All Things Together For Good: Chap. 5 Pt. 2

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All Things Together For Good: Chap. 5 Pt. 3

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Good evening. Last week we started Chapter 5 of Thomas Watson's All Things for Good, and we remarked how the first few chapters was talking about how the good things work and how the bad things work and why things work.

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As we've gotten over to Chapter 5, Chapter 4 talked about those who love

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God, and now this chapter, we want to make sure that we are those who love

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God. We are those who love God, and so he gives 14 tests, 14 fruits or signs to see if we actually have a love for God, that this promise that all things work for good is actually for us.

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And so we covered the first five of the 14 last week, and we talked about the musing of the mind upon God and if our thoughts are on God and on his ways.

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Number two was the desire to be in communion with him, and number three was grief over our sin, and number four was courage.

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Are we willing to speak for God? Are we willing to stand for the faith? Number five was sensitiveness.

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Are we heartbroken when God is dishonored? You know, we think of a righteous lot being tormented in his soul with what he saw and heard in Sodom and Gomorrah.

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In Acts 17, Paul is walking through Athens and his soul is provoked by rampant idolatry. We talked about how today we hear of the

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Lord's name being taken in vain or just his ways being mocked. And so we talked about those various things.

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And so this week we'll be starting with the sixth sign, and that is hatred against sin.

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So let's read. The sixth fruit of genuine love to God is hatred against sin.

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Fire purges the dross from the metal. The fire of love purges out sin. Ephraim shall say, what have

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I to do any more with idols? What have I to do any more with idols? He who loves

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God will have nothing to do with sin unless to give battle to it. Sin strikes not only at God's honor, but his being.

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Does he love his prince who harbors a traitor to the prince? Is he a friend to God who loves that which

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God hates? The love of God and the love of sin cannot dwell together. The affections cannot be carried to two contrarities at the same time.

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A man cannot love health and love poison too. Just so, one cannot love God and sin too.

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He who has any secret sin in his heart allowed is as far from loving God as heaven and earth are distant from one from the other.

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So yeah, not one to mince words, our dear brother

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Watson. Saying things very bluntly, very plainly, and I think that's sometimes necessary for today because we die the thousand deaths of little caveats and distinctions and we figure out ways to kind of ratchet it down and basically take the truth of God's word away.

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But here he's giving no quarter. If we have a genuine love for God, we should have a hatred for sin.

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Any thoughts or comments on, or questions on what Thomas Watson is sharing with us here?

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Come on, there's enough of you. What do you think, Zach? I just don't think that God didn't sin too.

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No? Well, like, everybody still sins if you don't love

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God. I guess, like, what do you mean, like, sin purposely? Like, love your sin?

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It doesn't say that. It just says one cannot love God and sin. He says the love of God and the love of sin cannot dwell together.

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Yeah, right there in the middle of the paragraph. Oh, I missed that. It's possible

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I missed the word. But I thought I read it. But there it is. The love of God and the love of sin cannot dwell together.

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Literally, the camera's blocking. Oh, okay. I'm looking at one cannot love God and sin.

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Okay. Okay. So never mind. I retract.

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You know, it's funny, because in 1 John it talks about, you know, that he who's in Christ, you know, does not sin.

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And it's really talking about the practice of sin, the continuing of sin, this habitual sin. And so people argue for sinless perfectionism, or what have you.

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And the fact of the matter is we still sin, you know. And that's why we need a Savior. And that's why we're constantly growing in our sanctification.

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We have no expectation given to us that we will be perfect before we see

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Christ. When we see Him, we'll be like Him. But until that time, we're constantly trying to put sin to death in our flesh and getting victory over that.

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So we should be growing in our sanctification. We should be sinning less over time. We should be more sensitive to, you know, when you first get saved, you might be aware of big sins, you know.

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You know, you're in a relationship that's not honoring to God, or you're stealing, or you're doing, you know, any number of things that even the world would say, oh, wow, that's, yeah, that's wrong.

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You shouldn't do that. And you can get victory over that. But even as you grow in your relationship to the

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Lord, your attitudes, things that you wouldn't even think about, the complaining, no one thinks about complaining as being a sin, and yet Scripture says it is.

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And so when we recognize, you know, I don't have a grateful heart. I don't have a thankful heart. I'm constantly complaining about my circumstances.

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As you grow in the faith and you mature in the faith, you're going to be grieved that you have that kind of heart attitude.

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And you'll be looking to grow. So, yeah, if we love God, we should not love sin. Unfortunately, we still will sin, but hopefully we're putting it to death and we're sinning less.

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But, yes. Any other questions or comments before we move on to number seven? As a

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Christian, we're constantly battling sin. And we're going to battle that sin until the day we die because we're not going to attain sin's perfection.

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So, you know, sometimes I'm speaking to people and I'm like, well, I'm struggling with this. And they say, well, are you struggling to not do it?

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Yes. I say, well, that's a good sign. Because if you weren't struggling, you'd jump and head first into it and join it.

