Challenging Questions

Introduction and Prayer

0:00 Good morning, everyone. Good to see you on this Lord's Day.

0:07 I think some of you may have been expecting Pastor Diekema to be teaching Sunday School this morning. There was a little bit of confusion. I think Wednesday night, Pastor Hughes was announcing off of, I think, off of our calendar. And originally, Pastor Diekema was going to be teaching today.

0:26 But since I didn't finish up with the Fourth Commandment, I'm going to be teaching today. And then he's going to teach next week. And one of the things he wanted you to do, if you're able to do it as much as you can, in preparation for next week, is to read through the Gospel of John.

0:47 He's going to be taking up kind of a survey. That's the next book of the Bible that he'll be surveying is the Gospel of John. Okay? All right. Well, let's pray together.

1:00 Our Father, we thank you this morning for another week that you have preserved us and kept us through. And that now, once again, we find ourselves here with your people gathered in this place that has been designated as our meeting place. And we thank you for the church of Jesus Christ and for the blessings that we have received from you. And we are humbled when we consider that not only have you promised all the benefits and blessings of the Gospel to us, but you have confirmed those promises by your oath, even making a covenant in which you have bound yourself to your people and have promised to do us good.

1:45 And we marvel that the God of heaven would so condescend as to do this. And yet we rejoice in it. And this is all our hope and our salvation, that you are our God and we are your people and that your dwelling place is in the midst of your people. Amen.

2:02 We do pray that you would draw near to us by your spirit today, particularly now in the Sunday school time, that you would help each of the Sunday school teachers to open up and explain the teachings of your Holy Word. And we pray the same for our class. And we pray you would give all of us receptive hearts. We desire to know more of you, to know more of your Word.

2:29 And not just that we can say we have an intellectual knowledge. We desire to know more of you, to know more of your Word. But in order that our thinking, our hearts, our lives may be shaped by your truth, that we might glorify the God who has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. We pray that you would forgive us of our iniquities.

2:48 We do not come with some kind of arrogant notion that we have somehow merited any favor from you, but we recognize that even at our best, our righteousness is tainted and it is as filthy. And so we come through our mediator, the Lord Jesus, and we pray that for his sake you would indeed pardon all of our iniquities. And as you promised to do, that you would receive our worship and our love, tainted as it is, as we offer it up together with the intercession of the Lord Jesus Christ, which makes it acceptable to you. And again, it's in Christ's name we pray.

3:27 Amen. All right.

Review of the Fourth Commandment Study

3:33 Let's just review just very briefly. Again, we bring ourselves up to date. We're here.

3:41 God willing, we'll eventually get here. Not today, but we're going to God willing finish this up today. And after opening up the issue of the moral law itself, we then took this opportunity to address the subject that can be somewhat controversial at times. The Fourth Commandment.

4:00 This is the basic outline that we followed over a number of weeks. Biblical basis for the continuance of the Fourth Commandment. The change of the day. And then we've been considering the proper and balanced observance of it.

4:15 This was the introduction to that. Avoiding the extremes of laxity and legalism. Finding our guidelines from both the Old and New Testaments. Proper attitudes.

4:24 We must delight in the Lord's Day as a blessing. Be devoted to the Lord's Day as a duty. A proper use of the Lord's Day. We saw that its positive purposes are threefold.

4:34 It's a day of rest, physical rest. A day of worship. Amen. Amen.

4:38 And a day of ministry.

4:41 And then last week we took up this question. Now I'm addressing various questions that are often raised. Practical questions. And I'm going to continue to hopefully finish that up today.

4:51 And give just some counsels. Some practical counsels about profiting from the Lord's Day. But the first question was what activities are forbidden on the Lord's Day. And we dealt with this whole question of what are works of necessity.

5:05 And what are not works of necessity. That whole issue. And it was a good class, I think. Any activity that is necessary any day for the maintenance of normal and merciful human life and society and cannot be limited to the other six days of the week.

5:23 That's a work of necessity. That is something that can be done on the Sabbath. And sometimes has to be done. Not to be done.

5:32 We have a few examples of works of necessity. Two helpful questions to ask.

5:50 Okay.

5:52 Now that brings us to where we take up today.

5:57 Some challenging questions that are often asked about the Lord's Day. And this is kind of tying up loose ends as we bring this study to a close. Okay?

Challenging Question 1: Sunday Work Not of Necessity

6:11 Wake up. Good morning.

6:17 And the first one is this. What about men who have a job that requires them, or women, who have a job that requires them to work on Sunday? That's the first question. That's often asked.

