The Sabbath in the NT -- Jesus' Teaching #1

The Enduring Validity of God's Moral Law and the Sabbath

0:03 The following message was preached Sunday, September 20th, 1998, to Emanuel Reform Baptist Church of Sea-Tac, Washington. The speaker is Pastor Robert Martin. This message is the twelfth in a series of twenty-four titled, The Christian Sabbath. In our morning worship, we are presently in a series of messages entitled, The Christian Sabbath.

0:27 And this series, now at about message eleven or twelve, arose out of a concern to address this subject, a concern that came out of what appeared to be a desire on the part of a number of the people to have this particular theme addressed and to receive some guidance from the Scripture as to what our duty as Christians may or may not be on the Lord's Day or on the Sabbath. And our concern in this...

0:59 in this series is simply to answer the question, does God require us to keep one day in seven as a Sabbath day under the new covenant established by our Lord Jesus Christ? In other words, is there a Christian Sabbath? And if there is, how may we keep that Sabbath in a way which will fulfill all of our obligation because...

1:31 Now, thus far in this series, we've examined the Sabbath's creation as recorded in Genesis 2. We've seen clear evidence of the Sabbath before Sinai. We've seen the Sabbath made part of the law of Moses. We've examined the statements of the old covenant prophets concerning the ordinance of God's holy day, including their looking forward to...

2:03 to speak of the Sabbath in the present age of the new covenant. And one of the great lessons derived from those studies was the recognition that the duty to keep Sabbath transcended the ceremonial law of the Mosaic covenant. The duty to keep Sabbath existed prior to Sinai, prior to the ceremonial law, and even during that epoch of the Mosaic, when it was in force. Even in that period, the observance of the Sabbath was not so tied to ceremonies or place that it could not be observed without the temple and the priesthood and the sacrifices. Even in the Babylonian captivity, even in a pagan land, without any of the trappings of the ceremonial system of the Mosaic covenant, the people, were to keep the Sabbath day holy.

3:11 Now, last Lord's Day, we began to examine what the New Testament has to say about God's day. And our starting point was what the New Testament says about God's moral law as a whole. And our assumption was that whatever the New Testament has to say about the moral law generally applies also to the fourth commandment, remember the Sabbath, the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Now, nothing that we've seen in all the preceding messages in this series, nothing that we've seen from Genesis onward, nothing we've seen thus far, suggests that we are to regard the fourth commandment differently from the other nine commandments that make up the moral law. And the question with which we began last Lord's Day was this. Does the New Testament, does the New Testament witness concerning the moral law leave us with the same impression?

4:17 Considering what the scripture has to say about the moral law of God, do we come out of that study still with the assumption we've heard nothing to cause us to treat the fourth commandment any differently?

4:32 Now, last Lord's Day, we examined two key texts that revealed our Lord's own view of the moral law. And in the first of these, in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, verses 17 through 20, we saw that according to our Lord, the moral law, the Ten Commandments, indeed has relevance in His kingdom.

4:58 That is, relevance as originally given, relevance as correctly interpreted and applied, not as misinterpreted and misapplied by the Jewish scribes. Jesus, in that, in that portion, speaks of the law, the moral law, in the highest terms. And nothing that He said on that occasion even suggests that the fourth commandment or any other command of the Ten Commandments is now set aside in the ethical code by which His new covenant people are to live. There's not a hint in the Sermon on the Mount about the fourth commandment or any other commandment of the Decalogue that is now no longer part, part of the ethical standard or ethical code by which Christ's people under the new covenant are to live. Well, in the second text, in Mark 10, verses 17 through 22, and its parallels in the other Gospels, we saw how Jesus dealt with the rich young ruler. And we saw that Jesus directed this man to God's moral law. He directed him to the Ten Commandments as the standard, by which saving righteousness was to be measured.

6:20 These commandments in Jesus' teaching had lost none of their validity as the measure of a saving righteousness, had lost none of their validity as a revealer of sin. What those commands of the moral law were when God wrote them on man's heart at creation, what they were when God inscribed them on tablets of stone at Sinai, that role they retained in the teaching of Jesus and in His dealings with sinners.

6:54 Now, we also considered a number of important texts from the letters of the Apostles. In several of those texts, for example, Romans 3.20 and 4.15 and 7.7 and 1 John 3 and verse 4, we saw that the moral law is still retained under the new covenant as the standard by which we define what is sinful. Sin is transgression of the law. And there's no hint in any of those passages that sin is transgression of nine out of ten of those commandments that form the heart of God's moral law. No, sin is transgression of the law.

7:37 Sabbath breaking is sin just as much as murder is sin, just as much as adultery is sin, just as much as dishonoring mother and father, just as much as making an idol and bowing down before it. Sabbath breaking is one of those laws by which sin is defined.

7:58 Furthermore, in 1 Timothy 1 verses 3-11, we examined Paul's statement that the law is good and was made for those who need the check and restraint of the law. He says in that passage that the law was not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and unruly, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane. And then Paul went on to use commands from the second table of the law to give examples of the kind of sinful behavior, examples of the kinds of things that are contrary to sound doctrine which the moral law was designed to restrain. In Paul's judgment, the law, has not been set aside. It is still there to restrain the ungodly and profane.

