The Sabbath: Sign, Gift, Promise

The Sabbath at Creation: Sign, Gift, and Promise

Well as we make our way now into the beginning of Genesis chapter 2 we're going to focus in on the first three verses of the chapter. Thus the heavens and the earth and all the host of them were finished.

So we've come to the completion of the creation week 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.

That's really a threefold repetition of the fact that God rested he ceased from the work of creation and Therefore he sanctified or set apart this day. So this morning we want to consider these verses and discuss the Sabbath at creation and then specifically how.

The Lord's Day.

Intersects with and really becomes the Sabbath of Redemption. Sabbath of creation Sabbath of Redemption. We want to consider that in three parts and I hope you'll remember these three words as key words when we think of the Sabbath.

When we think of this day that the Lord has set apart. And that is the sign of the Sabbath the gift of the Sabbath and the promise of the Sabbath. So sign gift promise, I think these three words are worth remembering whenever we talk about the Sabbath.

The Sabbath as a Creation Sign of Rest and Worship

So first the sign of the Sabbath. Noticed again this language. God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it. Because in it he rested from all his work, which God had created and made. God finished his work of creation.

And on that seventh day he made it holy. He separated it. He sanctified it. He set it apart from every other day in which he had created and as God rested from his creation labor. Adam and Eve who are again imaging God Reflecting God would have known to likewise rest from their labors amidst God's creation.

So God labors in creation and on the seventh day. He ceases that labor. He rests and the images of God. Adam and Eve infer from that. Reflects that in the way that they cease on the seventh day from their labors in the midst of what God had created.

And this is the sign then. This is the sign to Adam and Eve that the labor in which they were employed would not be without end. The labor would not be ceaseless, but that there was be this rest in the Lord.

This is very important. The way I'm framing it now is just sort of matter of fact. But it takes on significance when we talk about the whole destiny of mankind when we talk about the purpose of mankind in terms of the glory that Mankind was meant to possess and the presence of God that the man the man and the woman was meant to inhabit.

So there's this sign from God. That man's labor is not ceaseless. But there's a rest.

There's a rest.

That remains for them. What would that rest have been. Did God take a nap after the six days of creation and Adam and Eve? Reflecting that take an afternoon snooze as many of us do lately in a Sabbath me included.

And what sense did God cease from his labors? We have to be reminded that in a sense. God never stopped working.

I.

Remember when Jesus healed the man at the pool of Bethesda in John 5 and he says for this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus and Sought to kill him because he had done these things on the Sabbath, but Jesus answered them.

My father has been working until now and I've been working so it wasn't a rest of of ceasing from any sort of work. It was rather specifically tied to the works of creation. Robert Raymond. And his systematic theology observes rest cannot meanly mere merely mean ceasing from labor.

Much less recovery from fatigue. We're talking about an infinite God. So it's certainly not recovery from fatigue. We remember that for Adam and Eve they're gaining bread not by the sweat of their brow at this point.

This is a rest before the fall. So there's there's no sweat or exhaustion in that sense, but rather a blessedness. So the rest that Adam and Eve would have imitated and enjoyed was not in activity. But rather new activity.

It was communing with God. In a way that was distinct from how they communed with God in the other days of the week. This time was to set apart for them to worship their creator. And this is what Jesus taught in Mark chapter 2 verse 27.

The Sabbath was made for man. Not man for the Sabbath. Notice the order of creation here. The Sabbath was created for Adam. God created Adam and then he created a Sabbath for Adam. That's very important.

In other words.

God created Adam and Eve and then gave them a day of rest to commune with him and enjoy the purposes of worship with him. And this is what our confession as Reformed Baptists upholds. This is from our confession in chapter 22 paragraph 7.

We're gonna unpack this a little bit as it is the law of nature. We're going to talk about that that in general a proportion of time by God's appointment. Be set apart for the worship of God. So by his word in a positive moral and perpetual Commandment binding all men in all ages He has particularly appointed one day and seven for a Sabbath to be kept holy unto him.

Now notice what this chapter is stating. The Sabbath they're saying is a law of nature. The language that's more more familiar to me or that perhaps you'd come across is the Sabbath is a creation ordinance.

