The Day Observed #5

Introduction: The Christian Sabbath and Its Observance

0:03 The following message was preached Sunday, February 14th, 1999, to Emanuel Reformed Baptist Church of Sea-Tac, Washington. The speaker is Pastor Robert Martin. This message is the 22nd in a series of 24 titled, The Christian Sabbath.

0:22 Those of you who are regular attenders or members in this place know that for some time in this morning hour, we've been considering the subject of the Christian Sabbath. And so far in this series, we've examined, I believe, every text of relevance in both Old and New Testaments bearing directly on this topic.

0:43 And we have seen, at least I hope that we have seen and our judgment is carried, that there yet remains a Sabbath day for the people of God to be observed as a matter of conscience.

0:56 We're now in the final segment of this series, under the heading of the proper observance of the Christian Sabbath. And our question is, how do we observe the Christian Sabbath? And our question is, how shall we use the hours of the Lord's Day in the way best suited to doing the revealed will of God?

1:16 Now, I have commended to you the answer to that question given by our Puritan forefathers. As embodied in our confession of faith, language borrowed from the Westminster Confession and from the Savoy Declaration.

1:31 And their answer is this, that the Sabbath is then kept holy to the Lord when men, after a due preparing, of their hearts and ordering of their common affairs aforehand, do not only observe and holy rest all day from their own works and words and thoughts about their worldly employment and recreations, but are also taken up the whole time in the public and private exercises of His worship and in the duties of necessity and mercy.

2:09 And using that statement, as a general framework, we've seen that we need to use or ought to use at least some portion of the day before the Lord's Day for a due preparing of our hearts and an ordering of our common affairs beforehand.

2:28 Now, two weeks ago, we came to the use which we ought to make of the hours of the Lord's Day itself. And so far, under this heading, we've seen that the scope of our duty is the proper use of the whole day. That our duty to keep the Sabbath holy does not apply to just a few hours around the morning services, but to all the hours of the day. I've also commended to you a principle that greatly helps answer the question, what should I or should I not do on the Lord's Day?

3:05 And the principle is this. The Lord's Day is God's Day. It's not my day. And then I've suggested to you that the most natural way to treat our subject is to approach it negatively and positively.

3:23 That is, seeking to ask and answer two questions. What should I not do on the Lord's Day, and what should I do on the Lord's Day? And we've seen that the words resting and consecrating sum up the proper use of the Sabbath. We are negatively, to rest or to cease from doing some things, that is, things that would be legitimate on the other six days of the week, and positively, we are to consecrate or devote the hours of the day to holy or sacred uses.

4:01 And taking up this dual approach, we're looking first at the negative aspect of Sabbath observance. That is, at a resting or ceasing from common uses of the day. Our question? What should I not do on the Lord's Day, from what things ought I to rest?

Ceasing from Recreations and Worldly Thoughts (Isaiah 58:13-14)

4:21 And the answer, in summary fashion, we should cease from the works of our ordinary employment, works of necessity and mercy accepted. We should cease from our recreations, and from allowing our minds and lips to be occupied with the things and the business of this world. Now, so far, we've seen that God requires, that we cease on His day, from the works of our ordinary employment, works of necessity and mercy accepted. We've seen that that principle is pervasive in the Scriptures, wherever the subject of the Sabbath is taken up. But today, continuing with the question, what should I not do on the Lord's Day, from what things ought I to rest, I want to set before you the premise that on God's day, we should also cease from our recreations, and from allowing our minds and lips to be occupied with the things of this world. Now, the language that I've chosen is drawn from one of the key texts that we examined earlier in this series. And I invite you to turn back to this text found in Isaiah chapter 58. Isaiah chapter 58 verses 13 and 14.

5:47 I want to set before you the premise that our duty on God's day is to cease from our recreations and from allowing our minds and lips to be occupied with the things of this world. Isaiah 58 verses 13 and 14.

6:08 If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, and the holy day of the Lord honorable, and shall honor it, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, then you will delight yourself in the Lord, and I will give you to ride upon the high, or I will make you to ride upon the high places of the earth, and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. Now when we examined this text, we saw the importance of understanding the context and we reached all the way back to the opening verses of this chapter. We saw that the Lord commands Isaiah to declare to the house of Jacob their sins or their transgressions. And he tells us that although they were a very religious people, and though they sought God's face daily, with the expectation that God would hear them as though they were a godly people, yet the prophet says to them God does not regard your prayers with his favor.

