made it known that he had the authority to abolish it and would soon do so because it was of little use to man any longer. And there the Sabbath was made. Sabbath was made to help and serve and bless man. Therefore, he takes up the Sabbath into his rule and reign of his glorious kingdom. Clarifications, then, in this teaching are not merely of ancient interest to the Mosaic system. As Lord of the Sabbath, the Son of Man would make some changes, the nature of which we do not have time to define today or argue the biblical evidence for, but the idea of a day set apart for the worship and service of God is something the Son of Man is glad to incorporate into his kingdom because it was made for the good of man. The origin of the Sabbath is intimated. The continuation

The Intention of the Sabbath: A Corrective to Pharisaical Misunderstanding

23:26 of the Sabbath is intimated. The intention of the Sabbath is not merely intimated but clearly expressed in this teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is a conflict between our Lord Jesus and the Pharisees. An accusation, however, was being made that the Lord and his disciples are breaking the Sabbath law.

23:53 This he vigorously denies, and we deny it with him. Even with all of the rigid appendages of the Mosaic system with which the Sabbath was then weighted down, our Lord was pledged to fulfill all righteousness for his people, and he did not break one jot or one tittle of all of the Mosaic law. He fulfilled all righteousness for his people. He was made under the law to redeem them that were under the law, and the redemption that was necessary was his own full enactment of all that the law required. The problem was that the Pharisees had a fundamental misunderstanding of the Sabbath. Our Lord's actions and words were a corrective to their mistaken view. The Pharisees did not take into account the Sabbath issue, not even the truth on the Sabbath issue. They did not represent it. Theirs was

25:06 a perverted idea. They blew it up. The way they were acting was that they took out the life suppose in the Sabbath, and that is what we call the Sabbath issue. The truth was not even on the Sabbath issue. The faith was on the Sabbath issue. They did not represent it.

25:08 Theirs was a perverted idea they brought the Sabbath issue. They did not represent it. They wondered in handling all of the biblical material on the Sabbath. In a fundamental manner, they did not understand the Sabbath.

25:16 They realized that the way the Pharisees distorted the Sabbath, it was just as they misjudged all of God's commandments. First, they utterly externalized the commandments, suggesting that there was no more to it than the outward observance, the outward behavior of a man in doing or not doing certain things. It's not a matter of the attitude of the heart, but a matter of external behavior. It was their teaching that by following a list of do's and don'ts, a person could perfectly keep the Sabbath and please the Lord his God.

26:01 Then they proceeded to construct elaborate and bizarre lists of the commands and the prohibitions.

26:10 You must not pluck grains of corn on the Sabbath day. You must not rub them between your hands.

26:17 You must not heal the sick on the Sabbath day. The less activity, the better, because the whole point of the Sabbath is to be inactive and to rest, say the Pharisees.

Phariseeism and Antinomianism: Two Extremes in Sabbath Observance

26:32 Phariseeism is not confined to the New Testament era. It has been as regularly revived as has antinomianism been.

26:43 There is no question that among those who believe in the keeping of one day and seven set apart for the worship and service of God, there has been recurrence, revolution, cycle of Phariseeism. Within the church, there can be no question that among some Puritans, there was some Phariseeism, so it is not the spirit of most of them. There is something native to the fallen heart that returns to the Pharisees' way of handling ethics.

27:20 If a person cannot do anything to sin, if he cannot be a priest,

27:30 he seems to run to the opposite extreme of wanting rigid rules to follow. But there is really a similarity between the two extremes. Perhaps you've seen it in your own people. You people here, you teach on the issue of righteousness.

27:46 And after you preach this plainly, as you know how, on the principles of righteousness, someone will come up and say, but pastor, can I do this? Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. If the principle has gotten us across, certainly someone in your congregation will come up and say, but pastor, is it alright to run around the block on Sunday?

28:10 And if you say, well, sure, I have nothing wrong with that, they'll say, well, how many times?

28:16 If I can just reduce the entire thing, to a specific, then I can go on my way with never a thought as to whether I am keeping the commandment or whether I'm not. Some people who have a tendency to fall asleep might better get up and run around the block so that they can give attention to the word of God. And if that's their whole reason for doing so, they may very well be keeping the Sabbath day holy. Our Savior went to the heart of the Pharisees' earth.

28:58 If this was not some command of non-activity into which man was to be compressed and forced, get him into the Sabbath, pray the... Look before his eyes, he is not to...

29:24 ...corns of grain on the Sabbath day.

29:28 But he is distressed, suffering with sickness, and there is a physician at hand. He is not to be healed on the Sabbath day.