8:58 And then we came to Galatians 3. And we saw that apart from the abiding validity of the moral law of God during this present ethic of the new covenant, that Christ's death on the cross has no relevance. Christ redeemed us, Paul said, from the curse of the law becoming a curse. For us.

9:23 And if the moral law has no relevance in the present ethic of the gospel, then the death of Christ upon the cross has no relevance either. If it is no longer sin to violate the Ten Commandments, then from what law's curse did Christ redeem us by His death upon the cross?

9:45 And then finally we examine Romans 7, verses 14-25. And there we saw that Paul as part of a description of his own experience. There he describes his own relationship as a Christian to God's moral law. Having described the role that the law played in his coming under conviction of sin, having said that the Tenth Commandment, the moral law of God, prohibiting coveting, that that commandment was instrumental in bringing him to a practical experiential conviction that he was a sinner in need of a righteousness that he did not possess, and having confirmed that in that role of bringing him to that conviction that the law is holy and the commandment holy and righteous and good, Paul goes on in that seventh chapter to describe the relation which the law yet retained to him as a converted man. He speaks not only of the role of the law in bringing him as an unconverted man to a sense that I'm a sinner in need of a righteousness I don't have, but no, he goes on to say now as a Christian man, here is how I think about God's law, here is how I relate to God's law. And he tells us in that seventh chapter that as a new covenant Christian

11:13 engaged in an ongoing warfare with his remaining sin, as a new covenant Christian committed to putting to death the deeds of the body, that he does indeed have an ongoing relationship to the moral law of God. In four statements he says to us that as a Christian he views the law this way. The law is spiritual. Verse 14.

11:44 I consent to the law that it is good. Verse 16. I delight in the law of God after the inward man. Verse 22.

11:56 I of myself with the mind indeed serve the law of God. Verse 25.

12:04 And in those statements we saw that the moral law was more to Paul than merely an object which he acknowledged in his mind as spiritual and good. It was more even than an object in which his soul delighted. It was much more. He tells us that his view of God's law in his mind that it was spiritual, and holy, and good, that view of God's law in his heart that I delight in the law of God after the inward man, that that view came to practical expression in his seeking to serve the law of God in his walk.

12:46 And though as he describes his experience he struggled greatly with and against his remaining sin, he confesses that God and not my remaining sin is my fault. My master and the moral law of God is the revelation of my master's will.

13:05 The law is spiritual. The law is good. I delight in the law of God. I serve the law of God.

13:15 In a word, God's moral law that once came near to bear on Paul's conscience, convincing him that he was a sinner in need of a righteousness that he did not possess, that same law continues as the rule, as the standard, as the standard of his life. And he serves his master by walking in the light of that law. Walking in the light of all of it. For there's no hint at all that Paul says that he regards the fourth commandment any differently than the other commandments of the moral law.

13:53 Now, in the texts we examined last Lord's Day, we saw nothing about the law. Not a shred, not a shred, not a hint, nothing about the law that would cause us or ought to cause us to regard the fourth commandment differently from the other nine commandments of the law of God. And therefore, I ask the question I've been asking all along in this series. Have we so far seen anything that does not favor the premise that it is yet God's will that we as His new covenant people should keep the law?

14:34 Should keep one day in seven holy to the Lord? Have we seen anything that would in any way give us the idea from the teaching of the Old Testament now into the teaching of the New? Have we seen anything to give us the idea well, perhaps it is not sin to break the Sabbath. Perhaps it is no longer God's will that I keep the Sabbath holy.

15:01 Have we seen anything, brethren?

15:04 No. No. We've seen nothing. Indeed, everything we've seen has reinforced the premise that indeed it is our duty to keep the Sabbath holy.

Jesus' Specific Teaching on the Sabbath: Distinctions and Disputes

15:17 Now today, having examined what the New Testament has to say about the moral law as a whole, we come to examine what Jesus said and did with respect to the Sabbath specifically.

15:34 Right again, get the picture of how we're approaching this whole thing. This whole subject. We're looking at what Jesus and His disciples had to say about the moral law as a whole. The assumption is that what they said about the moral law generally applies as much to the fourth commandment as it does the first, second, third, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth commandments.

15:59 Alright? The general view. But now having seen that general view, we come now to ask the question, what did Jesus say? What did Jesus do with respect to the fourth commandment with respect to the Sabbath day specifically?

16:18 And we're not without a large amount of material in the New Testament to bring us into the arena of what Jesus had to say and do on this subject. Now it is common to make certain distinctions when explaining the kinds of works that are permitted on the Sabbath day. It is very common to make certain kinds of distinctions. For example, the Puritans made a distinction between ordinary labors or ordinary works and works of piety, necessity, and mercy.

16:55 On the one hand, they spoke of ordinary labors. That is, if you are a man who has a job with a certain company, you go out on six days of the week or five days of the week and you engage in your job. If you're a farmer, you go out into your fields and engage in your labor. If you're a keeper at home, there are certain duties you have in terms of keeping the house and keeping order for the family in terms of the mundane issues of life.

17:26 There are ordinary labors. Well, the Puritans would speak of ordinary labors and then there was another category of works that though ordinary labors were not to be engaged in on the Lord's day, on the Sabbath, there was a grouping of works that were permissible. And they used this terminology. Works of piety, works of necessity, and works of mercy.