6:32 I try to anticipate things based on my experience as a pastor. The kind of questions that are often raised.

6:39 Or I would say more specifically what I'm talking about here is what if a Christian at present can find no way of supporting himself and his family other than by taking Sunday work that is not a work of necessity.

6:57 And especially when you're in a context where, let's say, someone has become a Christian and yet this is their. Their employment that they've had for numbers of years and now they've become a Christian and they've come to understand the Fourth Commandment. Or perhaps they've been a Christian for a long time but they haven't really been taught or they haven't understood the importance or the application of the Fourth Commandment. And now they do.

7:20 And so here they're in this situation. They have this job that requires them to work on Sunday. What should they do in a situation like that? Okay?

7:32 As you know, jobs that don't require Sunday. Sunday work are more and more rare and they're probably going to keep getting rarer unless we have a revival in our country. So what does a Christian man do when he's in that type of a circumstance? Okay, you understand the question?

7:51 On the one hand, the Bible teaches us that we are responsible to provide for the needs of our families. But on the other hand, we are also to remember the Fourth Commandment, the Sabbath day, the Christian Sabbath, to keep it holy. So what does a Christian do when he finds himself caught in a predicament like this? Again, either you are.

8:09 You are a Christian seeking to support your family and the only work you can find right now requires you to work on Sunday. Or you are a Christian who already has a job that requires you to work sometimes on Sunday. Perhaps you took the job before you were ever taught about the Sabbath. And now you know that you're to remember the Sabbath to keep it holy.

8:26 But you're caught in this job and at present you haven't been able to find anything else. All right? What should you do? Well, here's my counsel.

Counsel for Christians with Sunday Work

8:33 Now, I want to tell you from the outset that the counsel I'm going to give you is going to be probably controversial. All right? I don't know if everyone's going to agree with the counsel that I'm going to suggest. But at least listen to what I have to say.

8:50 Okay? It's a carefully thought out attempt to deal with a problem here that can be a difficult problem.

8:58 First of all, if you have a job that requires you to work on Sunday, perhaps you've been sitting in these classes and now you realize that you shouldn't be doing that. It's not a work of necessity. What should you do? Well, first of all, examine your heart to make certain that there's not some other reason that you're in this predicament.

9:22 In other words, it may not be such an innocent predicament that you find yourself in. Examine your heart about that. Is this really the only job right now that's sufficient to meet the basic needs of your family? Or is the real reason you're left with this job or this shift or whatever merely a matter?

9:41 It's a matter of convenience.

9:44 You like this job better. It enables you to afford more extras or more opportunities for advancement or something like that. Well, God knows your heart.

9:58 And so make certain that you are really being honest with yourself.

10:05 Secondly, assuming that you really want to do God's will, go to your employer and explain your predicament. And it's amazing to me. How few people will do this. I mean, this is a very simple thing to do.

10:24 You have a good example in Daniel chapter one. You remember how Daniel was being required to eat from the king's table and there were aspects of that diet that were violations of the Old Testament ceremonial law. And I think there are other reasons Daniel didn't want to partake of it. But so he's called in this predicament.

10:42 What is he supposed to do? And you remember that his first approach wasn't to just when they gave him the food to knock it off the table. Or. Or to just say, I'm not going to do it.

10:53 Or they didn't start marching around, you know, holding banners that said, you know, down with the king's meat or something like that. His first approach was very courteously to ask permission. He knew that that his not eating that meat would also put Ashkenaz, the steward who was put over him in a difficult position because he had the answer to the king. And so Daniel was very polite.

11:22 And courteous. And it's one of the things that comes out in that passage. And it says that he asked permission not to eat that diet. And he remember he proposed a test.

11:32 Give me ten days. And if at the end of ten days we're not as healthy as the other students, we'll address it. Now, I believe ultimately, Daniel, if it came down to it, the bottom line, he would have simply refused to do it. But his first approach was to be courteous.

11:52 To explain the predicament to Ashkenaz and to ask permission. And I think sometimes we may be surprised if you go to your employer with that kind of disposition, not the kind of self-righteous, you know, hateful kind of mean attitude, you know, wicked and sinful for you to require me to work on Sunday. But but to go explaining the predicament that you're a Christian, that you've come to believe that you believe that a Christian is to observe the fourth commandment, that that's a day that you you. You are not to be working unless it's a work of necessity and you want to be in the house of God with God's people worshiping on that day and so forth and say, please, could you let me off on Sunday?

