The Sabbath: Sign, Gift, Promise

Grace Reformation Bible Church iconGrace Reformation Bible Church

1 view

Preacher: Ross Macdonald Scripture: Genesis 2:1-3

0 comments

00:05
Well, as we make our way now into the beginning of Genesis chapter two, we're going to focus in on the first three verses of the chapter.
00:15
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.
00:22
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.
00:31
Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because in it he rested from all his work, which
00:39
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.
00:52
So this morning we want to consider these verses and discuss the Sabbath at creation and then specifically how the
01:00
Lord's day intersects with and really becomes the
01:06
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
01:16
Sabbath, when we think of this day that the Lord has set apart. And that is the sign of the
01:24
Sabbath, the gift of the Sabbath and the promise of the Sabbath. So sign, gift, promise.
01:31
I think these three words are worth remembering whenever we talk about the Sabbath. So first the sign of the
01:39
Sabbath. Notice again this language, God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because in it he rested from all his work, which
01:48
God had created and made. God finished his work of creation and on that seventh day he made it holy.
01:55
He separated it. He sanctified it. He set it apart from every other day in which he had created.
02:03
And as God rested from his creation labor, Adam and Eve, who are again imaging
02:09
God, reflecting God would have known to likewise rest from their labors amidst
02:14
God's creation. So God labors in creation and on the seventh day he ceases that labor.
02:21
He rests and the images of God, Adam and Eve, infer from that reflect that in the way that they cease on the seventh day from their labors in the midst of what
02:32
God had created. And this is a sign then this is the sign to Adam and Eve that the labor in which they were employed would not be without end.
02:42
The labor would not be ceaseless, but that there would be this rest in the Lord.
02:47
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.
02:57
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 and the woman was meant to inhabit.
03:07
So there's this sign from God that man's labor is not ceaseless, but there's a rest.
03:16
There's a rest that remains for them. What would that rest have been?
03:22
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 our
03:34
Sabbath, me included. In what sense did God cease from his labors?
03:40
We have to be reminded that in a sense, God never stopped working. Remember when
03:46
Jesus healed the man at the pool of Bethesda in John five, and he says, for this reason, the Jews persecuted
03:52
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.
04:00
So it wasn't a rest of of ceasing from any sort of work.
04:07
It was rather specifically tied to the works of creation. Robert Raymond and his systematic theology observes rest cannot merely merely mean ceasing from labor, much less recovery from fatigue.
04:21
We're talking about an infinite God, so it's certainly not recovery from fatigue.
04:28
We remember that for Adam and Eve, they're gaining bread, not by the sweat of their brow.
04:34
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.
04:43
So the rest that Adam and Eve would have imitated and enjoyed was not inactivity, but rather new activity.
04:51
It was communing with God in a way that was distinct from how they communed with God in the other days of the week.
04:59
This time was to set apart for them to worship their creator. And this is what
05:04
Jesus taught in Mark chapter two, verse twenty seven. The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the
05:10
Sabbath. Notice the order of creation here. The Sabbath was created for Adam. God created
05:16
Adam and then he created a Sabbath for Adam. That's very important. In other words, God created
05:22
Adam and Eve and then gave them a day of rest to commune with him and enjoy the purposes of worship with him.
05:29
And this is what our confession as Reformed Baptist upholds. This is from our confession in chapter twenty two, paragraph seven.
05:37
We're going to 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.
05:49
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
06:00
Sabbath to be kept wholly unto him. Now, notice what this chapter is stating, the
06:07
Sabbath, they're saying, is a law of nature. The language that's more familiar to me or that perhaps you'd come across is the
06:16
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.
06:25
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.
06:45
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.
06:56
Adam and Eve had joyful service in the labor of God. But on this day, they imitated his rest.
07:03
They rested in him. They ceased the worshipful labors of dominion and rested in a more concentrated worship and communion with God.
07:15
So then man is morally bound to the Sabbath because of God's example in creation.