17:54 And one of the classic statements of those decisions is found in the Westminster Larger Catechism. Question 117. How is the Sabbath or Lord's day to be sanctified, that is, kept holy? And the Westminster divines answered that question in this way.

18:11 The Sabbath or Lord's day is to be sanctified by a holy resting all the day, not only from such works as are at all times sinful. In other words, if it is sinful to engage in a certain thing Monday through Saturday, then it's still sinful to engage in it on Sunday. The Sabbath or Lord's day is to be sanctified by a holy resting all the day, not only from such works as are at all times sinful, but even from such worldly employments and recreations as are on other days lawful.

18:54 It's lawful on other days to go to the office. It's lawful on other days to plow your fields. It's lawful on other days to use the day as a day to vacuum and scrub the floors. All those things are lawful on other days.

19:10 It's lawful to engage in certain recreations six days a week. But the Puritans said that on the basis of their understanding of Scripture that though these things are lawful on other days, they're not lawful on the Sabbath or Lord's day. But now, it was not merely an abstaining from certain things that made up the Puritan doctrine of the Sabbath. The Sabbath or Lord's day is to be sanctified by a holy resting all the day, not only from such works as are at all times sinful, but even from such worldly employments and recreations as are on other days lawful and making it our delight to spend the whole time except so much of it as is to be taken up in works of necessity and mercy in the public and private exercises of God's worship. There's the works of piety. Public and private exercises of God's worship. So what kind of works did they say were allowed on the Sabbath day?

20:13 Works? Works of piety, the exercises of public and private worship, works of necessity and mercy. Now, these distinctions that we find in the larger catechism and in other places in the Puritan tradition are not artificial distinctions. They're not artificial distinctions created to float a certain view of Sabbath use.

20:39 But they are biblical distinctions confirmed in the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ concerning the proper use of the Sabbath day. When the Puritans came to pin this particular catechism question, they didn't simply reach into their theology or into their tradition and say, well, we traditionally have had this distinction. No, they went back to the Scriptures and they saw in the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ, indeed, our Lord recognizes these distinctions as the kind of works that indeed are and ought to be and ought to be and ought to be and ought to be and ought to be and ought to be and ought to be engaged in on the Sabbath day.

21:21 Now, in examining what Jesus said about the Sabbath, and I challenge you to take out your concordance, look up the word Sabbath, and go through the Gospels looking at where Jesus addresses the issue of the Sabbath or even uses the word Sabbath. In examining what Jesus had to say about the Sabbath, we find that everything He said except one statement in Matthew 24, 20 about fleeing on the Sabbath day, but everything He said other than that one statement, and we'll deal with that statement further on down the line, everything else arose out of His disputes with the scribes and the Pharisees over our Lord's own behavior on the Sabbath day. Every other statement that He made arises out of the framework in which He is being said being challenged by the Pharisees and scribes. Where He is being accused by cause of what He did on the Sabbath day of being a Sabbath breaker worthy of death. Now, everything He says arises in that framework.

Works of Piety on the Sabbath: No Dispute with Jesus

22:39 And what we discover in those statements is that Jesus had no dispute with these men about whether works of piety were permitted on the Sabbath. That was never an issue between our Lord Jesus and the scribes and Pharisees. He never debated with them whether it was alright to engage in the public and private exercises of the worship of God. All of the dispute had to do with works of necessity and works of mercy. Well, beginning today, we're going to examine what Jesus said and did with reference to the Sabbath specific and the first thing I want you to see indeed is that Jesus had no dispute with them over the subject of works of piety. And turn with me first to John chapter 7. All of that by way of probably a too lengthy introduction but if you'll turn with me to John chapter 7 we'll see that Jesus had no dispute with the Jewish doctors of the law over works of piety. John chapter 7 verses 22 and 23.

23:57 Here is an occasion in which Jesus apparently is being accused of Sabbath breaking.

24:04 He says to his accusers Moses has given you circumcision, not that it is of Moses but of the fathers and on the Sabbath you circumcise a man.

24:18 If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath that the law of Moses may not be broken.

24:26 Are you angry with me because I made a man ever quit whole on the Sabbath?

24:36 Now consider what Jesus is saying.

24:40 Circumcision was a ritual to be performed according to the law of Moses. Leviticus 12 and verse 3. It was a ritual to be performed on the eighth day of life regardless of what day that eighth day fell on including the Sabbath day. On the eighth day you were to circumcise your sons.

25:05 It was a ritual of God commanded in the Abrahamic covenant confirmed in the law of Moses and obedience to that commandment was necessary as a work of piety.

25:20 It was necessary as a duty of divine worship. As much as it was necessary for the Israelites to pay tithes according to the law of Moses as much as it was necessary for an Israelite to attend the appointed feasts as much as it was necessary for him to engage in the other works of piety that the law required. It was the duty of every Israelite it was a duty of divine worship to circumcise your son on the eighth day.

25:57 Now the Jews recognized that works of piety were legitimate on the Sabbath. On that point there was no dispute between Jesus and the scribes. One might pray. One might offer sacrifice.

26:14 One might attend public worship. One might circumcise one's children. Indeed these things ought to be done. Jesus says that the law of Moses be not broken.

