The Sabbath in the Prophets #3

Introduction: The Christian Sabbath Series and the Prophets' View

0:06 The following message was preached Sunday, July 26, 1998, to Emanuel Reformed Baptist Church of Sea-Tac, Washington. The speaker is Pastor Robert Martin. This message is the eighth in a series of twenty-four titled, The Christian Sabbath. ...series with the title, The Christian Sabbath.

0:29 Our concern in this series is to answer, I trust, a simple question. Is there a Christian Sabbath? In other words, does God require us to keep Sabbath one day in seven under the new covenant established by our Lord Jesus Christ?

0:49 Our method is a progressive one. We're looking first at the Sabbath established at creation, then turning to the Sabbath under the old covenant or Mosaic covenant, then to the Sabbath under the new, and then finally to take up practical suggestions for the proper observance of the Christian Sabbath. ...as the conclusion of the series.

1:13 And thus far in the series, we have examined the creation of the Sabbath as recorded in Genesis 2. We've also seen clear evidence that the Sabbath existed prior to Sinai, prior to it becoming part of the law of Moses in the fourth commandment. And we have considered the subject of the Sabbath under the law of Moses, looking at all of the references in the book of the law to the Sabbath day.

1:43 Last Lord's Day, we took up the subject of the Sabbath in the Old Testament prophets. And we began by noting that here we need to look both backward and forward, for that's how the prophets viewed the Sabbath day. On the one hand, the prophets looked back and spoke of Israel's disobeying the fourth commandment and of the judgments that followed. And yet on the other hand, they looked forward.

2:13 ...to the Sabbath day.

2:13 ...to the Sabbath in the Messianic age.

2:16 They looked forward to the Sabbath in the age of the new covenant.

2:21 And all that they said, whether looking back or looking forward, of course, was to address their own generation concerning keeping God's Sabbath.

Postscript: Israel's Blindness and Repentance Regarding the Sabbath (Nehemiah)

2:33 Last week, we considered portions of Jeremiah and Ezekiel that addressed the subject of Sabbath breaking. And addressed the relation that this sin had to the judgment that...

2:45 ...fell upon the nation of Judah in the captivity.

2:49 I'll not try to summarize all that we saw morning and evening. There were two messages devoted to those texts in Jeremiah and in Ezekiel. But before moving on today, I do want to add a postscript to what we saw last week.

3:05 Those who were here will recall, I trust, how blind the men of Judah were to the seriousness of their sin. They had heard Jeremiah's...

3:17 ...warning about the judgment that would come if they did not repent of their profaning the Sabbath.

3:25 And after the judgment actually had begun, after the fire that had been predicted had begun to burn, Ezekiel explained to them again that this had come to pass, at least in part, because of their Sabbath breaking. And yet we saw that even with the judgment upon them, even having been carried off into captivity, even the Lord telling them, I will not be inquired of you because of your Sabbath breaking. Even then, there was still no understanding in them. The plainest words of the prophets were like a riddle to them.

4:08 As Ezekiel says, O Lord Jehovah, they say of me, is he not a speaker of parables? They still did not understand. Now the question...

4:22 The question with which I would like to begin today, and a question which is something of a postscript to last week, is this. Did the people ever come to see what Jeremiah and Ezekiel were saying?

4:38 Did they ever come to understand how important it was that they keep the fourth commandment, as God had commanded them?

4:47 Well, the answer is yes. Though apparently, but briefly. After the captivity, a remnant returned. A remnant returned to the land in the days of Nehemiah and Ezra.

5:01 And their main task was to rebuild Jerusalem, to rebuild its walls, and ultimately to rebuild its temple. But that wasn't the only rebuilding work that desperately needed to be done. The people also needed to be instructed in the book of the law lest they sin again, and judgment come upon them as it had upon them. And to this end, we read, for example, in Nehemiah chapter 8, we read the account of Ezra reading the book of the law publicly at the broad place before the water gate of the city.

5:44 And we read that the people stood in assembly, they stood reverently. And Ezra and his Levite helpers, in the language of Nehemiah 8 verses 8 and 9, they read in the book, In the law of God distinctly, that is, with interpretation, they explained what the law meant, and they gave the sense so that they understood the reading.

6:10 And Nehemiah says that when they did so, all the people wept when they heard the words of the law.

6:19 Now, Nehemiah's account continues on in chapter 9 with the description of the reinstitution of the Feast of Tabernacles. And then there's an account of another day of sacrifice. And on that occasion, we read that the people made public confession of their sins. They made public confession of the iniquities of their fathers.

6:42 And in doing so, they vindicated God. They said, You are just in all that has come upon us. And again, the book of the law was read publicly. And this time, the nobles, with the rest of the people swearing also, entered into a curse and into an oath to walk in God's law, which was given by Moses, the servant of God, and to observe and to do the commandments of Jehovah.

