Scripture Reading: Matthew 12:1–14

Matthew chapter 12, I'll just read verses 1 to 14. Our study this evening is part two of a biblical theology of the Sabbath. Our current studies on Wednesday night is in the book of Joshua. We are taking a couple weeks off, however.

We finished the conquest of the land. And it's going to take some ingenuity to figure out how to divvy up the land. That's the next major section in Joshua, the tribal allotments, the division of the land to the various tribes there in Israel. We're probably going to take large chunks of it rather than go through each tribe and each portion of geography.

So anyways, we're looking at Matthew. We're in Matthew's gospel in the morning. We saw Jesus' attitude. and Jesus' disposition toward the Sabbath in Matthew 12, 1 to 14. So I thought it would be good for us to remind ourselves of the fourth commandment.

So I'll just pick up reading in Matthew chapter 12 at verse 1. At that time, Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath, and his disciples were hungry and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath. But he said to them, have you not read what David did when he was hungry?

He and those who were with him, how he entered the house of God and ate the showbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests. Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are blameless? Yet I say to you that in this place there is one greater than the temple. But if you had known what this means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the guiltless.

For the Son of Man is Lord, even of the Sabbath. Now when he had departed from there, he went into their synagogue. And behold, there was a man who had a withered hand. And they asked him, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath that they might accuse him?

Then he said to them, what man is there among you who has one sheep? And if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out? Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep? Therefore, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.

Then he said to the man, stretch out your hand. And he stretched it out, and it was restored as whole as the other. then the Pharisees went out and plotted against him how they might destroy him. Amen.

Introduction

So last week I introduced our message or our study by reading from our Confession of Faith concerning the Sabbath. It says in chapter 22, paragraph 7 of the London Baptist Confession, as it is the law of nature that in general a proportion of time by God's appointment be set apart for the worship of God, So by His word, in a positive, moral, and perpetual commandment, binding all men in all ages, He has particularly appointed one day in seven for a Sabbath to be kept holy unto Him, which from the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ was the last day of the week, and from the resurrection of Christ was changed into the first day of the week, which is called the Lord's day. and is to be continued to the end of the world as the Christian Sabbath, the observation of the last day of the week, being abolished. Now, certainly this paragraph, or this particular chapter, sets us apart from many other churches. It is a reformed conviction that the Fourth Commandment is abiding for believers in the New Covenant era.

And the reason for that is the fact that it's the Ten Commandments. It's not the Nine Commandments. It's not the One Has Been Rescinded Commandments. But rather, the Decalogue, or the Ten Words given at Sinai, basically codified what was originally written on Adam's heart in the garden.

Again, our confession, I think, develops that. very well. So last week we looked at the Sabbath in the Old Covenant, and we started not at Sinai, but we started at creation. In the Garden of Eden, God created the world in six days, and on the seventh day, He rested, He blessed the day, and He sanctified the day. As we move through the Scriptures, we see that repeated emphasis.

The day is a day of rest, it is a day to be blessed, and a day to be sanctified or set apart. And so God sets that pattern for Adam, and I think that's what Jesus is alluding to in Mark 2, when he says the Sabbath was made for the man, not man for the Sabbath. In other words, God gave this gift to Adam, not to Israel, but to Adam as representative of mankind. Now to be sure, it was given specifically to Israel, at Sinai in the Ten Commandments or the Decalogue.

If I say Decalogue, that just means ten words. It's another way to express the Ten Commandments. So we see the Sabbath at creation, we see even in that account with Cain and Abel, it says at the end of days they brought their sacrifice. Doesn't mean the end of days in terms of the second physical coming of the Lord Jesus and the consummation of all things, it probably means at the end of the week when they would worship as they had been taught, they bring their sacrifice to the Lord.

When we get to Exodus 20, we get to Sinai, we see God say, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. He doesn't say I'm starting to institute something here, but rather He says to remember something that's already been in existence. If you go back from Sinai to Exodus chapter 16, in the collection of manna, they were prohibited from collecting manna on the Sabbath day. Rather, they were supposed to collect double on the Friday so they wouldn't break the Sabbath.

So remember the Sabbath day. And as well, in the Exodus account, the reason given for Sabbath observance is God's work of creation. For in six days, God created the heavens and the earth, and the seventh day he rested." When we go to the plains of Moab in the book of Deuteronomy, we see the selfsame commandments given, those ten words, but when we get to the fourth commandment, the reason or the argument is different. It's not contradictory.

In Exodus, it's remember because God created. In Deuteronomy, it's remembered because God redeemed. He brought you out of the land of Egypt. He brought you out of the house of Bondage.

So we see those things, creation and redemption, as symbolized in this Sabbath ordinance. We then look at the Sabbath and Isaiah. Those chapters that we considered in the 50s there, 52 and 53 is the last servant song of the Lord Jesus. It refers to his substitutionary death at Calvary.