26:28 Those works of piety commanded by the law were to be performed even on the Sabbath day. Jesus agreed with the doctors of the law on that point. Only on the question of works of necessity and mercy was there dispute.

26:45 No dispute as to how the day was to be used in terms of worship. And it's sad to see frankly brethren that the modern generation in its view of the Lord's day doesn't even regard the Lord's day as highly as the scribes and Pharisees did.

27:07 They at least recognize this is a day for the worship of God. Well on that point there was no dispute with Jesus. Never is there a word passes between them to debate the issue of whether it's okay to pray or to offer sacrifice or to give the gifts and offerings commanded by the word of God or to gather with God's people or even under the terms of that covenant to circumcise your children. Never an issue. But now let's come to those points on which there was debate. And today we're simply going to take up the subject of works of necessity. Works of necessity. Consider of necessity. Consider what Jesus said and did regarding works of necessity on the Sabbath day. On that point there was great dispute between Jesus and the Jewish scribes. So much so that they regarded his example and his practice as Sabbath breaking worthy of death. Now I've asked one of the men to hand out a sheet of paper. And I think

Works of Necessity on the Sabbath: Jesus' Defense of His Disciples

28:14 at least the adults, all the adults have if you would perhaps share with your children. The reason I've given you this sheet of paper is because I've given you this sheet of paper. The reason I've given you this sheet of paper is because I've given you this sheet of paper. The reason I've given you this sheet of paper is because I've given you this sheet of paper.

28:22 The reason I've given you this sheet of paper is because that the text that we will be examining for the rest of this hour in Matthew 12 verses 1 through 8 is a text that has parallels in Mark and Luke's gospel. And there are certain statements in Mark's gospel, certain statements in Luke's gospel that help us to see a fuller picture of what took place in the incident that is recorded. But now I'll be reading Matthew 12 verses 1 through 8. If you were not able to get a copy of this, I believe there's still a few copies left if you'd like to read them.

28:52 If you'd like to have one, Mr. Villa will hand it out. But we'll begin reading Matthew 12 verses 1 through 8 and at appropriate places I'll bring in phraseology from Mark and Luke to give us that fuller picture.

29:07 At that season Jesus went on the Sabbath day through the grain fields and his disciples were hungry and began to pluck ears, that is ears of grain and to eat. Luke adds the detail that they were rubbing these ears of grain with their hands, that is to separate the wheat from the chaff. But the Pharisees, Matthew 12 verse 2, when they saw it, said to him, Behold your disciples and Luke says that they also charged him, Why do you, they asked. Behold your disciples do that which it is not lawful to do on the Sabbath. But he said to them, Have you not read what David did when he was hungry and they that were with him, how he entered into the house of God and ate the showbread which it is not lawful for him to eat, neither for them that were with him but only for the priests? Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath day the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? But I say to you that one greater than the temple is here. But if you had known what this means, and here he quotes from Hosea 6, I desire mercy and not sacrifice you would not have condemned the guiltless.

30:24 For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. And then Mark adds the fuller statement on that occasion, beginning in verse 27 of Mark 2. He said to them, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath, so that the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.

30:47 Now the law of Moses, as we try to understand this statement, the law of Moses stated that when you come into your neighbor's standing grain, then you may pluck the heads of grain with your hand, but you shall not use a sickle on your neighbor's standing grain. Deuteronomy 23 and verse 25. In other words, the law made provision for the needy. It made provision for the needy when they were hungry to take in moderation from the fields of their neighbors what belonged to their neighbor. The law made that provision in moderation.

31:35 The need had to be pressing. It had to be a very pressing situation of hunger, and they were permitted only to take handfuls. They were not permitted to bring a sickle and begin to harvest the man's grain. They could take enough needed to feed themselves for that meal. The law's provision was modest, but it was adequate for the case that was envisioned.

32:04 And what Jesus and His disciples did on this occasion was lawful in itself. It was lawful for them passing through this man's grain field, finding themselves in a pressing need of hunger. It was lawful for them to take the grain by handfuls, to rub it so that the chaff could be blown away, and then to eat that grain. That was lawful.

32:28 The only dispute with the Pharisees was whether it was lawful to do that on the Sabbath day. Now that's the setting in which Jesus is being challenged. Now the rabbis had drawn up an elaborate catalog of works prohibited on the Sabbath. There were approximately 700 plus entries of things that could not be done on the Sabbath in great detail. And in that catalog, plucking heads of grain on the Sabbath day was regarded as reaping. Rubbing out the grain with one's hands was regarded as threshing. Alright? It wasn't regarded that way any other day of the week, but on the Sabbath day, it was considered a work.

33:20 In their eyes, even in doing what was lawful on the other six days, Jesus and his disciples had violated their Sabbath code.

33:32 And when challenged, Jesus answered them in the ways that are described in this passage. And notice how he answers them. First of all, he directs them to the example of David. Consider again the text, Matthew 12, verse 3.

33:51 He said to them, Have you not read what David did? When he was hungry, and they that were with him, how he entered into the house of God, and ate the showbread, which it was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them that were with him, but only for the priests. He directs them to the example of David. And in directing them to the example of David, he directs them to an occasion when David was fleeing from Saul.