This is something that God gives to mankind at creation and that's why they can say it's universal. It's morally binding upon all because it was given to man at creation. And then it goes on to state the purpose of this day that God gave to mankind at creation as it is a law of nature in general a proportion of time by God's appointment be set apart for.

The worship of God.

God sets apart a time for his worship. This was the case from the very beginning of mankind and it will be to the very end of this world. In the garden Adam and Eve had joyful service in the labor of God.

But on this day, they imitated his rest they rested in him they ceased the worshipful labors of Dominion and rested in a more concentrated worship and communion with God. So then man is morally bound to the Sabbath because of God's example in creation.

Israel, Redemption, and the Sabbath as a Gift

But as the Bible unfolds, we find a Sabbath taking on a new dimension. And this is specifically Israel and it's very important. You understand theologically that there's a sense in which Israel is Adam.

Israel is singled out by God to to be the the hope for humanity. If we can put it that way now we know theologically it's going to become the hope in that it will Eventually bear the seed that was promised to the woman as we'll see in chapter 3.

But specifically there's a there's a parallel between Adam and Israel. Right, and then that corresponds to Christ as the last Adam and as the true Israel out of Egypt. I've called my son Out of Egypt.

I've called my son as Matthew quotes that line. He's understanding. There's a sense in Which Christ is Israel and Christ is also the true man as we talked about last week the true Adam. So this dimension is part of the story of Israel when God's sign of the Sabbath is not just about creation.

Exodus 31 beginning in verse 12 The Lord spoke to Moses saying speak also to the children of Israel saying surely my Sabbath. For it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you.

You shall keep the Sabbath. Therefore. It is holy to you. So again, the fourth commandment is given to Israel in light of the fact that God is their creator. But we've already said what God establishes that creation is true for all mankind and not just Israel.

Not just the Israelites. So the fourth commandment just like the other nine commandments is given to mankind a reflection of the moral law. And if you read Exodus 20 beginning verse 8, you'll see how that's tied to God as creator.

But there's something more.

As far as Israel's concerned that makes God's Sabbath a unique sign to them. Not only a sign of creation, but also a sign of redemption. Exodus 6 beginning in verse 5. I have heard the groaning of the children of Israel whom the Egyptians keep in bondage.

And what is that bondage?

Slavery.

It's it's hard labor. And God is hearing their groaning. I Have remembered my covenant. Therefore say to the children of Israel. I am the Lord. I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.

You see now they're being burdened by their work. Deuteronomy 5 15. Remember 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. Do you see what's being connected to the Sabbath? They're not just creation. Redemption from slavery. Freedom liberation from Egypt. That is why the Israelites are to keep the Sabbath as well.

Not just by virtue of being created by God and reflecting him. But also by the fact that they've been liberated by God redeemed from the burdens and the groaning of their slavery. When the people were in bondage in Egypt, they didn't dare stop working unless they wanted to be lashed.

And then pummeled and ground down even further. There's no accruing vacation time when you're a slave. There's no company picnics. This was groaning slavery. And so the weekly Sabbath Was a picture to them of redemption.

You are now freed no longer to groan and to grovel but to rest in the redemption that the Lord God has brought so to break the Sabbath. As God has finally brought them out of Egypt and is now settling them into a land of promise.

To break the Sabbath then in effect is to say Lord. I don't want your rest. I didn't want your redemption. I want to be working and groveling. I Want to go back to the burdens of Egypt. I want to be a slave.

I Don't want this sign of your rest and your redemption. It's a burden to me. Now God gives the Sabbath that creation as a declaration of his preeminence over all of time. He stamps out a day to be made holy.

Unto him.

And if the Ten Commandments are summarized rightly so as loving God and loving neighbor in the Sabbath In that first table is at the center of how we love God it displays not only his reign over us as our creator as the one who puts a purpose to all of our days.

Not just the Sabbath day, but every day he reigns over us as creator. He's Lord of our time and of our days and years. But there's also the sense in which it reflects the sign of his mercy toward us as our Redeemer.