12:36 And I would be willing to do extra work on other days if necessary to make up the difference. I don't want to unnecessarily hurt your business or hurt the company, but if there's some way that we can work it out where I can do extra work during the week or and have Sunday off. And I think that sometimes. Sometimes you'll find that people I know people have found that when they go to their employer with that kind of attitude, that that they're he may let them off and sometimes does.

13:03 Now, he may not still may say, well, I'm sorry if you're going to work here, you got to work on Sunday. That's the way it is. But this is the but at least try that first. OK, thirdly, if he refuses, I would argue you must do everything.

13:22 It becomes your moral duty to do everything in your power to find another job that doesn't require you to work. On Sunday, start diligently looking for something else. Now, again, the God who searches the hearts of men knows if you're really doing that. Now, I can't see your heart, but God does.

13:42 And you can't fool him. He knows your heart. He knows if the real reason you're in this predicament is is a genuine providential difficulty that you found yourself in, or it's because you're you want this particular job because you like it or because there's certain extras that you like. Or because there's certain extras that you like.

13:57 Or because there's certain extras that you like. Or because there's certain extras that you can have. But he knows your heart if you're really sincerely desiring to do his will. And he knows if you are really doing everything in your power to find another job that doesn't require you to work on Sunday.

14:11 But that's what I would exhort you to do.

Temporary Work of Necessity and Redemptive History Precedent

14:14 Now, here's the one that's going to be a little bit controversial, but I'll defend it. And I just I just have to acknowledge rather than I think this is one of those gray areas, what I'm going to share with you now that can be difficult. And here's where I've landed on. This is.

14:30 As a pastor and the counsel that I've given to people in the past, and I'll give you a biblical argument for why I think there's a biblical basis for doing it this way. All right. Here's the fourth.

14:40 Assuming that you are doing these things sincerely, this is important. If you leave this out, then you missed the whole point I'm making. But assuming that you really are doing these things. OK.

14:51 In the meantime, the situation may qualify as a temporary work of necessity. OK.

15:02 Now, some of you may disagree with me on that. But let me explain why I say that. Again, assuming you're doing the other things I've mentioned, you're seeking for something else. I think your present situation for now may qualify as a temporary work of necessity for three reasons.

15:16 Number one, because we have to work to live and for our family to live.

15:23 Number two, we're not living in a theocracy. And I think this is important that we have to keep this in mind. We are not living in a theocracy as the Jews in Old Testament Israel did. Does anybody know what to tell us what a theocracy is?

15:36 Yes. Yes.

15:43 And so it wasn't a secular state. It was that Israel was governed by the law of God. The laws of the land upheld the Ten Commandments and all of the commandments of God. And that was in that theocracy.

16:00 Now, we don't live in a theocracy in America today.

16:06 Therefore, there are no civil laws forcing employers to let their employees off on Sunday. But there were in Israel. But there's not. But there are laws that are in place in America.

16:24 Thirdly, I think we have precedent for this kind of situation in redemptive history. And here I'm talking about first the 400 years that Israel was in bondage in Egypt before the theocracy was established. They were living in Egypt, which was not a theocratic state, at least in terms of Jehovah. It wasn't.

16:49 And I don't believe the Egyptians gave the Israelites the day off. On the Sabbath. The years were not Sabbath keepers. And the picture that we receive from the early chapters in Genesis is that the Egyptian taskmasters work the Israelite slaves to the bone.

17:06 They were oppressive. They abused them and oppressed them. And they had no choice but to work. Now, perhaps they could have opted to just die rather than to work on the Sabbath.

17:17 And by the way, I remind you that I've already made a case for the fact that the Sabbath was in place before Mount Sinai. So I believe the Sabbath was was in play. And yet I don't see that the scripture indicates in that context that God expected them to do that or that God somehow condemned them for not doing that. So I think it's interesting then that one of the motives that God presses upon Israel in Deuteronomy 515 for keeping the Sabbath is this.

17:54 You shall remember. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore, the Lord commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. And the connection seems to be that Israel is to be motivated to keep the Sabbath by remembering what it was like when they were slaves in Egypt.

18:17 God had delivered them from that. So I think there is a sense in which a brother in the condition. That I've been describing is doing the things that I've said sincerely to seek to get out of that situation while he's still seeking to find better employment. It doesn't require work on the Lord's day that until then he's in a kind of Egyptian bondage.

18:48 God can deliver him from that. He should pray for God to deliver him from that. Seek to be delivered from that situation. But until then, I think his situation can be viewed as a temporary work of necessity until such a time as he does.

19:01 Find another job. And we also have a similar situation in the Roman Empire before Constantine established laws in the Roman Empire requiring Sunday to be a day of rest for the day off. Before then, Constantine came around A.D. 321.