07:22
But as the Bible unfolds, we find the Sabbath taking on a new dimension, and this is specifically
07:28
Israel. And it's very important. You understand theologically that there's a sense in which Israel is
07:34
Adam. Israel is singled out by God to to be the hope for humanity, if we can put it that way.
07:42
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 three.
07:52
But specifically, there's a there's a parallel between Adam and Israel, right? And then that corresponds to Christ as the last
08:00
Adam and as the true Israel out of Egypt. I've called my son out of Egypt.
08:06
I've called my son as Matthew quotes that line. He's understanding there's a sense in which
08:12
Christ is Israel and Christ is also the true man, as we talked about last week, the true
08:18
Adam. So this dimension is part of the story of Israel, when
08:23
God's sign of the Sabbath is not just about creation. Exodus 31 beginning in verse 12, the
08:30
Lord spoke to Moses saying, Speak also to the children of Israel, saying, Surely my
08:35
Sabbath you shall keep, for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations that you may know that I am the
08:43
Lord who sanctifies you. You shall keep the Sabbath. Therefore, it is holy to you.
08:49
So, again, the fourth commandment is given to Israel in light of the fact that God is their creator.
08:57
But we've already said what God establishes, that creation is true for all mankind and not just Israel, not just the
09:04
Israelites. So the fourth commandment, just like the other nine commandments, is given to mankind, a reflection of the moral law.
09:13
And if you read Exodus 20 beginning in verse eight, you'll see how that's tied to God as creator. But there's something more as far as Israel's concerned, that makes
09:22
God's Sabbath a unique sign to them, not only a sign of creation, but also a sign of redemption.
09:29
Exodus six, beginning in verse five, I have heard the groaning of the children of Israel whom the
09:35
Egyptians keep in bondage. And what is that bondage? It's slavery.
09:42
It's hard labor. And God is hearing their groaning.
09:49
I have remembered my covenant. Therefore, say to the children of Israel, I am the
09:54
Lord. I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. You see, now they're being burdened by their work.
10:03
Deuteronomy 515. Remember, you were a slave in the land of Egypt and the
10:10
Lord your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm. Therefore, the
10:16
Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. Do you see what's being connected to the Sabbath there?
10:22
Not just creation, redemption from slavery, freedom, liberation from Egypt.
10:30
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.
10:44
When the people were in bondage in Egypt, they didn't dare stop working unless they wanted to be lashed and pummeled and ground down even further.
10:54
There's no accruing vacation time when you're a slave, right? There's no company picnics. This was groaning slavery.
11:02
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
11:12
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
11:22
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.
11:29
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.
11:37
It's a burden to me. God gives the Sabbath that creation as a declaration of his preeminence over all of time.
11:47
He stamps out a day to be made holy unto him. And if the
11:52
Ten Commandments are summarized, rightly so, as loving God and loving neighbor, then the
11:57
Sabbath in that first table is at the center of how we love
12:03
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
12:15
Sabbath day, but every day he reigns over us as creator. He's lord of our time and of our days and years.
12:22
But there's also the sense in which it reflects the sign of his mercy toward us as our redeemer.
12:32
Ezekiel 20, 12, more or moreover, also, I gave them my Sabbath to be a sign between them and me that they might know
12:39
I am the Lord who sanctifies them. I set apart this day to be holy.
12:45
And when my people set apart this day as holy unto me, they know I am the one who makes them holy.
12:51
They reflect me, they commune with me, they worship. So the Sabbath is a sign of creation and redemption.
12:59
That's the first part. Bruce Ray writes, as a sign of grace, the
13:06
Sabbath declares that salvation depends upon the power of God, not human works. The Israelites did not liberate themselves from bondage,
13:14
God did. Anyone who worked on the Sabbath day effectively denied that God was not only their creator, they symbolically rejected salvation by grace.
13:25
And that's why the prophets are constantly persecuting and prosecuting the people of God.
13:33
But it's not only a sign, it's also a gift as we continue to unfold this, the gift of the
13:38
Sabbath. Secondly, the gift of the Sabbath, 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.