7:38 But that was a mystery to them. They did not understand. We're a very religious people. We seek his face daily.

7:47 And you're telling us he does not hear our prayers?

7:51 Why or how could this be? But the Lord's response to that confusion, that mystery in their minds, was to condemn their religion as mere externals. To condemn it as mere heartless formalism. The prophet tells them, your Sabbath fasts are a mockery. Part of the Sabbath you fast with all the outward appearance of great devotion to the Lord. And yet, you use the rest of the day to pursue your own pleasures. You use the rest, the rest of the day to engage in your callings. And the Lord protests to them this is not the Sabbath that I've commanded.

8:40 Not only, he says to them, are you to cease from your own ways, but you are to use the day in a positive way in the ways that I have commanded you. And no religious ritual, no solemn fast during part of the day, can make up for your disregard of me and my commands on the rest of the day. And he goes on to tell them that if they will honor his day and keep it holy in the ways that he has commanded, they will know his blessing and he will answer their prayers. The reason your prayers aren't answered, Isaiah says to them, isn't because the Lord is powerless.

9:26 It's not that he's deaf, it's because you are walking contrary to his will as revealed. In his law. And it's with this context in view where he's speaking to a generation who were very religious, who were very outwardly impressive in their rituals, but who thought that that would condone their using the rest of God's day for their pleasures and their callings. It's in this context that we consider the attitude described in verse 13 focusing on the image found there of rightly ordering the path for our feet on God's day.

10:07 And the point of that image of turning our feet into the proper path is that God calls us to make righteous holy choices about how we use the hours of his day. He calls us to weigh our decisions, to be careful about the things we do, about the choices we make on his holy Sabbath day. And using this image the Lord says to us, if you turn away your foot from the Sabbath from doing your pleasure on my holy day and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy of the Lord honorable and shall honor him not doing your own ways nor finding your own pleasure nor speaking your own words then and then he goes on to speak of the blessings that will come upon them.

11:02 Now these words clearly address where the issue lies. The issue is that of making right decisions, righteous decisions, holy decisions about how we use the hours of the Lord's day. We either decide to keep the day in the way of God's appointment, in the way that he has commanded or we decide to keep it some other way. But either way we're making a moral decision.

11:34 We're passing a moral judgment and we're acting upon it. If we will honor God on his day, we have no choice then but to do what he requires. Which means this text tells us that we may not do simply as we please regarding the day as our own to be used in the ways that we desire. Such a thought then becomes unthinkable.

12:01 If this is God's day, if I'm going to honor him in it and do his will, then I can't simply have as the only standard of my behavior what pleases me. I can't simply take the attitude if I find pleasure in it, if this is what I desire, if this is what I delight in, if this is what I want to do, then that is the only standard by which I make my moral judgments. No. It is God's day, not my day.

12:28 And since it's God's day, what he desires, what he wills, what gives him pleasure is the rule by which I am to live.

12:40 So on the Sabbath, this text teaches us we are to cease from our ordinary patterns of activity. We're not to treat the day as common. It's not a common day. It's a holy day.

12:55 It's a holy day and we are not to defile it by using it in any other way than the holy way which God has commanded. The day belongs to God. We keep seeing that principle over and over and over again in the scripture. It belongs to him. We are to treat it not as our property. We are to treat it as his property. Now you see this text clearly is displaying that principle we've been seeing all along. Though created for our benefit, the Sabbath was made for man, our Lord Jesus tells us.

13:32 Though created for our benefit, though given to us for our blessing, it is not our day in the way that the other six days are. It's not a day given that we might do our own works, pursue our own pleasures, think our own thoughts, speak our own words. It's God's day. It's given to us, yes. It was made for us, given for our blessing but it's not our day in the same way the other six days are. Its character is different and its use is to be different.

The Broad Scope of 'Doing Your Pleasure'

14:10 Now we've already seen the importance of this principle when it comes to the Bible's full vision of our continuing the works of our ordinary calling on the Sabbath. But this text takes us beyond that concern. It takes us beyond simply the issue of are we or are we not to continue to follow the works of our ordinary calling or employment. It takes us beyond that concern into a much broader arena of activities.

14:39 Under the heading of doing our pleasure on God's holy day. We are to turn our feet this text says, away from doing our pleasure on God's day. And God requires this of us on a broad front if we're going to properly honor Him, properly honor His day, properly keep His commandment. It's not just a matter well we're not going to go into work today we're now keeping the Sabbath.