Ezekiel 20 and 12. More also moreover also I gave them my Sabbath to be a sign between them and me that they might know I am the Lord who sanctifies them. I Set apart this day to be holy and when my people set apart this day as holy unto me.

They know I am the one who makes them. Hopefully. They reflect to me they commune with me they worship. So the Sabbath is a sign of creation and redemption. That's the first part Bruce Ray writes as a sign of grace.

The Sabbath declares that salvation depends upon the power of God not human works. The Israelites did not liberate themselves from bondage. God did. Anyone who worked on the Sabbath day effectively denied that God was not only their creator.

They symbolically rejected salvation by grace. That's why the prophets are constantly persecuting and prosecuting the people of God. But it's not only a sign. It's also a gift as we continue to unfold this the gift of the Sabbath secondly the gift of the Sabbath.

The Lord's Day as a Gift, Not a Burden

The Sabbath when we understand it in this way. Not only the merciful day in which we commune with our Creator. But also the sign that shows we've been redeemed by him liberated from the course and the slavery of this world.

We begin to understand it as a gift. The Sabbath is a gift to mankind a gift especially to those that have been saved redeemed by God. It is a rest from labor to delight in the communion and worship of God.

When you view it this way from its foundation all the way to its awaiting future as a gift you can understand why the Lord's anger was kindled on those who began to treat the Sabbath as a weariness and God's people began to view the Sabbath as a burden.

What was meant to be freedom became tyranny? Lord this day of rest. It's so exhausting. I have so much to do. I'd rather be working. Can you imagine that that's seventh year Sabbath?

Can you imagine how?

Burdensome that would have felt for people that had fields to sow and fields to plow and fields to harvest. The contemporary church like Israel has come to view the Sabbath the Christian Sabbath the Lord's Day as a curse of the law instead of.

A gift.

Imagine having a full workweek planned. You know you you've got your outfits ironed your lunchbox packed. You know nine-to-five you have to hammer it out on Monday through Friday and then right before you leave the the phone Buzzes and it's a manager and he says listen.

Listen, I want you to take. I want you to take Friday off. I know you've planned the whole week and you've got these days ahead, but I want you to take Friday off. Just just just enjoy that day spend it with your family and your loved ones.

Just enjoy that day and rest you go. I plan my whole week. Are you some sort of legalist? Can I come in at least for a few hours? Let me do half a day at least. I mean, I've I've got so much to do I need to do.

You haven't understood this was a gift.

This was meant to be a mercy to you.

And that's why when the Lord through Isaiah prosecutes the people he says call the Sabbath a delight. This is why I've given it to you. You're complaining about it. Malachi 3. Oh what purpose is to there and following your ordinances?

Excuse me. This was a gift to you.

This is a mercy to you. It's not just a sign.

It's actually meant to bless you and nourish you and Encourage you and to give you time devoted time with me without the distractions of the week closing in I. I know you have things to do you have needs to meet and responsibilities to fulfill.

But I'm carving out this time that you can spend with me that you might be rest blessed and rested and refreshed. Call the Sabbath a delight with the giving of the law at Sinai this Sabbath rest took on the deeper dimension as we said of God's deliverance.

Israel had been enslaved in Egypt, but then they were redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. And so the Sabbath was this great gift of redemption. It was the day on which they celebrated God's redemption.

It was the time in which they came to him with worship and thanksgiving. But then of course as generations rolled and rolled we we see the encrustations of the flesh the the designs of man the default nature of man to turn blessings into burdens.

To turn what is meant to be joyous and celebratory into something wearisome into something Difficult to bear and that's what we see with the Pharisees by the time Jesus begins his ministry, and it's that saying don't be don't be hard on the Pharisees.

We're all Pharisees in one way or another don't be hard on them. Sympathize with them because they're a lot more reflective of us than we want them to be. They have that same fleshly default that we have what was meant to be this joyous delight.

Became this brittle old wine skin. And it became a dreaded list of do's and don'ts and cutting through that heavy yoke is the pronouncement of Jesus as we've already said. The Sabbath was made for man.