29:41 Say the Pharisees, it's that man is to sacrifice to non-activity. That is the view of the Sabbath day. It's teaching that the Sabbath was meant to serve man's well-being, not for man to be sacrificed to the Sabbath day. What is most shocking is not that some throughout the ages have reached...

30:10 ...a pharisaical attitude towards the Sabbath.

30:12 We expect that that will recur again and again.

30:16 And if some of you young men have gray hairs, you will find the same old doctrines coming around once more before you leave the pulpit. The surprising thing is that those who want to abolish the one day in seven as holy and belonging to sacred uses have supported the Pharisees rather than our Lord in their view of the Sabbath. That's the most common hatred of the idea of the Sabbath, ...

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31:16 It would be the most grievous burden he could bear under the liberty that we have in the gospel. It would be a return to rigorous abuse, as in the days of his minority. For all they think, the only way to observe the Sabbath, ...

31:39 day would be with pharisaical strictity would be required of men to keep such a day. And the apostles clearly opposed any such notion, saying there is biblical material to support the pharisaical notion of the Sabbath in the old covenant and not in the new.

32:12 Was man intended to serve the interests of the Sabbath day with sacrifices of his humanity and his best interest in the name of non-activity?

The Sabbath's True Purpose: Man's Well-being and Acts of Mercy

32:24 The Sabbath was made for man's well-being,

32:30 for his physical well-being, for his spiritual welfare. And so in this passage and in Matthew chapter 12 and in Luke chapter 6, the parallel passages in the Synoptic Gospels, our Savior taught that it was perfectly natural and proper to care for human necessity on the Sabbath day. The illustration being men in need of food,

32:54 plucking grain, rubbing off the husk and eating it. It's always been in keeping with the spirit of the Sabbath to perform acts of mercy on that day. In chapter 3 and verse 4, it was told in verse 5 it was with some anger awful to do good on the Sabbath day or to do evil, to save life or to kill. It is always in keeping with the Sabbath to save life and to do good.

33:30 Acts of mercy in deeds of kindness. Matthew 12, our Lord,

33:39 Micah chapter 6 to show that God has always preferred showing mercy to rigid adherence to rules of worship. And in verse 11, he chided the Pharisees for having compassion on a sheep that fell into a pit when they would not have compassion on a man who was suffering with an illness from which he could not deliver himself.

34:04 In Matthew 12 and verse 5, we're also reminded that any labor expended in acts of piety, in exercises of worship like those performed by the priests at the temple was surely appropriate to the Sabbath day. Activity was not the point of the Sabbath. Never was it that.

34:25 Cessation from labor is not the great goal of the Sabbath. The point of the Sabbath is the putting aside of our own labors so that we might devote ourselves to the Lord on his sacred day.

34:43 This is a command which is good for man because it liberates man from the burdens and cares of normal responsibilities and recreation so that he is free to give himself to the Lord in worship and service for one day in service.

35:03 The only restriction of the Sabbath commandment besides forbidding that we continue our labors so that we may give ourselves entirely to the worship of the Most High is forbidding that we unnecessarily employ others on the Sabbath so that they may give themselves to the worship of the Most High.

The Christian's Delight in the Sabbath

35:23 Now certainly we can understand how fallen and self-centered hearts can woe this requirement. How the unconverted can feel that it's a fetter upon them from which they wish they would be free. They scarcely have time to grasp for material objects in 24 hours of 7 days in each week.

35:48 The heatheness cannot satisfy the cravings of essential delight that he has in his life. Any intrusion upon his time for serious pursuits is a difficult burden to him. His heart is renewed and has longing for higher things than the constant press of worldly business and the diversion of earthly toys. Christian is a man that is grieved that day by day there is so little time to seek the Lord,

36:28 to devote himself to Bible study and to prayer and to reading soul-building books in quiet. There is too little time for fellowship with the saints in public worship and in informal speaking to one another about the Lord.

36:46 But one day each week he can at liberty take and give himself entirely to such worship and service. He wanted to speak to his wife and children about heavenly themes. At least one day in 7 he has the time. Sometimes we press upon men duties that we don't find so clearly outlined in the scripture. Sometimes pastors are rigorous in pressing upon their congregations daily family worship.

37:21 It certainly is well advised. But when a family finds itself so pressured that it cannot worship as a family every day, surely one day in 7 they can read the scriptures together in prayer. And there are visits to the sick, to the unconverted that are left undone because of the press of business and pleasures. And they would be left undone altogether if it were not a day set aside for the worship and service of God. How does a man fill a whole day with prayer and study and service? Do you mean a Christian does not know? It is a sheer delight to a Christian. It is the holy of the Lord.

