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Father in heaven, we thank you for the opportunity to study again together. We pray for your Spirit to be among us for we know that Lord. We cannot apply the Word of God without the Spirit of God as our teacher.
I pray Lord that you'll keep me from error as I seek to continue to explain the concept of Sabbath and how in Christianity we do not have a Day as a Sabbath, but we have a person who is our Sabbath Jesus Christ who is our rest.
For we find rest from all our works in Him. And we thank you for the work that he has done on our behalf and we praise you and glorify you in Jesus name. Amen. Last week we began Why do we worship on On Sunday and we have looked first at the Sabbath and the Lord's work.
And what I meant by that in the outline was the Sabbath was something that God Established from the very creation of the world. He rested on the seventh day. Later, he would take that same concept the Sabbath concept and he would apply it to Israel as a sign of his Covenant with them of his creationary covenant that he had created the world and he was their creator and thus they would they would rest on The seventh day Remembering that he had rested on the seventh day.
So it become a sign between God's people and God himself. Jesus and the Apostles would have kept the Sabbath first Jesus in fulfilling all righteousness and of course the Apostles as Being Jewish people they would have kept the Sabbath throughout their life.
Some people argue that because of that we too should keep the Sabbath, but what is often not Addressed is the fact that the early church did not keep the Sabbath but rather met together for fellowship giving and worship and study on Sunday not on the Sabbath the Sabbath of Saturday.
They met on Sunday the first day of the week to break bread. They met on Sunday the first day of the week to gather their offerings together to save up for missions work and things like that. There was all kinds of stuff that you can see in the New Testament which was done on Sunday and What we learned last week and I tried to point out the fact is that Jesus Christ is The Sabbath in that Jesus Christ is our rest in him.
We find our rest from our works. So In the church, we don't identify the Sunday worship as a day of Sabbath. We identify it simply as the Lord's Day because the Lord rose from the dead on the first day of the week and That term Lord's Day is seen in Scripture Revelation chapter 1 and verse 10.
John said I was in the spirit on the Lord's Day. Referencing the first day of the week that term would very quickly become a very common term among Christians. Where all Christians were identifying Sunday as the Lord's Day.
So today we're going to look at the concept of the Christian Sabbath because Many church traditions Down through the ages have identified Sunday as the new Sabbath. Essentially saying that Saturday was the Jewish Sabbath.
That's been put away. Sunday has become the Christian Sabbath and We see this in some of the Reformed confessions. In fact, most of the Reformed confessions that I know of Identify Sunday as the Christian Sabbath.
I want to read to you from the second London confession. This is a confession that I would teach from and have taught from many times it says as It is the law of nature that in general a proportion of time by God's appointment should be set apart for the worship of God.
So he has given in his word a positive moral and perpetual commandment binding upon all men in all ages to this effect. He has particularly appointed one day and seven for a Sabbath to be kept holy for him.
From the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ. This was the last day of the week and from the resurrection of the Christ. And it was to the first day of the week and called the Lord's Day.
This is to be continued until the end of the world as the Christian Sabbath the observation of the last day of the week having been abolished. The Sabbath is kept holy to the Lord by those who after necessary Preparation of their hearts and prior arranging of their common affairs observe all day a holy rest from their own words words and thoughts about their worldly employment and recreations and give themselves over to the public and private acts of worship for the whole time and to carry out duties of necessity and Mercy.
Now I read all that to say this. I don't agree with it. I Appreciate the work of the the confessor the the second London confession. Second London confession is a is a brilliant piece of theological literature it is one of the greatest of all of the Christian confessions that has come down through the ages and I think one of the most biblical of all of the confessions that that doesn't mean that it's perfect and There are areas that we could disagree.
These are Confessions written by groups of men. These are not Scripture, they're not the Word of God and thus we can come to different positions. And what I'm trying to get across to you today and what I want to make clear is That there is no indication in Scripture that Sunday has taken on the role of Sabbath it may very well function in a similar way as did the Sabbath.
But it does not bear the same legal burdens as the Sabbath. We have already noted Paul's consistent position regarding the binding of certain days as Being special days. And what does he say Romans 14?
It's left up to the conscience one man observes one day above the rest another man of dirt observes all days the same. Let both men be convinced in his own heart. If Sunday is the Christian Sabbath Paul couldn't say that because he would have to say except Sunday.
Which is the Sabbath? He would have to say don't put any day above any other day except this one day. It must be the Sabbath you see Paul's own Argument in Romans 14 puts away number one the argument that the Sabbath has continued because I don't believe it has and The idea that Sunday is the continuation of it because it can't by necessity be.