Man wasn't made for the Sabbath. That's like the greatest one-line shutdown of the whole pharisaical system on the Sabbath.

Jesus is just a master of.

Pugilism.

The Sabbath was made for men. Your system makes it as though we were created to fulfill the Sabbath. Call the Sabbath of the light. This was made for us. When Jesus rebukes the skewed view of the Pharisees He gives this further revelation of his identity and if they had ears to hear it They would have understood just how jaw-dropping the claim is the next verse.

So the Sabbath was made for man. Not man for the Sabbath. The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. If they had ears to hear what he was being claimed here They would know what he's saying the Son of Man is the Lord of creation.

The Son of Man is identical to the Creator the Son of Man. Was he who from the beginning created all that is and all that is was created for him. I am the Lord of the Sabbath. Now when you look at this verse in this way It astounds me that there's some who reject God's claims on their time according to his moral law.

He ordains a specific day for worship in his moral law, and we maintain that this is binding upon all. It's binding as a creation ordinance, but how much more so for those who've been redeemed. It takes on all of all of that beautiful truth of our redemption and therefore it becomes a celebratory filled with Thanksgiving.

Purposeful.

Some reject this with the well-meant, but very misleading claim that they worship God every day. Which is wonderful like well, I do devotions and family worship every day. I don't need to devote a whole day full of all your restrictions in order to worship God.

I worship God every day. But again here we are in Genesis 2 Unfallen Adam would have worshipped God every day as well. He would have worshipped God and everything He did truly. Adam was one who could eat and drink to the glory of God.

But even with Adam in a world without sin in a nature that was not depraved Adam and Eve made with God's original righteousness still required a day set apart for the concentrated worship of God. Not only this.

But you effectively empty the moral law of God as it was given in the Ten Commandments. It makes the fourth commandment optional or a shadow and type which is not how we understand any of the other ten commandments.

That's quite a dangerous thing to do in the way that we approach the scriptures. Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy. That's the command. Remember the Sabbath. To keep it holy consider this the Sabbath was a gift to Israel it was a rest from their labor an opportunity to trust in the provision of God.

A Picture and celebration of the redemption that was reflected to God in worship and thanksgiving. How much more is the Sabbath a gift to the church. If this was true for Israel and God commanded them remember this Sabbath keep it holy.

How much more. So for the true Israel the Israel of God the church the Sabbath is a gift to the church a rest from the labors of the week a picture of our salvation. A Worship that includes the foretaste of our great hope as we'll talk about in the third section.

So let me ask the question. Are you viewing the Lord's Day as a gift or is it something wearisome to you? Do you count the blessings of? the Lord's Day or the prohibitions. If you have prohibitions all these things I would do but the Sun hasn't set yet.

We have jokes about the three stars.

It could be that we're so preoccupied with the demands of the week to come. That we cannot even see the Lord's Day as a gift. We do not even reflect upon it for its purpose. Not just in terms of our creation, but in terms of our redemption.

Now there are many different views on the Lord's Day even among the reformed if we we take the kind of broad swath of Protestant Christianity and we get as narrow as reformed which is pretty narrow even within the reformed camps.

There's different approaches and applications of keeping the Lord's Day. Holy. There's what we call the continental view and then perhaps the Puritan view. There are many different views and applications.

But what I'm saying to you is don't go for the view. As some reason which view lets me go to the movies and play sports in this church. That's that's the view I am. You're not sure if the Lord's Day is a gift.

Ryan McGraw Has an excellent book on the Sabbath and and it's very approachable. But I'd recommend to you if you're if you're a meat-eater so to speak and what you read I think the best work on this topic and it actually would be an excellent book for you to read in terms of Genesis 1 through 3 is Richard Barcellos.

B. A. R. C. E. L. L. O. S. Getting the Garden Right by Founders Press. Excellent. He's a 1689 er, but it's it's heavy going. Ryan McGraw. The day of worship, I believe that's the title. I might be off on the title Ryan McGraw.

I'd recommend him very approachable. You could do it as a family very practical and helpful. He says this. I maintain that our aversion to Sabbath keeping is not always an exegetical or theological problem.