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So the fact that you struggle with it means that you're battling with it.

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There's a battle going on. Thank God for that. You may need to be strengthened and you ask God for strength.

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Or you admit your weakness. Paul says in my weakness, you are made strong. The spirit is willing, the flesh is weak.

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You admit your weakness to God and all of a sudden he starts strengthening you and carrying you through this. And you recognize there's hope.

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There's hope. I have hope. So the fact that you struggle with sin is not a bad thing. It's a good thing.

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It's a good sign. Yeah, it's a good sign. Be encouraged if you're struggling with sin. That's a good sign.

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That's right where you're supposed to be. Number seven.

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Another fruit of genuine love to God is crucifixion to the world. He who is a lover of God is dead to the world.

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The world has been crucified to me and I to the world. That is, I am dead to the honors and pleasures of the world.

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He who is in love with God is not much in love with anything else. The love of God and ardent love of the world are incompatible.

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If any man loves the world, then the love of the Father is not in him. Love to God swallows up all other love.

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As Moses' rod swallowed up the Egyptian rods. If a man could live as high as the sun, what a small point would all the earth be.

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Just so, when a man's heart is raised above the world in the admiring and loving of God, how poor and diminutive are these things below.

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They seem as nothing in his eye. It was a sign the early Christians loved God because their prosperity,

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I'm sorry, their property did not lie near their hearts, but they laid down their money at the apostles' feet.

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Test your love to God by this. What shall we think of those who have never enough of the world?

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They have the cancer of covetousness, thirsting insatiably after riches that pant after the dust of the earth.

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Never talk of your love to Christ, says Ignatius, when you prefer the world before the pearl of price.

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Are there not many such who prize their gold above God? If they have a good farm, they care not for the water of life.

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They will sell price and a good conscience for money. Will God ever bestow heaven upon those who so basely undervalue him, preferring glittering dust before the glorious deity?

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What is there in the earth that we should so set our hearts upon it?

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The devil makes us look upon it through a magnifying glass. The world has no real intrinsic worth.

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It is but paint and deception. Thoughts on that?

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That's a mouthful. Two full slides there. Crucifixion to the world. Do we still love the world?

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Is he being too harsh? Is he being too rigid? Can't we still have stuff and love stuff?

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Nothing, huh? I have to ask more specific questions. You either have stuff and use

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God, or you have God and use stuff. There you go. If God is everything that you want, he gives you these things to use.

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But if you have those things and those are your God, you're just using God to get what you want.

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It's a big difference. You have to recognize that what is the profit of the world?

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The profit of any gain in the whole world. It tells me that all the riches in the world are still not as valuable as your soul.

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So, I carry it. You can't serve God and money.

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Krista and then Bob. Romans 1 comes to mind, how we often worship and serve creation rather than the

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Creator. Our hearts are idol factory. We often slip into idolatry, worshiping everything that we could bless with.

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That's a daily battle. Yeah. That's true.

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Again, we're talking about it's a battle. Thomas Watson is pointing out things to us as they should be.

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And if we're perhaps honest with ourselves, some of you are going to be like, I feel like I'm not checking off that list the way

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I ought to. I don't feel as strongly as Brother Watson does on that area.

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And so, yeah, we should be looking at these things. The greatest commandment is to love the

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Lord your God with all your heart. All your soul, all your mind, all your strength. And we fail to do that.

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And so, we want to be praying for the Lord to help us in growing, that we would love

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Him as we ought to and not love the world. Bob. I was just thinking that all the things, all the material things of this world, it's just temporary.

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You can't take it with you. I think he said it was like paint and dust. I think he said it like that. Right. Paint and deception.

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Pain and deception, right. So it's like, you know, if you love the things of the world so much that you really can't love

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Christ. I mean, it's okay to like things, but like the love of money is the root of all evil. I like money,

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I don't love it. Right. Yeah. I love Pastor Anthony. He always has like a catchphrase to go along with those things.

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It's just like the perfect way to encapsulate it. He can write a book of those things, or you've read several books of those.

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It's all in there. And then Thomas Watson, the devil makes us look upon it through a magnifying glass.

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Like, oh, see how big this is. Look and see the value here, you know, and how he would love to get us away from Christ.

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It's true. You know, the world is all around us. We're immersed in it. You turn on the radio,

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I like to refer to the advertisements, the commercials, you know. You deserve this.

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You deserve that. I'm like, I had no idea. I had no idea. I deserve so much. Thank you, advertiser.

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Thanks for telling me about my worth and what I should have. But we live in a world that's constantly trying to sell you.

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And it can be a huge distraction to us. But it does test our love for God.

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And so we should be mindful of it. Any other questions or comments before we move on to the next, to number eight?

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Okay. Number eight. The next fruit of genuine love to God is reverential fear of God.

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In the godly, love and fear kiss each other. There's a double fear arises from love.

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One, fear of displeasing. The spouse loves her husband, therefore would rather deny herself than displease him.

