CALVARY BAPTIST CHURCH - HEIDELBERG 0004

Exodus 20:8-11 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: 10But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: 11For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.

The time of our worship - Six days you must work hard, but the seventh is the Lords Day!

It is done by sanctifying the day as a day of resting from works and recreation that would normally be done on the other six days; by making it our delight to spend the time in the public and private worship of God in all that He has done and all that He is!

To that end, we are to prepare our hearts, and with such foresight and diligence to refrain where possible from our worldly business that we more are the more free and fit for the duties of that day.

To be slothful in work and business on the six days, and to use the seventh as a day for self-serving purposes.

It is done by careless, negligent, lazy and unprofitable performing of assigning tasks; by being idle and not laboring with all might and strength; and by all needless working, words, and thoughts by participating in our employments and recreations that take away from the worship of God in all of His glory.

Because of the principles of work and worship that are prescribed in Commandment 4, we are commanded to find our rest after six days of hard labor and replenish our spirits, refresh our minds, and rest our bodies for the purpose of effective service for our Lord.

We have seen the object of worship--One God--there is no other God; we have seen the manner of worship--we are not to worship God through images or in any other way no commanded by God; last week we saw the attitude of worship--reverence, fear, using God's name to bring Him honor and not using His name in vain or irreverently both in spoken word and in life. Now we come to the fourth commandment where God deals with another important part of life--namely the time of worship!

The Chinese have a legend of a man who had only seven coins to his entire inheritance. This man came across a homeless man and reached in his pocket and took out six of those coins and gave them to the homeless man. However, what he didn't know was that the homeless man was also a pickpocket and while he was giving the coins to the man, the homeless man stole the seventh coin.

This is very much how we are in regards to this commandment. God has given us six days to do our business and keeps one for Himself, and we reach in and demand that one too.

This commandment has much controversy surrounding it. More than I felt is necessary and we will not put a great focus on the controversy but attempt to draw out the principles and look to see how they apply to us. In the introduction weeks of our study we showed that there is little in common with our culture in comparison to the Jewish culture from which these commandments are given. We don't imitate the culture, but we grasp the principles and apply them to our culture. It is here that we must begin with this the fourth commandment.

I. The Day Itself - the Sabbath vs. the Lord's Day It is here that much of the controversy lies. Questions arise about the Sabbath and why we don't meet on Saturday and instead meet on Sundays. The word Sabbath literally means cessation or rest! We first see this rest take place when God after six days of creating, took a rest from all that He did and blessed it and set it apart for Himself. From that time to this time on Sinai, we do not ever read of a command of a Sabbath or even there being a day of rest. We then come here to this account and see that God gives to the Jewish nation a day of Sabbath and commands it to the Jewish nation. Read with me Ex 31:12-17. It is very clear in this passage that God has delivered this command particularly to the Jewish nation for a particular reason. The character of the Sabbath day is a day of rest and holiness to the Lord. We today, do not keep the Sabbath day that was prescribed to the Jews. We keep the Lord's Day--not the last day of the week, but the first day of the week. Why do we do this? Here is a transitional list that delineates this transition whereby we meet on Sundays:

3. Jesus meets with his disciples just one week later on the first day. Jn 20:19,20

5. There is good evidence that the Ascension of Christ was on the first day. Acts 1

We see this important transition as we walk through the pages of Scripture and we can draw many parallels that give us insight into what is God's purpose for what is now called the "Lord's Day!"

Sabbath Celebrates

Creation of Life found in Adam

Work of God's Hand

Liberation from Egypt

Display of God's Power

Lord's Day Celebrates

Creation of New Life in Christ

Work of God's Heart

Liberation from Sin

Display of God's grace

Col. 2:16-17 Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days: 17 Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.

The Sabbath is part of the pictures of Christ. We now serve not a picture, but the reality of Christ here on earth and celebrate not the picture, but the real thing. Thus the transition that we enjoy today!

I. Two Governing Principles: Work and Worship! God gives two beautiful principles that should govern the day that we are to apply for us today. Two that I don't think we care much for, but notice:

1. Principle of Work - "Six days shalt thou labor." We mostly think of this command with dealing with rest, but it clearly teaches us the ethical principle of work as well. You see, work is spiritual worship and worship is spiritual work. The person who refuses to work does not deserve to live,

2 Thes. 3:10 For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.

I am not talking about those who absolutely cannot work, but those who can but refuse to do so. Our nation is in sane. We attempt to legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the ones that work out of it. Someone has said, "You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it; the government cannot give to any body that which it does not first of all take from someone else. What one man receives without working for it another man must work for it without receiving it." Nothing kills morality better than half the people not working because they know they'll receive any way and the other half not working because they know it will be taken from them. God has commanded that we work-six days! The word for labour here is a very strong word that carries the idea of intense slave-type labor, with much exhaustion and duress. This is how we are to work as well. In other words, there is no room for laziness in God's kingdom.

Eccles. 9:10 Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.

