Well, you can turn with me in your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 5. Deuteronomy chapter 5. Our focus is on verses 12 to 15, and I'll read the passage, we'll pray, and then we'll look at it in some detail. So, Deuteronomy chapter 5, verse 12.
Observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. that the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work, you nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm.
Therefore, the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. Amen. Well, let us pray. Our Father, we thank you for the law.
We thank you for the gospel. We pray to you for wisdom on dealing with them both. Give us grace now by the power of the Spirit to see your word. concerning your day, for the benefit of your people and for the glory of God Almighty. Give us help now, give us grace, guide and direct us, not just in the Old Testament, continuing into the New Testament, to see that it's always your plan and it's always been your purpose.
And that whatever the Fourth Commandment said to the Israelites of old, it certainly speaks to the people of God today. And we ask this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Introduction
Well, if you come from a non-reformed Christian background, you will have heard that the Sabbath has been abrogated, it's been fulfilled, it's no longer binding upon the people of God. In fact, some of them suggest that Sabbath-keeping in the New Covenant Church is an act of legalism, or perhaps it's an act of Judaizing. We're Judaizing the New Testament, bringing to bear things that God never had intended. Well, with reference to this Sabbath commandment, the way that we interpret the Bible will yield what we get out of the Bible.
The Reformed have a hermeneutic that differs, say, from dispensationalism. In other words, the principles that you put into the Bible and interpretation are the doctrines you're going to get out. So we as a Reformed Baptist Church subscribe to the Second London Confession. And I think chapter 22, paragraph 7 summarizes well the doctrine of the Christian Sabbath.
It says, 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 hath 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, I know that's a handful or a mouthful, but over the next few weeks we're going to cover that material. We don't cover it because 17th century divines made it up. We don't subscribe to this confession insofar as it is biblical.
Rather, we subscribe to this confession because it is biblical. This is a wonderful summary statement of the doctrine of the Christian Sabbath. So I want to do a few things over the next couple of weeks. First, the exposition of the commandment, we'll do that this morning.
Secondly, the Sabbath in the Old Covenant, we'll do that this morning as well. And then in the coming week or two, the Sabbath in the New Covenant. And when we consider the Sabbath in the New Covenant, we'll look first at the ministry of Christ, the resurrection of Christ, the teaching of the apostles, And then we'll deal with those alleged anti-Sabbatarian texts, Romans 14, Galatians 4, Colossians 2, those passages that have been taken as sort of proof texts that the Christian Sabbath, or Sabbath rather, is no longer for the Christian church. Now, I am very particular.
I do not want to be a legalist. I do not want to be a Judaizer. I don't want to subscribe to things that are unbiblical. But as I said, I think that statement from the Confession is a biblical statement.
And I hope to prove that or demonstrate that to us in the coming weeks.
Exposition of the Commandment
Now, first of all, let's look at an exposition of the commandment in its context. Notice what we have. Observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy as the Lord your God commanded you. Intriguingly, in the parallel passage in Exodus chapter 20, they are told to remember Now, remember and observe seem to indicate something that preceded this particular situation.
In other words, at Sinai in Exodus 20, the people of God, the covenant community, the Israel of God is told to remember. They're not told to now begin to think about something brand new. And when we move through the Old Testament, we'll see why it's the case. There was Sabbatarianism prior to the giving of the law in Sinai.
Just like there was sexual ethics prior to the giving of the law at Sinai. The seventh commandment didn't begin at Sinai. The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by God for having violated the law of God. So it's not the case that because it was given to Israel at Sinai, it is confined to Israel at Sinai.
The moral law of God is trans-covenantal. That means whatever covenant you find yourself under, those Ten Commandments are the guide, are the guard, are the reflection of who God is and what God demands from His people in terms of sanctification. It is a revelation of who God is in terms of His being, in terms of His nature, character. So we have this command to remember the day in Exodus 20 and a command to observe the day in Deuteronomy chapter 20.
And the reason is, or rather the reason to remember the day is to keep it holy. Now I'm going to argue in a few moments that this goes back to what God does in terms of his own Sabbatarianism in Genesis chapter 2. But with reference to the positive act, observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy as the Lord your God commanded you. There is a prohibition, and that prohibition concerns work.
You're not supposed to engage in regular work. You're not to engage in those things that you can suspend for the purpose of worshiping God Almighty. When we get to the teaching of our blessed Lord Jesus, we will see there are works of mercy. If you're a doctor, or you're a nurse, or you're a paramedic, it's a work of mercy for you to work on Sunday. to work on the Lord's Day, and nobody's going to fault you for that.
And then there are works of necessity. Remember the Lord Jesus upbraids His interlocutors when He says, if one of you had an ox and it fell into the ditch, wouldn't you pull it out from the ditch on that day? I mean, this man comes to be healed on the Sabbath day, Jesus heals the man on the Sabbath day, and everybody complains that there was a Sabbath violation. So Christ upbraids them by calling them hypocrites.