So I think that the framers of the second Lenten confession though. They wrote a very eloquent paragraph. Wrote a paragraph that has some error. So what I have done for you is I have brought to you a different paragraph.
Written by our friends at Grace Baptist Church in Alabama they're a fellow fire church by the way we're part of fire the network fellowship of independent reformed evangelicals they have written a Addendum to the second Lenten confession on this issue.
They have and when they have that because they say we believe the second Lenten confession is a great confession. But in the confession, they make a little mark and say, you know, there's a there's an addition here.
We want to add this addition and at the end they add this paragraph. It's kind of long. So I encourage your attention we affirm the Sabbath of the Old Testament to have been inaugurated in the time of Moses and given to Israel as a sign of the Mosaic Covenant as given it reflected the demand and promise of God to men of Entrance into his soteriological and eschatological rest typified in the creation rest of God from his works as a sign of the Mosaic Covenant the Sabbath institution was to that covenant what the rainbow was to the covenant made with Noah and Circumcision was to the covenant made with Abraham.
Let me just stop there. What they're saying is this Noah had his covenant with God. God gave the rainbow as the sign. Abraham had his covenant with God and God gave circumcision as the sign. The people of Israel under Moses had the covenant with God.
What was the sign? According to the Bible. It's the Sabbath. That was the sign of the covenant that God made with Israel. Everybody understand? Okay. In the same way that the rite of circumcision held a prominent place in the Abrahamic Covenant.
So the Sabbath Sign is prominent in the Mosaic Covenant this covenant having its formal statement in the Decalogue itself. Because the Sabbath is a covenantal sign it can be covenantal law and yet Set squarely within the heart of the covenant document the Sabbath institution being composed of eight various Sabbaths including Weekly seventh-day Sabbath and having its direct elements distinctive elements drawn from the weekly Sabbath set forth the true Rest of God's people as being not a day or holy day nor the land, but God himself.
Again, what is the rest God himself? He is our rest Christ in Christ. We find our rest the culmination of these types was Christ himself as Such when the Christ when Christ the true Sabbath and Lord of the Sabbath came promising rest to all who come to him in faith.
The shadows of the old institution passed away into the reality of Christ in his body the new creation of the new age. The Christian keeps the Sabbath rest of God when he quits his own works and exercises faith in the promise.
There remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God as they continue Steadfast in the faith until the end when they shall enter eternal Sabbath at the sound last Jubilee trumpet. We affirm the first day of the week to be the Lord's Day.
Now, I'm going to add us that not the Sabbath. They don't say that but that's what they're saying. The first day of the week is not Sabbath. It's the Lord's Day. On this day Christ rose from the dead sent his spirit to the church on Pentecost.
Which two events inaugurated the new age in power and glory by Christ's resurrection and bestowal of the spirit. The believer is introduced into the realm of Christ's procured rest for his people. While every day is lived by the believer unto the Lord.
The first day of the week is a day of special recognition and celebration as it was to the churches of the first centuries. The believer is obligated on this day to remember in a special manner the finished work of Christ and his rest in it.
Indeed it is his high privilege to do so this he cultivates by meeting with the Saints for worship fellowship Ministry prayer and instruction and that's the end. It's a very long statement. But it's very thought-out.
Because what they're saying is that the framers of that to LBC the second London Confession Said it's a Sabbath and they were wrong. Sabbath is Christ. Sunday is the Lord's Day that we celebrate Christ.
But it doesn't bear the legal responsibilities of the Sabbath because it no longer stands as a sign of the covenant between God and us. Do we understand are we are we picking up what I'm putting down it huh.
Watch yourself. It is obvious that Sunday has a special significance since Christ resurrected on a Sunday. However, that does not mean Sunday bears the same responsibilities as the Sabbath. Christ did not come to establish a new Sabbath.
Christ came to be the Sabbath. That make make sense. Christ didn't come to make another day. Christ came to be the way hey. That was like Johnny Cochran. I got all rhyme with it. Y 'all remember who Johnny Cochran is.
That but the reality this is truth it. Jesus is the same in him. We find our rest and I love that part where it said that it said you know the Christian who keeps the Sabbath rest of God is the person who quits his works and rests in Christ.
Who is our Sabbath? So having said all that We get to the third part of my lesson because we've looked at first the Sabbath and the Lord's work. We've looked now at the Sabbath and the Lord's Day. Now we're going to look at the third part the Sabbath and the Lord's will.