34:21 And he came to the tabernacle at Nob, and he requested from the priest who was in service there, five loaves to feed himself and his companions.

34:33 And there being no common bread available, the priest gave him the showbread which had been removed from the tabernacle on the previous Sabbath, had been removed from the holy place, and which technically it was not lawful for any, but the priest, to eat. Now that's what happened. And Jesus cites this incident as part of his defense of what he and his disciples have done. He cites this as part of his being able to say we are guiltless of violating the Sabbath by what we have done.

35:13 And Jesus' point in citing this incident was that if the divinely ordained law concerning the showbread could be set aside when necessity demanded, how much more could a man-made Sabbath rule be set aside for the same reason?

35:34 Now that was the issue. If the law of Moses, that ceremonial law, which said that only the priest may eat the showbread that has been removed, if that law of God coming from the mouth of God could be set aside when there was clear necessity, how much more can your man-made Sabbath rule be set aside when necessity requires it?

36:04 Now under ordinary circumstances what David did would have been sinful.

36:11 If there had been another way that David could have fed himself and his men, what he did would have been sinful. Under ordinary circumstances, the law concerning the showbread was meant to be obeyed. And had David's need not been pressing, his eating the showbread would have been sin. It would have been inexcusable.

36:33 But yet if a circumstance of necessity warranted the setting aside of God's law at this point, then how much more did it warrant setting aside a rule that rested on no more solid foundation than a misinterpretation and misapplication of God's law. That was Jesus' point. And he's going to go on to say, you have missed the point of the law. You have misread the point of the law.

37:03 You have read the law with the wrong heart. If it was all right for David when necessity required to set aside a very clearly revealed ordinance of God, how much more is it admissible for me to set aside your man-made rule that rests on nothing more solid than your misinterpretation, your narrow hearted misapplication of the law of God. Now that was the issue. That's the first line of defense that Jesus puts forward to say we are guiltless of the charge against us of profaning the Sabbath day. But now Jesus doesn't stop there. There's a second block that he puts in this course of block. There's a second line of defense that he constructs for his actions. He directs them to the testimony of the scriptures concerning the existence of works of necessity on the Sabbath day.

The Priests' Example and the Existence of Works of Necessity

38:06 Where did Jesus get this idea that even a category, works of necessity, exists? Well, he got it from the scriptures. You see, the Pharisees' doctrine of the Sabbath had no room for works of necessity.

38:27 Their doctrine of the Sabbath had no room for that. They condemned Jesus for engaging in a work of necessity. Well, where did he get the idea that this category exists? Well, his example or the example that he cites next shows that their doctrine, not his, is defective. And the example that he uses is that of the priests who perform their ministries in the temple even on the Sabbath day. In fact, on the Sabbath day, the ministry of the priest, the work of the priest, if anything, was doubled.

39:04 Now look again at our text, Matthew 12, now verse 5.

39:10 He says, or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath day, the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? But I say to you that one greater than the temple is here. Now we'll come just a bit later to that statement, one greater than the temple is here. But notice what he says.

39:34 Have you not read in the law, you doctors of the law, you Bible scholars, have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath day, the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? Now what does he mean by that? Well, technically, according to the method of interpretation, according to the rigid standard by which the Pharisees excluded works of necessity on the Sabbath. They had to misinterpret the law to do that. They had to set up a standard so rigid that it did not even allow for works of necessity. But according to that method, then even the priest then profaned the Sabbath day by their labors in the temple. If they're going to be consistent, then they have to condemn their own priests for being in the temple on the Sabbath day, offering the sacrifices, maintaining the fires, taking care of the business of God's house. And yet, Jesus says, these men are guiltless. They are not, in fact,

40:46 profaning the Sabbath. And this is his point. The law permitted works of necessity. It permitted what the priests were doing.

40:58 And if the law permitted the priests to continue their ordinary labors on the Sabbath day because of necessity, if necessity allowed that, then would not necessity allow a hungry man to pick a few heads of grain to feed himself?

41:22 What is Jesus doing? He's establishing that this category, works of necessity, exists. The fact is, correct Pharisees, that you don't recognize that Jesus is saying to them that it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. The Scriptures teach it. The very law that is given with reference to the priest proves it. He's in essence telling these men the category of Sabbath necessity exists biblically, even if your doctrine of the Sabbath doesn't recognize it. You've misinterpreted the law. Your standard is too rigid. But now, third, Jesus charges them. He doesn't stop there, you see. Step by step, he's building a case. Step by step, he's moving toward what will be an ultimate expression of the justification for what he's done.

The Pharisees' Merciless Sabbath Doctrine and God's Desire for Mercy

42:22 But now next, when we come to the third block that he lays in the course of block, he charges them in essence with having a narrow-hearted, merciless Sabbath doctrine.

42:35 He charges them with having a narrow- hearted, merciless Sabbath doctrine. And here we come to our text, verse 7.

42:48 If you had known what this means, and here he quotes from Hosea 6 and verse 6, again takes them back to the Scriptures. If you had known what this means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the guiltless.

43:09 If you had known what this means, what this Scripture means, if there had been, then room in your theology, room in your view of the Sabbath, for this statement and what it represents, you would never have condemned the guiltless.