If your ox falls into the ditch, of course you're going to pull it out. Works of mercy and works of necessity were always okay in light of the fourth commandment. Nobody is suggesting otherwise. So the prohibition is against regular work and the scope.
No one related to the covenant family, even the beasts of burden. And so I think there's a few implications we ought to make here. First, the cessation from regular employment. Again, God in His Word tells us that there is priority in our lives.
You must work, and I think that's an implication from this text as well, but you must also rest. And as we see rest described relative to the Sabbath, we'll see that it doesn't necessarily mean laying on your couch, but it means to rest in God, to bless the day, to keep it holy, to sanctify it, for holy duties and engagement with our blessed God as we use the access that He has afforded us in the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. So we have this cessation from work on this one day in seven. But again, it tells us the other six days, you're not supposed to rest.
The other six days, you're supposed to work. The other six days, you're supposed to be diligent. The other six days, you're supposed to be industrious. The other six days, you're supposed to to do what God has given you to do in terms of vocation.
So I would suggest that at creation, when God Sabbaths, He gives us not only a paradigm or a pattern for rest, but there's also the emphasis upon labor, upon work. God shows industry in creating the world in the space of six days and all very good. And so the reason affixed to the keeping of the commandment, notice here in Deuteronomy, is the doctrine of redemption. He says, observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy, verse 12, as the Lord your God commanded you.
Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work. you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you." Now, here's
Rationale: Creation and Redemption
the reason or the rationale for the command. It says in verse 15, And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. What's the rationale for Sabbath keeping in Deuteronomy chapter 5?
It is the doctrine of redemption. It is what God has done in terms of liberation. It is what God has done in terms of deliverance. You were in bondage, slavery to Egypt, God brought you out.
Again, not so you could carry on like the rest of the nation, but rather you could Sabbath, you could call it holy, you could keep the day and enjoy the presence of the God who has redeemed you. But turn back to Exodus chapter 20. The rationale or the reason given there is different. Not that there is a contradiction, but it's the twin themes indicated in these two passages that serve as the foundation for Sabbatarianism throughout Scripture.
Notice in Exodus chapter 20. We're at verse 8. Remember? Again, different than the observe in Deuteronomy.
So if I were to tell you, remember, that means I had previously told you something and I'm giving you a call to recall that. Remember. You can't remember something you'd never heard before. There was Sabbatarianism prior to this giving of the law in Exodus chapter 20.
But it goes through the same similar thing. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work, you nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. Now notice the rationale or reason here.
For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rest of the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. You've got the doctrine of creation and you've got the doctrine of redemption that undergirds this idea of Sabbath keeping. The rationale for the cessation from regular work on the one day that God has appointed is rooted in the creative work of God and in the redemptive work of God.
Now, this will be important when we get to the New Testament to consider the change of the day. And for those who say, well, the Bible doesn't tell us that, the Bible does tell us that. And we need to have ears to hear and hearts to receive and eyes to understand what the Bible says concerning these things. So there's the exposition of the commandment.
Pretty simple. Positively worship God. Rest in God. Sanctify the day.
Keep it holy. Negatively, don't do what you'd normally do the other six days of the work. This applies not just to you, but to your family and to all those associated with the covenant family. And the reason why you're supposed to engage in this is one, because God created the world in six days and he sabbathed on the seventh.
And as well, because God redeemed you from the house of bondage from Egypt and brought you into the promised land.
Sabbath at Creation
So let's turn back now to creation in Genesis chapter 2. So we're moving now to the Sabbath in the Old Covenant. And we have several lines of thought here, not all the passages, not all the lines of thought. We're engaged in what scholarship calls biblical theology.
You start at Genesis, you go to Revelation, and you see what Scripture says concerning a particular doctrine along the way. A bit different than what's called systematic theology. What does the Bible say about the Bible? What does the Bible say about God?
What does the Bible say about man? What does the Bible say about Christ? What does the Bible say about redemption? That's systematic theology.
Both disciplines are necessary, both disciplines overlap, both disciplines have as their end the glory of God in the instruction of the mind so that we can take every thought captive to the obedience of Jesus Christ our Lord. So as we construct a biblical theology of Sabbath, we're starting in the old covenant and we're looking first at the Sabbath at creation. Notice in Genesis chapter 2 and verse 1, thus the heavens and the earth and all the host of them were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.
Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. Now, the Lord Jesus tells us in John 5, 17, My Father has been working until now, and I have been working. With reference to what it says in Genesis chapter 2, it's the cessation from the work of creation. The work of creation is God's making all things out of nothing, by the word of His power in the space of six days, and all very good." So the cessation of activity in Genesis chapter 2, with reference to God, is specifically connected to the creation account.
He's already finished. Days 1 through 6, He makes all that we see, and behold, it was good. And so the cessation from labor doesn't mean that God is deistical. It doesn't mean that He's wholly other and far removed.
God is active, obviously, in Providence, upholding creation by the word of His power. But it's a cessation of activity relative to the creation of the world. And then notice the rest of the Creator. In about the middle of verse 2, it says, And He rested on the seventh day, from all his work which he had done." Now, we're not supposed to understand this as if God was tired.