It refers to the man of sorrows who was acquainted with grief. who was bruised for the chastisement for our peace was upon him. 54 is a promise of blessing for the church in the new covenant era. 55 is an invitation to come and to taste and see that the Lord is good. And in 56 God then says that the eunuchs will come into the covenant community. We compare that with Acts chapter 12. We see that Ethiopian eunuch being brought into the covenant community. 56 also deals with Sabbath observance, as does 58.

Not in the Eschaton, not in the consummated kingdom, but in the Messianic era. And then Jeremiah chapter 31 is a promise of the new covenant. And basically what is said there is that God will write his law upon the hearts of all new covenant people. And that law is the Ten Commandments.

It is trans-covenantal. I should have asked if anybody remembered about that statement. The Ten Commandments is trans-covenantal. It transcends.

It's not only a part of the old covenant. It was given to Adam at creation. It is codified at Sinai. But it is the law of God always.

And it is for us in the new covenant era as well. So when the prophet Jeremiah says that God will write his law in our hearts, it would take something very specific to indicate that he really only meant nine of the commandments and not all ten. So that was our study in the old covenant.

Four Areas in the New Covenant

Tonight we'll look at the new covenant. And we'll look at four specific things.

Christ's Ministry and the Law

First, the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ. Secondly, the resurrection of Christ. Thirdly, the teaching of the apostles. And then

Abolition of the Seventh-Day Sabbath

fourthly, the abolition of the Seventh Day or the Jewish Sabbath. The Christian Sabbath is not a Seventh Day Sabbatarian position. Seventh Day Adventism is wrong. Seventh Day Baptists are wrong.

The Bible teaches us that there early church worship on the first day, and we must therefore do likewise. So that's where we're going tonight. First of all, with reference to the ministry of Jesus Christ, we're going to do something similar to what we did last week. We're going to look specifically at his teaching on the Sabbath that we have here in Matthew 12, But let's go back first to Matthew 5, just to get the Lord Jesus Christ's ministry or his teaching with reference to the law of God as a whole.

In other words, what is Jesus' doctrine concerning the law of God?

Matthew 5: Christ's Hermeneutic of the Law

In Matthew chapter 5, we have the Sermon on the Mount. And before the Lord Jesus gets into the specifics, or he opens up the commandments, he gives a hermeneutic, or he gives his principles of interpretation, or he gives us how we are to understand the law under his hand. In fact, it might have come up. Jesus is a rabbi.

Jesus is teaching. People might have said, and probably did say, what does he think about the Old Testament? Where does he stand relative to Moses? What's his position concerning the law?

And that's what Matthew 5, 17 to 20 says. He says, do not think. Literally, do not even begin to think. Don't let this rise up in your heart for a moment.

Don't even begin to entertain the thought that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. By law or the prophets, he means the entirety of the Old Testament scriptures. The Jews saw the Old Testament scriptures, which they wouldn't call it the Old Testament, but they saw the scriptures in three categories, law, prophets, and writings. Sometimes just the law and prophets are mentioned.

That serves us to know that he's talking about the entirety of the Old Testament. He says, do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill." We'll get to that in just a moment, what he means here by, I came to fulfill. Verse 18, he says, Assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.

He's speaking about the abiding validity. He's speaking about its perpetuity. He's speaking about the fact that it continues on. Verse 19, he condemns what's called antinomianism.

Antinomianism means to be against the law. It means to throw off the law. The New Testament is not an antinomian document. Justification by faith alone leads inevitably to sanctification.

The Spirit sanctifies us according to the word, according to the law of God. So Jesus says in verse 19, whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Notice then, he goes on to say, for I say to you that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness, notice, of the scribes and Pharisees, not Moses.

Jesus' beef is not with Moses in the Sermon on the Mount. When he sets up these antithesis, you have heard that it was sad. He's not talking about Moses. He's talking about the Pharisees and the misinterpretation that they had thrown onto the scripture.

Jesus loves the law. Jesus upholds the law. Jesus speaks well of the law. He condemns illegalism in verse 20.

I say to you that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Christ upholds the law. He speaks specifically in verse 17, I did not come to destroy the law, I didn't come to abrogate, I didn't come to eradicate, I didn't come to throw it down, but I came rather to fulfill. We need to understand what he means here.

He means that he fulfills all that was written of him in the prophets. The Old Testament spoke of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you don't believe that, then may I suggest you open your Old Testaments, because the Bible everywhere spoke concerning him. Remember, Jesus said to his contemporaries, to the religious leaders, you search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life.

But these are they which testify of Me." The Apostle Paul says to Timothy that the Scriptures, and they're in context in 2 Timothy 3, he's talking about the Old Testament, are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So the Old Testament pointed forward to the Lord Jesus, so Jesus fulfills all that is written of Him in the prophets. Jesus as well obeys the moral law of God. You see, therein lies an issue.

We are lawbreakers, aren't we? Yes, we are lawbreakers. Do not think for a moment that you are not. Not only do we as sinners stand in need of the forgiveness of sins, which Christ accomplishes through his atonement, it is through his blood we have remission.