19:23 He established Sunday laws protecting the Lord's day. But until then, Roman Christians, especially slaves and many, if you read Paul's epistles, it's obvious there were many slaves in the churches. That had believed the gospel. And this is also true when you read history, extra-biblical literature of the early centuries of the church.

19:43 There were many slaves who were Christians. And they were forced to work on Sunday. And that's one reason that we find that the first century Christians, they met for worship very early in the morning on Sundays. That was one of the reasons.

20:01 Now, I point all of this out not to compromise. God's requirement. But simply to underscore that we need to be charitable in our judgments about brothers who are caught in a situation like the one that I've been describing. And if anyone here is in a situation like this, I exhort you, encourage you to follow the counsel that I've just given.

20:23 Pray about it. Pray against it. Cry to God for deliverance and for a way out of it. Because as long as you continue in that situation, you're missing out on the spiritual benefits of this day that God intends his people to enjoy.

Call for Christian Conviction and Warning to Employers

20:37 You're not fully. You're not fully being able to benefit from them. And personally, I think that Christian politicians should make an issue out of this.

20:47 We as Christians should protest these practices and appeal to our leaders to be merciful and respectful of our Christian convictions. It's interesting to me. Some time ago, it's been a few years ago, I was reading a newspaper article about a highly recruited basketball player that was recruited by the University of Maryland. And he was Jewish.

21:07 He was an Orthodox Jew. And he. He refused to play basketball on Saturday. And they actually altered their basketball schedule because they wanted this guy.

21:19 And I'm thinking most Christians don't even raise raise a question or a protest about it. Let's go. Go with the flow. Go right along with it.

21:30 Never, never ask. Never raise any kind of concern about it or protest. They don't seem to have the moral courage to explain their convictions to their employers or they choose to go on with. Things for convenience or for money and don't even ask to be exempted from Sunday work.

21:48 Will God have mercy on us?

21:52 Is this very matter of working on the Lord's Day that I believe sometimes may provide the real test for some as to whether you're really willing to take up the cross and to follow Christ? Are you really willing to trust him to take care of you?

22:09 And if anyone here today as an employer who is requiring your employees to work on Sunday. Or you are patronizing businesses unnecessarily, therefore requiring people to work for you to be your servants on Sunday. It's not a work of necessity. It's not some kind of work that has to be done on Sunday.

22:32 But you're requiring people to work on that day. Then I would say you need to be warned.

22:38 God doesn't take that lightly. You don't want to be in the category of the Egyptian taskmasters who are guilty of oppressing God's people. And God says to you, as he said to them, let my people go. Let my people go.

Challenging Question 2: Children and the Sabbath

22:57 Now, we move to a second challenging question.

23:02 What about children?

23:06 What about children? How do I deal with my children in regard to keeping the Sabbath?

23:12 Are little children required to keep the fourth commandment? And if so, how does that work practically speaking? Now, this is a sincere question that parents often have and struggle with. Well, I think Sam Waldron has a very helpful section on this in his lectures on the Lord's Day.

23:29 I'm going to borrow some of his insights and also give some practical advice of my own. Some basic observations and assertions, first of all. Observation one. I think there is warrant for understanding the fourth commandment as having a different application to children than it does to adults.

23:48 It may shock you for me to say that, but it really shouldn't when you realize that this is true of others of the Ten Commandments. For example, you shall not commit adultery.

24:04 That doesn't have a lot of application to little children, does it? Now, it does spiritually speaking, but especially those who've never even reached the age of puberty. Now, it does have an application to them. It is relevant for them in the sense that we need to teach them about it according to their present ability to understand.

24:22 And we need to accustom them to modesty and so forth. But it doesn't apply exactly in the same way as it does to adults. A little child really can't commit adultery. It's not married, for one thing.

24:38 But generally speaking, if he's not reached puberty yet, even probably for the most part, even in terms of fault life. Children are not married, therefore they're not capable of committing adultery. And normally, they're not physically mature enough to commit fornication. So it doesn't apply in the same way to children, that commandment.

25:07 Secondly, the commandment to rest from our work, now leading off from this point now to this, to show that in the same way there's a difference with the fourth commandment. The commandment to rest from our work assumes the ability and responsibility to work. Right? Six days you shall labor and do all of your work.

25:32 And then the Sabbath is to be set apart to rest from our work. Right? Right? To rest from ministry.

25:41 And for worship. So the duty to keep the Lord's days built upon this work-rest distinction. It assumes that the persons addressed are those who have the ability and responsibility to work, and therefore to rest from their work on the Sabbath. It is rest from work.