The Oath to Keep the Sabbath and its Erosion (Nehemiah 10 & 13)

7:15 And here we pick up the account in Nehemiah chapter 10, verses 28 to 31. If you'll please turn there in your copy of the Scriptures with me. Nehemiah 10, verses 28 through 31. And the rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the porters, the singers, the Nethaneim, and all they that had separated themselves from the peoples of the lands under the law of God, their wives, their sons, and their daughters, everyone that had knowledge and understanding, they claimed to their brethren, their nobles, and entered into a curse and into an oath to walk in God's law, which was given by Moses, the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of Jehovah our Lord, and His ordinances and His statutes, and that we would not give our daughters to the peoples of the land, nor take their daughters for our sons. And if the peoples of the land bring wares or any grain on the Sabbath day to sell, that we would not buy of them on the Sabbath or on a holy day, and that we would forego the seventh year, that is the sabbatical year, and the exaction of every debt.

8:40 Those who had understanding of the law of God swore to keep that law, and then they took practical measures, they specified what that would mean in the peculiar circumstances in which they found themselves, especially in a land that now had been filled by the Babylonians with those who were not the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

9:04 Now this text shows us a couple of things. But the thing I want you to know is that this text shows us a couple of things. What I want you to note especially is how prominent among the commitments entered into on this occasion was a vow to keep the Sabbath holy.

9:22 Now Nehemiah, apparently, Nehemiah was the governor of the land, had been appointed by the Persian kings who were now ruling over the empire. Nehemiah subsequently returned to Persia to appear before King Artaxerxes. We're not sure how long he was gone. We don't know.

9:41 We don't know how long he was there before returning again to Jerusalem. But when he returned, he had to address certain irregularities that had arisen in his absence, including an irregularity having to do with the very commitment that the people had made on this occasion. And if you'll turn now to Nehemiah chapter 13, verses 15 through 22, you'll read of what happened.

10:12 Nehemiah says, He says, In those days, this is after his return from this apparently lengthy time in Persia, he says, In those days I saw in Judah some men treading wine presses on the Sabbath and bringing in sheaves and lading donkeys with it as also wine and grapes and figs and all manner of burdens which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. And I testified against them. In the day wherein they sold provisions,

10:48 there dwelt men of Tyre also there, who brought in fish and all manner of wares and sold on the Sabbath to the children of Judah and in Jerusalem. Then I contended with the nobles of Judah and said to them, What evil thing is this that you do and profane the Sabbath day? Did not your fathers do this? And did not our God bring all, all this evil upon us and upon this city?

11:18 Yet you bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the Sabbath?

11:25 It came to pass that when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the Sabbath, I commanded that the doors should be shut and commanded that they should not be opened till after the Sabbath. And some of my servants I set over the gates that there should no burden be brought in on the Sabbath day. So the merchants and sellers of all, all kinds of wares lodged outside Jerusalem once or twice. Then I testified against them and said to them, Why do you lodge about the wall?

11:58 If you do this again, I'll lay hands on you. From that time forth, they came no more on the Sabbath. And I commanded the Levites that they should purify themselves and that they should come and keep the gates to sanctify the Sabbath day. Now, there are a couple of things in this text that I want you to see.

12:25 First of all, we see that the issue of the Sabbath was as important after the captivity as it was before.

12:34 The issues have not changed. God's law has not changed. The duty of the people has not changed. What Jeremiah had denounced, what Ezekiel had denounced, Nehemiah now denounces.

12:50 Even after the people have been taken away, even after the people have sworn to keep the Sabbath, they have gone back on their commitment. And Nehemiah, as governor of the land now, having heard the lessons that were uttered by the prophets, he does stand in the gap and build the wall and exercises his authority as ruler in the land to make sure that the gates of the city were not used to profane the Sabbath day. But the second thing I would have you to see from this text is how easily, how easily men's resolve to keep the fourth commandment can erode before the temptation to seek their own way. These same folk who had stood weeping at the reading of the law,

13:42 these same folk who had felt so strongly about their need to observe God's commandments and to keep His Sabbath had felt so strongly that they had bound themselves with an oath, sworn before God. Yet, in but a little while, when temptation came,

14:02 their commitment had eroded away. And surely, brethren, there's a lesson in this text for us. It is not enough to hear the words of God's commandments. It is not enough to hear the teaching of the Word of God and to understand it clearly.

14:25 It's not enough to sit before the Word of God, read, and explain, and apply, and to come to deep conviction of soul so much so that, as some of you have done in this series, that you would sit in these pews and weep as you reflected on how you kept God's day in the past. It's not enough even to swear before God that from this day forward, I'll do differently.

