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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. 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. Tonight we'll look at the new
covenant. And we'll look at four specific
things. First, the ministry of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Secondly, the resurrection of
Christ. Thirdly, the teaching of the
apostles. And then 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? 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. 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. 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, 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? 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 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 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, 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 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. 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. 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.