43:30 Jesus here cites Hosea 6 and verse 6, one of a number of passages that could have been cited out of the Old Testament that condemn heartless, formalistic religion.

43:42 Any number of passages that condemn a form of religion that is heartless, that is all form and all letter but no spirit.

43:54 God indeed would have men obey His law. God indeed would have men give the sacrifices that He required in His law. That is not Jesus' point. That was not Hosea's point.

44:07 But the point is, as Matthew Poole says, that God has no pleasure in a narrow-hearted, merciless religion.

44:16 Poole says where two laws in respect of some circumstance seem to clash with one another, so that we cannot obey both, our obedience is due to that which is the more excellent law. Now saith our Savior, the law of mercy is the more excellent law. God prefers mercy before sacrifice. Which Jesus says to them, had you well considered, you would never have accused my disciples who in this point are guiltless.

44:50 These men have no sense of balance.

44:53 They have no sense of anything but the letter of the law. We cannot see behind the law the heart of God. We cannot see behind the law the spirit of the law, which is the reflection of the heart of God. All we can see is the letter.

45:10 And Jesus says your religion is heartless. Your religion is narrow. Your religion is rigid and formalistic. It has no heart to it.

45:21 You see, the Pharisees had no room in their Sabbath doctrine for works of necessity because they had in their doctrine no room for works of mercy. There's a sense in which all of this could be brought under the category works of mercy. That was the issue. They had no room in their doctrine for works of necessity because they had no room in their doctrine for works of mercy.

45:49 Their Sabbath doctrine like the rest of their religion was the expression of a narrow-hearted heartless formalism. And man, no matter his need, must bend to their Sabbath rules.

46:04 That was Phariseeism. That was their doctrine of the Sabbath. It doesn't matter that you're hungry.

46:12 It was rigid. It was narrow.

46:18 J.C. Ryle commenting on our Lord's sighting from Hosea says the fourth commandment is not to be so explained. It is not to be so explained or enforced as to make us unkind and unmerciful to our neighbor. Jesus says you've got a heartless religion.

46:44 That's why you've condemned me and my disciples for taking a few handfuls of grain, rubbing them out, and feeding ourselves. Number four.

The Sabbath Made for Man, Not Man for the Sabbath

47:00 This brings us, of course, to Jesus' argument that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. Mark 2 verse 27. The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.

47:18 Now we've already examined this statement from one angle in the very first sermon in this series. And there we saw that in his thinking about the Sabbath, Jesus goes all the way back to creation. We ask the question, where should we begin in our thinking about the Sabbath? Well, we begin where Jesus began.

47:38 We begin with that time when the Sabbath was made for man. When God created this ordinance to be a blessing, He sanctified it, He set it apart to be a blessing for mankind.

47:54 That is where Jesus begins. We began and He begins at the point where God created the Sabbath to be a blessed day, a day blessed of the Lord, a day which was to be a delight and a joy, a precious gift from our Creator and Lord. The Sabbath was made for man. Well, the Pharisees had no understanding of that.

48:16 They had no sense of that. It never occurred to them to ask the question, why did God make the Sabbath to begin with? For them, the Sabbath was not made for man. Man was made for the Sabbath. That's what their rules, in essence, represented.

48:36 For them, their Sabbath rules must be obeyed. No matter the burden that it might be. For the Pharisees, if keeping the Sabbath means you go hungry, then that's what it means.

48:56 In Jesus' thinking, as pious as that might sound to a certain ear,

49:04 as pious as it might sound to a certain kind of ear and to a certain kind of heart, to a certain kind of thinking, well, if keeping God's law means I must go another day and be hungry another day, there is a kind of spirit that, here is that, yes, that's right. As pious as that might sound to a certain kind of ear, that is to miss the purpose for which God made the day. The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

49:39 That reflects a heartless, cold view of why God even made the day to begin with.

Jesus as Lord of the Sabbath: Authority and Restoration

49:51 But now, fifth and finally,

49:54 Jesus speaks on this occasion as one having special authority on the question of proper Sabbath observance. He speaks on this occasion as one having unique, special authority on the question of proper Sabbath observance. Already he has said to the Pharisees, one greater than the temple is here.

50:25 Now, I can only imagine, in fact, I can't imagine what went through their minds when he said that. One greater than the temple is here. He has not yet said to them who he is. So there's a sense where at that point, what he's trying to communicate is still somewhat veiled. But his meaning is, if the service of the temple justifies so much labor on the Sabbath, may not serving me who am greater than the temple, is not serving me who gives by my authority permission, will that not excuse this little bit of labor by my disciples?

51:11 One greater than the temple is here. If it's alright to serve the temple,

51:17 then what of him whom the temple represents?

51:23 By the time Jesus closes this conversation, he's no longer speaking in veiled references. His words of self-revelation then become very clear. Speaking now of himself as one having unrivaled authority on the question of proper Sabbath observance, he says, for the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.

51:48 Now this is the one with whom they have to do. This is the one that they have called to account, saying it is unlawful for you to do what you've done on the Sabbath day.

52:05 Identifying himself as the Son of Man, he says the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.

52:12 Now what point is he making?