26:01 Now, can little children work? Yes. I mean, of course they can work in small ways, but can children work like adults work?

26:11 No. No. No. No.

26:12 No. No. No. No.

26:12 No. No. No. No.

26:13 No. No. No. No.

26:13 No. No. No. No.

26:13 No. No. No. No.

26:13 No. No. No. No.

26:14 No. No. No. I hope we all agree that infants have no ability to work.

26:23 Small children have only a little ability to work, and the ability to work increases as the age of the child increases. Children are in a state of flux, as it were, when it comes to work and rest from work, even when it comes to recreation. Children play, yes, but even then, not in the way adults do, as a break from work. or by taking up hobbies and so on.

26:48 So children neither work nor recreate nor rest in the adult sense of those terms.

Distinguishing Creaturehood from Sinnerhood in Children

26:57 So my point is that as children have only a maturing ability and responsibility to work, they have only a maturing or gradually increasing responsibility to keep the Sabbath in the way that adults are to keep it. And I think we can draw a general principle here that children ought to be expected to keep the Sabbath in accordance with their capacity as children. In accordance with their capacity as children or in accordance with their childish nature. And we have to remember that there's a difference between, you've probably heard this distinction made, it's a very helpful distinction when it comes to dealing with our children, there's a difference between creaturehood and sinnerhood.

27:41 For example, the discipline of my children. If little Garrison, ever since he learned to walk, I've not ever seen him walk. He's always running. He never walks, he runs.

27:52 He's running through the house, going from this to that, the other, you know, and he's stumbling around like this, you know. And occasionally, you know, a child like that may run into the coffee table and knock the vase over, mommy's vase, and breaks all over the floor. Now should he be spanked for that? Is that sinfulness?

28:14 Or is that creaturehood? In other words, just a part of that process of physical development and he's not got his motor skills all working properly, you see. I think it would be cruel to discipline him for that. Because that wasn't a sin.

28:30 It was simply part of his physical development. Now, what if as he gets older, one of the things we used to teach our girls, you know, not to touch stuff that mom has sitting out, because we didn't want everything broken. And once they got old enough to understand, then they were disciplined. In fact, you're going to think this is cruel.

28:52 Maybe this shouldn't be on the mic. Always remember, everything gets recorded. But one of the ways we would test is we would have stuff on the coffee table and I would tell Sarah or Rachel or Samuel or whoever, you know, don't touch that. And then I would go outside the room and hide around the corner.

29:17 And you would see them looking around and see if mom and dad are there. And then they would go over and touch it. And then I would go in the room and give them a spank. Because I knew that they understood what I was telling them that it was wrong.

29:34 And I do think we should start very early in the discipline of our children. While they're little saplings, before they become big thick oaks that are more difficult to bend and to instruct. Okay? So I'm not speaking against.

29:48 I'm not saying it's early discipline. But we also have to be careful that we distinguish between creaturehood and sinnerhood. And I think that's true when it comes to the Lord's Day. Therefore, I don't believe all child's play is to be forbidden on the Lord's Day.

Teaching Children to Sanctify the Lord's Day

30:02 And I don't think it's wrong to let children get out and run off some of their childish energy for a while on the Lord's Day. All right? But then let me say thirdly, children, however, must still be taught from their earliest ages to sanctify the Lord's Day. To set it apart and to see it as different and special.

30:24 To put a difference between the Lord's Day and all other days.

30:30 Yes, there may be some allowance for playing on that day. But we can't direct that playing in ways to try to help them to see that it's different from other days. And I'm just going to give you some ideas. I'm not saying you have to do it this way.

30:46 But this is some things that I think are helpful. Some families. Keep a box of Sunday toys that are distinct from the other toys that they play with the rest of the day. Toys perhaps that have to do with Bible characters or Bible story books.

31:00 When little, we sometimes let our kids play outside for a while to get energy out. But we often try to direct the play towards something that's related to the Bible in some way. When we had a big yard in South Carolina, you might come to our house on Sunday and see a bunch of kids out in the yard with swords. And they're...

31:20 They're marching and they're reenacting David and Goliath's story. And we would direct them, go out and do it. But let's keep this focused on something that's from Scripture. Remember, this is a special day in which we want to focus on the things of God.

31:39 And so we would try to help them to do that. And I've heard of families keeping a box of special dress up clothes for Sunday. Our kids used to do little plays. Bible skits, plays on Sunday.

31:54 There are also Sunday games like Bible scategories or Bible drills.