14:55 What is needed, brethren, beyond that commitment is a continuing, prayerful, earnest, sincere, zealous commitment to following on and resisting the temptations of the devil who will try, if he can, to take us away from what we have said we believe, what we have said we will do. How quickly those who had stood to swear with an oath that they would keep the Sabbath holy, how quickly they were ready then when temptation came to turn aside from that commitment. Brethren, there's a warning for us. But now our main business, today, is not to continue with the train of thought that we've been pursuing in Jeremiah, in Ezekiel, and now in Nehemiah. But instead, we come today to two texts which display as clearly, I believe, as it is possible to do, dramatically opposite views of the Sabbath.

The Sabbath as a Burden: The Merchants of Amos's Day (Amos 8:4-10)

15:58 Dramatically opposite views or attitudes toward the Sabbath day. And the first text to which I would direct your attention, is found in the prophecy of Amos, chapter 8. Amos, chapter 8. I'll read verses 4 through 10.

16:26 Amos is denouncing the sins of the people. He is speaking of the causes of the judgment that is coming upon the land. He says, Hear this, O ye that would swallow up the needy and cause the poor of the land to fail, saying, When will the new moon be gone that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath that we will celebrate, that we may set forth wheat making the ephah small and the shekel great and dealing falsely with balances of deceit, that we may buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of shoes and sell the refuse of the wheat.

17:04 The Lord hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works. Shall not the land tremble for this? And every one mourn that dwells therein? Yea, it shall rise up again.

17:20 It shall rise up holy like the river. It shall be troubled and sink again like the river of Egypt. It shall come to pass in that day, says the Lord Jehovah, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon and I will darken the earth in the clear day. I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation and I will bring sackcloth upon all loins and baldness upon every head and I will make it as the mourning for an only son and the end thereof.

17:51 as a bitter day.

17:55 Amos here denounces the merchants.

18:00 He denounces the merchants of the land because of their sins.

18:06 He tells them that judgment is coming in part because of them and because of their wicked business practices.

18:15 He charges them, for example, with dealing falsely with balances of deceit.

18:21 He charges them with selling the refuse of the wheat. That is, he charges them with cheating their customers by using a fraudulent balance or by mixing chaff with the wheat that they sold.

18:36 Part of the judgment that's going to come on the land is because of their fraudulent business practices. But that wasn't their only sin.

18:46 Their hearts also weren't right concerning the Sabbath day.

18:52 Oh, it was true. Technically, they kept the day. They closed their shops on the Sabbath and they closed their shops on the Sabbath and they closed their shops And they closed their shops on the first day of the new moon, also a sacred day on the Hebrew calendar.

19:08 But in doing so, all was mere form, for they resented not being able to sell on God's holy days. They resented it.

19:22 To them, the day did not represent the gracious act of God sanctifying them as a nation. That's not what it meant. It only represented to them lost business opportunity. That's all the day meant to them in their heart of hearts.

19:40 Oh, they kept the day in form. They closed their shops. But their heart wasn't in it.

19:47 There was a bitterness in their heart, a resentment in their heart, that they had to do that.

19:56 They said, When will the new moon be gone that we may sell grain? When will the Sabbath be gone that we may set forth wheat?

20:07 John, John Trapp commenting on this text observes that these servants of Mammon complained that on the Sabbath that the sun proceeded at a slower pace than on other days.

20:20 That the day seemed to drag on because they didn't get to do what they really wanted to do.

20:27 He says they greatly grudged that God should claim the day as His own to their disadvantage.

20:37 To these men, God's law was like a chain, or it was like shackles that kept them from doing as they pleased. And they chafed under the Sabbath day as though to keep the Sabbath were to bear a grievous chafing yoke.

20:56 Now, in this passage, Amos portrays a wicked, grievous attitude towards the Lord's Sabbath.

21:06 The example he gives is striking, but it's not unique.

21:12 The merchants of his day, and doubtless their customers, because they couldn't have done business, there had not been those who have desired to have had them open on the Sabbath day. But the merchants of Amos' day regarded the Sabbath as a burden.

21:29 And frankly, brethren, multitudes to this day regarded in exactly the same way.

21:36 For many in our day, the thought of keeping the day holy means only lost opportunity to buy and sell. The thought of keeping it holy simply means lost opportunity. To buy and sell.

21:56 In other cases, folk regard the day as burdensome. Because keeping it holy would keep them from their recreations, keep them from their entertainments, keep them from their hobbies.

22:08 And these attitudes, almost universal in our culture, have turned the Sabbath into a day of commerce, just as in the days of Jeremiah and Ezekiel and Nehemiah. And these attitudes have turned America's America into a nation of Sunday shoppers and pleasure seekers.

22:34 Now, do you think God has an opinion about any of that?

22:39 Do you think that God cares what is happening right now in our community? It's a quarter to twelve.

22:50 We're about five minutes away from South Center Mall. I guarantee you the lot is full of automobiles.

22:59 Of those who have gone to use the day as a day of commerce,

23:05 drive a bit further, make your way out to the mountains, you will find that the day is being used by multitudes as a day of recreation.