What is God's will. And all this. And We asked the question which should be asked by any person when addressing this topic. Are we obligated by Scripture as Christians under the New Covenant. Members of the New Covenant are we obligated to keep the Sabbath.
The simple answer is no. Christ is our Sabbath and those who are in him have their perfect rest. So the idea that on Saturday if you kindle a fire or on Saturday if you leave your home too many steps or on Saturday if you do some type of work that you are somehow offending God as many people today who would call themselves Sabbatarians would believe that is false.
It's not biblical. Now having said that I want to add a caveat. This is not a rejection of the benefits of taking a day off one and seven. I think that that's a biblical principle that we should take a rest day one and seven.
But the idea of that versus the Old Covenant Sabbath where there was a distinct Legal binding. Remember there was a guy who was gathering wood on the Sabbath. What happened to him? Stoned to death. You know should we go down to the waitress who's working on Saturday and drag her out in the parking lot and stone her to death.
I might be a little bit of an exaggeration. But the reality is What's the what how do we view the Sabbath? That might have been somewhat of a hyperbole it was but the point is this. We're not rejecting the idea that a person should have one day off in seven as that's what we said last week.
It's our rest. It's it's a it's a it's it's it's a positive thing try to work ten days in a row without without Taking a day off. By the tenth day you're going to be out of it by the eighth day probably.
We need one or one day in seven. So it's not a rejection of the benefits of Sabbath, we're not rejecting the idea that that this is beneficial. Number two it's not a rejection of the obligations of believers for corporate worship.
We are obliged by Scripture. Obligated by Scripture to meet for worship. We are Bible says so in Hebrews chapter 10 verse 25. It says do not neglect the meeting of yourselves together. Don't neglect this as some have.
We have a responsibility to meet for worship. The early church didn't meet once a week. The early church met day by day acts 246. They were in each other's homes every day praying. Worshiping and you got to think you said well.
Why were they did their day by day because they were under constant? Persecution and they have that need of being together all the time for prayer. They didn't come together for potlucks. Well, they did eat together.
I mean they didn't come together to fellowship. They didn't come together to have fun. They came together because they were one of a very small minority of people who were being persecuted By the Christian by the Jewish authorities and they needed each other's strength.
They needed each other's energy. They needed each other's the encouragement to get through every day. So they came together every night and there may come a time when it's like that for us. Well, the reality is think of it just this last week the baker Had a what is over $100 ,000 fine.
She's already lost her business because she wouldn't bake a cake for homosexual wedding now. After that's over they come after her with a civil suit because she has hurt the lady's feelings and it's $140 ,000.
You think I'm gonna be able to do what I do for much longer. Well, that's yes, that's fine. Yeah, yeah, it's all wrong. It's all wrong and and what I do is very dangerous. I couldn't do what I do in Iraq.
I'd already be dead and it's not as if we're taking America to Iraq. We're not Iraq's coming here and. So the danger is rising and the idea that we may have to one day meet Daily just to encourage to get through to another day is a real possibility.
And that's what they lived in. So the idea that churches people who say I don't need to go to church once a week you need church more than once a week. That's a minimum. Don't tell me you don't need to come to church once a week.
You need to be the church every day. Because we we don't come to church. We come to worship. We are the church. You don't come to church. You are the church. Church is the believers you either are or you ain't it's not where you go.
But you should come you should worship every day and you should worship corporately no less than once a week. That's a bare minimum the idea that we don't need to go once a month or we'll go at Christmas Easter only.
No CEOs. Whether the CEO people come Christmas Easter only that's nonsense. No, and that's what Christians Traditionally have held to Sunday as the day Christ arose. So it's the day that we gather for worship.
We begin the week. At the very first part of the very first day of the week. We begin the week with worship to God and it becomes in that way similar to how the offerings were given to God. They were given the first.
The first of what was get a got from the harvest was given to God. The first of our week is given to God. So are we obligated to keep the Sabbath? The answer is no. But does that mean that we shouldn't rest one day in seven?
No, does that mean that we should treat Sunday like every other day? Well, that's up to our conscience. But it should we should have at least one day of worship and this just happens to be the day we worship in this church.
So get on in. You know, that's simple. Come on. There are people who say well should we go out to eat, you know, should we expect other people to work on Sunday? Well that becomes an issue of conscience.
You know true at Kathy it was an issue of his conscience and thus everybody in Chick-fil-a gets the day off on Sunday. You know, they just decided as corporate policy and you know, that's one-seventh of the year.