32:00 We can also spend time reading good Christian books to our children on Sundays that are on their level. As the children learn to read themselves, we can limit their reading on that day to those types of books or Christian biography or missionary stories or something of that nature. The Lord's Day is a time for us to begin. And teaching them also how to behave in church.

32:28 Here we have a nursery for babies. And I think that's wise and good. But it's my opinion that by at least three or maybe even younger, they can begin to learn to sit still in church and to listen. And one of the places you teach them to do that is in family worship.

32:47 That's your laboratory where you can teach your children to sit still in family worship. And as they learn to sit still in family worship, they're going to be learning to sit still in public worship as well. Now they may fidget and wiggle. We may have to take them out from time to time when they're small.

33:08 But we can help them to gradually be able to sit quietly through a whole service and listen. So there are ways to help children from their earliest days to put a difference between the Lord's Day and other days without expecting them to simply sit and be quiet all day or to act like adults. The goal we should pursue is to see them eventually become diligent, full-fledged adult lovers of God's day and keepers of the Lord's Day when they are full grown. And so this is the time when we can begin to ingrain these kinds of habits into their lives and good memories about the Sabbath.

33:44 We always try to make it a special happy day. For years, I don't think we do this now, except we did today. We still do it occasionally. But for years, Kelly always made these really nice cinnamon, rolls on Sunday.

33:58 We all look forward to that. And the Sunday dinner and some really good dessert. We tried to make it a really special day. Not just a day where you pull the shades down and everybody's quiet and grim, but a happy day.

34:13 Because it is a happy day. We're to delight in the Lord's Day. All right, a third question. Oh boy, I have to hurry because I wanted to stop and let you ask questions and I'm rambling on here.

Challenging Question 3: When Does the Lord's Day Begin and End?

34:26 Let's see. What exactly does...

34:28 When exactly does the Lord's Day begin and end? I don't...

34:30 Didn't I already address this question? Somebody asked a question in class and I addressed it, I remember. But apparently not enough of you remember for me to skip it. All right.

34:43 Does the Sabbath run from Saturday evening until Sunday evening or does it run from Sunday morning to midnight Sunday night? Now, the reason people ask this question is that among the Jews, the Sabbath was observed from sundown to sundown. So how should we do it? And there are some Christians who observe the Lord's Day from Saturday evening to Sunday evening, while most who observe the Lord's Day observe it from midnight Saturday night to midnight Sunday night.

35:07 So which way is the right way? Well, personally, I'm not inclined to argue about that.

35:14 I'm willing to let each person be fully persuaded in his own mind, whichever way you may choose, as long as we're committed to observing the Lord's Day. But here's my opinion about it. First, the Jewish manner of keeping days is not divinely mandated anywhere in Scripture. Whether days are reckoned from sundown to sundown or from midnight to midnight, I believe, is a liberty of culture.

35:39 Neither way is somehow demanded by the Bible. In fact, sometimes the Bible speaks in terms of the Jewish reckoning, but in the New Testament, the Bible at times speaks in terms of the Roman reckoning of days, which is more like the way we reckon days. So I believe there's nothing wrong, therefore, with reckoning days the way the Romans did rather than the way the Jews did. It's a legitimate liberty of culture.

36:02 Secondly, therefore, for me personally, I prefer to keep the Sabbath according to the manner of reckoning in this culture of which I am a part in order to avoid the appearance of evil. That is, to keep the day from midnight to midnight, since that's the way days are reckoned in American society and culture. And I think this better avoids the appearance of evil. But again, some of you may view it differently.

36:27 And if you choose to reckon the day the way the Jews did, I have no real problem with that. All right? Now, I'm moving quickly here. Some counsels.

Counsels for Profiting from the Lord's Day: Preparation

36:40 Some brief counsels. I'm just going to limit myself here to this one about getting the most out of the Lord's day by making preparations for it. I think it's very important. Think about when you take a family vacation.

37:04 Most of us know that a good family vacation, and some of us, maybe we've had experiences where we learned it the hard way, but a good family vacation requires planning. Without careful planning, it can be a disaster. We have to give some thought as to where we're going, what we're going to do when we get there, save the necessary funds for the vacation, make necessary reservations, tie up all the loose ends at home, get the bills paid, everything before we leave, make sure someone's going to feed the dog, make sure the bills are paid ahead of time, make arrangements for the mail to be picked up. To really be able to relax and to enjoy the vacation, there has to be some preparation.