13:56
The Sabbath is a gift to mankind, a gift especially to those that have been saved, redeemed by God.
14:02
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
14:14
Lord's anger was kindled on those who began to treat the Sabbath as a weariness. And God's people began to view the
14:22
Sabbath as a burden. What was meant to be freedom became tyranny.
14:28
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 seventh year
14:35
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
14:48
Sabbath, the Christian Sabbath, the Lord's day as a curse of the law instead of a gift. Imagine having a full work week planned.
14:59
You know, you've got your outfits ironed, your lunchbox packed, you know, nine to five.
15:05
You have to hammer it out Monday through Friday. And then right before you leave, the phone buzzes and it's your manager.
15:12
And he says, listen, listen, I want you to take I want you to take Friday off.
15:17
I know you plan the whole week and you've got these days ahead, but I want you to take Friday off. Just just just enjoy that day.
15:24
Spend it with your family and your loved ones. Just enjoy that day and rest. And you go, I plan my whole week.
15:31
Are you some sort of legalist? Can I come in at least for a few hours? Let me do half a day at least.
15:37
I mean, I've I've got so much to do. I need to do it. You haven't understood. This was a gift.
15:43
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
15:50
Sabbath a delight. This is why I've given it to you. You're complaining about it.
15:57
Malachi three. Oh, what purpose is to there and following your ordinances? Excuse me.
16:02
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.
16:09
And encourage you and to give you time, devoted time with me without the distractions of the week closing in.
16:16
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 blessed and rested and refreshed.
16:29
Call the Sabbath a delight. With the giving of the law at Sinai, this
16:35
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 land.
16:44
And so the Sabbath was this great gift of redemption. It was the day on which they celebrated
16:51
God's redemption. It was the time in which they came to him with worship and thanksgiving.
16:57
But then, of course, as generations rolled and rolled, we we see the encrustations of the flesh, 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.
17:18
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
17:24
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.
17:34
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.
17:47
And cutting through that heavy yoke is the pronouncement of Jesus, as we've already said, the
17:52
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
18:02
Sabbath. Jesus is a master of of of pugilism.
18:10
The Sabbath was made for man, your system makes it as though we were created to fulfill the Sabbath. Call the
18:16
Sabbath of the light. This was made for us. When Jesus rebukes the skewed view of the
18:22
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.
18:32
So the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. The Son of Man is
18:38
Lord of the Sabbath. If they had ears to hear what was being claimed here, they would know what he's saying.
18:44
The Son of Man is the Lord of Creation. The Son of Man is identical to the creator.
18:51
The Son of Man was he who from the beginning created all that is and all that is was created for him.
18:57
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
19:07
God's claims on their time. According to his moral law, he ordains a specific day for worship in his moral law.
19:15
And we maintain that this is binding upon all its binding as a creation ordinance.
19:20
But how much more so for those who've been redeemed? It takes on all of all of that beautiful truth of our redemption.
19:27
And therefore it becomes celebratory, filled with thanksgiving, purposeful. Some reject this with the well -meant but very misleading claim that they worship
19:37
God every day. Which is wonderful, like, well, I do devotions and family worship every day.
19:44
I don't need to devote a whole day full of all your restrictions in order to worship God. I worship God every day.
19:50
But again, here we are in Genesis two unfallen. Adam would have worshipped God every day as well.
19:56
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,
20:09
Adam and Eve, made with God's original righteousness, still required a day set apart for the concentrated worship of God.
20:20
Not only this, but you effectively empty the moral law of God as it was given in the
20:27
Ten Commandments. It makes the fourth commandment optional or a shadow in type, which is not how we understand any of the other
20:34
Ten Commandments. And that's quite a dangerous thing to do in the way that we approach the scriptures.
20:41
Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy. That's the command. Remember the
20:46
Sabbath to keep it holy. Consider this. The Sabbath was a gift to Israel.
20:52
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.
21:04
How much more is the Sabbath a gift to the church? If this was true for Israel and God commanded them, remember this
21:12
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.