23:16 Others are to be found in their family rooms around a TV screen watching sports, using it as a day of entertainment.

23:26 Others are out and about on various kinds of excursions doing their own thing.

23:32 Our nation has been turned by an attitude that regards the Sabbath as a burden into a day of commerce and into a day of pleasure. Do you think God cares? Do you think He has an opinion? Well, Amos answers that question in the words of verse 8.

23:50 He says, Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwells in it?

23:59 Shall we believe that God has no controversy with our nation over the profaning of the Sabbath that is to be seen on every hand? Are we to think that God has no controversy at all with us as He looks at us? As He looks down upon the present scene where the highways and the byways and the shopping plazas and the sites of recreation are filled and the churches are virtually empty?

24:28 Shall we say on God's holy day He has no thought of these things, no regard for it? Can we believe that those in our day, especially among professing Christians who regard the Sabbath as a burden, shall we think that they are nonetheless pleasing, in His sight?

24:50 The men of Amos, they hated the Sabbath because they loved having their own way. But God was not blind. And He swore that He would never forget.

25:03 And for this sin, as much as for the others cited, He would bring them, He says, to a bitter end.

25:13 The thought of the Sabbath put bitterness in their hearts. Resentment. God says, I will bring you indeed to a bitter end. And if the men of our day, brethren, act the same way, can it be that this generation will come to a better end?

25:32 I see not how.

The Sabbath as a Delight: The Call in Isaiah (Isaiah 58:13-14) - Context

25:35 Now there's one attitude towards the Sabbath. An attitude of resentment regarding the day as a burden, as a chafing yoke to be thrown off at the first opportunity.

25:51 But now there's a contrasting attitude. And that's found in our second text. What a contrast we find when we turn to the prophecy of Isaiah 15. Isaiah 58, verses 13 and 14.

26:11 Hear the words of the Lord say, If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and shall call the Sabbath a delight and the holy of the Lord honorable, and shall honor it not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, then you shall delight yourself in the Lord, and I will make you to ride upon the high places of the earth, and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

26:53 Last time we examined the context of these verses. To get the full context, there's a sense in which you have to go all the way back to the beginning of chapter 40 and follow all the way through to the end of the book. It's one continuous prophecy. But we did examine chapter 58 down through the first, the first verses of chapter 59 and saw something of the immediate context of these verses.

27:17 We saw that here Isaiah was commanded to declare to the house of Judah their sins. We saw that they weren't an irreligious people. They sought God's face daily with the expectation of being heard as though they were righteous.

27:33 And yet God tells them that He didn't regard their prayers with His favor. And to them it was a great mystery. There was confusion in their minds. How could this be?

27:44 And the Lord's response to their confusion was to inform them that their religion was but formalism.

27:53 Their Sabbath fasts were a mockery.

27:57 Part of the day they engaged in a fasting ritual that had all the outward appearance of great devotion to the Lord.

28:09 They put sackcloth upon their bodies. They put earth upon their heads. They bowed themselves down with all the appearance of great devotion to the Lord and religious life. They bowed themselves down to the Lord and religious life.

28:19 And yet the rest of the Sabbath day they used the day to find their own pleasures and to engage in their callings. And the Lord protested to them that this is not the Sabbath that He had commanded.

28:38 This is not what He had commanded them to do. Indeed, they were not only to desist from their pleasures and their callings, but they were to use the day in a positive way to engage in their callings. They were to engage in works of mercy. That's what they were supposed to do.

28:57 Not just to give God part of the day in some ritual and then go about the rest of the day and treat it as their own. No, they were to give God the whole of the day. They were to cease from their labors. They were to cease from their own pleasures.

29:14 And they were to positively give themselves to doing those works that God had commanded as suitable for the day. Works of mercy. And no religious order, ritual, part of the day couldn't make up for their disregard of those things.

29:32 Now that's the context.

29:35 He tells them, if you will honor Me on My day, if you will keep it holy in the ways that I have commanded, then you will know My blessing and I will hear your prayers.

29:49 Their prayers are not answered, the prophet tells them. Not because God is blind and deaf.

29:58 Not because God is powerless. God does not. God does not answer your prayers because you walk contrary to His law.

30:08 You will not hear Him. He will not hear you.

30:13 Now that's the context of the verses that we're looking at in verses 13 and 14. Now keeping that background in view, let's examine these verses and the proposition that's contained in them. There's an if-then construction. If you do this, then this will follow.

The Proper Attitude Toward the Sabbath: A Moral Decision

30:36 Here we see described an answer. An attitude dramatically opposite to what Amos described.

30:46 Here is not an attitude which regards the Sabbath as a burden, as a grievous yoke to be borne. But here, the prophet speaks of delighting in the Sabbath. Of regarding it with joy.

31:06 We'll open these verses under two heads. First, the attitude described. Second, the blessings promised. And then we'll close.