It is through his blood we have pardon. It is through his blood we are washed and purified from our sin. But we also need a righteousness that avails with God. And it's through Christ's perfect obedience to the law that that righteousness is then given to us, or it's imputed to us, and we receive it by faith alone.

It's the beauty of justification. We are pardoned from our sin, and we receive a righteousness that avails with God. So Jesus needed to, Jesus had to, and Jesus would obey the law of God every step of the way. He won for us that blessed righteousness and that garment that you and I desperately need to stand before the Lord God most high.

He fulfills all that is written of him in the prophets. He obeys the moral law of God. And he fulfills and executes the ceremonial law, those types and those shadows and those sacrifices all pointed forward to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Spurgeon summarizes.

He says that he himself, or he is himself, the fulfillment and substance of the types and prophecies and commands of the law. So Jesus fulfills by his work, Jesus fulfills by his ministry, Jesus fulfills by what he does. But as well, Jesus fulfills in his doctrine. The emphasis in this entire section is Jesus' relationship to the law.

As you read through this, you do not see him get rid of the law. You do not see him throw out the law. Again, the antithesis. Notice, for instance, in verse 21, you have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.

But I say to you, Some have taken this and said, you have heard that it was said to those of old, Moses, but I say to you, Jesus. That's not the antithesis. The law of God never said it was OK to hate your brother in your heart. In fact, Leviticus 19 tells us very specifically that we are to love our brother.

We are to love our neighbor. It is the Pharisaic scribal misinterpretation that Jesus is clearing away. He is not heightening the law. I mean, in one sense, he's heightening it because he's Jesus.

But he is not messing with the law of Moses as it is. in the Bible. He goes through murder, he goes through adultery. Take adultery for instance. It wasn't righteous to lust after a man or woman in your heart in the old covenant scriptures, in the book of Proverbs.

Do not let her catch you with her eye. I mean those admonitions were binding. Jesus forbids oaths, this longing to to bless those who persecute you. All of these things are consistent with what we find in the Old Testament.

He is not doing away with the law, he rather is confirming it, affirming it, and fulfilling it. Again, Spurgeon says it this way, our king honors his father's law. You might ask the question, what does this have to do with the fourth commandment? Because the fourth commandment is a part of it.

If as we move through the New Testament we see that the fourth commandment is not thrown out, then our attitude to the fourth commandment must imitate our Lord's attitude to the fourth commandment as well. And again, just so we can dispense of the idea, we will never keep the Fourth Commandment perfectly. We will never keep any of the Ten Commandments perfectly. They always show us our sin.

They always show us our need for the Redeemer. But the Redeemer shows us this pattern of life, and by the Spirit we are to pursue those things. We are to pursue righteousness and holiness according to God's revealed will. Spurgeon says, our king honors his father's law.

He took care to revise and reform the laws of men, but the law of God he established and confirmed. Our king has not come to abrogate the law, but to confirm and reassert it. That is a beautiful statement from our dear brother, Charles Haddon Spurgeon. So that's our Lord's sort of overarching concern with the law of God.

Matthew 12: Clearing the Sabbath

Notice Matthew 12, his specific attitude or his specific attention with reference to the Sabbath. Now I won't go in detail over this because I'm sure you all remember the sermons from Not too long ago. Everybody could rattle off the main points, I'm sure. But remember that the Lord Jesus is combating, the Lord Jesus is dealing with the Pharisees who assume scribal tradition is absolutely right and accurate in terms of what one can and cannot do on the Sabbath day.

Jesus tells us very simply that works of necessity, works of piety, and works of mercy are consistent with the fourth commandment. Now, I don't know if any of you were able to meet my sister and my brother-in-law. They were visiting last week. Was it last week or the week before?

Two weeks ago. Well, they own a house in Banning. They actually are going to move to Palm Springs. But they own a house in Banning.

And they rent that house out. And they rented this house out to somebody who wasn't very clean. And so they got wind that there was some problems there. So my brother-in-law went to the house, and the place was filled with cockroaches.

I mean, you don't see roaches here, and that's a good thing, because they're nasty. I mean, just nasty. I guess in Florida they have flying cockroaches. As if they couldn't be nasty enough, the Lord put wings on them and sent them at the sinners.

So, I mean, they're just a nasty bug. But he said this place was crawling with cockroaches. I mean, just disgusting. The people there fried everything they ate.

So the kitchen countertops, the cabinets, everything, had a thick film of grease over the whole surface. There was a freezer sitting in the kitchen, a big, you know, one of the square ones that most people keep in their garage, and it was leaking, so she put towels all around it, and they were all moldy. So my brother-in-law told this lady, you know, you're gonna die in this house between the roaches and the mold and the whatnot. Anyway, she moved out, so he went in and he tore everything out.

He went in and got rid of the cabinets, he got rid of that freezer, he gutted the house, okay? And once he did that, he's going to put in a new floor, he's gonna put in new cabinets, he's gonna repaint and everything. Notice what he didn't do. He didn't take the roaches out, get rid of the freezer, get rid of the muck, and then bulldoze the house.