21:30
So let me ask the question, are you viewing the Lord's Day as a gift? Or is it something wearisome to you?
21:39
Do you count the blessings of the Lord's Day or the prohibitions if you have prohibitions, all these things
21:49
I would do, but the sun hasn't set yet. But we have jokes about the three stars.
21:55
It could be that we're so preoccupied with the demands of the week to come that we cannot even see the
22:02
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.
22:13
Now, there are many different views on the Lord's Day, even among the reformed. If we if 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
22:28
Lord's Day holy. There's what we call the continental view and then perhaps the Puritan view.
22:35
There are many different views and applications, but what I'm saying to you is don't go for the view.
22:41
As some reason, which view lets me go to the movies and play sports in this church, that's that's the view
22:46
I am. You're not sure if the Lord's Day is a gift. Ryan McGraw has an excellent book on the
22:55
Sabbath, and it's very approachable. I'd recommend to you if you're if you're a meat eater, so to speak, and what you read,
23:02
I think the best work on this topic and it actually would be an excellent book for you to read in terms of Genesis one through three is
23:08
Richard Barcellos, B .A .R. C .E .L .L .O .S. Getting the
23:13
Garden Right by Founders Press. Excellent. Excellent. He's a 1689, but it's it's heavy going.
23:22
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.
23:29
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.
23:40
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.
23:48
When you read some of the older church historians like Philip Shaw, who's interestingly coming out of a Lutheran perspective, preachers like Thomas Peck, they all maintain the
23:58
Sabbath, the Christian keeping of the Sabbath is the pillar of righteousness in society. Very interesting, isn't it?
24:05
That was their way of looking at it. Jesus is the Lord of the
24:11
Sabbath, just to say that now is meaningless for most Christians. Well, you know,
24:16
Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath and the Sabbath was made for you. Oh, yeah, that's nice. I worship God every day.
24:22
I 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.
24:32
You keep the Sabbath, what kind of cult do you belong to? Whereas this has been the historic practice of Protestant Christianity.
24:40
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.
24:49
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.
24:59
Because we used to have a cultural impact. Sunday, I was too young, you know, by the time
25:06
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.
25:15
Now there's precious even banks are beginning to open on Sunday. There's almost nothing that's close to you on a
25:20
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.
25:28
There's now no rhythm but profit and profitability. I need you to come in. I need you to work seven days a week.
25:33
I need you to keep hunting down that overtime. And now, all of a sudden, your employment and your ability to provide is the
25:39
Lord of your life, not the God who carves out time and says, these days you work, but this day is my day.
25:45
This day you commune with me. It is the church's failure. What was once a great flaming torch that was impacting the culture has been reduced to a smoking ember and the
25:57
Lord's authority, therefore, and the necessity of all of mankind to worship the true creator
26:03
God has now been marred as a witness. The Lord of the
26:08
Sabbath barely has authority in our lives, much less the culture and the world that he made.
26:16
J .C. Ryle says it so well, and he's writing again in the 19th century in England.
26:22
And there is nothing in all of this to warrant the rash assertion of some that our
26:27
Lord has done away with the Fourth Commandment. He's just saying again, this is moral law. It's abiding. He manifestly speaks of the
26:34
Sabbath day as a privilege and a gift and only regulates the extent to which its observance should be enforced.
26:41
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.
26:52
Let us be jealous over our own conduct in the matter of observing the
26:57
Sabbath. There is little danger of the day being kept too strictly in the present age.
27:05
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.
27:16
Now, was Ryle a prophet? I think so. Or is he just someone who understood the nature of humanity?
27:23
Let us contend earnestly for its preservation among us in all of its integrity. Jesus is
27:29
Lord of the Sabbath. And then it brings us to our third and last section, the promise of the
27:35
Sabbath. The promise of the Sabbath, because, as I said from the very beginning, when
27:40
God established this day and Genesis two, one through three emphasizes three times twice in very similar language and once with a little development.