It is speaking in the manner of man, it is accommodated to us, it is in a way that we can track with, but we're not to conclude that the creation account wearied our God. I mean, God at the end of this week just needed to wipe his brow, he needed to lay down on his cosmic couch, and he needed to just chill out. No, it's not that. It was complacency, it was delight in what he had made.
The rest that God takes is indicative of the fact that the creation account, or the creation rather, is completed and that God is delighting in it. So the Lord doesn't rest because he's weary, but it was a rest of refreshment. Exodus 31, 17 highlights that reality. To demonstrate his pleasure and delight in what he had made.
John Owen, not on his commentary on Hebrews, but elsewhere, says it was not a rest of weariness from the labor of his work, but a rest of complacency and delight in what he had wrought that God entered into. Meredith Klein says, the Creator's Sabbath rest is much more a matter of taking satisfaction and delight in his consummated building. You need to remember that the heavens are God's throne, and the earth is his footstool. What God does in Genesis chapters 1 to 3 is He makes a sanctuary.
He makes a temple. He makes a place where He can be with His people. In fact, one man has rightly reflected upon that. Again, Klein says, the cosmic structure was built as a habitation for the Creator Himself.
Heaven and earth were erected as a house of God, a palace of the Great King, the seat of sovereignty of the Lord of the Covenant. So when it says what God does here, it ought to cause us to go, wow! It ought to cause us to reflect with joy. It ought to cause us to see that what He has made is a good day, and that He is not a part of it in the sense that God is pantheistic, but that God is a vested interest in the creation.
There's complacency, there's delight, there's satisfaction, and this rest will serve as a pattern for the creature. James Hamilton reflects on this cosmic habitation as well. He says, God is presented as building for himself a cosmic temple. In this cosmic temple, he places his image, whose task is to fill the earth and subdue it, such that the glory of Yahweh covers the land as the waters cover the sea.
So when we read the creation account, if we get that Adam was a farmer, we're missing the point. Now Adam was a farmer, but Adam's primary vocation was priestly. Adam's primary vocation was to extend the garden temple, to multiply image bearers, that they could enjoy the presence of God Almighty. Now, obviously, sin enters in, and that ruins everything until the coming of the last Adam, who, by his redemptive work, restores things to the way they were supposed to have been.
And then notice that God blesses the seventh day. Verse 3, then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it he rested from all his work which God had created in May. He blessed it. G.K.
Beal makes this observation. The Hebrew word for bless is normally restricted to living beings in the Old Testament and typically does not apply to something being blessed or sanctified only for God's sake. Accordingly, Genesis 2.3 appears to be directed to humanity as a creational ordinance to regard the seventh day of each week to be blessed and set apart by God. In other words, what he says is what I think the Bible upholds everywhere when it comes to the doctrine of the Christian Sabbath.
What God does here in Genesis 2, 1 to 3, is a pattern for the creature. So that when it comes to that day that God has set apart for the public worship of God, we bless it, we sanctify it, we keep it, we remember it, we observe it. all of these concepts obtained as we study exegetically what God is doing in the creation account. And then as well, the reason for His action is seen in verse 3. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.
There is this pattern of divine rest afforded to us by God Himself, and as creatures, we're supposed to follow along.
Christ as Lord of the Sabbath
Now notice, secondly, in terms of the Sabbath at creation. Here we're going to turn to Mark's Gospel. I said this was a biblical theology of the Sabbath. This is the Sabbath and the Old Covenant, so you might wonder why we're going to a New Covenant passage.
Because I think Jesus speaks volumes concerning God's purpose at the creation account with reference to Sabbath keeping. Mark chapter 2. We see what happens often with Jesus and his opponents. We see Sabbath wars.
Jesus and the religious leaders mixed it up a lot about the doctrine of the Sabbath. And intriguingly, Christ never said, well, I'm getting rid of it anyway, so there's no big deal. Why would Jesus so earnestly fight for proper Sabbath keeping only to invalidate it after His death and resurrection? Why would He take pains to fix it or to keep it or to protect it only to obliterate it a few years later?
The idea is that He is vindicating the original purpose of God in creation with reference to the Sabbath. Notice in the first place, you have the conduct of the disciples in verse 23. Now, it happened that he went through the grain fields on the Sabbath, and as they went, his disciples began to pluck the heads of grain. That then invokes or provokes from the religious leaders a complaint.
As far as they were concerned, Jesus' disciples are Sabbath breakers. As far as they're concerned, they are not complying fastidiously with the law. So verse 24, the Pharisee said to him, look, why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath? Imagine being in the very presence of the lawgiver himself wanting to debate the fine points of the law.
They assume that this is unlawful behavior because they assume what the commandment never intended. The commandment never intended for you to sit in your living room and die of starvation, or to not engage in the act of pulling your ox out of the pit. The commandment was made rather for the man, and the man wasn't made for the commandment. Notice that's how Jesus expresses it.