15:13 We're free to do anything else, we're just not free to work. No, that's not the issue. This text takes us into a much broader arena. Into the arena of what the text calls our pleasure or pleasures. Now the word translated pleasure, the Hebrew word translated pleasure can also be translated with the English word delight or desire, even the word will. So that the phrase your pleasure can have the sense also of that in which you delight or that which you desire or even that which you will. And the New International Version I believe captures this concept well with the translation if you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my day. As you please on my holy day.

16:14 Now again this text focuses on a very broad category of things that are forbidden on the Sabbath and includes not only what we would call our business, but also our pleasures in the more narrow sense of the term, our recreations. It includes our desires or will that is following our inclinations in a broad range of activities. The Sabbath day in a word is not the day for strictly doing what we please or what pleases us.

16:50 Now this does not mean and here not a few have misunderstood the commandment. This does not mean that on the Lord's day we are absolutely forbidden from doing anything in which we take delight or pleasure. That's not the tenor of the commandment. The day was not given to be a day of gloom.

17:11 It was not given to be a day of burden. It was not given to be a day of boredom. We are for example to delight ourselves in the Lord. We are to engage wholeheartedly in His worship.

17:25 Now that is legitimate surely on God's day. It's one of the chief uses for which God has set the day apart that we might delight in Him, might delight in the remembrance of His works, might worship Him, might glory and joy in the Lord. And our finding pleasure in God's worship, our finding pleasure in the company of the saints and the fellowship of the saints, our finding delight in private spiritual meditation doesn't put these things out of bounds.

17:57 We're not observing the Sabbath. If we come to these things and say, well I must somehow find this to be a gloomy exercise. Now some have taken that attitude. If I'm enjoying this in any way surely I'm seeking my own pleasures.

18:08 No, no, no. That is to fall into a ditch on the wrong side of the road. Just because something is pleasurable does not in itself exclude it from the Lord's day. But there are things, there are many things in which we may take legitimate pleasure on the other days of the week which are off limits on the Lord's day.

The Sabbath is Not a Day for Recreation

18:33 And I want to suggest to you that this text, in it the Lord instructs us that we ought to cease using His day for such things as recreation or for following our inclinations, even, I'm not saying sinful inclinations, our inclinations in other ways including thinking and speaking on certain subjects. Let's look at this one step at a time. First of all, I believe it is legitimate to deduce from this text that the Sabbath is not a day for recreation. The Sabbath is not a day for recreation.

19:18 Now the use of recreation on the other six days of the week is legitimate. God commands us to do all our work on the six common days of the week. But He does not command us to labor 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

19:39 Incessant labor is not commanded. Moreover, our common sense tells us that it's not healthy for the body, it's not healthy for the mind. We're not commanded to work from the time that our eyes open in the morning to the time that we pillow our heads at night. We're not commanded to work 24 hours a day.

20:00 We're not commanded to work if you get six hours sleep, you're not commanded to work 18 hours a day, you're not commanded to work 365 days a year. We not only need adequate sleep, we also need adequate recreation. We need activities, we need times in which we recover more mental and physical resilience than sleep alone can provide. The use of some time beyond the hours of sleep for refreshing our bodies, and our minds, by using lawful recreations, is absolutely essential to our well-being.

20:45 Now, the slander, and I'm sure many of you have heard it, the slander is frequently heard that the Puritans were sour, gloomy people who were opposed to recreation. That's not true. Nothing could be further from the truth. That is a lie.

21:04 I don't know how that began. I think it began because of the attitude to recreation on the Lord's Day. But they did not object to lawful recreations on the other days of the week. In fact, at one point during the Puritan Parliament in England, it was even proposed, though it did not pass into law, that every other Tuesday be set apart as a day of recreation for working people, so that there would be an opportunity for the refreshment of mind and body. But the slander is frequently heard that the Puritans were sour, gloomy people who didn't believe in recreation, who thought it was a waste of time, who thought it was something that took you away from things that would be better. That is not the truth. The Puritan William Burkett, just as an example, he says, it being impossible for the mind of man to be always intent upon business, and for the body to be exercised in continual labors, the wisdom of God has therefore adjudged some diversion or recreation to be both needful and expedient. The Puritan Thomas Cartwright argued that the Sixth Commandment, the commandment against murder, he argued