27:50
And this is this is huge. This is emphatic. This is a red flag popping up to say this is very important because it takes on redemption.
27:59
And because of Christ, it actually becomes a foretaste of a new heavens and a new earth, which is rest entirely.
28:07
The promise of the Sabbath. Let me just again point to our confession and kind of show you the logic here. OK, we've already rehearsed this.
28:14
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.
28:21
So by his word in a positive, moral and perpetual commandment binding all men in all ages, he is particularly appointed one day in seven for a
28:30
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
28:50
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.
29:00
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,
29:10
I believe that from the beginning of the world until the resurrection of Christ, that was the Sabbath.
29:18
The idea was God had finished the original work of creation and then he rested on that seventh day.
29:23
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.
29:33
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.
29:39
It was changed into the first day of the week from Adam to the end of Christ's earthly ministry.
29:46
Old creation was still in view and therefore the promulgation of the last
29:52
Sabbath, the last day Sabbath, the end of the week Sabbath was emphatic. But now redemption has been accomplished.
30:01
Redemption has been applied. Christ has come and the grave could not hold him. And the last
30:06
Adam has begun a new creation and he has risen victorious over all of his enemies, even our last enemy, which is death itself.
30:16
He won this victory on the first day of the week as the true Adam, the head and first roots 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.
30:30
The old creation has passed away because Jesus is the first roots of this great hope. Therefore, the resurrection is a whole new order of creation.
30:39
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
30:58
Christians remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. The first day of the week, we see this pattern throughout the
31:07
New Testament, I won't belabor the point, but Christians gather on the first day of the week, John 20,
31:12
Luke 24, disciples gathering on the first day of the week, assembling on the first day of the week, John 20, 26,
31:18
Acts 2, 1, as the gospels being spread, Acts 20, verse 7, 1st Corinthians 16 to Revelation 110.
31:25
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,
31:32
Christians referred to the first day of the week as the Lord's day, what Lord, the Lord of the
31:37
Sabbath, the last Adam, the creator
31:43
God, who's bringing a new heavens and new earth. We gather to worship him as new creations, new creatures made in him.
31:52
We worship him. We commune with him. We celebrate him. We anticipate the promise of our full redemption.
31:59
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.
32:12
It's a promise of who Jesus is as the last Adam and what he's come to do. Jesus, as the last
32:19
Adam, takes his seed where the first Adam could not, where he failed. God created
32:24
Adam to be the glory and God's goal for mankind.
32:29
But he fell from that. He lost that aspect of God's image.
32:35
As we talked about, he fell from original righteousness and he could not be that glory because of his sin.
32:42
Eden was this glorious place, but it was not the end. It was rather a beginning to an end.
32:50
And as Richard Barcelos writes, it had within it, Eden had within it the seeds of a better world, a world where sin could not enter, a world that was not susceptible to lapse into a curse.
33:04
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.
33:18
That is the promised rest. Even in Genesis two, verse three, that is the promised rest.
33:26
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.
33:38
Where do we see this? Psalm 95, we open the service of Psalm 95.
33:46
We ended at verse seven, but if we take up verse eight and following, listen very closely.
33:53
Psalm 95, verse eight and following. This is David. Today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.
34:05
As in the days of the rebellion, as in the day of trial in the wilderness, when your fathers tested me, they tried me, though they saw my work for 40 years.
34:15
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.
34:23
And I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest. So here's
34:30
Psalm 95, David is writing this Psalm, he's reflecting upon the wilderness generation, and he says today, if you're hearing
34:38
God's voice, don't harden your hearts. Remember that rebellious generation that God brought out of Egypt?
34:44
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.
34:54
Now, what's the rest? Well, you might answer if you're looking at Psalm 95, well, the rest was apparently the promised land.
35:03
You know, this is this isn't the rest of Genesis to the Sabbath. No, no, no, no. This is the promised land, right?
35:08
Because that generation went astray and God swore in his wrath, you will not enter my rest.
35:14
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 four and look at what the writer of the
35:22
Hebrews explains. Therefore, this is beginning in verse one,
35:28
Hebrews chapter four. 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.