He didn't do that. Neither does Jesus with the Sabbath. Jesus gets rid of the roaches. Jesus gets rid of the grease.

Jesus gets rid of the Pharisaic misinterpretation. But wouldn't it be foolish for him to then bulldoze the house to get rid of the commandment itself? To clean it up and to clarify from what the scribes and the Pharisees had done, only to get rid of it at his death and resurrection? That's a stretch and a leap.

One man, a Scottish Presbyterian, I believe he was, Gilfillan, made the statement this way. He left out the roaches and the grease, but I think the idea is the same. He says Christ was careful to clear the Sabbath from Jewish corruptions and if there was any precept more particularly vindicated by him and honored than another, it was requiring the Sabbath day to be kept holy. He says it is not the practice of a wise man to repair a house which he is about to pull down. that Jesus would engage in these Sabbath controversies and conflicts, get rid of the roaches, get rid of the grace, and get rid of the terrible occupant, only to tear down the house and get rid of the command altogether doesn't make any sense.

Jesus did not come to abolish, He did not come to abrogate, He did not come to eradicate, but rather He came to fulfill. Not just nine of the commandments, but ten of the commandments. He successfully fulfilled in obedience to the fourth, But he confirms that doctrine, and it's abiding for us today. So when we see the Lord engaged in Sabbath conflict on the Sabbath day, it is not to tear away.

It is to get rid of the mock. It is to get rid of the misinterpretation. And it is to establish it aright and to make sure that people appreciate it as it was originally given from the hand. of God Most High. It was for man's benefit.

It was for man's good. It was for man's well-being. It was not given to penalize Adam. It was not given to penalize Israel.

And it's certainly not given to penalize New Covenant believers. We ought not to say, oh my, we have to keep the day holy. No, we ought to say we get to keep the day holy. We get to come in out of the world.

We get to tabernacle with the people of God. We get to go to the house of the Lord and imitate our dear brother David who said, I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go to the house of the Lord. God has given us that day to rest. He has blessed that day, and He sanctifies that day.

And our Lord Jesus clears away all of the Pharisaic misinterpretation, not only in His doctrine, chapter 5, 17 to 20, but in His practice and in His life ministry in terms of Matthew 12.

The Resurrection and the First Day

Secondly, Jesus rose from the dead on the first day. We won't spend time looking at each of these passages because I suspect you already believe these. Matthew 28.1, Mark 16.1 and 2, Mark 16.9, Luke 24.1, John 20.1, John 20.19, and John 20.26. Jesus rose the first day.

Here's the rub. God, the creator, set apart the seventh day as the day he rested. He blessed it. He sanctified it.

I believe that the book of Hebrews indicates that what we have in the new covenant is Jesus, the re-creator, Or Jesus, the head of the new creation, sets apart that first day, the day that he rose from the dead, he ceased from his labors, he blesses it, and he sanctifies it. That is the theology. We have creation, old covenant, we have redemption, new covenant. We have the father ceasing from his work, we have the son ceasing from his work.

And again, I think we'll see that. If you don't see it as clear as I hope you will, then let me just ask you to take it home, think through it, and consider these passages. But before we get to that particular text,

The Apostles' Teaching and Practice

let's look thirdly now at the teaching of the apostles. Look at Acts 20. Acts chapter 20. We've got the abiding validity of God's law, specifically the Ten Commandments, according to Matthew 5, 17 to 20.

We have Jesus clarifying and clearing away the cockroaches and the grease from the misinterpretation of the Sabbath commandment. And then what did the apostles do? How did they conduct themselves? How did they function?

How did they worship?

Acts 20: First-Day Worship

Notice in Acts chapter 20, beginning in verse 6, but we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread, and in five days joined them at Troas, where we stayed seven days. Now I'm not brilliant in math, but if somebody stayed somewhere for seven days, that certainly included a Saturday, didn't it? Everybody with me? You stayed somewhere for seven days, okay?

Let's say you took a trip to Vancouver, and you stayed there for seven days. As far as I can tell, that would have to include, Roger's nodding with me, have to include a Saturday, right? And now notice in verse seven, now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together. That's biblical terminology for the worship of God's people.

Hebrews 10, let us not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as is the custom of some. This idea of coming together, literally synagoguing, getting together with one another on the first day of the week when the disciples came together, note what they came together to do, to break bread. This doesn't just mean having tacos. This doesn't just mean having a burger together.

It is the language of the Lord's Supper. It's the language we see in Acts 2. They continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, in fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. This is the language of the church at worship.

So on the first day of the week, the disciples come together, they break bread. Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight. We see these elements, disciples coming together, disciples breaking bread, we call that sacrament or ordinance, and we see disciples sitting under the preaching of the Word of God. That's church, that's worship, that's the people of God gathering together for the worship of God and Luke.