22:18 that the Sixth Commandment is broken when a person quote, uses not honest recreation wherewith his health may be maintained for we must not think that there are no more ways to kill oneself but with a knife. He understood we can work ourselves to death. There was a legitimate application of the Sixth Commandment which fell out in the recognition of the need of lawful recreations. Thomas Shepard, famous for his multi-volume work called the Thesis Sabbaticae, or Thesis, or Work on the Sabbath, advised his son at college, quote, weary not your body, mind, or eyes with long pouring on your books. Recreate yourself a little, and so to your work afresh. The Puritans didn't protest against recreation. What they protested against was recreation on the Lord's Day.

23:19 For on that day, they believed, rightly so, that recreation interfered with the proper sanctification or use of the day for those purposes which God had ordained. On God's Day, they believed. Even as the Bible teaches that we are to cease from our own ways and pleasures by ceasing from our works, so it taught we are to cease from our own ways and pleasures by ceasing from our recreations. That is the logical, correct deduction that follows from the simple words, not doing your own pleasure.

23:59 Now, what does that mean in practical terms in our day?

24:04 The Puritans were quite open about the things they did not believe were permissible on the Lord's Day when it came to recreations. They have long lists in some of their works. When it came to use of the Lord's Day, they were not doing it. When it came to use of the Sabbath, for example, they spoke against such things as cudgel throwing and stool ball and Morris dancing and maypoles and cock fighting and fouling and such things.

24:29 Now, I don't imagine that these things are still a great temptation to the people of God. I have no idea what Morris dancing is. I have only the vaguest idea of what cudgel throwing is. I think it has something to do with throwing a club or throwing a hammer. But, the truth of the matter is, we are not greatly, at least since I was a child, I have not been greatly tempted to go out on the Lord's Day and be engaged in maypoles. I remember on one occasion being part of wrapping a maypole, but that's not a temptation for us. Well, then how does this attitude apply in our culture? Well, given the culture in which we live, given the things that men and women now use for recreation, I believe it is evident there are a host of things that we sincerely ought to regard as self-limits to us on God's Day.

25:21 Not because they're wrong in themselves, but because they would keep us from using the day in the positive way that God has appointed. For example, God's Day is not a day for watching television programs.

25:41 It is not a day for engaging in sports. It's not a day for playing games. It's not a day for reading novels and newspapers. And magazines or other forms of secular literature. It's not a day for attending plays and theaters. It's not a day for going to fairs and shows. It's not a day for pursuing hobbies or doing crafts. It's not the day for shopping or for going to yard sales or to thrift stores.

26:12 It's not a day for fishing and hunting. It's not a day for hiking or boating or skiing. It's not a day for playing with the biggest toy currently in our culture, our computers and going out and cruising the internet seeing what we can bump into. No, it's not for that.

26:29 The day is not meant for a host of things that fall under the general category of recreation. Now those things, if they do not involve any violation of God's law in any other way, are legitimate on the other six days of the week. Fish all you want. Play all the Monopoly you want.

26:49 Shop as much as you want. Watch as much television as you can if it's good stuff. It doesn't violate the law of God. Read as much Dickens or whoever you want. But God's day is for a different purpose. God's day is set apart for His business. Things that He has positively appointed. And if we engage in these kind of recreations on God's day, it's going to take our minds and our hearts away from the true business of the day and indeed is going to consume hour after hour after hour that has been appointed for a better use.

27:27 In following our pleasure in these things, we in fact profane His day. We are to turn our feet away from pursuing our pleasures on God's day.

Addressing the Objection of Boredom and Dreariness

27:42 Now, it has been objected and some in this place may object that this view of Sabbath duty will lead to boredom and dreariness.

27:53 Pastor, do you mean that if I have to leave the television off all day in order to honor God's day, if I must leave the Sunday paper, a stack on the counter to be read on Monday morning, if I must leave the Monopoly game or if I must turn away from engaging in sports, if I must do all of this on God's day, do you have any idea, Pastor, how bored I'm going to be? Do you have any idea how dreary a day that's going to be?

28:23 Now, I suppose that that objection would be legitimate if all we were called to do was to cease from our works and cease from our recreation and spend the day in idleness.