38:15 It is a day to honor the Lord in which I do not have to check my ledgers again. I do not have to run over the business of the office again. A day for the Lord. Pursuing my own ways or my own pleasures. Spirit of Paul in Romans 7 the Christian will cry I delight in this law of God after the inward man.

38:43 Holy and just and still will be groaning from the Christian who believes in the Sabbath as he sees remaining sin preventing him from doing what he chooses, freely chooses to do on this day. In his first hour of devotion he will grow tired and sleepy and then he will be ashamed of himself again for his weakness and the insincerity of his praises to God. To the Lord that seems to be undone because of the press of other obligations worship, kindness to the needy and suffering witnessing there is one day in the week when the Christian is set at liberty to pursue them with all of his heart and all of his time. Surely the goodness to man in this is obvious for his own soul to quiet himself and to refresh himself in the Lord. Surely that's good for man to see how good it is for his family to set again the spiritual goal to renew again the spiritual devotion of the household to the Lord God

40:06 of hosts. Pastors surely know that it's good for the church. I do not know how any church can thrive without a day of worship and service to God. I urge you to read Philip Schaff and his history of the Christian church.

40:30 On the difference between nations that have remembered a Sabbath day and those that have not. How the churches have thrived where they have had the liberty of Sabbath days and the constraint upon the churches where they have not so had that liberty.

40:49 It's good for them. How much of spiritual and material good can be done on that one day? What no one has ever done in opposing the doctrine of one day in each seven to being devoted to the Lord, they have failed utterly to show how worship and witness and fellowship and deeds of mercy may thrive at the same time that men follow their careers and pleasures seven days a week. And they never will show that if we are going to give ourselves to the Lord in worship or in service.

The Sabbath's Benefit to Man, Not God

41:28 Christians invent silly rules to the rest of the day? Yes, they will. But how do the rules come about where there are not even hints of it already? This morning when we considered the subject of holiness, if a Christian wants to be holy, then a Christian is going to have to discipline himself into certain practices and habits of holiness.

42:00 And when from the spirit of full Christian liberty and devotion to the Lord, begin to counsel with one another and say, how best may our hearts delight themselves in the Lord our God? How may we serve Him with most profit in our churches and in our families on this day? And we begin to set ways in which we may form habits for it, and someone will begin to make them rules for other men. And I think that's where most people begin to criticize the Puritans who were so careful in making the most of the day in serving the Lord. They read the ways in which they went about doing it and they said we could never keep those rules.

42:49 The one to suffer from the abolition of the Sabbath is not God. He does not require our worship for His well-being. God has needed of voices to praise Him. He can raise them up from the stone. But it is man who needs the Lord. It is man who needs His worship. It is man who needs His salvation. It is man who needs the service of the Most High.

43:19 It is this which ennobles man. It is this which blesses man. It is this which lifts man into the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Sabbath was not made for man. Excuse me, the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore, the Son of Man is Lord also.

Exhortation to Delight in the Sabbath

43:49 After reading, closing, just those verses of Isaiah in chapter 58, which must be familiar to many of you.

43:56 Turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, so holy of the Lord, honorable. Thou 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. 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.

44:37 When the Lord our God in Exodus 20.11 tells us that He did, He blessed those blessings in this world and in the world to come. May God grant to you and your people that blessing. Pray together.

45:05 The Lord must I recognize that we and our churches buffeted from every side that you would teach us how to it was once delivered to all of the saints and at the same time of love in our worship and of the true maturity of our people. Let us go into the delight worshiping and serving you on the Lord's day Sabbath.

46:17 Praise of our Redeemer and to our good. Amen.

Conference Closing Remarks and Prayer

46:43 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

46:59 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

47:03 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

47:08 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

47:12 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

47:17 you something of these conferences this is our six ministers and elders conference however in in england the banner truth has had this type of conference for over 25 years i think my first conference was 1962 i believe that would be about 22 years ago to my knowledge they've all been used in a great measure used of god to instruct and at times to search us and encourage those in the ministry and i pray that this will be no exception every reason to believe that the men attending such a conference are here not looking for frothy religious excitement but rather biblical and experimental substance of course that can only you you be received from the Bible. Men who desire, the men who come to these conferences are

48:38 men who desire to be instructed and desire to be served, like David. Men who desire to be used. Certainly, as already has been indicated, we all come because we need encouragement. And age doesn't change those things. You'll still need it when you're older, those three things. We have a hymn in our hymnal back in our churches. The name of the hymn is Brother and We Are Met to Worship. And one of the lines, I think the line is Brother and We Are Met to Worship and Adore the God We Love. But there's a line that says this,

49:28 All is vain, and it doesn't matter about the conference or the speakers, the same thing is true here, unless the Son of the Holy One comes down. And I pray that that's And we'll be our portion this week.