35:42
Now, the writer of Hebrews is writing to Christians who are feeling the pressure of apostatizing from the faith.
35:48
Can't we just go back to Judaism? You know, it's a little hot to be in the Christian kitchen. Can't we just go back to kind of following God in our
35:55
Jewish ways? The Romans are cool with that. Is that OK with you, Paul? Therefore, since a promise remains of entering his rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it.
36:07
For indeed, the gospel was preached to us as well as to them. But the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.
36:17
For we who have believed to enter that rest. What's this rest we're entering now?
36:24
Is it the rest of salvation? As he said, quote, So I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest.
36:33
You see what Hebrews four is doing? It is quoting Psalm 95. We Christians now let's fear
36:38
God that we don't come short of the gospel, which we've heard, but they heard it to let us persevere, knowing what
36:45
God said to them. We as Christians, we enter that rest, but they don't. God said to them,
36:50
I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest. And he picks up again, although the works were finished from the foundation of the world, he understands that the rest is the creation
37:03
Sabbath, although the works were finished from the foundation of the world, for he spoke in a certain place of the seventh day in this way.
37:13
And God rested on the seventh day from all his works. Do you recognize that? That's Genesis two.
37:21
The rest of Psalm 95 is not the promised land exclusively as something separate.
37:30
It's the rest that was already promised in Genesis two. And again, in this place, they shall not enter my rest.
37:40
So the rest of Genesis two is not fulfilled when Adam and Eve kept the Sabbath, and it wasn't fulfilled when
37:47
Israel was brought into the promised land. Therefore, it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience.
37:58
Again, he designates a certain day, saying in David today, after such a long time.
38:06
Now, this isn't Genesis two. This is David's generation. They're in the promised land. They entered the rest, right?
38:14
No. Today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.
38:20
For if Joshua remember, Joshua is leading the people into the promised land, the land of rest.
38:26
If Joshua had given them rest, then he would not after would have spoken of another day.
38:32
Therefore, there remains a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered his rest has himself ceased from his works, as God did from his.
38:42
Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest. Do you see what Hebrews four is doing?
38:48
The Sabbath is a promise. It always has been a promise. But it was a promise that could not be revealed until we understood that rest was set apart from the very beginning of creation as a time to be in the presence of God, in the blessed of his communion.
39:04
But of course, Adam fell from that. And so God made an Adam into Israel, as it were. And he said,
39:10
I'm releasing you from the bondage of this fallen world, from the evil empire and tyranny of Egypt. And I'm going to lead you into this sort of new heavens, new earth, a land flowing with milk and honey, a place where you can finally commune with me and have the bliss of my presence.
39:25
But they did not conquer sin in the land. And indeed, they rebelled and their hearts went astray until they didn't enter into the rest.
39:31
But that rest was never just the promised land. The promised land was a type and a shadow of a new heavens and a new earth.
39:37
And the writer of Hebrews is saying, Jesus, our last Adam, our Joshua, he's leading us toward that promised place.
39:46
He's leading us into that rest that was given to Adam and Eve. He is the Lord of the
39:52
Sabbath. So then the whole Sabbath is a promise.
39:58
It's a promise. In a nutshell, what I'm saying is this,
40:04
Jesus, as the last Adam is the Lord of the Sabbath, the first fruits of God's salvation rest, that's rest, the wholeness of not just being in the presence of our
40:19
Creator, enjoying and communing with him, but even our Redeemer, the one who at the cost of his own blood, of his own life spent, has brought us into this state of rest, culminating in a new heavens and a new earth.
40:35
And he is presently leading us to that promised rest. Every time you as a
40:41
Christian keep the Sabbath, you're declaring this hope, this promise. Jesus is leading me.
40:47
May I be diligent to enter into that rest. Jesus, help me. Jesus, lead me. The Lord's Day is this powerful means of grace.
40:58
It trains us in righteousness, but it also teaches us to the light and the fact that Christ is leading us to a rest that he has won, that he has purchased for his people.