31:16 We'll close with a brief word of application. But now this morning, just the attitude described.

31:23 Verse 13 describes for us the proper attitude that men ought to have toward the Sabbath day. Let's look at the verse again. If you turn your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, and the holy day of the Lord honorable, and shall honor, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, then, if you do this, then there will follow, in the language of verse 14, the blessings that are described. But let's look at the if. Let's look at the attitude and the behavior that is described.

32:17 And the Lord begins verse 13 with an image that requires some explanation. If you turn your foot Turn away your foot from the Sabbath.

32:29 Proverbs chapter 4 verses 26 and 27 says, Ponder the path of your feet. That is, weigh carefully the path of your feet and let all your ways be established or let all your ways be ordered rightly.

32:48 Do not turn to the right or to the left. Remove your foot from evil. Now, the image of the path of your feet refers to moral choices.

33:04 And the point of the proverb is that we are to carefully weigh our moral decisions and be extremely careful where we place our feet.

33:17 We are to be careful about the things that we do. We are to be careful about the moral, the ethical choices that we make. And we are in being careful to choose the path of righteousness. We are to choose the path that is marked out by God's law.

33:34 That's the straight path. That is the safe path. That is the righteous path. We're not to turn out of that path to the right hand.

33:43 We're not to turn out of that path to the left hand.

33:47 We are to walk in that path of righteousness. We are to remove our feet from the pathway of evil. We are to remove our feet from the pathway marked not by the law of God, but characterized by violations of the law of God.

34:08 But the imagery of the placing of one's foot has to do with moral, ethical decisions.

34:18 Now, using the same image, the pathway of one's feet,

34:22 in Isaiah 58.13, in our text, the Lord says to us, If you turn your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, and the holy day of the Lord honorable, and shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words. If you will turn your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your own ways.

34:51 The issue is still moral decision.

34:56 This verse addresses the issue of making moral, ethical decisions with regard to the fourth commandment, keeping the Sabbath holy. How we use the day is a moral decision.

35:14 We must not delude ourselves. It is a moral decision. It is as much a moral decision as the keeping of any other of the Ten Commandments of God.

35:26 If we decide to lie or to tell the truth in a certain situation, that's a moral decision. We decide to do right or we decide to do wrong.

35:37 If we decide to steal or not to steal in a certain situation, that's a moral decision. To do right or to do wrong. If we decide to keep the day as God has commanded or decide to keep it in the way we want to do it, brethren, that's a moral decision. It's a decision to do right or to do wrong.

36:01 Make no mistake. According to the Bible, and this is one of the great points pressed in this text, how we use the day reflects a moral decision. Whether we will obey the fourth commandment or whether we will disobey the fourth commandment, whether we will turn our feet into the path of righteousness or turn them into the path of evil and wickedness.

36:25 And surely, in all that we've seen in this series to this point, this principle is clear that the Sabbath is a moral and not just a ceremonial issue.

36:38 Well, that principle presents itself here again.

Two Pathways: Sinful Pleasure vs. Righteous Honor

36:43 Now, if we can imagine the moral decision that we make concerning the Sabbath as a gate, a gate separating two pathways, each leading away from the gate in opposite directions.

37:02 Our moral decision is a gate.

37:06 On one side of the gate is a path leading in this direction. On the other side of the gate is a path leading in the opposite direction. If we can use that imagery and fix that imagery in our mind, then what this text tells us is that these pathways are quite different from one another and that those on these pathways regard the Sabbath day in dramatically different ways.

37:37 In other words, the gate swings between not only two different moral pathways, but between two different attitudes toward the Sabbath day.

37:50 On one side of the gate is the pathway of sin.

37:55 Those who travel down that pathway do their pleasure on God's day.

38:02 In other words, they do as they please. They regard the day as their own to be used in any way that they desire.

38:14 Perhaps on the day those in that pathway continue their labors from the other six days. Perhaps they take up recreations or entertainment or use the day for excursions or pass the day in social engagements or even spend the day in idleness and sloth.

38:34 But in all these and like things, they are doing their own pleasure on God's day. They are doing their own pleasure on God's holy day.

38:44 As the text goes on to say, they are doing their own ways, finding their own pleasure, speaking their own words.

38:52 And the common denominator that is to be found amongst all that are on that pathway,

39:01 the common denominator in all of their use of the day is their attitude.

39:07 It's their attitude to the day. To them, it's not God's holy day.

39:14 Were they truly to regard the day in that way, in that light, that this is God's day,

39:22 that He has claimed it especially as His own, were they to truly regard it in that light, they couldn't know what they're doing, at least not with a clear conscience.

39:34 But far from regarding the day as the Lord's day, those traveling down that pathway regard the day as their own and they resent anyone telling them that they can't use it the way they want.