And this is true of most problems in the church. It's rather a symptom of the greater problem of worldliness that entered into the church. When you read some of the older church historians like Philip Schaaf, he's interestingly coming out of a Lutheran perspective.

Preachers like Thomas Peck. They all maintain The Sabbath. The Christian keeping of the Sabbath is the pillar of righteousness in society. Very interesting, isn't it? That was their way of looking at it.

Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath just to say that now is meaningless for most Christians. Well, you know Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath and the Sabbath was made for you. Oh, yeah, that's nice. I worship God every day.

Think we're talking past each other here. Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath if you run that by your unbelieving neighbors and co-workers. It just sounds bizarre. You keep the Sabbath what kind of cult do you belong to?

Whereas this has been the historic practice of Protestant Christianity therefore it is the church's failure that we've let what used to be a Faithful torch that actually put pressure on the civil magistrate.

We would not be facing MacArthur's Church would not be facing some of the battles that we're facing today. If the church had allowed the torch to remain aflame. Because we used to have a cultural impact Sunday.

I was too young. You know by the time I was young all this was beginning to erode but many of you in this congregation remember blue laws. You remember that Sunday was a ghost town as far as businesses were concerned.

Now there's precious even banks are beginning to open on Sunday. There's almost nothing that's close to you on a Sunday and therefore even businesses are beginning to view Sundays as work days. And we're beginning to as a society work ourselves to the bone.

There's now no rhythm, but but profit and profitability. I need you to come in. I need you to work seven days a week. I need you to keep hunting down that overtime and now all of a sudden. Your employment and your ability to provide is the Lord of your life.

Not the God who carves out time and says these days you work, but this day is my day. This day you commune with me. It is the church's failure. What was once a great flaming torch that was impact in the culture has been reduced to a smoking ember and the Lord's authority.

Therefore and the necessity of all of mankind to worship the true Creator God Has now been marred as a witness. The Lord of the Sabbath barely has authority in our lives much less the culture and the world that he made.

JC Ryle Says it so well, and he's writing again in the 19th century in England. There is nothing in all of this to warrant the rash assertion of some that our Lord has done away with the fourth commandment.

She's just saying again. This is moral law. It's abiding. He manifestly speaks of the Sabbath day as a privilege and a gift and only regulates the extent to which its observance should be Enforced he shows that works of necessity and mercy may be done on the Sabbath day.

He being Jesus, but he says not a word to justify the notions that Christians need not remember the day to keep it. Holy.

Let us be jealous.

Over our own conduct in the matter of observing the Sabbath there is little danger Of the day being kept too strictly in the present age. He's writing in the 1800s. Oh that he would live to see our day.

There is far more danger. He writes of its being profaned and forgotten entirely. Now was Ryle a prophet. I think so or is he just someone who understood the nature of humanity? Let us contend earnestly for its preservation among us in all of its integrity.

Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath.

The Promise of the Sabbath and the Coming Rest in Christ

And then it brings us to our third and last section the promise of the Sabbath. The promise of the Sabbath because as I said from the very beginning when God Established this day in Genesis 2 1 through 3 emphasizes three times.

Twice in very similar language and once with a little development and this is this is huge. This is emphatic. This is a red flag popping up and saying this is very important. Because it takes on redemption and because of Christ it actually becomes a foretaste of a new heavens and a new earth.

Which is rest entirely. The promise of the Sabbath. Let me just again point to our confession and kind of show you the logic here. Okay? We've already rehearsed this. I'll read it again 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 is particularly appointed one day and seven for a Sabbath to be kept holy unto him. Now, here's the logic. 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 what's going on here? The Sabbath was given as the seventh day at creation the end of the creation week and our confession states rightly.

I believe.

That from the beginning of the world until the resurrection of Christ that was the Sabbath. The idea was God had finished the original work of creation and then he rested on that seventh day. And so that seventh day was meant to be holy unto him.

But notice what our confession says the Sabbath from the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ. Was the last day of the week. So why don't we hold it on the last day of the week? It's because of the resurrection of Christ from the resurrection of Christ.