37:43 Well, the same is true with respect to the Lord. On the Lord's Day, if we're going to keep it in the most profitable, God-honoring way possible, to find true delight in that day, there usually needs to be some preparation. First of all, physical preparations. Things like finishing our work on Saturday, making sure there's gas in the car on Saturday, make sure you have the food that you'll need for Sunday, have your clothes ready, get sufficient sleep.

38:10 Obviously, if you come in on Sunday and you've been up all night on Saturday night and you're sleeping through the service, half the service, you're not going to be getting the benefit from the Lord's Day that you ought to be getting. You're not going to enjoy worshiping God or worship with the energy and enthusiasm that you should and that Christ deserves if you're physically exhausted because you stayed out too late on Saturday night. So one way to honor God's Day and to demonstrate that you truly value the Lord's Day is to prepare and to be prepared insofar as is possible. Spiritual preparation.

38:47 Praying beforehand. That God will bless the day. That God will meet with us as we gather for worship. Praying in family worship on Saturday for the Lord's Day.

38:59 Praying in your private prayers before you come to the house of God. Examining yourself in order to confess and repent of any sin so that you can come to the house of God with a conscience that is freshly cleansed by the blood of Christ and void of offense toward God and toward man in order that the Holy Spirit will not be grieved and quenched. Also, use means. Use means to stir up your affections toward God.

39:25 Perhaps reading or meditating on a portion of God's word that morning before church. I know that's not always possible. I know what it's like when you have a whole house full of kids. But to spend some time, just some brief time at least, meditating upon God's word in prayer.

39:44 Maybe listening to good Christian music. My wife usually has good music going through. blaring. That's a negative connotation, but sounding through the house. And it's really nice. It helps us to have our attitude right on the Lord's Day before we come to church.

40:05 Stir yourself up to seek the Lord on his day. Often you'll receive from the Lord's Day in accordance with what you put into the Lord's Day. You'll reap on that day in accordance with what you sow. Simple preparation like this can help tremendously to make the Lord's Day more and more profitable to you. The great Southern Presbyterian theologian and preacher of the 19th century, Robert Dabney, wrote these words about his father's devotion to carefully observing the Christian Sabbath. And I'll just quote these as kind of the closing thought in our lessons on this subject. He says, How sacredly was the Sabbath improved. My father went about making the best of the sacred day.

40:49 Just as seriously and systematically as any wise businessman planning to put in the best work possible on some favorable day in the middle of harvest. He evidently acted on this clear, rational and conscientious conviction. I have a great and urgent work to do for my soul and others. The one day in seven, which a kind heavenly father has endeavored to secure for me for this task is none too much if improved to the best. So I must make the most of it.

41:19 And that should be the attitude of all of us when it comes to the Lord's Day. May God give us the grace to follow this kind of example in our attitude, our preparations, and by a wise use of this wonderful blessing of the Lord's Day that God has given to us. I have a whole bunch of other notes here, but I'm going to stop. Probably seven weeks should be enough. Okay, any questions? We have a few minutes left. Yes.

Q&A: Works of Necessity and Sports on Sunday

41:56 Yeah, that came up. Excuse me? Right. Yeah, we did talk about that last week when we talked about works of necessity. Something that has to be done. If it's something that has to be done on Sunday, it's not like you can say this can be done six days a week, but it can be left off on Sunday. We've talked about utility companies. Even the whole question came up about certain types of machinery that you can't cut it off because it takes several days to get it back up and running again. And comparing that to milking cows in an agricultural society like Israel lived in, you don't say on Sunday we can't milk the cow. Cows have to be milked every day. And so work of

42:49 mercy for the cow and a work of necessity as well. So yeah, there are situations, there are types of work that have to operate seven days a week. But again, the question is having to operate. Sometimes it's simply a matter of convenience. It's a matter of making more money.

43:04 That type of thing. And that wouldn't qualify for work of necessity. So there are numbers of situations like that that we have to look at and make judgments about based on some of the general guidelines that we looked at last week. Yeah.

43:30 That perhaps has a scholarship for either baseball or pro football. Knowing then that his Sundays are going to be done. Playing the sport. Based on this, then, he should choose another line of work.

43:52 I would say yes. Yeah. I would say, you know, he can appeal and say, I can't do it on Sunday. You know, maybe if he's good enough, if he's Michael Jordan or something like that. So we want you so badly, we'll let you off on Sundays. But that's not going to happen. And even let's say, okay, really, if someone, let's say a pro football player is converted, you know, why he's a pro player, he's got a dilemma, make that conscious, make that decision. Something onto this similarly. It wasn't a problem when I was raising my kids, but it is now nowadays that any of these little league teams and things that they get into, there's a majority of them are having Sunday games. And the coaches require them to do that or not be in it. And this is a real conflict for little kids to understand. Why they can't participate then, and they may be kicked out of the games.