39:51 Indeed, so ingrained is this attitude that were they compelled to keep the day as God's holy day,

40:01 were someone with the power of a Nehemiah to compel them to keep the day, they would regard it as a burden and not as a blessing. Now that's one of the pathways on the other side of the gate is the pathway of righteousness.

40:24 And those who travel down this path to use the language of our text remove their foot from the Sabbath from doing their pleasure on God's holy day.

40:35 In other words, they do not do as they please.

40:41 They do not regard the day as their own.

40:46 They do not think that they can use the day any way that they desire.

40:53 And therefore, they don't continue their labors from the other six days. They don't take up recreations, even those that would be legitimate on the other six days or entertainments. They don't go, they don't go about on excursions or pass the day in social engagements of a worldly kind. They don't spend the day in absolute idleness.

41:16 Do it be a day of rest? They don't spend it in sloth and idleness. They don't do their own ways. They don't find their own pleasures.

41:25 They don't speak their own words on God's day.

41:30 Instead, as the text tells us, they honor God on His holy day and use it in those ways that He's appointed. Now, that's a totally different path.

41:43 Now, there's a common denominator in their use of the day as well.

41:48 At the root of their holy use of the day is their positive attitude toward the day. Those over here have a negative attitude towards the day. The very thought makes them change.

42:04 But over here, there's a positive attitude. To them, it is God's holy day. And they don't resent that. They don't regard the day as their own.

42:13 They acknowledge He is Lord. He is Sovereign. He is Creator. He is Redeemer.

42:20 He has the right to claim every day. But He has claimed this one. And there's no resentment, no bitterness at heart at that thought.

42:30 They gladly acknowledge the Sabbath as the Lord's day. And because it is His, they honor His day. That is, they do His will on His day even as they honor Him and wish to do His will on all things. How they keep the Sabbath at principle is no different from how they relate to the rest of His law, the rest of His revealed will.

42:56 They're faithful to the truth because they love Him and want to honor Him by speaking truth. They're faithful to their wives not just because they love their wives, but because they love God and want to honor Him by doing His will.

43:13 They're faithful to all of God's commandments out of the same motive, to honor God. And here's a point, brethren, let's lay hold on. You don't have to compel them to do it.

43:28 For these folk, rules aren't needed.

43:33 You don't have to compel them to keep the day in the way of God's appointment. Instead, they do it from the heart because even as they delight in the Lord, so they delight in His day.

43:49 Their delight in the day is just the overflow of their delight in God. To them, the day is a blessing. It's not a burden. It's a delight.

44:01 It's not dreariness and drudgery.

44:05 Indeed, the day would become a burden to them only if they were compelled to spend it some other way.

44:15 To them, it is a sacred harbor. A blessed day. The best of all the week.

44:21 It's the market day of the soul, as the Puritans said. It's the day on which we have the closest communion with God, have the opportunity for the closest fellowship with our God.

44:33 It's a blessed day, not a burden. A day of delight.

The Sabbath as Precious and an Expression of Our Regard for God

44:38 Now, the Bible here, brethren, very clearly addresses the question of our attitude towards the Sabbath.

44:46 An attitude that is not something that's secret. It's not something that remains somehow bottled up within. Our attitude shows in our practice.

44:57 Our attitude shows in how we use the hours of the day.

45:02 And rather than regarding it as a heavy burden to be borne, as so many do,

45:10 it's grievous sometimes to speak to folk and to hear them, to disparage the Sabbath, the idea of keeping the Sabbath as though it were a great burden,

45:20 instead of regarding it as a burden. The Sabbath is to be a delight.

45:27 The word translated delight comes from a root meaning delicate and fragile. It speaks of something precious. Something of great value.

45:36 The word translated honorable speaks of that which has great dignity and therefore of that which is to be treated with great respect and taken together. These words of our text, the text teaches that the Sabbath is a day of great value. It's an institution of great value. It's an institution of great dignity.

45:56 It's a day to be treated as something precious.

46:00 It's a day to be treated as a day of great value and dignity. To be treated with great respect.

46:08 And we're called to delight in it. We're called to honor it. Not just for its own sake alone, though the day itself, I believe, is sufficient to make it a delight to us. We are called to delight.

46:21 We are called to delight in it and to honor it for the sake of Him whom it represents. It is the Lord's day.

46:31 He created the Sabbath for man. It's His gift.

46:37 It is a clear manifestation of the blessed love of our Heavenly Father. His kindness, His grace, of His mercy.

46:49 The Sabbath shows His heart.

46:56 We ought to honor Him.

46:58 He blessed it. He sanctified it. He blessed it. He claims it as His own.

47:05 He commands us to observe it in a holy way. He commands us to take care that we not profane it. And how we regard the day is nothing less, brethren, than an expression of how we regard Him.

47:20 Now that's the real issue.

47:25 If the day is a burden,

47:28 could it be because we find God to be a burden? How we keep the day is nothing less than an expression of how we regard Him. Do we delight? In Him as precious?