28:39 If that was the deal, if that's what the Word of God called to us, then I think it would be a legitimate concern to say, how are we going to get through the hours of the day without being bored to death? I cannot think of a more terrible way to pass any day than in absolute total idleness. But you see, that's not the Sabbath that our God appoints. That is a caricature of the Sabbath.

29:09 He calls us away from our works. He calls us away from our recreation so that we may give ourselves to the joyful business of fellowship with Him, undistracted by anything else, undistracted by the images of a TV screen, undistracted by the storyline of a drama, undistracted by the excitement of a sporting event, undistracted by the competition of a game, to give ourselves wholeheartedly with all of our souls, with all of our strength, with all of our might, by His grace, to fellowship with Him. Undistracted by our business, undistracted by our pleasures. To be able to give ourselves to the joyful business of nurturing our souls without our minds being clouded by other things, without the rush and the bustle of the other days of the week. That we might find blessing in company with God's people certainly a needful thing. Especially if our work week, if our daily life has meant that we have continual, unrelenting contact with unconverted people.

30:26 That contact isn't edifying. It tends to be a drain on our souls. In God's providence, we may find ourselves in a situation where it's unavoidable in the work days of the week, but God's day is a day set apart for other purposes. It's a time to be with the brethren. It's a time to be engaged in fellowship and let iron sharpen iron.

30:47 All the benefit of that is lost if we're engaging in everything else but the business of the day.

30:55 Now you see, if these things are boring to us, if fellowshipping with the living God is boring, if nurturing our souls is boring, if spiritual fellowship with our brethren in Christ is boring, I believe the fault is not with the Sabbath. The fault is not with the Word of God that calls us to set aside our pleasures for the sake of these precious things. Brethren, the fault has to be with us. It has to be with us. And indeed, our distaste for the things which God has appointed for His day may show, though we may not want to admit it, it may show how little of the spirit of true religions yet resides within us. It may reveal more than we're willing to admit. If we find God's day boring, it may be because we have no taste for the things of God. If on God's day we judge it a better use of our time to be at Kiarina or to be at the kingdom rather than to be in God's house, if we judge it a better use of the hours of the day to be reading the Seattle Times instead of the Word

32:17 of God, or to be with our unconverted work associates rather than to be with the people of God, or if we judge it a better use of the hours of the day to build up our skill in some hobby by taking some hobby course instead of building up our souls in the Word of God and the things of God, if we would rather do anything than give the whole day to God and to be with God, then how serious can we really be about being Christians? If we would rather do anything else rather than use the day in the way of God's appointment, how serious can we really be, brethren, about having community with the living God? Now, I cannot possibly list all the possible recreations that folk may choose to engage in on the Sabbath.

A Practical Test for Sabbath Observance

33:10 I've tried to give enough concrete examples to start you thinking.

33:16 If I may suggest a handy way to judge whether something is proper on God's day, simply ask yourself this question. If the Lord were present with me as my constant companion, and if you are a Christian, He is, by His Spirit dwelling in you. But if the Lord were present with me as my constant companion, and I were to do this or that on His day, would I see His frown? Would I see His smile?

33:55 Would He encourage me? Or would He reprove me? Would He say, well done, good and faithful servant. This is what I made the day for. If Christ were present, would you want to do it then?

34:19 I believe asking that question will solve 99.99% of the questions about recreations on the Lord's day.

34:30 The truth of the matter is, He is present.

34:34 He is present.

34:37 And remembering that, that we live in the presence of God, and under His all-seeing eye, frankly, ought to settle the question in the vast, vast majority of the cases.

Ceasing from Other Inclinations: Sleep and Family Pressure

34:54 But now, furthermore, consider that the Sabbath is not a day for following our recreations. It's also not a day for following our inclinations in other ways. Including, if we understand this text correctly, thinking and speaking on certain subjects.

35:13 You see, there are a host of things that people do on the Lord's day that aren't strictly business, or aren't strictly recreation in the ordinary sense of those terms. But yet, they are contrary to the proper use of the day.

35:29 Now, again, I can't give you an exhaustive list of such things. I can only suggest a couple of examples, and trust that the Lord will help you to sort out the rest. For example,

35:41 I personally believe it is permissible to use some part of the Lord's day for a nap.