The author of Acts is very, very diligent to tell us when this took place. It says, now, on the first day of the week. F.F. Bruce, a commentator, I don't know that necessarily is even a Sabbatarian, said the reference to the meeting for the breaking of bread on the first day of the week is the earliest text we have from which it may be inferred with reasonable certainty that Christians regularly came together for worship on that day.

Remember in John's gospel account, It is on the first day of the week that the disciples are gathered together when Jesus comes to them. Remember that first week? Thomas is absent. And then they tell Thomas, we have seen the Lord.

Imagine being Thomas. You missed out on seeing the resurrected Lord. Leslie Lawson, I'm sure, will appreciate this illustration. When I was in the church that my wife and I grew up in, and by grow up I didn't mean when we were five.

It was when we were converted. We would do nursery. And it was inevitable that when we did nursery, that was when the best sermons were ever preached. Because people would come to get their kids and say, oh, it was a great sermon.

You should have been there. And I, with grace in my heart, would say, but I was watching your kid. Actually, I wouldn't do it with so much grace in my heart. We have seen the Lord!

And I'm thinking, and I was wiping your kid's nose. That just doesn't seem right. Anyways, so Thomas is absent. They say we have seen the Lord.

Well, they gather together again the next week on the first day of the week. and Jesus comes and shows himself to the disciples plus Thomas. The first day of the week had been seen as something important by the disciples. The Lord rose from the dead on the first day of the week. The church at worship is worshiping on the first day of the week. 1 Corinthians 16.

1 Corinthians 16: First-Day Collection

1 Corinthians 16 verses 1 and 2. Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given orders to the churches of Galatia, so you must do also." Notice, this is apostolic mandate. This is apostolic instruction. When Paul gives orders, that means you need to obey, because Paul is an apostle of Jesus Christ.

If I say, you need to go get crackers out of the pantry, you can choose to disobey that, and bad things won't happen to you. But if the Apostle Paul commands you to do something, It is God the Lord that is using his servant. And notice, this isn't unique to Corinth. This isn't typical for just the church in Corinth.

He says, as I have given orders to the churches of Galatia, so you must do also. So the Galatian churches and the church in Corinth. On the first day of the week, let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come. And when I come, whomever you approve by your letters, I will send to bear your gift to Jerusalem.

But if it is fitting that I go also, they will go with me." Similar to what we do today. You bring your tithes and offerings when you come to worship on the first day of the week. You don't do it by PayPal. I know that's something big now.

Churches have websites, and you can pay via online or whatever. Just bizarre that we've gotten into this mode. I'm going to pay my tithe with a transaction exchange of funds here. Well, Paul didn't assume it that way.

He says, when you go to church on the first day of the week, bring the money that we will take to the churches of Judea. And then

Revelation 1:10: The Lord's Day

look at Revelation 1, verse 10. Revelation 1, verse 10. Yeah, Paul doesn't say, just sign into PayPal, sit in your couch in your underwear, and send your collection in. or automatic withdrawals. Yeah, I just sat up right off the bat.

Revelation 1.10. Beautiful section of Scripture. Notice in verse 9, I, John, both your brother and companion in the tribulation and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ. Isn't that amazing that those three concepts can go synonymously in the heart of a believer?

He says, I am your brother and I am your companion in tribulation, difficulty, trial, suffering, issue. Where is John currently as he writes this particular book? He's on the island of Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. Now, Patmos was not Club Med.

It wasn't sandals. It wasn't a cruise. It wasn't a pleasure trip. It wasn't a big luxurious resort.

It was a rock, I think, in the Aegean Sea where they would put men for punishment. And so John knows something about tribulation. But look at what else he says. I am your brother and companion in the tribulation and kingdom.

You see, just because you're undergoing tribulation, just because you're undergoing trial, just because there's difficulty and travail, doesn't mean the kingdom of Jesus Christ is absent. Rather, the kingdom of Jesus Christ is present. In fact, in verse 5 of chapter 1, he identifies Jesus as the ruler over the kings of the earth. So in the midst of tribulation, trial, and difficulty, that does not remove the reality that Christ's kingdom is upon us.

And not only tribulation and kingdom, but patience of Jesus Christ. Verse 9, was on the island that is called Patmos, for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day. Now just about every commentator to a man says this is Sunday, the first day of the week. It's an interesting word that is used only here and in First Corinthians chapter 11.

In fact, our word church is more related to the word used here than it is to the ecclesia. You probably all heard that term. Ecclesia as the name for church. Ecclesia is the assembly of God's people.

Church in English comes from the Scottish kirk. And the Kirk is relative to the word used here, koriakon. It means that which is possessed by the Lord or that which belongs to the Lord. He's not talking about the Lord's day in terms of the future. judgment day when Jesus comes again.

John is sitting on the island of Patmos. He's in the Spirit and it's a Sunday. It's the first day of the week. It's the Lord's day.