47:48 Do we honor Him as one worthy of great respect?

47:55 If we do, then we ought to delight in Him and honor it as He wills.

48:07 God gave the Sabbath to man for a holy use.

48:11 On the Sabbath, we are to cease from our own patterns of activity, our ordinary patterns of activity. We're to take care not to profane the day. We're not to treat it as common. It's not a common day.

48:24 It's a special day. We're not to treat it as common. We're not to defile it by using it in a way other than the holy way that God has commanded.

48:36 The day belongs to God. Repeatedly, as we've gone through these passages in the Scripture, we have seen how He has spoken of it as my Sabbath, my holy day, my Sabbath. This is the Lord's day when we come to the New Testament.

48:52 He has repeatedly told us it is His. It belongs to Him. We are to treat it as His property. We're not to treat it as our property.

49:01 We're to sanctify it. In sanctifying it, we confess that we belong to God and are sanctified by Him. By delighting in it, we show that we delight in Him. By honoring it, we show that we honor Him.

Struggling with Delight: The Warfare of Flesh and Spirit

49:21 Now tonight, we're going to come to the second point contained in this text. That's the blessing that is promised to those who delight in the Lord's Sabbath and honor it. It's a great blessing attached. To delighting in the Lord's Sabbath.

49:37 And at the end of this series, when we come to this section, when we come to the capstone of the series, to the practical suggestions for the proper observance of the Christian Sabbath, I'm going to come back to these verses. We're going to see in more detail of what in practical terms it means not to do your own ways and to find your own pleasures and to speak your own words.

49:58 But before closing this morning, I do want to address a situation that we often find ourselves in on the Sabbath day. Then I'll be done.

50:09 Last Lord's Day, after the evening message, I was talking with one of the brethren and he honestly confessed that though he did not regard the Sabbath as a burden, he could not always say that he found delight in it.

50:31 He said, I can't say that I find the day to be a burden,

50:36 but I can't honestly say that I always find delight in keeping the Sabbath day.

50:42 I appreciate his candor. And I appreciate it most of all because he described the experience of not a few of us, including this preacher.

50:54 We can't honestly say that the day is a burden, but we can't honestly say that we always find delight in it.

51:03 What shall we say in answer to our brother's candid confession?

51:08 Shall we accuse him of being immature as a Christian man?

51:14 Shall we rebuke him for a cold heart? Or suspect him of worldly mindedness because he does not always find delight in the Sabbath day? Now, some would be ready to do those very things.

51:28 But brethren, they would miss the mark because that's not what's going on whatsoever.

51:35 The experience that this brother described, though lamentable, is normal.

51:42 It's normal.

51:45 Here's my reason for saying this.

51:48 The proper observance of the Sabbath day is one of the most flesh-withering things that God calls us to do.

51:59 If you consistently keep the Sabbath holy, you will find yourself in a battle with the flesh.

52:08 Keeping the Sabbath is one of the most flesh-withering things that God calls us to do. The flesh doesn't like the Sabbath day. The flesh finds no delight in it. The flesh would be rid of the day if it could.

52:25 If in anything, there's a warfare between the flesh and the Spirit, surely the Christian will experience that warfare on the Sabbath day.

52:36 On this day, God calls us to deny ourselves and do His will.

52:44 He calls us to turn away from our ways, from our pleasures, even from our own words, and to do as He bids. And the flesh recoils from that.

52:59 And if it cannot have its way and lead us in the paths of disobedience, at least the flesh will try to take all the delight out of our obedience.

53:12 Now, we're not ignorant of the spiritual mix. We're not ignorant of the players. It's not just our flesh and the day that are in the picture.

53:22 There's also the devil behind all of the flesh's chafing at keeping the day. Behind all of the flesh's recoiling at self-denial stands the old devil, the adversary of our souls,

53:38 who would not only take all the delight out of God's Sabbath, but would take all the delight out of all of God's holy exercises and institutions, if he could.

53:50 I don't think we ought to chide our brother for being honest and candid, candid about his struggle. We ought to pray with him that God would give not only him, but all of us grace more and more to call the Sabbath a time. That's what our response ought to be. We ought to acknowledge frankly, brethren, that he spoke for all of us.

54:20 All of us who love the Lord and delight in Him have to confess we don't always delight in the Sabbath. There are times when we frankly wish we could do something else.

54:33 We find ourselves constantly being pulled constantly being pulled. It's like being in a river with a fast current and we find ourselves almost constantly swimming against the current in keeping the day. The current's the flesh. Indwelling sin, remaining sin still wants to draw us away from God's holy ordinance.

54:54 And if it can't take us out of the day and get rid of the day, the flesh at least will try to destroy our delight in it.

55:04 Let's not be ignorant of our enemy's devices.