It's spent on Sunday. So that's one-seventh of annual income that that company could make but choose not to so to allow. The insurance that all of their people get at least one day of rest. You know, so it's noble that he would choose to do that.
But it's not required of him as a Christian businessman. It's good. Yeah, everything was closed on Sunday. Yeah, well the idea of businesses being closed on Sunday does come from a different time. But it really is is built off the idea that most people were in church on Sunday the idea that Sunday was a day of worship and and and I remember a time when I was a young man.
You couldn't buy alcohol on Sunday. In Callahan you could but you couldn't in Jacksonville. So we had Playbill liquor that sat right on right outside our house. Right on the other side of the do the Nassau County line and people would drive right over the county line.
So they get their alcohol on Sunday and go home. I Remember when I was a kid, you didn't play baseball on Sunday. They had a Baseball Leagues. Little Leagues, right? That's out the window now. Little Leagues practice on Sundays.
They have games on Sundays. It's just not not doesn't matter anymore. So it has things have changed and Where if somebody says we'll do. I think that's wrong. I think that it's wrong only in this sense is that we've abandoned the idea of the propriety of weekly worship.
I Don't think that we're violating Sabbath. I think we're violating the issue of the fact that we should be worshiping on. We should be worshiping together one day a week and Sunday just happens to be the day.
Most people would worship because it's the day most churches are open. We should be worshiping every day absolutely. I'm talking about corporate corporate worship the gathering of the body. In a way or lived in the way that reflects Christ.
Absolutely. Absolutely. And and and again some people say well, what about Wednesday night? Does it have to be Wednesday night? No, the Bible doesn't say we have to have a midweek certain Bible doesn't say how often we're supposed to meet.
It says that we should not neglect the meeting together. I think that the principle of Sabbath the one and seven is a minimum. I think it's minimum that we should come together once a week for worship and as far as whether we come on Wednesday night I think it could be Thursday.
I think it could be Monday. I think it could be any night. I think it could be and I don't think that matters. I think that we've just sort of followed a traditional pattern Wednesday night churches. Some churches have gone to Thursday night but there's a working period during the week and there's a Worship that there is a rush period sure.
In other words, you work hard during the hopefully we do. Yeah. Yeah. Yes, I'm gonna move but go ahead. The Sabbath as I mentioned last week is a command that is fulfilled in Christ. He is our sound and so and so when we look at the fourth commandment.
Which is remember the Sabbath day to keep it. Holy. This is the covenant tool. Commandment that God is making with Israel is assigned to Israel that that day that specific day Would have represented value of the covenant that God's making with Israel, but that particular principle which was given in the garden which was given at the very beginning of the creation that God took that day as a day of Rest the principle of Sabbath.
Sabbath something meaning rest. It's fulfilled in Christ. He is our rest. Now, let me the last five minutes or so. I have asked this question. Because I've already asked are we obligated to keep the Sabbath?
I'm arguing. No. Now here's the second question. Do those who consider themselves? Sabbatarians and there are people who do. There are people who call themselves sabbatarians or people who believe they keep the Sabbath by going to church on Saturday.
And there's different groups. Do those who consider themselves? Sabbatarians Truly keep the Sabbath well. Those who believe they keep the Sabbath argue that the fourth commandment getting to the issue is a moral law instituted by God for all time.
Moral law in Scripture is rightly distinguished between ceremonial law and civil law. I'll give you an example. Thou shall not commit murder is a moral law. Because it is a law which is intended to be for all people at all times and in all places however, the law surrounding the temple how the priest would Adorn himself on the Day of Atonement how he would take the two goats and one he would pray over and send into the wilderness one he would sacrifice take the blood dip the branch in the blood and and and Sprinkle the blood on the mercy seat that's ceremonial law.
That wasn't intended for all times and all people in all places. It was it was given to Israel for a specific time in a specific place and it was fully fulfilled in Christ. In fact Hebrews tells us as Hebrews tells us if we keep doing those sacrifices.
We are throwing Christ under the bus because he fulfilled that to continue those sacrifices would be blasphemy. Because Christ is the fulfillment of those sacrifices. Understand. So that's what we call moral and ceremonial law.
There's also in Israel what is called civil law. Civil law it's also known as case law. We have it now today people versus whatever somebody will be in court and they'll be talking about something and they'll cite precedent.
And they'll say well in people versus Johnson in 1925 they were this happened and thus. This sets a precedent for this case. Well, the same thing is in the Bible you'll see in the Bible. It'll talk about well.