52:15 What point does that make in this place? And beyond that, brethren, what meaning does it have for us? That Jesus Christ says of himself, I am Lord of the Sabbath. Well, he has just pronounced himself and his disciples guiltless in what they have done. And it's then that he says, the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. If you'll look again at our text,

52:57 Matthew 12 and verse 7, if you had known what this means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the guiltless. There's a verdict. Guiltless. You say we have done that which is not lawful.

53:12 Jesus says guiltless.

53:16 For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. He's just pronounced himself and his disciples as innocent, guiltless, concerning the charges against them. But how does he do so? By what authority does he do so?

53:37 He does so as the Lord of the Sabbath. As the Master. As the ruler of the Sabbath. As the one whose rule extends to the Sabbath day and to the divine law revealed according to it. You see, he stands in relation to the Sabbath as one who has supreme authority over it.

54:02 That's his point. That's what it means. The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. He stands in relation to the Sabbath day, to this very day.

54:10 As the one who has authority, who has rule over it. And by that supreme authority, he pronounces his disciples guiltless.

54:23 But now the question for us is how did he do that? How did Jesus on this occasion use his authority as Lord of the Sabbath? And here we come to a crucial issue, brethren. If you've not heard anything else I say today, please hear me right now.

54:44 It is one thing to acknowledge that yes, Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath. But now the more critical question for those of us who accept that he has supreme authority over the Sabbath. The more critical question is to ask, how did he use that authority?

55:05 How did he rule?

55:11 Did he use his authority? As Lord of the Sabbath to justify his own and his disciples behavior by ruling that the fourth commandment is no longer valid? Is that what he did? That's what multitudes say that he did, but you show me in the text where he ever invalidated the fourth commandment. Never used his authority as Lord of the Sabbath to cancel the fourth commandment. Never did it. Did he justify their behavior by saying that he now gives the fourth commandment a meaning that it never had before?

55:59 Well, of course not.

56:02 He's taken them back to the Old Testament scriptures to principles by which they are to understand the fourth commandment by which men were always to have understood the fourth commandment. He doesn't now pack into the fourth commandment some new content that it never had before.

56:22 He doesn't now say, well, now that fourth commandment, it's defective. It needs to have recognized works of necessity. It needs to be applied with mercy. He doesn't do that.

56:35 He doesn't give it new content. That's not how he exercised his authority as Lord of the Sabbath. That's to miss the mark.

56:45 Did he, by justifying works of necessity, throw the door open for every other conceivable justification which has been invented by the cleverness of man? Well, Jesus created the category work of necessity. We read elsewhere, about his creating the category of works of mercy. Well, I guess it's okay to create the category of works of recreation.

57:15 Is that what he did? Did he throw the door open to anything and everything on the Sabbath day? Is that how he used his authority as Lord of the Sabbath?

57:31 Well, of course he didn't do that. Well, what then did he do? How did he use his authority as Lord of the Sabbath? Well, the answer is simple.

57:43 He uses his authority as Lord of the Sabbath to denounce the rigid heartless Sabbath doctrine of the scribes and the Pharisees. That's one thing he did.

57:59 He used his authority to show them how far from the mark their Sabbath doctrine was. And he set his disciples forever free as Lord and Master not only of his disciples, but of the day. He set his disciples forever free from any form of Sabbath doctrine, which though it may claim to represent the spirit of the law, nevertheless, or represent the letter of the law, nevertheless misses the spirit of the law.

58:35 Now, brethren, that is a crucial principle. When we come to our segment on application at the end of this series, when we come to say how then ought we to keep the Sabbath day, it is not going to be my purpose to erect a code of rules for you that represent the letter of the law that has nothing to do with the spirit of the law. Jesus, as Lord of the Sabbath, has forever set us free from any Sabbath doctrine that though it may claim to recognize the letter of the law, frankly, misses the spirit of the law. That's how he used his authority.

59:17 He used his authority, in other words, to restore the Sabbath to its original purity. To restore it to that purity that it had at creation, that it had at Sinai before it had been buried under the rubble of man's traditions. That's how he used his authority. That's how he spoke on this occasion and other occasions as Lord of the Sabbath. He takes us back to the Sabbath as it had been given in its purity at creation. He takes us back to that institution made for man to be a blessing, not a burden. A delight and a joy, not dreariness and drudgery. The Pharisees had turned it into a day of dreariness and drudgery. Into a

60:14 burden grievous to be borne. God had never made it to be that. He made it to be a delight that men might delight in it. Indeed, not finding their own ways nor seeking their own pleasures, but yet to be a delight.

60:29 To be a joy and not to be a grievous burden.

60:36 Jesus came as Lord of the Sabbath not to set aside the Sabbath but to free it from the traditions and corruptions of men so that all the sanctity invested in the day at creation all of the sanctity recognized at Sinai yet remains for the new covenant people of God.

61:06 I'd like to close by reading a statement out of Ryle's expository thoughts on the Gospels on this message in Matthew 12.

61:16 Ryle says, Let us settle it in our minds as an established principle, that our Lord Jesus Christ does not do away with the observance of a weekly Sabbath day. He neither does so here nor elsewhere in the four Gospels. We often find his opinion expressed about the Jewish errors on the subject of the Sabbath, but we do not find a word to teach us that his disciples were not to keep a Sabbath at all.