It's that day which belongs peculiarly to our Lord Jesus Christ. That's why the Scots Call it a kirk. It is the house that belongs specifically to the Lord Jesus Christ. Go back for just a moment to 1 Corinthians 11.

Just get a feel for this word that's used here. 1 Corinthians chapter 11 at verse 20. Same word used, the kuriakon, that is used in Revelation 1.10. There it's the Lord's day, God Christ owns all the days of the week, but in particular, he calls that day his own. Just like the Lord, God Most High, is sovereign over every meal that we eat, right?

When we pray to the Lord, in the Lord's Prayer, we say, give us this day our daily bread. We don't write emails to the owners of Costco and Walmart to say, keep the food coming. We pray to our Heavenly Father and say, Lord, please provide for us good gifts from your hand. God is sovereign over every meal that enters our mouth, every morsel, every item of food.

But the Lord's Supper, that which the church observes, the breaking of bread, 1 Corinthians 11, 20, therefore, when you come together in one place, it is not to eat, Here it is, the Lord's Supper. So two places this word is used, Lord's Supper, Lord's Day. Just as Christ owns all food, there is a supper that is peculiarly His. Just as Christ owns all days, there is a day that is peculiarly His, and it is the Lord's Day.

The Puritan, Durham, said, as the Lord's Supper is for the remembrance of his death till he come again, so is this day for remembering the work of redemption and his resurrection till he come again. And I think that leads beautifully into our final text with reference to the teaching of the apostles,

Hebrews 4: Sabbath Rest Remains

the book of Hebrews chapter 4. the book of Hebrews chapter 4. So just again, what Durham says concerning Revelation 1.10, as the Lord's Supper is for the remembrance of His death till He come again. Isn't that what we're told? 1 Corinthians 11, as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes. Durham says, so is this day for remembering the work of redemption and his resurrection till he come again.

I think that's the point of Hebrews 4, at least verse 9. And we're not going to do a detailed examination of this passage. If you're interested, email me. I will email you my notes.

I don't want to bog anyone down, because there is some exegetical nuances that one needs to appreciate here. But the context is rest. And the apostle uses a Greek word for rest all throughout the passage. Rest, rest, rest, rest, rest, rest, rest.

Okay? He says that the wilderness generation did not enter their rest, chapter 3, 16 to 19, because of unbelief. Okay? This idea of rest is huge.

And the word that he uses throughout changes in verse 9. Notice in verse 9, he says, there remains, therefore, a rest for the people of God. Who's got an ESV? What does it say?

Sabbath rest. That is correct. Does the NIV have that too? Sabbath rest?

Yes, Sabbath rest? Okay. It is Sabbath rest. The word used throughout chapter 3 and 4 is the word katapausen, which means rest.

Verse 9 is sabbatismus, which is Sabbath rest. to use the same Greek word for rest every single time except verse 9 is sort of like saying, I want you to understand something here. I want you to appreciate this. I want you to get this. Here's what I think the author is telling us.

Notice verse 8. If Joshua, talking about Old Covenant Joshua, leading the children of Israel on the conquest into the land of Canaan. For if Joshua had given them rest, then he would not afterward have spoken of another day." Here's what the author is saying. When they took over Canaan, that didn't fulfill this concept of rest.

In other words, Canaan is a type, it's a picture, it's a shadow. It showed to them that there was this rest in the future. And the whole context here indicates that the same is true for us in the New Covenant. Look at verse 11.

Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest. We're believers in Jesus Christ, aren't we? We've entered into the rest that our Lord affords and promises in Matthew 11. Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden.

I will give you rest. We have rest from our sins. We have rest in terms of the righteousness that avails with God. But what the author is saying is that there is a rest that is in our future.

And we call that rest heaven, right? So here's what I think the argument is. In the Old Covenant, God, the Father, rested on the seventh day. This is what is alluded to in verse 4.

For he has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way. And God rested on the seventh day from all his works. So that seventh day sabbath, or that seventh day sabbath, told them there was a rest coming ultimately in heaven. The fact that we have not entered heaven, according to verse 9, means that there remains therefore a sabbath rest for the people of God.

Now if that still lays in our future, then we have this weekly observance too, just like they did in the old covenant. Everybody get this? I hope it's not that difficult. Old Covenant, seventh day Sabbath, because God rested, and because we will ultimately rest in consummate glory.

But every single Saturday, they were reminded, God is good. God is gracious. God created. God redeemed.

God has for us things that no eye has seen nor ear heard. Well, it's the same for the Christian. This is why the Puritans refer to the Sabbath day, the Christian Sabbath, as the market day of the soul. Every Sunday that we gather together, it's a foretaste.

It's a sampling. It's a bite. It's an hors d'oeuvre of what lies in our future in terms of this eternal rest for the people of God. Verse 9 tells us there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.

Verse 10, I think, identifies what that day is. Verse 10 is not about us. Verse 10 is about Jesus. The Father rested, according to verse 4, on the seventh day.