So Jesus responds in verse 25, but he said to them, have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry, he and those with him? How he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest and ate the showbread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and also gave some to those who were with him. In other words, Jesus says the commandment wasn't broken. Typically and normatively, that bread was for the priests only.
But when David and his men are about to die, go ahead and eat the bread. See, the Pharisees and the scribes, they set up hedges and protection around the Sabbath so you couldn't get anywhere near actually violating it. But those hedges and protections became the new norm. They became the new law.
And as I think I've said recently, the same God who says, don't take from the Word, is the same God who says, don't add to the Word. Don't tell us that obedience is over here when the Bible says it's here. And then get mad at us when we don't do that. See, that's what's happening in the life of Jesus as he's confronted by these religious leaders.
So he invokes the example of David in verses 25 and 26. This is 1 Samuel 21, by the way. And then the purpose of the Sabbath in verses 27 and 28. He says, and he said to them, the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.
Therefore, the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath. Now, when he says the Sabbath was made for man, what do you think he's thinking about there? He's not thinking about Sinai. He doesn't say the Sabbath was made for the Jew.
He says the Sabbath was made for the man. What man? Most likely Adam, who would follow God's pattern at the end of Genesis chapter 2. But man in general, not just Jewish man who heard Sinai, Not just Jewish man who was at the plains of Moab in Deuteronomy chapter five, but it's always been God's purpose to bless his creatures.
And that's another mindset we need to have when it comes to Sabbatarianism. It's not a burden. It's not a binding. It's not grievous.
Oh, wow, you mean God wants me to spend a day worshiping and praising Him? That's kind of our attitude when it comes to this whole giving the Lord a day. Oh, come on, I'll give Him the morning, but the rest of the day is for me. When I was growing up, going to a Catholic church, they had a 5.30 mass on Saturday afternoon.
You'd go to 5.30 mass on Saturday afternoon, so you could do whatever you wanted on Sunday. It's unfortunate that Protestantism, in many ways, has followed that. Come to the Saturday evening service, then you can spend the day at the lake with your kids on Sunday. There's nothing wrong with spending a day at the lake with your kids.
God's not anti-lake days with kids. But when it comes to Sabbatarianism, when it comes to one day out of the seven, specifically set apart by God for the public worship of God in the house of God, I don't know why that's such a burden to us. I don't know why we meet with such opposition when we try to underscore the biblical doctrine of the Christian Sabbath or the Lord's Day. Oh no, that's legalism, that's Judaism.
No, God's given us a gift. The Sabbath was made for the man. In other words, God knows our frame. He knows that we're weak.
He knows that we're but dust. He knows that we're not John Deere tractors. He knows that we need to cease from our labors, our ordinary work. We need to come into the presence of God.
We need the refreshment that comes from on high. We need those blessings and those benefits, so God in His kindness has given that to us. The Sabbath was made for man. J.C.
Riles says, God gave 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 God. That's what the Bible teaches. So back to verse 27, the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.
See, that's the Pharisaic response. You exist to fulfill Sabbath law. You exist not to walk more than whatever many steps they said you could walk. Remember if the nub or the core or the essence is here, they put it over here and then had this idea that you need to function in obedience to that.
Your job is to function in obedience to these man-made provisions relative to Sabbath law, and if you don't, then you're going to be cut off. No, the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. You weren't made simply to obey those regulations. Rather, you need to see it as a good gift given by God.
So, Sabbatarianism doesn't say, okay, wretch, you just do what you're supposed to do and eke it out. No, Sabbatarianism says God's given you a blessed gift, He's given you a provision, He's given you a place, He's given you access, He's given you free approach to the throne, and He's given that to you for a day, one out of the seven. Work hard the other six days to be sure, but on that seventh day, Remember it, observe it, sanctify it, and find rest in it. It is a blessed and a wonderful thing.
And then again, notice what Jesus asserts concerning himself. Therefore, the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath. Curious language, if in his mind, at the death and resurrection, he is going to suspend Sabbatarianism. Strange thought indeed.
If he says on the one hand, this was a gift given by God, are we getting less gifts in the New Covenant? No, we get more gifts in the New Covenant. We get more provision. We get more access.
We get more blessing. We get more excellence. And so if there was a day set apart in Old Covenant Israel for the trafficking in the good things of God, there is certainly a day set apart in the New Covenant Israel, which is the Church of Jesus Christ, for trafficking in the things of God. There ought not to be an aversion in our hearts concerning this.
Now again, if at the exegetical level it is legalism or it is Judaism, then we ought to reject it. But hopefully as we move through these passages, you'll see that's not the case.
Sabbath in Cain and Abel
Now notice thirdly the Sabbath observance of Cain and Abel. We go back to Genesis. Genesis chapter 4. Genesis 4 verse 1, Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, I have acquired a man from the Lord.
And she bore again, this time his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of the sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in the process of time, it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat.
Now the thing that should be curious to us or interesting to us relative to Sabbath is that phrase, in the process of time. If you have the New King James Version, if you look at the margin, the reading literally is at the end of days. So when we look at that, then she bore again, this time his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
And at the end of days it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. As Matthew Poole wisely says, more probably at the end of the days of the week, or upon the seventh and last day of the week, Saturday, which then was the Sabbath day, which before this time was blessed and sanctified. And then he cites Genesis chapter two, verse three.