35:47 That we can get extra rest to help us recover physically and mentally from the demands of the work week, and to help us to be sharper in our minds when we come to God's house or engage in private or family worship. Most of us come to the Lord's day in spite of getting a good night's sleep on the night before, we come to the day weary. If we've labored six days, perhaps in our calling, our bodies are weary, certainly our minds are weary. And to take an hour or two during God's day at some moment in the afternoon, for example, and to take a nap is not contrary to a day of rest. And yet, following every inclination in this may lead to a profaning of the Sabbath day. If Sunday becomes a day when the major activity of the day is sleeping to the neglect of the clear positive duties assigned by God to the day, then we're not keeping the Sabbath properly.

36:57 F.W. Farrar expresses better than I can the danger that I'm urging you to guard against. If, he says, Sunday only means a heavier sleep and a more gluttonous dinner than usual, it is not only wasted but degraded. If that's all the day is, if your practical use of the day is one in which all it means is that I'm going to sleep more and eat more. He says, if that is reality, if Sunday only means a heavier sleep and a more gluttonous dinner than usual, it is not only wasted but degraded. It becomes less holy and more deleterious than even continuous labor.

37:44 He says, you would be better off to go ahead and work than spend the day in such a sluggardly idle way. Following our inclination, every inclination that may suggest itself to us in the matter of sleep may lead us into an idle wasting and degrading of the day. Now, unhappiness is legitimate. But if that becomes the dominant activity of the day, if that is the inclination of our minds and hearts, it will lead to a degrading of the day.

38:17 A wasting of the day in idleness, that cannot be pleasing to God.

38:23 As another example of how following our inclinations can lead us to degrade the day, consider what happens on a practical level when we cave into pressure from unconverted relatives and spend a good portion if not all of God's day basically doing what they want us to do.

38:47 Consider what happens on a practical level if we cave in to very real pressure from unconverted relatives and spend a good portion of the day, if not the entirety of the day, basically doing what they want us to do. In many extended families, and frankly this is not hypothetical, some of you, have this very experience. In many extended families, Sunday has become by someone's decision or by everyone's consensus, but Sunday has become the day of choice for family functions. No matter when the birthday is, that's the day when the family gathers for the birthday party.

39:32 No matter when the anniversary is, that's the day that the family gathers for the anniversary dinner. It has become a day in some families when the family gathers for picnics and for cookouts and all sorts of other things. And in some families, all the members of the family are expected to be present as a matter of family loyalty. And there are some ethnic groups where that pressure is tremendous. Where the pressure is tremendous, you don't love your father, you don't love your mother, we didn't see you at this, we didn't see you at that, what's wrong with you? That pressure can be very strong. And it's real in some situations. And over the course of the year, there may be a half dozen or more and maybe even more than that, Sundays that fall into that category where our presence is expected in that context.

40:30 And even if it's not some special occasion like a birthday or an anniversary, when visiting with parents or when visiting with other relations, we're pretty much expected to do what they want to do on Sunday. If they decide they want to go shopping, if they decide they want to go to a sporting event or they want to spend the day playing games or watching television, we're expected to participate. And the mere mention, the mere hint that we can't take part in such gatherings or we can't take part in such activities, the mere hint that we have religious scruples that would keep us from doing that is taken as a personal affront and a condemnation of their lifestyle.

41:16 Simply to mention we're sorry it's the Lord's Day. All the hackles go up on the neck. All the fur begins to stand on end. What do you mean?

41:30 What's wrong with how I use the day? Brethren, that pressure is real. There are some in this very room who could tell stories that would grieve us to our hearts of the kind of pressure brought to bear by mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters etc.

41:52 You see our inclination.

41:54 Most people like peace.

41:57 Most people hate quarreling and strife. And our inclination in certain contexts like that is to cave in rather than have the stress and quarreling that comes with taking a stand. That's the temptation. That's the inclination.

42:16 And yet, what happens if we cave in?

42:20 Those Lord's Days are lost altogether or they are so degraded as to be no real Lord's Days at all. Moreover, once you cave in, once you give ground, then you have lost any argument to say that I won't do it again. Because the argument invariably comes where you were willing to do it for this. Why can't you be present for that?

42:50 If you cave in, it means those days are lost.

42:56 Now perhaps those kind of family expectations are legitimate on other days. But if we follow our inclination to avoid the frowns of our relatives,

43:09 and that's really what it comes down to in many cases. If we follow our inclination to avoid the frowns of our relatives, we will find ourselves profaning today. We ought not to be following our own inclinations on God's Day.