44:55 Well, it can be a conflict for them to understand. It also would be a teaching opportunity. Oh, yes, I agree. You know, an opportunity to explain to them why. Thankfully, in South Carolina, they didn't do that. It was rare that they had, but it's starting to gradually come in. My daughter faced a situation like that. She played for, she played fast pitch softball. She was really good. She made the all-star team. And then her all-star team ended up being the state. She was the final team that ended up representing South Carolina in the regional fast pitch softball tournament in Virginia. And they were going to play all the different states from the south. And when we got there, I think we found out actually before we went that one of the games in their bracket was scheduled for Sunday. And so Rachel, we didn't twist her arm. We knew Rachel's been raised to believe this way. And she's just as committed to this Lord's Day as we are. And she's just as committed to this

45:53 Lord's Day as we are. And it was difficult, but she had to tell them, you know, that she couldn't play on Sunday. And if they didn't want to take her with the team, fine, but she wasn't going to play on Sunday. She wasn't ugly about it. But thankfully, in South Carolina, I don't know how it is here, there's enough common grace, you know, that the coaches actually were sensitive to that and appreciated her commitment to not want to do that on Sunday. And so while her team was playing, who did they play on Sunday? I can't remember. It was University of North Carolina.

46:24 Somebody part North Carolina. No, you played North Carolina the first day. Well, anyhow, while they were playing on Sunday, we were at, it was up in Virginia. We were worshiping at Reformed Baptist Church Richmond on Sunday. And then she came back and she played on the following day when they played Georgia. She had a great game. It was one of the best games she'd ever had. She was, she really played well. But yeah, it's a difficult thing. But part of the difficulty is that Christians just continually cave into this. If we weren't caving in all the time and we took, we said, we're not going to do it. We can't do it. And we raised some concern about it. Perhaps it wouldn't be happening as much as it is in our country. When you've got most Christians today, ignore the Sabbath. What do we expect the rest of the culture to do? You know? Yeah, that's right. Say that

47:27 again. That was good. Say that again. Just to keep things in perspective, we were made for something more important than baseball.

Q&A: Government and Religious Convictions

47:34 I think as much as I love sports, and I do, I love sports. It is an idol. Often in our country, there's a lot of idolatry that surrounds sports. I think, I think there's a difference in this and that we can push for respecting our religious convictions. And I don't think that that's the same as saying that the government should establish laws that force everyone else to keep the Lord's day. Or the Muslim holy day or the Jewish holy day. But I think the federal government ought to respect the religious convictions of Christians as well as Jews, Muslims, when it comes to something like that. And that there ought to be some, some, what's the word I'm looking for? Provision for

48:54 people to be able to practice their faith. So what's, what's the problem that you're talking about? If we need to have the Sabbath, the thing is that the Muslims will say, okay, well, we should be able to marry nine-year-old girls. Mm-hmm.

49:23 You know? And it does affect everybody. Yeah. But yet, they're only doing it for a little while.

49:27 Well, what you're saying gets into something that would take a lot of time to talk about, but it's the whole issue of, of morality and the fact that you ultimately can't get away from the fact that, that government does have to establish, legislate morality to a certain extent. To a certain degree. And what's the basis on, on which we do that? And, and how do we do that, you know, in a secular society?

49:54 It's a big question. I mean, that's a big question. But just, just to stay with, focused on what we're talking about right now, I'm, I'm simply saying that, that I think it's legitimate for Christians who are in public office or have some influence in that area to seek to put into place laws or regulations that allow Christians to be able to practice their faith in this area. And so it's just, I know it's a complicated subject that could be talked about for a long time.

50:33 Yeah. I think we're out of time, but just take, I'm going to go ahead and take one more. No question, anyhow. Go ahead.

50:42 They do have a, oftentimes they do have regular work, and that's their school work. Yeah, that's true.

50:50 All right.

Closing Prayer

50:52 Let's be dismissed. Tom Fowler, will you close us in prayer? Yes.

50:59 We do praise your name for your public worship, for you deserve to be worshipped publicly. We pray that you'll give us strength and, and courage and conviction to keep the Lord's Day holy. Give us wisdom.

51:21 We need your help here. And we pray that the civil governments all around the world would see that you have this day set apart and that they would act accordingly because they get their authority from you and that they would release, at the very least, Christians from working on this day. May you be praised and glorified on this day through Jesus Christ. Amen.

51:45 Amen.