2. Principle of Worship!This principle is given from God our creator for man's good. Our Lord gave this same command in

Mark 2:27-28And he said unto them, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath: 28 Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath.

a.) To Replenish your spirit! Spiritually, we can run down. God has graciously given us a day to replenish our spiritual energy. We are to be still, (cease striving) and know that He is God. Our Lord in His walk here on earth took time to get replenished by spending time with the Father.

The story is told of a coal miner in the regions of Pennsylvania who every Sunday would bring his mules up out of the coal mine and would be tied in his front yard. One day a neighbor stopped by in curiosity to ask why he always had his coal mining donkeys out of the mine. The owner replied, "The donkeys will go blind if they don't have one day in the natural sunlight."

We too grow blind spiritually without the day of spiritual refreshment! God, the creator made us this way.

b.) To Refreshing our Souls. We struggle in our minds and our very hearts with fear, stress, and attitudes unbecoming godliness and are in weekly need of refreshment. Three words that describe our culture is "Hurry, worry, and bury!" In all of our technology and advancement, if we narrowed it down to what we really have done, we would say that we have basically increased noise and speed. Someone has said that a fanatic is someone who has lost their aim but has redoubled their effort to get there.

c.) Rest our bodies. After six good days of work, we need to stop working and rest our bodies.

Someone has said, "Our bodies are 7-Day clocks that need one day to wind up. If not, they will eventually loose their spring." I am convinced that we can get more done in our work in the six days that God gives us when we reserve one for His day. "You are not wasting time when you stop to sharpen the ax!"

II. How do we keep it? By the day of Christ the Sabbath became a day of gloom and legalism. There were according to one writer 1521 ways a man could break the Sabbath. For instance, they could not carry anything heavier than a dried fig, for that was declared a burden. A woman could not gaze into a mirror because she might discover a white hair and be tempted to pluck it out which would be a grievous sin. You could not salt a radish and let it sit for too long for then that would be the labor of pickling on the Sabbath. For us, it should not be a day of gloom, but a day of gladness and rejoicing for our Lord has risen from the dead and is alive! It should be a day of love to the Lord, not a day of legalistic prohibitions that destroy worship, it should be a day of service to Christ back to Him not a day of selfish service to ourselves, a day of holiness, not a holiday. It is not a day for our own personal pleasure and satisfaction, but a day devoted to the rejoicing, praising, and worshipping God. All through the NT you will see to overriding principles: work and worship. Work the other days and work hard, but one day set aside time for worship of God and rest!

III. What does it look like? In the OT there is one theme--Jesus is coming. Everything was a picture, a foreshadowing of the coming of Christ! In the NT there is one theme--Christ has come! But even in that, there is a picture of something. In Revelation, the theme is someone is coming again. In Colossians 2:16,17 we saw that the Sabbath is a shadow of things to come. We see the picture of the tabernacle, the sacrifices, and the ark as being shadows of Christ, but how can the Sabbath be a shadow of Christ?

Matthew 11:28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Sabbath remembering is a picture of the rest that we have in Christ. In Hebrews 4:9-11 we read of the rest that we find only in Christ that comes through belief in Him. There are those who do not have this rest because of their unbelief. Christ fulfilled the law and thus in Christ we rest--we trust. In the Creation, after God had finished His work, He rested; after Christ's work here on earth was complete, he too said, "It is finished!" and took his rest at the right hand of the Father.

This is by grace! Here is the picture of grace! In the OT, the Jews worked six days and rested. Through Christ now in the NT, we rest and then work and serve Christ! This is what our Lord's Day should look like! We are replenished, refreshed, and physically resting in Christ and then go to work to serve that Lord who is Lord of the Sabbath-the rest!

Our country is in perhaps its worse shape morally then it has ever been. I think that among many things, one of the things that has contributed to this spiraling moral decline is the snubbing of the nose to the principle of God's command here to keep the Sabbath Day sacred, holy, and set apart. Mention the Lord's Day and the thoughts of many Christians turn at once to the claim that we are NT believers, thus free to ignore the old fashioned teachings of the OT. So, instead of a day spent in seeking to know God and humbly rejoicing in His greatness, majesty and might, men spend it in vain pursuit of a satisfaction which is but a fleeting prelude to the drabness of another Monday morning.

One early church historian wrote this: "A true Christian according to the commands of the Gospel, observes the Lord's day by casting out all bad thoughts, and cherishing all goodness, honoring the resurrection of the Lord, which took place on that day." Now I want us to explore Christ's approach to the Sabbath and learn several lessons: Turn to John 5:5-18

Christ deals directly with the Pharisees and a particular conflict with the Jewish traditions of the Sabbath. Here was the pool of Bethseda a place where this man was for 38 years trying his best to get into the pool as soon as the waters were stirred but consistently failed.

Vs10 - "It is not lawful" - not God's law; man's tradition. Would Christ ever ask someone to do something that was against the Father? Who set up the Sabbath? God did! Something does not compute! All they could see was the bed roll. What is going on here? The Pharisees in order to help keep things holy on the Sabbath set up some parameters designed to keep men from violating the purpose and will of God. Is this a good things or a bad thing? GOOD THING! Nothing wrong with this at all--it should happen. Phil 4:8 - God commands we think on things that are true, honest, just, lovely, etc.