Verse 10 is about Christ. John Owen, A.W. Pink, these men understood this, saw this, and interpreted accordingly. If you took this and saw, for He, Christ, who has entered His, Christ, rest, and has Himself, Christ, also ceased from His works, as God did from His." It's not talking about us.

Verse 11, we're told to pursue and strive after that rest. Verse 10 talks about somebody who has entered that rest. It's Jesus. The theology in Hebrews 4 is that the Father rested on the seventh day, the Son rests on the first day.

In the Old Covenant, the children of Israel Sabbath on the seventh day, and in the New Covenant, the children of Israel Sabbath on the first day. There remains, therefore, a Sabbath rest for the people of God. Let me just read Beal, maybe he can explain this. He says, if the eschatological reality, that means the end time reality.

Eschatological means good things are waiting for us. It means a lot more, but it means that. If the eschatological reality of final Sabbath rest has not consummately come, then it is unlikely that the typological sign pointing to that ultimate rest has ceased. That is, if the weekly Sabbath included the function of pointing forward to consummate rest, and that rest has not yet come, then that weekly Sabbath should continue.

And it does. And we have every reason to assume it does, because we're dealing with the Ten Commandments, not the Nine Commandments. You can search high and low in your Bibles, and you will not find that the Fourth Commandment has been done away with.

Romans, Galatians, Colossians Examined

Romans 14, Galatians 4, and Colossians 2 deal with the ceremonial aspects or deal with the Jewish Sabbath. They do not gut the Ten Commandments of the Fourth Commandment. Romans 14 is conspicuous. It is Jewish celebrations going on there.

They're eating, they're drinking, they're keeping days. Feast days. Paul himself is not against feast days. Paul himself kept days according to the book of Acts.

When we get to Galatians, what's the problem in Galatia that Paul is writing to combat? He is writing to combat Judaizing. He is writing to combat those who think that faith in Christ plus circumcision or Sabbath observance commends them to God. I don't care which law you take out of the Decalogue, that if you take any of them and add it to faith in Christ, you're misusing it.

So Galatians 4 does not condemn the fourth commandment. It condemns the Judaizing attempt to add that to faith in order for salvation. Colossians 2, 16 and 17, is either A, the temporary Sabbaths that went along with new moons and feast days, or B, it's the Jewish Sabbath. In fact, everything in Colossians 2 indicates something of what's called syncretism, a bit of this, and a bit of this, and a bit of this, and a bit of that, put together for approach to God.

Paul says, no, as soon as you take anything and you think that commends you to God, you've misunderstood the Gospel, you've gotten it wrong. So there is not a shred of evidence in the New Testament Scriptures that the fourth commandment is done away with. There is not a shred of evidence that we are now only under nine and not the ten commandments. There is an ample amount of evidence that there has been a redemptive historical shift in terms of the seventh day to the first day, and I believe that theology is explained there in Hebrews chapter 4.

The church worshipped on Sunday, on that first day of the week, according to Acts 20, 1 Corinthians 16, and Revelation chapter 1. It is safe to assume that in the absence of a command that says, you no longer have any responsibility to the fourth commandment, that we embrace it and that we look to Christ, the only lawgiver, and we say, give us your spirit and make us happy, Sabbatarians, and not begrudging ones. Give us a heart. give us a desire to cease from our labors on that Lord's Day to go into the house of God for rest, for blessing, for sanctification.

Summary and Application

So in summary. The Sabbath was instituted at creation, declared to Israel at Sinai, prophesied of having application during the Messianic age in the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah. It is enforced by the Lord of the Sabbath himself, and it is practiced by the apostolic church on the first day of the week. Dabney, in terms of, I know whenever we talk about the Sabbath, well, what can I do?

What can I do? There's an old story that Calvin lawn bowled on Sunday. There's a great article by a guy, and it's Calvin in the Hands of the Philistines, or did John Calvin lawn bowl on Sunday? There's not a shred of evidence to indicate that Calvin ever lawn bowled on Sunday.

All that to say there's a lot of conception out there about what do we do on the Sabbath. Go to church, worship God, cease from your labors, and enjoy the blessing of the Lord. Dabney says, let conscience and heart respond to God's requirement that His day be hallowed by us and the details will easily be arranged. Well, they'll be arranged.

Maybe it's not always so easy. I believe we must avoid the idea or the mindset of the Pharisees who sought to protect the law by putting these 39 hedges around it, 39 categories of Mishnah from the Talmud about what they could and could not do on the Sabbath. Jesus says you're condemning the guiltless when you say that you cannot do works of necessity, piety, and mercy. We need to be those who find God's word as sufficient.

So we must avoid the abuse of the legalist as well we must avoid the abuse of the licentious. That's probably what we are more tending toward in our generation. It's not that we're so fastidious in our Sabbath keeping. It is more likely the case that we're not fastidious at all.

Royal, I quoted him a couple of weeks ago, it bears repeating. Our Lord did not abolish the weekly Sabbath. He only freed it from incorrect interpretations and purified it from man-made additions. Or he got rid of the roaches and the grease.