Ceasing from 'Our Own Words' and Thoughts

43:29 If following our inclinations takes our minds and our hearts, if not our bodies, away from the proper use, of the day. And our text in Isaiah 58.13 even goes so far as to tell us that we should cease from our own words on God's Day. If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, and the holy of the Lord honorable, and shall honor it, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words.

44:08 My, that's a large circle, isn't it? Nor speaking your own words.

44:17 You see, God's Day is not the day for engaging in conversation on every topic that comes to mind. Now, I want to be careful here. I do not believe that it's always wrong to make passing comments.

44:35 I don't believe it's wrong to always make passing comments. If we see a brother who's been away for a couple of weeks,

44:43 and perhaps we know he's been on vacation. We know he's been tired from his work. Perhaps he's been sick, and he's been away. It's not wrong to take a moment and say, Brother, how did things go?

44:56 Did you enjoy yourself? Nothing wrong with that.

45:00 We heard on Wednesday night about a job interview that one of the brethren had had. It's not wrong to take ten seconds and say, Brother, any word on that? I've been praying for you. I would care to know how that went, or would care to know how your meeting with this or that went, to ask prayer about.

45:19 Nothing wrong with that. It isn't wrong to mention one's response to some current event that's dominated the news of the week. I would be shocked if not most of us, when we saw each other at some point during this day, made some comment about what took place on Friday in the Senate of the United States. It's not wrong to make some comment.

45:41 It isn't wrong to inquire after some brother or sister's health, or to inquire after their family, etc. Those things are innocent matters. They are matters of common interest and courtesy. God does not require us to treat our brethren discourteously on the premise that these aren't religious subjects, and therefore they must not be broached even for a second.

46:05 And yet, a few brief words in an exchange of common courtesy is a far cry from launching into a full-scale discussion of politics, or vacation options, or career aspirations, or our health histories. It's a far cry, isn't it, brethren?

46:26 At that point, especially when such conversations take place close to services of worship, their tendency is to move our minds away from sacred things to our own business, to our own pleasures, to our own worldly concerns. And I would guard you to be especially careful even of passing comments immediately after the preaching of the Word.

46:53 There have been any number of times when I've stood at the door, and had some brother come after the ministry of the Word, when it was evident that God had come in an unusual way in dealing with us,

47:09 and make what at any other time of the day would probably have been an innocent comment. But yet, even that brief comment has had the effect of cutting off the cord of the impressions of the Spirit upon the soul. Brethren, let us be careful that we not become the occasion of stumbling to one another. You see, our inclinations may take us in the direction of launching into all kinds of full-scale discussions on all kinds of topics on God's day. And in some cases, brethren, the discussion, in many cases, most cases, the discussion itself is legitimate. We know one another, we love one another, we know one another's interests. It's not wrong to enter into discussions on, quote, secular topics. God's day is just not the day for it. We are not to speak

48:02 our own words. And what should not be on our tongues on God's day, frankly, ought to be kept out of our minds. As much as we can, praying for much grace from God to help us, we ought to banish from our minds thoughts about our business or recreation or other worldly concerns and seek to give our minds and hearts completely to the things of God.

48:29 Now, that's a high standard, isn't it? That's a very high standard, but it is a goal worthy of the Sabbath, worthy of Him who is the Lord of our Sabbath, that not only our hands and feet, not only our eyes and ears and tongues, but our minds and hearts should be fully given to the sacred business of the day. I can't believe the goal is too high. We may have great struggles dealing with thoughts that inject themselves continually into the mind, and that will be our ordinary experience.

48:59 But brethren, we're called to do battle on God's day against those things. We're called to do battle.

49:07 It is said of Professor John Murray that although he was an avid sports fan, he would not think God helping him. He would not speak of sports on God's day. Now, perhaps we hear such a thing, and we're tempted to think that Professor Murray was too strict with himself. Perhaps we're tempted to think that he was some kind of relic from a bygone age.

49:34 But perhaps that assessment of his practice is in fact a condemnation of ourselves and our shoddy thinking about God's days. The Sabbath is not a day to follow our own works. It's not a day to follow our own pleasures. It's not a day to follow our own inclinations.

49:55 It is a day which belongs to God on which we are called to use all that we are and all that we control up to and including our thoughts in the way of God's appointment.