It was changed into the first day of the week. From Adam to the end of Christ's earthly ministry. Old creation was still in view and therefore the the promulgation of the last Sabbath the last day Sabbath the end of the week.

Sabbath was emphatic but now Redemption has been accomplished. Redemption has been applied. Christ has come and the grave could not hold him and the last Adam Has begun a new creation. And he has risen victorious over all of his enemies even our last enemy which is death itself.

He won this victory on the first day of the week as the true Adam the head and firstfruits of a new creation. Such that all those who are made in him are new Creations and look forward to a new heavens and a new earth.

The old creation has passed away because Jesus is the firstfruits of this great hope. Therefore the resurrection is a whole new order of creation and what we're saying rightly. So is the resurrection of Christ?

Parallels creation in importance that Christ rose at the beginning of the creation week as the harbinger of a new creation. Is why Christians? Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. The first day of the week.

We see this pattern throughout the New Testament. I won't belabor the point but Christians gather on the first day of the week. John 20 Luke 24. Disciples gathering on the first day of the week. Assembling on the first day of the week.

John 20 26 acts 2 1. As the Gospels being spread acts 20 verse 7. 1st Corinthians 16 to Revelation 1 10. John is in the spirit on the Lord's Day on the day of the Lord.

By.

The end of the lifetime of the Apostles Christians referred to the first day of the week as the Lord's Day.

What Lord the Lord of the Sabbath the last Adam?

The Creator God who's bringing a new heavens and new earth. We gather to worship him as new creations new creatures made in him. We worship him. We commune with him. We celebrate him. We anticipate the promise of our full redemption.

And in that way the Christian Sabbath is a promise it's not just a sign Of our original creation and it's not just the gift of time carved out from work for worship, but it's also a promise. It's a promise of who Jesus is as the last Adam and what he's come to do.

Jesus as the last Adam takes his seed where the first Adam could not where he failed. God created Adam to be The glory and and God's goal for mankind, but he fell from that. He lost that Aspect of God's image as we talked about he fell from original righteousness, and he could not be that glory because of his sin.

Eden was this glorious place, but it was not the end. It was rather a beginning to an end. And as Richard Barcelos writes it had within it. Eden had within it the seeds of a better world. The world where sin could not enter a world that was not susceptible to lapse into a curse in the words of William D 'Ambryo Eden Is a representation of what the world is to become?

And what the world is to become is this eternal state of glory a new heavens a new earth. That is the promised rest. Even in Genesis 2 verse 3 that is the promised rest Jesus the last Adam. Jesus the one who brings his people into that glorious promised fulfillment of what the rest was always meant to be.

Where do we see this Psalm 95. We open the service of Psalm 95. We ended at verse 7. But if we take up verse 8 and following listen very closely Psalm 95. Verse 8 and following this is David.

Today.

If you will hear his voice. Do not harden your hearts. As in the days of the rebellion as in the day of trial in the wilderness when your father's tested me they tried me. Though they saw my work For 40 years.

I was grieved with that generation. And I said it is a people who go astray in their hearts. And they do not know my ways and I swore in my wrath they shall not enter my rest. So here's Psalm 95. David is writing this song.

He's reflecting upon the wilderness generation and he says today. If you're hearing God's voice don't harden your hearts. Remember that rebellious generation that God brought out of Egypt. Remember how they saw his works and yet in their hearts.

They went astray from him and he swore they shall not enter my rest. Now what's the rest? Well, you might answer if you're looking at Psalm 95 all the rest was apparently the promised land. You know, this is this isn't the rest of Genesis 2, you know the Sabbath.

No, no, no. This is the promised land right because that generation went astray and God swore in his wrath. He will not enter my rest and they were prevented from entering the promised land. So the promised land is the rest.

It's a different kind of rest. When we come to Hebrews 4 and look at what the writer of the Hebrews explains. Therefore this is beginning in verse 1 Hebrews chapter 4 therefore since a promise Sabbath has a promise since a promise remains of entering his rest.

Let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. Now the writer of Hebrews is writing to Christians who are feeling the pressure of apostatizing from the faith. Can't we just go back to Judaism?