41:09
So when we set apart a day to worship our
41:16
Creator and our Redeemer with grateful and heartfelt worship, we are pronouncing this promise to the world.
41:25
Man was not made to work himself to a bone and then cease to be.
41:32
Man was made always for the rest and the light of communing with God, to live in his presence and worship him.
41:39
Man was made for this glory. And though we work and set this part, we're looking forward to a new heavens and new earth when all of this will be fulfilled.
41:51
Let me say to you, brothers and sisters, practically, as we come to a close, the more we call the
41:56
Sabbath a delight, the more we'll naturally sanctify it. I'm convinced that the way you set this day apart, the way you sanctify it is not by making a list of do's and don'ts, taking the
42:09
Pharisee route. It's it's rather by delighting in it. And the more you delight in what the Sabbath is and what the
42:15
Sabbath is as a sign and as a gift and as a promise, you will begin to naturally, intuitively sanctify it.
42:25
You won't need a list of do's and don'ts because it'll be coming out of your heart, so to speak. You'll already understand the purposes and therefore the callings of the day.
42:34
I don't want to do a sermon giving papal declarations of the minutest details about what counts as Sabbath observance, because I don't think that's the right way to actually follow
42:45
God's command when our sole focus is on devoting a day to communing with God and worshiping him, even through the means of of being with friends and family and doing works of mercy and all these other things that Jesus taught us are a part of this day.
43:01
We begin to realize how the glorious gospel of his son is the very center of the Sabbath, not only in that I cannot keep the
43:09
Sabbath as I meant to without Christ, but also in the sense that it's a day of enjoying and celebrating the truth of that gospel.
43:18
It's all about the glorious gospel. Remember what Bruce Ray said as a sign of grace, the
43:26
Sabbath declares that salvation depends upon the power of God. It depends upon this last Adam bringing us, preparing us for a new heavens and a new earth.
43:36
The Sabbath rest is a picture of the gospel, not just that I cease from my nine to five, but that I cease from this bent default of trying to earn my way to God's presence.
43:50
When I see it as a sign of what's been done for me, God just plucked me out of Egypt because he heard my groaning. When I see it as as this gift,
43:59
God wants me to know him more and to spend time in his presence and to commune with him. When I see it as this promise, this is what he's doing in my life.
44:07
My Jesus is leading me into a conquest and I need to get rid of these Canaanites in my body, so to speak, so that I can dwell in this promised rest.
44:14
When I view it as a as a sign and as a gift and as a promise, I begin to radiate the rest that pictures the gospel.
44:24
The Sabbath, brothers and sisters, what I'm saying is the Sabbath is meant for weary and heavy laden sinners.
44:34
You should feel refreshed and nourished, not just because you're not doing the work that you do the other six days of the week, but because you've encountered
44:44
God through the gospel of Christ, his son again. And there's a sense in which you've come to him heavy laden and weary from the week, not just the works, the practical works you're handling, your toddlers and scrubbing applesauce stains and things like that.
44:59
But what you've come to him through the gospel and all these works of trying to merit and earn his favor.
45:05
You realize all of that's put aside now you've come to embrace him as a gift that he is.
45:11
And therefore, the rest is not just finally a day off. The rest is I'm satisfied in him because he's satisfied in me through Christ.
45:20
Christ is the Lord of the Sabbath. He's the joy of the
45:26
Sabbath. He's the rest of the Sabbath. Joseph Hart penned these words,
45:33
Come ye sinners poor and needy, weak and wounded, sick and sore.
45:40
Can you not hear the Israelite slaves groaning in this kind of way in Egypt? And God says,
45:46
I'm going to give you a Sabbath. Come ye sinners poor and needy, weak and wounded, sick and sore.
45:53
Jesus ready stands to save you, full of pity, love and power. Come ye thirsty, come and welcome
46:00
God's free bounty, glorify true belief and true repentance. Every grace that brings you nigh, including a day set apart unto him.