61:48 It is of much importance to observe this. The mistakes that have arisen from a superficial consideration of our Lord's sayings on the Sabbath question are neither few nor small.

62:01 Thousands have rushed to the hasty conclusion that Christians have nothing to do with the fourth commandment, that it is no more binding on us than the mosaic law without sacrifices. There is nothing in the New Testament to justify any such conclusion. The plain, truth is, that our Lord did not abolish the law of the weekly Sabbath. He only freed it from incorrect interpretations, purified it from man-made additions. He did not tear out of the Decalogue out of the Ten Commandments the fourth commandment. He only stripped off the miserable traditions with which the Pharisees had encrusted the day, and by which they made it not a blessing, but a burden. He left the fourth commandment where he found it, a part of the eternal law of God, of which no jot or tittle was ever to pass away. May we, Ryle says, never forget this. Jesus, as Lord

63:08 of the Sabbath, did not cancel the Sabbath. He pulled all the barnacles off of it, and man in his foolishness had encrusted the holy day of God with it.

Call to Repentance and Obedience to the Lord of the Sabbath

63:22 Now next time we're going to take up works of mercy, but I have a question. Who is the Lord with whom you have to do? Who is the Lord to whom you shall give account? Is he Lord of the Sabbath?

63:51 Is he Lord of the Sabbath? The Bible says that someday each one of us shall stand before God to give account of the deeds done in the body. We shall stand before the Lord of the Sabbath in that day. What shall we say to him?

64:12 I would not recognize your lordship. I would not acknowledge your claim on one day in seven as your day. Is that what we will say? Oh, Lord and Master, I would bow the knee to you, but I would not bow the knee on that point.

64:36 Is that what we will say?

64:40 Has the Lord of the Sabbath discharged you from his law?

64:46 Find in the Scriptures an excuse for yourself on that day that you will be able to stand before him and say, Oh, Lord, here is where you told me. I need not be concerned. I need to keep the Sabbath day holy. You need to find that text. You're going to need it at the last day.

65:12 And if you can't find it, you need to bow the knee to him now as Lord of the Sabbath. Because on that day, he will not only cast idolaters out of his presence. He will not only cast those who profane his name out of his presence. He will not only cast out of his presence those who dishonor mother and father.

65:37 He will not only cast into outer darkness murderers and liars and thieves and fornicators and the covetous. On that day as Lord of the Sabbath, he will cast Sabbath breakers out of his presence into an everlasting burning.

65:58 He is Lord of the Sabbath.

66:01 He never used that authority to tell you, it's okay to break my moral law. Isn't it unthinkable that he would have used his authority as the author of the moral law to say it's okay to break it?

66:27 Does it not behoove us brethren to seriously pray and consider whether how we keep this day is according to the will of God.

66:42 Now there's much still to come. We still need to look at how our Lord dealt with works of mercy. The healing of the lame and other such examples.

66:57 There's still much to come in terms of looking at some frankly difficult passages in the epistles.

67:06 There's still much to come in terms of trying to gather together at least some general principles, some examples to give us some guidance. I'm not going to construct for you a list of do's and don'ts for the Sabbath day. I'm going to point you to principles, give you some examples and trust that you and God and the Spirit can sort out such things. But brethren, though we're not there yet,

67:31 is your conscience engaged at the point that your Lord, the Lord of the Sabbath says to you, this is my day, keep it holy? Will there be one more Sabbath day go by in which you will not bow the knee to Him?

67:53 Let it not be so.

67:57 Whether you've got all the details sorted out now or ever,

68:02 surely one thing is clear. Under the new covenant, the Lord of the Sabbath still says to me, keep His day. Ought we not to obey Him? Will it not be sin to us if we do not?

68:21 Well, there is forgiveness. There is forgiveness for every sin. There is forgiveness for Sabbath breaking.

68:27 It's found in the blood and at the cross of Jesus Christ. And the Bible calls to us to do with our Sabbath breaking what it calls for us to do with all of our sin. To repent of it, to turn away from it, to walk away from it, and to go to the cross. And there in the blood of that cross, find forgiveness for our Sabbath breaking. He will forgive us our sins.

68:54 Will we go to Him?

68:57 Acknowledging, Lord, I have not kept Your day.

69:01 I have been a Christian 5, 10, 15, 20, 30 years, and I have not kept Your day. Is there mercy for me, Lord? There is.

69:17 Are you repenting of the sin, though?

69:24 Turn from it. There is forgiveness that He might be feared.

69:36 Our Father, we draw near again as we close this hour of worship and ask, O Lord, that You would forgive us for all of our breakings of Your Sabbath, and that You would put within us, O Lord, a heart to do Your will, and to walk in Your ways. And let us not turn aside from Your will, O Lord, because it may be withering to the flesh, or contrary to our prejudices, or even to our traditions. O Lord, all of Your law withers the flesh, and is contrary to our prejudices and traditions. We ask, O Lord, that You would put in us a heart to walk as You have commanded us.

70:22 We pray that You would help us to repent of our sins. Grant, O Lord, Your grace and mercy.

70:28 Give us a heart to do so. And bring us to Christ that we might find cleansing and forgiveness for all our sins, not the least our Sabbath breaking. We thank You for Jesus Christ, for He is our hope and salvation. And in His name we pray.

70:47 Amen.