Now think about that for just a moment. It's not that the end of the days in terms of the final day of judgment, it's at the end of the days of the week. And on the end of the days of the week, what do Cain and Abel do? They bring sacrifice.
Well, if we ask the question, how did they know to bring sacrifice? They would have learned it from Adam. And if we ask the question, how did Adam learn sacrifice? He would have learned it from God.
Because when Adam and Eve went to hide themselves, they cover themselves with fig leaves. When God comes to deal with them, He kills animals and takes the skins and covers them. They are taught a very instructive lesson at that point. Blood atonement is an actual essential need with reference to sinners and God.
So they saw God not unzip a man in a bear suit and put that bear suit on them, but kill and spill blood of animals and then take those skins and cover them. And if we ask the question, how would Cain and Abel have known which day they should have presented these sacrifices? Again, from Adam. And how would Adam have known on which day to present these sacrifices?
From God, Genesis chapter 2, verses 1 to 3. So in the process of time, or at the end of days, they bring a sacrifice to approach to God with reference to Sabbath keeping in terms of the larger concern of the sermon. So the offerings of the sons. Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel brought the firstborn of his flock.
And the practice was informed by the Lord. John Calvin made this observation. The custom of sacrificing was not rashly decided by them, but was divinely delivered to them. Again, if you've ever read Genesis 4 and you've seen Cain and Abel, oftentimes our thoughts turn on, why did he receive Abel and why didn't he receive Cain?
But your previous thoughts ought to be, how in the world did they know to bring a sacrifice to this holy God? Because this God sacrificed animals and covered their parents in the skins. How did they know at the end of days? Because this Holy God, Sabbath, according to Genesis 2, 1 to 3, He passed that information on to Adam, and Adam dutifully passed that information on to his sons, such that at the end of the days of the week, they didn't go to the lake with their kids.
They went to the altar of Yahweh with the gifts given by God to them, and they return a portion. in terms of tithes, offerings, and sacrifices, and to underscore the necessity of blood atonement.
Sabbath Before Sinai
Now, fourthly, turn over to Exodus chapter 16. Exodus chapter 16, to see the presence of Sabbath prior to Sinai. The presence of Sabbath prior to the giving of the law in Exodus chapter 20. This is dazzling exegesis, isn't it? 16 comes before 20.
That's your dazzling exegesis. That's why they were told to remember, because it was something extant. It was something present. It was something in play.
And we have in Exodus chapter 16, verses 4 and 5, instruction. Then the Lord said to Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day that I may test that, whether they will walk in my law or not. And it shall be on the sixth day that they shall prepare what they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily. And let's just drop to the explanation in verses 22 and following.
And so it was on the sixth day that they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one. And all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. Then he said to them, this is what the Lord has said. Tomorrow is a Sabbath rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord.
Bake what you will bake today and boil what you will boil. And lay up for yourselves all that remains to be kept until morning. So they laid it up till morning as Moses commanded, and it did not stink, nor were there any worms in it. Then Moses said, eat that today, for today is a Sabbath to the Lord.
Today you shall not find it in the field. Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will be none. Again, it's extant, that means it's present, it's in existence prior to the giving of the law at Sinai. How do we know that?
Because that is specifically what the text says. So Adam was a dutiful parent that passed this information down and the covenant community kept it alive. Oral tradition was powerful. We worship God on the seventh day.
We bring blood atonement. We seek by God's grace to enter into his presence. All these things obtained in Israel prior to the giving of the law at Sinai. Turretin says this could not have been said unless the Sabbath had already been instituted and commanded by God.
And in a very excellent modern book by a fellow named Philip Ross, he makes this observation. I'll tell you the name of the book in a moment. He says, does Exodus 16 not suggest that they were aware of an obligation to rest before they heard the Decalogue? Of course it does.
Philip Ross's book is called From the Finger of God, and it's a study in the threefold division of the law, the moral law, the judicial law, and the ceremonial law of Moses. It is most excellent, and he uses as a foil, Sabbatarianism, because that is a big sort of demarcation within the church today. There are those who from a confessional standpoint embrace Sabbatarianism, and there are those outside of that confessional standpoint that are suspicious that that is legalism or it is Judaizing with reference to the New Testament. So he uses that as a sort of specimen passage or subject, and he goes through it quite beautifully and quite helpfully.
Now, in the fifth place, turn over to the Sabbath. Well, Sabbath at Sinai. I won't spend time here, but that's what we have. So Exodus 20, with reference to the Sabbath at Sinai, you have the positive command, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.
You have the prohibition, six days you shall labor and do all your work. And then again, the rationale. If this was quiz time, I'd ask you to take out your pencil and paper and write, why is it that God tells the people of Israel to Sabbath? Or what two overarching themes underscore the reality of Sabbatarianism?