He did not tear out of the Decalogue the Fourth Commandment. He only stripped off the miserable traditions with which the Pharisees had encrusted the day, and by which they had 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. He says, may we never forget that our great aim should be to keep the Sabbath holy.

Works of necessity may be done. It is lawful to do well and show mercy. But to give the Sabbath to idleness, pleasure-seeking, or the world is utterly unlawful. It is contrary to the example of Christ and a sin against the plain commandment of God.

And then commenting on Mark 2.27, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath, Ryle said, God made it for Adam in paradise and renewed it to Israel on Mount Sinai. It was made for all mankind, not for the Jew only, but for the whole family of Adam. There have been times in the past where I share with you what the old dolls at the Cascades say. Today I was there ministering to the old Dolls Inn guys.

The dolls outnumber the guys by about 10 to 1. Ladies, you probably will live longer. It just seems to be the way it goes. Anyways, I was in Matthew 12.

I'm going through Matthew with them as well. I was talking a bit about the Sabbath, kind of illustrating a bit of a theology of the Sabbath. Went to Exodus chapter 20, and I said, but where did the Sabbath begin? I said, it began in the garden.

And this one older lady, there's a handful of people that are in their 90s, and you would never guess it. Anyways, this lady, Rachel, she is an old doll. Boy, she's like 96, sharp as can be. Soon as I said it was made and given in the garden, she said, amen.

I thought, praise God, I don't have to argue with these old dolls here. I don't like arguing with them. But an amen resounded in her heart. And I was able, and I'm always able to connect with them on a level.

In their generation, when they were younger, Church wasn't rock concert. Church wasn't show up to be entertained. When I teach this sort of thing, they all resonate with it. It makes sense to them.

We live in a day and age where if I don't get entertained when I go to church, something's wrong. If I'm not pleased, if I'm not happy, then something's wrong. No, something's wrong with us when we take that which is holy unto the Lord and make it something for our own ends. The prophet Isaiah says, when you, or God through the prophet says, when you cease from your own thoughts, you desist from your own ways, and you call the Sabbath a delight, then I will bless.

Then I will give you to ride on the mountains of Jacob. So that's a theology, a biblical theology of the Sabbath. Certainly there are many other things we could say, and I'm not just saying that, but I'm telling you the truth. And for those who are interested, if you email me, I will send you my notes.

I have 11 questions for Antti. I realize that not everybody believes what I'm teaching here tonight. Any non-reformed church does not have a doctrine of the Sabbath. It's just not the way it goes.

So while there may be some difficulties, you may not have followed every bit of exegetical nuance in Hebrews 4, and while there may be some what appears to be inference involved in this approach, I think there are 11 big questions that non-Sabbatarians need to answer. 11 issues that they need to reckon with, and I'm sure there's more as well. Every time I go through this material, I add another question or two. But there needs to be a hermeneutic, and that means a way of interpreting the Bible where one can justify nine of the ten and not the fourth. How?

Just show me how you arrive at that. Show me how you get there. Show me consistently, with all of the biblical data, how the Bible, even though it was given in the Garden, even though it's codified in Sinai, even though it's promised as a unit in Jeremiah, and even though it's fleshed out in the New Covenant Scriptures, how is it that there is one that no longer abides, especially one that is told specifically was made for us? I mean, God made the Sabbath for man.

It's a gift. Why in the new covenant, when we have more blessing and more privilege and more grace and more mercy, would God take that gift away from us? If anything, what the author in Hebrews 4 and 9 says is, there remains, therefore, a Sabbath rest for the people of God. Let each and every Lord's Day point you to that blessed reality, that there is something in our future that is most glorious.

Closing Prayer

Well, let us pray. Our Father, we thank You for Your Word, and we thank You for Your commandments. We thank You that Jesus is ultimately the keeper of Your Word, and thank You that we have forgiveness in and through Him, and thank You that we have the righteousness of Christ imputed to us. God, nevertheless, as Spirit-filled believers, I pray that You'd help us to love Your law Help us to approach it the way the apostles, the way the prophets, the way the Word of God always, always looks upon it.

We pray that you'd go with us now. We pray that you'd bring us together on the Lord's Day, that we may sing, that we may pray, that we may hear from your Holy Word. And we ask these things through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Scripture References

• Exodus 16; 20
• Leviticus 19
• Deuteronomy 5
• Isaiah 52-53; 54; 55; 56; 58
• Jeremiah 31
• Matthew 5:17-21; 11:28; 12:1-14; 28:1
• Mark 2:27; 16:1-2; 16:9
• Luke 24:1
• John 20:1; 20:19; 20:26
• Acts 2:42; 8:27-39; 20:6-7
• Romans 14
• 1 Corinthians 11:20; 11:26; 16:1-2
• Galatians 4
• Colossians 2:16-17
• 2 Timothy 3
• Hebrews 3:16-19; 4:4; 4:8-9; 4:11; 10:25
• Revelation 1:5; 1:9-10