So, people who smart, set up some parameters that aid in helping fulfill God's desires and we set rules that keep our children and families thinking along these lines. (No movies, no TV,) We help establish our children's purity by putting certain restrictions on them in regards to members of the opposite sex. These are not always found in black and white in the pages of Scriptures, but should be based on the Scriptural principles. What then is the problem? When these traditions and rules become elevated to or superior to God's Word. They become sacred monuments that cannot be moved and are even shrines to be worshipped at. The Pharisees had all kinds of rules like this:

*you could not carry anything that weighed more than a dried fig*a tailor could not carry a needle-for fear a button would fall off--that was work; a scribe--no pencil--he might jot something down; teacher could not read--he/she might have to move the lamp thus causing her to work; could move a chair if it had less than four rungs, four or over was considered a ladder--that was work; ladies could not wear ornamentation, for fear you should take it off and show someone and that was considered vain, and even carrying a burden (two strikes); could not look into a mirror for fear you would pluck out a white hair out; you could dip you radish in salt--but only for a short period of time, because it would be pickling; There were over 1500 like things to monitor your keeping the Sabbath. By this time, can you imagine the burden of the Sabbath. You were afraid to breathe! This took the joy, rejoicing, the worship and passion right out of the souls of people. What was supposed to be a very beautiful and meaningful time had become a time of great drudgery and reluctance with God's people because of these rules and traditions.

Notice 2 things that happen: 1. People miss the blessing of the work of God because of misplaced emphasis on tradition -vs10.
The Jews said unto "him that was cured"--they missed that part! They were so focused on their tradition and rules that they passed spiritual judgment upon this man based on those rules and missed that God had done a transforming work in this life! He was cured--but carrying a bed! Oh, how terrible! He's carrying a bed.

God does something great and what do they want to do? They want to murder Christ. Last time I checked, murder was a sin, carrying a bed roll isn't. What happens here is that our traditions, rules, personal thoughts and standards become so important that we gossip, tear down, and even make fun of those who don't share the same way of living or thinking.

Vs18 - Why did they want to kill him? Two things: "broken" means to loosen - he loosened the Sabbath; and claimed to be equal with God. This is the first thing that people will do. Instead of looking at their own blindness to the real things of God, they claim "compromise!" They claimed that Christ had compromised or loosened the Sabbath. There is a good lesson--compromise is something that ought to scare us and we should be looking out for it every where. However, because we really seek to find out the big picture of God's plan and do it, we may take criticism for it.

Five Principles of Keeping the Sabbath - Matthew 12:1 We see two rules of the Sabbath that the disciples broke - harvesting and threshing. They were confronted and notice the response of Christ:

1. Deeds of necessity are right for the Sabbath. Vs 3,4 - New bread was to come in everyday for the shewbread. In one of David's days of fleeing Saul, he came into the temple hungry and ate some of the old shewbread that was for the purpose of feeding the priests after it was placed on the table before the Holy of Holies. The implication is very clear here--the restriction is broken because of the need of the hour. They were not killed for this, but God said for the sake of real, genuine human need, the blessing of bread for the priest not only can be forfeited, but must be forfeited. (Human needs: Dr's, nurses, police, fire, armed forces, farmers, power companies, etc.) In other words, it is lawful to do good on Sabbath.

2. Deeds of Service to God - vs 5,6 - The temple is a picture of God and His throne. The priest lead the people to the throne of God. This is my job as a pastor - the Lord's Day is the biggest day of my work week. The priest do it, but we serve something that is greater than the temple--we serve the real thing-not just the picture.

3. Deeds of Mercy - vs7 In the OT, God demanded not just the sacrifice, but the heart behind the sacrifice. In Hosea 6:6, He tells them who have the outward all down that He is more interested in the heart where mercy lies. True religion is in the heart. These folks outwardly had the right form, but inwardly were murderous towards Christ. We are form followers. The heart of God is a heart full of mercy.

4. This is the Lord's Day - not Our Day. What Christ is saying here is that you are not the authority as to what the Sabbath is, I am. We are more comfortable with someone telling us what to do then to go to God and seek His face on these important issues. We often equate a set of rules with godliness. Look throughout the history of Israel and see that rules do not mean godlikeness.

Hosea 6:6 For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

On these important issues of life, we need to learn what it means to wrestle with God over what He would have us do and not simply follow a person-less set standard. It is my job and the job of the elders to point you to Christ. We will teach the biblical basis and point you to Christ, but He is the Lord of the Sabbath.

Isaiah 58:13-14 If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: 14Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

Mark 2:27 And he said unto them, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath:

It is good for man to feast on the greatness of God; it is good to come apart and rejoice in God's mercy and goodness!

1. People miss the blessing of the work of God because of misplaced emphasis on tradition -vs10.

5. Develop a sense of anticipation and excitement for time with God and His people

2. Dispose of things that would physically hamper you from attending to the Lord's Day

Hebrews 4:10-11 For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. 11 Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.