Creation and redemption. The fact that God created the world in the space of six days and then rested on the seventh. And the fact that God redeemed Israel out of bondage in Egypt.
Sabbath in Isaiah
Now in the next place, we have the Sabbath and the prophet Isaiah. You can turn to Isaiah 56. Isaiah 56. Again, not everything Sabbath is being brought out, but this is a sort of a summary exposition of some significant passages relative to Sabbatarianism.
Two passages in Isaiah that we want to look at. First, the teaching in Isaiah chapter 56. Now, I put this in the context of the Messianic age. Isaiah 52 and 53 highlight the fourth servant song of Isaiah.
And in that fourth servant song, we find out the servant of Yahweh will be bruised. The servant of Yahweh will be crushed. The servant of Yahweh will stand in the place of His people, will take their punishment, and will bring them His righteousness. What we have in Isaiah 53, we might call Isaiah one of the apostles, because it's so evangelical, it is so full of Christ's substitutionary atonement on behalf of sinners.
So after Isaiah 53, we then see the benefits accruing from the work of the servant with reference to the church or the people of God. And then when we get to Isaiah chapter 56, we have a statement concerning new covenant reality, new covenant blessing. Notice in verse two, blessed is the man who does this and the son of man who lays hold on it, who keeps from defiling the Sabbaths and keeps his hand from doing any evil. In other words, in the New Covenant, there will be sabbathing.
There will be blessing for the people of God in terms of a cessation from regular, ordinary work, where they get to gather into the house of God on the day of God to access the God of heaven and earth. It is a most blessed provision given by our Lord. Notice in chapter 56 at verse 4. For thus says the Lord to the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths and choose what pleases me and hold fast my covenant.
Even to them I will give in my house and within my walls a place and a name. Better than that of sons and daughters, I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. Now we know that this applies to New Covenant reality. It's not just Sabbatarianism in the New Covenant, but the eunuch finding access into the house of God is Acts chapter 8.
When Philip meets that Ethiopian eunuch and baptizes him in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, you have Isaiah 56 fulfilled. you have a eunuch who at one time, because of his unicacy, kept from the house of the Lord, Deuteronomy 23.1. But now in Christ and the new covenant, eunuchs and men from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation, as we drop down in this particular chapter, we'll see that the house of Yahweh is a place of prayer for all the nations of the earth. It's looking forward to the new covenant under the messianic reign of King Jesus. where eunuchs are welcomed in through that precious blood, and where Sabbath-keeping is still part and parcel of New Covenant religion. It's not Judaizing, it is not legalizing, it is rather the blessed benefit of God, given or created for man as man, realized by the last Adam, and given to his people for their benefit, for their growth, for their help, and for their good.
It's not a bad thing. Notice in Isaiah 56 at verse six, also the sons of the foreigner who joined themselves to the Lord to serve him and to love the name of the Lord, to be his servants. Everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbaths and holds fast my covenant. Even them I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer.
Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations. The Lord God who gathers the outcasts of Israel says, yet I will gather to him others besides those who are gathered to him. So several things promised by God in the Old Covenant that come to fruition in the New Covenant. Gentile inclusion in the covenant of grace.
We see that in Isaiah 56. eunuch inclusion in the covenant of grace. We see that in Isaiah 56, Acts 8, but as well Sabbath keeping. It is included in this new covenant setting to prophesy or to predict or show forth rather that in the days of Messiah, the people of God will benefit like the people of God did in the old covenant as well. He doesn't suspend or abrogate something calculated to do them good.
Isaiah 58: Sabbath Delight
And then turn to the prophet Isaiah chapter 58. Isaiah 58, you have the declaration of the sin of Israel in verse 1. You see, God says, go after my people. Certainly the pagans and the heathen need to hear God's law preached.
But so does the House of Israel, so do the people of God, so do the children of God, because the Word of God is given to convince, rebuke, and exhort. The Word of God is given to correct us, to instruct us, to chasten us, to discipline us. And so in this particular chapter, two things come under fire. First is fasting, and second is Sabbath.
And with reference to fast day, instead of using the time of fast day for the good of others, they walked around with heavy hearts and heavy faces, and they said, oh, woe is me, I'm fasting. Jesus condemns that approach to fast day in the Sermon on the Mount. Don't tell everybody you're fasting. Oh, I'm such a godly, pious fellow.
I'm engaged in fasting today. Anoint your face with oil. Be happy and joyful. And the same thrust is seen here with the prophet Isaiah.
But then he turns his sights against or turns his attention to Sabbath keeping. And then notice the great promise of verses 13 and 14. If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath the delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, and shall honor him not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, then you shall delight yourself in the Lord. And I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
That doesn't sound like a bondage thing. That doesn't sound like a burdensome thing. That doesn't sound like a grievous thing. Here's what I suspect.
The problem is never the law. The problem is always our hearts. And if we are that messed up by the good gift of God giving us a day to Sabbath, giving us a day for public worship and rest in Him, that says more about our hearts than it does about the nature of God's holy law, who John the Apostle tells us is not grievous. It's not burdensome.