Sabbath Observance as Self-Denial and Spiritual Warfare

50:11 Now, when we hear the things that we've heard over the last three weeks about ceasing from the works of our ordinary employment, ceasing from our pleasures,

50:24 ceasing from our own inclinations, turning aside from even our own words and thoughts on God's day, I think it is most easy then to see why the proper use of the Sabbath is one of the most flesh withering things God calls us to do.

50:45 It is no mystery why the flesh recoils from keeping God's day. The flesh doesn't like it. The flesh finds no delight in it. The flesh would be rid of the day if it could. If in anything there is a warfare between the flesh and the spirit, surely the Christian is going to experience that warfare in keeping God's day. On this day, and it is surely the clearest implication of the law that is set before us, on God's day He calls us to deny ourselves in the interest of doing His will. He calls upon us to turn away from our ways, and do as He bids instead. The flesh recoils at that.

51:32 Let us not for that cause abandon the right use of the day. Self-denial is of the very essence of the day. Especially when it comes to our negative duty ceasing from our works, our recreations, even from our words and thoughts.

Illustrations of Self-Denial: Eric Liddell and India Hayes

51:53 Now many of you will have seen the movie Chariots of Fire, will know the name of Eric Little, and how Little passed by a gold medal in one event because it would have required him to compete on the Lord's day. You will not know the name of India Hayes, but were it not for her commitment to keeping God's Sabbath, perhaps her name would be as familiar to you as that of Eric Little.

52:18 When I first met India, she was a member of the U.S. Olympic fencing team. She was ranked very high in the world, and likely would have meddled at the next Olympics.

52:30 There was just one problem. She was a Christian, and she had come to see, that God claimed the Lord's day as his own, and that she was not free to pursue it, to seek her own ways. Not free to use it to seek her own ways. The coach of the U.S. fencing team made it very plain that if she was going to qualify for the Olympic Games, she would have to participate in the series of Olympic trials leading up to the actual choosing of the team for that Olympics.

53:08 That meant that at least once and perhaps twice she was going to have to compete on Sunday. India resigned from the team rather than compromise. That was the end of her fencing career.

53:27 Now perhaps our initial reaction is to think that she made a foolish decision, but it wasn't.

53:37 India Hayes never received an Olympic medal, though she had adequate talent to win one, and like we would have won one at the next Olympics. But she did enjoy a good conscience. She did enjoy the smile of God. Things of greater value than all the Olympic medals ever given in the whole history of the world.

The Blessing of Obedience

54:04 Today we've considered one half of Isaiah 58 verses 13 and 14. If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, and the holy of the Lord honorable, and shall honor it, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words.

54:30 But now the text doesn't stop there. The text goes on to say, Then you shall delight yourself in the Lord, and I will make you to ride upon the high places of the earth, and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. Ceasing from one's ways and pleasures, and words on God's day, is not a recipe for loss, it is a recipe for gain.

55:03 It is not a recipe for loss, it is a recipe for gain. The fruit of that practice is not a burden, it is a blessing.

55:15 Now resting from these things, resting from our worship, resting from our recreations, resting from our inclinations, our thoughts and words, that isn't the whole, of our duty on God's day. But it's where we must begin. If we would enter into the blessings for which the day was created.

55:39 Next time, God willing, we'll come to the positive use of the day. What things, what better things, does God call us to? But brethren, no man, no woman, no boy, no girl, ever suffered loss by ceasing from those things that God has called us to cease from on His day.

56:03 The blessing has always been greater than the cost.

Prayer for Grace and Victory

56:08 Struggle with the flesh, yes, but the blessing is always greater. May God give us grace, brethren, to remember whose day it is, to remember the things that God has called us to turn away from, that we might give ourselves to the right use of His day. Our Father, we again thank You for this blessed gift of the Sabbath day, and we pray, Lord, that You would help us to honor You in it.

56:49 We pray, Lord, that You would grant to us that we would not seek our own pleasures in it, nor follow our own inclinations, but do what You have commanded us. Lord, this is the way of blessing. It is the way, Lord, of great mercies from You. We ask that You would give us grace to battle the flesh and to be victorious.

57:16 Grant, O Lord, the working of the Spirit within us to make us willing, and, Lord, work in us. Your perfect pleasure. Forgive us our sins, O Lord, forgive us, and turning aside from Your day to take up our pleasures. And, Lord, grant that we would know Your mercies in this.

57:35 Forgive us, wash us in the blood of our Savior, and give us zeal, give us determination to keep Your day, and honor You. In Jesus' name. Amen.