If your ox tramples another man's grain and it's destroys his property then you owe him tenfold. Well the same principle would apply if it wasn't an ox. But if it was a donkey and if it wasn't grain. But it was some other type of vegetable or some other type of fruit if the same principle applies.
It becomes a standard of jurisprudence. It becomes a standard of case law. What we call civil law and the Bible has that too. What civil nation were the civil laws intended to govern? Israel. It was a theocracy.
It was given at a specific time in a specific place for a specific nation under a certain specific government if. You can't distinguish between civil law ceremonial law and moral law. Then you can't make heads or tails of the Old Testament.
You can't. This is why recently this arguments come up about homosexuality somebody will say. Well, the Bible says you shouldn't be homosexual and they'll turn around to you and they'll say well. The Bible also says you shouldn't have cloth with mixed fibers, and I don't think that shirts 100 cotton.
You're sinning right now. Just as bad as a homosexual is. And now everybody shakes your head, but how would you answer that how would you respond if they took you to the scripture and said here. Would you know what to say?
Well, I think homosexuality is gross. That ain't a good answer. That ain't a good answer because it's not the answer. The answer is that when we look at the Old Testament, there are certain laws which are obviously moral laws given For all time and meant to be instituted in all places and one of the moral laws given in the Old Testament Is the law that a man should not lie with another man as he does a woman for it is an abomination.
It is repeated in the New Testament by the Apostle Paul that homosexuality is an Sin before God that it is it is opposed to nature. Romans chapter 1 says this in Acts 10 which we're studying this morning.
The Bible says that God made all food clean. Which thank God because I love pork sandwiches. There's an old covenant. I couldn't eat no pork sandwich. But when God made all things clean what he was saying is that this Ceremonial law which was intended to separate the clean from the unclean.
That's what ceremonial law was for. It was to separate that which was holy from that which was common or that which was clean from that which was unclean. And the Acts chapter 10 it says that all has been put away now.
That is all over now because the ceremonies of the Old Testament have been replaced by the one Sacrifice of Christ never needed to be repeated never needed to be remade never needed to be reestablished or redone.
It is the fulfillment of every ceremonial law. But just because Jesus hung on that cross doesn't mean you can go kill people. Moral law is still Binding so the question is is Sabbath a moral law? And the answer is no.
Somebody says well, it's moral because God gave the commandment. Well, God also gave the commandment about the ceremonies to it can't be just moral because God gave the commandment. Moral law is Something that is based in obedience to God's command of loving the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength and loving your neighbor as Yourself that is the fulfillment and fullness of the moral law.
And that's the problem with the Sabbatarians. They're trying to keep certain aspects of the law. By saying we keep the Sabbath. But ask them somebody says I keep the Sabbath say no you don't. They'll say I sure do.
I drive to church and I go to church on Sunday or on Saturday and I keep the Sabbath. I say every time you turn that key you kindle a fire. It's called an internal combustion engine. And you laugh but am I wrong.
Every time you turn that key it starts a little fire inside that engine and that's what causes the pistons to move. You've kindled a fire on the Sabbath. You might say I'm being facetious here, but I'm not.
What I'm saying is they keep it. They pick and choose. What? They don't sacrifice on the side they do they keep what they choose. They make their own rules and thus they establish for themselves a new type of Pharisee is.
The person who argues for the keeping of the Sabbath has established a new type of Pharisee ism. Because they're essentially saying I can make the rules work for me. That's what the Sabbath. That's what the Pharisees did.
No work on the Sabbath. Well, the Pharisees created 39 different types of things that would be work and then from those there were certain Subsections and you could walk a certain distance, but no more you could walk so many steps.
But no more you could feed your animals, but only certain amount and so only certain ways. And that's why Jesus came along and said look Sabbath wasn't made man wasn't made for the Sabbath. The Sabbath was made for man.
This was given to you as a gift as a day of rest and look what you've done to it. And what did Jesus say? He said I am Lord of the Sabbath. This is I don't bow to the Sabbath. The Sabbath bows to me. The final and most valuable thing you can take from this lesson from the last two weeks is this.
Jesus is our Sabbath. He is our rest. Those who are in him have rested from their labors. We commemorate his completed work on the first day of the week the day he arose not to fulfill the law. But to celebrate liberty.
Every Sunday that we come together. We have been liberated from the ceremonies of the Old Covenant. And we have been freed To live for Christ. Let's pray father. Thank you for your word. Thank you for Time study.
I pray that it has been beneficial to your people and will be used of you to glorify yourself in Jesus name Amen.