Three Suggestions for Consistent Delight in the Sabbath

55:08 Now in closing, I have three suggestions that may prove helpful. At least they've been helpful to me in maintaining some kind of consistent delight in keeping the day. And the first suggestion is this.

55:25 Settle once and for all the question of the Bible's doctrine of the Sabbath.

55:33 Settle once and for all the question of the Bible's doctrine of the Sabbath. As long as your judgment is in doubt on that question, you provide the flesh and the devil to you. Well, too much opportunity to draw you away into the path of disobedience.

55:50 At best, your observance of the day will be half-hearted and mixed if your conscience is not thoroughly convinced that it is my duty to keep the day holy.

56:06 A half-hearted and mixed keeping of the day will never make it in light.

56:13 Such a dealing with God's ordinances is never the way of delight and blessing.

56:21 If, for example, you come to the Lord's table with no sense of delight, no settled convictions about the purpose and use of the table, you will find it to be a meaningless, tasteless, joyless exercise.

56:37 In like manner, if you come to the Sabbath day with no clear views of the day's meaning, with no clear view of your privilege and duty in relation to the day, calling it a delight is going to be almost impossible at any meaningful level.

56:59 Settle once and for all. In your mind and in your conscience what the Bible has to say about the day. That's the first step toward having any consistent delight in keeping the day. But second, don't recoil at self-denial when the duties of the day call for it.

57:23 Check yourself. Arrest yourself.

57:28 If necessary, declare war on yourself. But don't draw back, don't recoil from the concept or the practice of self-denial when the duties of the day call for it. Self-denial is of the very essence of the day.

57:46 Not doing your own ways, not finding your own pleasures, not speaking your own words. Self-denial is of the very essence of the day.

57:59 It's to deny to yourself the tendency that your heart is going to have to say, I want this as mine just like the others.

58:11 Don't recoil from self-denial.

58:15 Self-denial is the pathway of victory over the flesh.

58:20 You'll never mortify the flesh without self-denial. And the more victory you have over the flesh, the more delight you're going to have in the day.

58:31 The more our consciences do not condemn us in the things that we do, the more joy we will experience in knowing that we pass the hours of the day according to the will of God. A clear conscience, brethren, that we have fought a good fight and have sought to maintain our integrity through the day will bring you indescribable delight. Delight in the day.

59:01 And then third,

59:03 delight yourself in the Lord, first of all,

59:08 above everything else. If you will delight yourself in the Lord on His day, you will have little trouble finding ample reason to delight in the day itself.

59:21 This is a day to meditate much upon our God.

59:26 This is a day to think much upon His being and His virtues.

59:32 This is a day to think much upon His works and His doings. This is a day to think much of His promises and engagements to you.

59:43 Think on the Father. Think on the Son. Think on the Spirit. Think on who they are and who they are to you and what they've done for you.

59:58 Set aside all the business and all the trials and all the pursuits of the other six days and fix your hearts there upon your God.

60:08 Think upon Him. Let your heart be filled with thoughts of your God.

60:16 If you do that, you delight in the Lord. You will find that the day is a delightful haven of sacred rest. You will find it to be the best day of the week, not a burden but a delight whose weekly return you will regard with thankfulness and joy for the blessing that it is. Delighting in our God is the way of delighting in the day.

Conclusion: The Puritan's Delight and Prayer

60:47 I'll close this morning with the words of the Puritan George Swinnock.

60:52 Swinnock said, Hail thou that art highly favored of God. Thou map of heaven. Thou goest to the golden spot of the week. Thou market day of souls.

61:02 Thou daybreak of eternal brightness. Thou queen of days. Oh, how do men and women flutter up and down on the weekdays as the dove on the waters and can find no rest for their souls till they come to thee their art till thou put forth thy hand and take them in. Oh, how they sit under thy shadow with great delight and find thy fruit sweet to their taste.

61:34 Oh, the mountings of mind. The ravishing happiness of heart. The solace of soul which on thee they enjoy. The blessed Savior.

61:49 The queen of days. The best. All the week.

61:54 Call the Sabbath and the holy day of the Lord honor. And honor him in it.

62:05 Not doing your own ways. Finding your own pleasures.

62:11 Or speaking your own ways. And if you turn your foot from the Sabbath from doing your way on his holy day then verse 14 tonight great marvelous blessings will follow.

62:39 Our Father we again thank you for this blessed day that you have made.

62:46 We do ask Lord that you will help us to rejoice and be glad in it.

62:51 To regard it as a delight as you have made it to be.

62:57 Lord you have made the Sabbath for man that it might be a delightful day of sacred rest.

63:05 We pray Lord that you would help us to honor you in it.

63:09 We thank you for this blessing. Show us oh Lord and teach us and grant us grace and give us the spirit Lord that we might mortify the flesh and not be drawn aside after so many commitments to keep the day into the paths of wickedness. Lord look with favor on us we ask in Jesus name.