46:10
Come ye weary, heavy laden, lost, ruined by the fall.
46:18
If you wait until you're better, you will never come at all. The Sabbath is this invitation.
46:25
You're weary, you're groaning, you're enslaved, you've been lost and ruined by the fall.
46:31
Come, come to him. Don't wait till you're better. Come, come to this Lord of the Sabbath. Come to this rest, rest in the gospel of his son, commune with him, spend time devoted to him.
46:43
And the refrain is, I will arise and go to Jesus. He will embrace me in his arms, in the arms of my dear
46:50
Savior. Oh, there are 10 ,000 charms. I have not always kept the
46:56
Sabbath in my life. For most of my church life, the Sabbath had nothing to do. There was no thought toward that.
47:01
It was just what we do as Christians as we go to church. And that's our holy part of the week. And I had an elder that began to sit me down without explaining things in this kind of detail.
47:11
He just encouraged me to vote the whole day. Just prepare ahead of time to just maximize your ability to be present with people from church, present with family and friends, make it as restful and delightful a day as possible, even as you're mindful throughout the day of the means of grace that God has given to you.
47:32
And when I read this line in the arms of my dear Savior, oh, there are 10 ,000 charms. I mean,
47:37
I've only been keeping the Sabbath a handful of years and struggling to keep it. Frankly, I wonder if you, like me, feel like you've taken some steps backward because of that.
47:47
I feel like I've only experienced maybe eight and a half charms that are in the arms of my dear
47:53
Savior, brothers and sisters. When you set apart this day to commune with them, there are 10 ,000 charms waiting for you.
48:03
The Sabbath rest is a picture of the gospel. That's the beauty of it.
48:10
At creation, it's the law. It's reflected in the moral law. But for the Christian, it's the gospel.
48:16
It's the gospel calling for weary and heavy laden sinners, not just workers, sinners to come to Jesus and to commune with him and to begin to enter into his rest, knowing that the fullness of it is only shortly ahead.
48:36
May the Lord of the Sabbath help us to keep his day as a sign and as a gift and as a promise.
48:43
Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word,
48:51
Lord. We thank you for the intricate beauty of things that take us from the very beginning of your
48:56
Bible to the very end of it. This Sabbath, Lord, that as soon as it was given in Genesis 2 was already speaking about the end time fulfillment of Jesus, that the rest that you gave to mankind from the very beginning was only ever a shadow and a type of the fullness of the rest that would come through the last man, through the last
49:16
Adam, Jesus. Oh, Lord, what bliss is there to be found in a day set apart, devoted exclusively to communing with you as a pronouncement, as a declaration and also as an experience of the salvation rest that you have wrought through Christ as he's leading us toward this promised rest.
49:39
Lord, like Joshua led the Israelites were reminded that there are many enemies to subdue. There are threats within through weakness and disobedience and straying hearts, but there are threats without.
49:50
Lord, we live in a hostile world, a world that does not recognize your authority over time, your declaration of why we work and what we work for.
49:59
Your purpose is for humanity. Lord, we've rebelled against those and therefore we self enslave. We make ourselves miserable, purposeless, groaning and wearying ourselves.
50:10
And so, Lord, we're thankful that you give us the Sabbath as a gift. And you remind us when you come in the flesh to see all those do's and don'ts list and all those things that made the
50:19
Sabbath so burdensome. You remind us that man was not made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath was made for man.
50:25
You've told us, Lord, that you are the Lord of the Sabbath. Help us as a church to know more what that means.
50:33
Help us as families, Lord, to to take some time even today to reconsider ways that we have not understood and perhaps not fruitfully practice a separation of this day, making it wholly unto you and unto your purposes.
50:49
Help us as individuals, Lord, to experience the rest of coming as we are weary and heavy laden from works and from sins and coming into the glorious gospel, rest of our
51:00
Savior, finding the charms of resting in communion with him, saved and washed clean by his blood, able to enter his presence with boldness.
51:10
Help us to keep that Sabbath, to remember it and make it holy. These things we ask in the name of the