E.J. Young made this comment in his commentary. The Sabbath was not merely a mosaic ordinance. It was far more.
It was instituted at creation and is a pattern of the heavenly Sabbath rest, which the redeemed are to enjoy in the presence of their eternal God. In the great calamity of the exile that was to come upon them, Isaiah stresses the Sabbath as, in a sense, the true heart of devotion to God. He who keeps the Sabbath as it is intended to be kept will be happy in the Lord of the Sabbath. That is a great way to underscore the point.
It is good by God to make this for man, for the benefit of the creature, for the worship of God, and for the enjoyment of the rest, at least in part, of what we're heading to in terms of consummated glory. One last text and then we're done. Jeremiah 31.
Moral Law in the New Covenant
Jeremiah 31. Well, Jeremiah does not indicate Sabbath-keeping per se, Jeremiah tells us something about the moral law of God. Remember, you've got the moral law, you've got the judicial law, and you've got the ceremonial law. It is the moral law that's in view here in Jeremiah chapter 31.
Again, the context is the promise of the new covenant. It is the promise of what we'll obtain when the Messiah comes. when the champion of Israel is manifested, when he takes on our humanity, when he lives for us, when he dies for us, when he's resurrected again for us. What will happen when sinners are born again by the power of God's Spirit, when they, by grace, look to Jesus Christ in faith? Notice in Jeremiah 31.31, Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke.
Here's a contrast between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. The New Covenant is inviolate. You can't break it. You can't suspend it.
You can't abrogate it. This is what we base the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints on. He who begins this good work in you will complete it unto the day of Christ. New Covenant blessings are sure.
New Covenant blessings are secure. The Old Covenant, you could break it, and they did. and thus reap the whirlwind in terms of God's judgment." Now notice as he goes on, "'Though I was a husband to them,' says the Lord." Now verse 33, "'But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,' says the Lord. Not that these things were absent from the true believers in the Old Testament, David possessed these blessings. Jacob possessed these blessings.
Abraham possessed these blessings. They weren't, however, essential features of Old Covenant religion. You could be a part of the Old Covenant and be a Jacob or an Esau. You could be in the Old Covenant and be an Isaac or an Ishmael.
So these features that he speaks to aren't brand new in terms of redemptive history, but they are absolutely sure for the New Covenant community. They are essential features in the New Covenant. So verse 32, this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my law in their minds and write it in their hearts.
Which law? The ceremonial? No. That prefigured Christ.
Once Christ comes, we have the substance. We have the grandkid. We don't need the picture. Is it the judicial law?
No, this isn't the Commonwealth of Israel, and we're not dwelling in the physical land of Canaan. The law that God writes in the heart is the Ten Commandments. It was given at Sinai, it was given in Deuteronomy, but it predated that. It comes, as it were, hardwired into our very psyche.
God makes us in His image, and as a result, we know it's wrong to murder. We know it's wrong to engage in gross sexual immorality. Men know this, women know this. They try really hard to suppress the truth in unrighteousness, but deep down inside, their conscience screams at them that what they're doing is wrong.
Now, you might say, well, why, if it's written on our hearts at creation, it needs to be written in redemption? Because we're messed up, and because the second or last Adam comes to save us from our sin, and a feature of the new covenant is that this law will be written in our hearts in an experiential way, in a way that we want, in a way that makes us imitate David, who said, how I delight in your law, it is my meditation day and night. So he says that he will put his law in their minds and write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
No more shall every man teach his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, know the Lord. For they all shall know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity and their sin. I will remember no more.
Again, all these central features of New Covenant religion. You don't need to tell your neighbor in the New Covenant, hey, you should know the Lord. He knows the Lord if he's in the New Covenant. But if you were in the Old Covenant and you happen to be Jacob, you need to tell Esau, you need to know the Lord.
If you were Isaac, you would need to tell Ishmael, you need to know the Lord. But these are essential features in New Covenant religion in the mouth of an Old Covenant prophet. And when he prophesies that God will put his law in our minds and hearts, he is talking about the Decalogue. He is talking about the Ten Commandments.
That's why in Matthew 5, and we'll visit that, Jesus says, do not even let it begin to rise in your mind that I have come to abrogate the law. I didn't come to get rid of it or destroy it, but rather I came to fulfill it. Yes, in his own doing. Yes, in his own dying.
Yes, in his own resurrecting. But as well, with reference to his people, the blood-bought children of God, born again by the power of the Holy Spirit, have that law internalized in their hearts such that now they want to do it. They want to comply. They want to honor God.
When they disobey or when they transgress, they are convicted and they can confess that sin to God and fetch forgiveness, but wanting the presence and the power of the Spirit such that they can comply with what God has said pleases Him in terms of His creatures.
Application
In summary or in conclusion, first, the obedience to the command. We need to cease from Us. It's always about us, right? It always comes back to us.
And we need to understand a cessation from our regular ordinary work is done so that we can be caught up in God Most High. Now brethren, this is just a great way for us to actuate or to fulfill or rather comply with the exhortations we saw in the last sermon from Hebrews chapter 10. We're to draw near. We're to hold fast. or to consider one another, to stir one another up to love and good works.
Well, we do that by having a day given to us by God upon which to engage specifically in those things. Secondly, in terms of the use of the commandment, I mentioned that not only do the Reforms see a threefold division of the law, but they also recognize three proper uses of the law. The first use is the civil or political use. God gives His law to restrain His creatures.
Imagine a world without law. That would be hell. Secondly, there's the pedagogical use or the child tutor use of God's law. God gives us the law so that we'll see our sin and misery and our need for redemption, our need for Jesus Christ, because we cannot keep that law perfectly.
We don't do it exactly or entirely or perpetually. We do not do that. And so the law drives sinners to Christ so that we can find relief in and through the blood of Jesus. But then that third use is the normative use of the law.
So we are driven by the law into the arms of the Savior. And then the Savior says, as a pattern for sanctification, there's the law. The law reveals to us who God is. The law reveals to us what God delights in.
God delights in it when we don't engage in idolatry. God delights in when we don't blaspheme. God delights in when we obey Sabbath. God delights in subordination to a proper authority.
God delights in us not murdering, not committing adultery, not being thieves, not being liars, not being covetous. So the law drives us to Christ, then Christ sends us back to the law. This is why he prays in the high priestly prayer, sanctify them by thy truth, thy word is truth. We need the promises, we need the gospel, but we also need the law, because the law reveals to us who God is and what He desires, or rather what He demands from His creatures.
Turretin made this observation. He says, experience teaches too well that license and the negligence of sacred things grows more and more where a proper regard is not shown for the Lord's day. In other words, as the Lord's Day has been suspended, do people get holier? Not usually.
Do they get more godly? Not usually. There's exceptions to every rule, and I get it. There could be the guy that's in a dispensational church that has no regard whatsoever for the Sabbath, but could be a wholly faithful guy.
That's not the argument. The argument is simply this. When we suspend what God commands, typically we don't benefit. When we get rid of what God calls good, we don't do well.
And then Gerhardus Voss, in his biblical theology, made this observation. I love this. He says, the Sabbath has faithfully accompanied the people of God on their march through the ages. Always there for us, God and His Sabbath.
Always there for us to encourage us. Perhaps you have, I don't want to get too touchy-feely here, but perhaps you've woken up on a Sunday morning and you feel like the spiritual equivalent of a dead fish. And then you pray, God help me, give me the Davidic experience. I was glad when they said to me, let us go to the house of the Lord.
And lo and behold, you come here and it's not like, you know, the heavens open and you have a beatific, it's not that, but you're encouraged, you're blessed, you're assisted, you're aided, you're helped. That's the point with Vos' statement there. The Sabbath has always accompanied the people of God throughout their march in the ages. And for us to disregard it, or for us to render it null and void, or for us to say, oh no, Jesus fulfilled that.
Well, Jesus fulfilled the other Ten Commandments too, but nobody's saying, let's go out and commit adultery, let's go out and engage in murder. Whatever fulfillment of Decalogue on the part of Jesus Christ means, it doesn't mean go ahead and do whatever it is you want. No, the Sabbath was made for the man and not man for the Sabbath. But remember, and I want to end here, Sabbatarianism doesn't save you.
Jesus saves you. Sabbatarianism may underscore your need for salvation. There was a famous preacher in the life of the church, his name was John Elias, and he would hear about the prevailing sin of a particular community, and then he'd come there on the Sunday and he'd preach against that sin. And very often it was Sabbath breaking.
Very often it was a lack of Sabbath observance. And so he would use that as a means to show sinners their sin and their need for the Redeemer. He didn't go there saying, you just keep the Sabbath and you're going to go to heaven. No, if you don't keep the Sabbath, it shows you something about your own heart.
So let's set forth Jesus Christ in all of his offices, his prophet, priest, and king, and the one who's able and ready to save all who come to him. Those who believe and repent will be saved by our Lord Jesus Christ, and then, by God's grace, they'll get to enjoy the Sabbath.
Closing Prayer
Well, let us close in a word of prayer. Our Father, thank you for your word and thank you for this day that we can come together to worship you. I pray that you would go with us now, that you would watch over this church, that you'd watch over all of the brothers and the sisters in Christ in our local assembly. Bless all the churches of Christ in our community and throughout this nation and to the uttermost parts of the earth and protect them. and defend them and continue to rule over us, Lord God, for your glory and for our well-being.
And as the gospel goes forth today, we pray it would prevail and that many sinners would come to Jesus in faith. And we ask this in his most blessed name. Amen. Well, we'll stand and close by singing the doxology in praise to our triune God.
It can be found on page 568 in your hymn books. Praise God above with all blessings o'er. Praise Him, all creatures here below. Praise Him above, ye heavenly host. because Lord, bless you and keep you.
The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. God, may this be true for each of us. May it be true for your people all over the earth.
And may we live in light of your word. And may we seek by your grace to bring glory and honor and praise to you each and every day. And may you forgive us when we fall short. Bless us now we pray through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.