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The more we love God, the more fearful we are of breathing his spirit. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?

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And that's Joseph talking to Potiphar's wife. When Eudoxia, the empress, threatened to banish

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Christendom, tell her, said he, I fear nothing but sin. That is a blessed love which puts a

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Christian into a hot fit of zeal and a cold fit of fear, making him shake and tremble and not dare willingly to offend

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God. And so he's got, that's the first one. And then we'll talk about the next one in a minute, a fear mixed with jealousy.

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But what do we think about that? A fear of displeasing, about to have a spouse and her husband or perhaps a child with their parent.

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A love for them that makes them want to make them happy. They don't want to offend them.

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They don't want to cross them. They know what the expectation is. And so they're keen to do that.

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It's distracting. We have a reindeer. It's the

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Christmas spirit. That's okay. Where were we?

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Any comments on that? Fear of displeasing? If we love

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God, we simply don't want to displease him. The spouse knows what makes the other happy. If you have a good relationship, if you've communicated well, you have an idea of what makes each other happy and you have a good idea of what makes each other unhappy.

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And you don't want your spouse to be unhappy because you love them. And so you'd be careful not to cross certain boundaries or lines that would cause them displeasure.

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And so the Lord God has given us his law. He's told us what is good and what we should do.

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And if we love him, we want to please him. And so we don't do those things that violate his law knowingly.

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The believer knows the character of the Lord and his expectations. And our love should cause us not to want to fall short of that.

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The next part of 8 is a fear mixed with jealousy.

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Eli's heart trembled for the ark. It is not said his heart trembled for Hophni and Phinehas, his sons, his two sons, but his heart trembled for the ark.

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Because if the ark were taken, then the glory was departed. He who loves God is full of fear, lest it should go ill with the church.

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He fears lest worldliness, which is the plague of leprosy, should increase.

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Which is as the plague of leprosy. Lest potpourri should get a footing, lest God should go from his people.

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The presence of God and his ordinances is the beauty and strength of a nation. So long as God's presence is with his people, so long they are safe.

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But the soul inflamed with love to God fears lest the visible tokens of God's presence should be removed.

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By this touchstone, let us test our love for God. Many fear lest peace and trading might leave them, but not lest God and his gospel might leave them.

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Are these lovers of God, he who loves God, is more afraid of the loss of spiritual blessings than temporal blessings?

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If the sun of righteousness removes out of our horizon, what can follow but darkness?

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What comfort can an anthem give if the gospel is gone? Is it not like the sound of a trumpet at a funeral?

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Hmm. Thoughts about that. Go back to that first slide.

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Steve. The fear of God is important to a Christian.

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What are ways to increase...

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How can a Christian increase his fear of God? Increase his fear of God? That's a good question.

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Reading the Psalms. I'd say reading the Psalms. I'd say reading the entire Word. You know, we're talking about a reverential fear.

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What is the sign of it? You know, we have a...

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It's not like you're deathly afraid. The sinner, the rebel, should have a fear of God, fear of judgment, of what

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God will do to them, because they're under his wrath, right? For the believer, perfect love casts out fear.

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But when we're talking about a godly fear, a reverential fear, it's mixed with love.

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And so we don't want to displease him. And, you know, he's talking here about a jealousy, of being jealous of his presence and not wanting to lose it, not wanting it to go away.

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And so how can we grow in our fear of him? I would say is to draw closer to him, to grow in your relationship with him.

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And you do that by the means of grace that he gives us. You immerse yourself in the

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Word. You spend time in prayer. You grow in your relationship with God. And if you grow in your relationship with God and you have an understanding of who he is, this will be a natural fruit of that.

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I mean, that's how he's actually defining, you know, that's how he's describing this. This is a fruit of love for God.

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So we have, you know, the fruit of the Spirit, and a fruit of love for God. These are things that grow as we grow in Christ.

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Does that make sense? So that's how I would say to grow. If you want to grow in your reverential fear of God, be in the

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Word, be in prayer, be in fellowship. Be active as a believer. You know,

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God doesn't call us to just take all these things in and we only have our personal piety.

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We just have in our minds, we have a holiness. But if it doesn't get out to here, to our fingertips, when we're acting accordingly, how we conduct ourselves at home, at school, in the workplace.

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Are we engaging in evangelism? Are we engaging in various ministries?

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I think when we do those things, as you practice obedience, as you engage in living the

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Christian life, all this will grow. That's okay.

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I'm glad you guys are here. Really assess your own sinfulness.

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There you go. And start thinking about just how merciful God has been to you.

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That should kindle a love for Him, and a fierce loyalty to Him. The simple fact that He has not taken you out yet.

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Think about how, sometimes, we would like to treat our enemies. And think about how

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God, we were enemies, and He didn't treat us that way. My goodness.

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If your own sin doesn't cause you to tremble, it's a problem.

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You don't fear God properly. You don't recognize just how holy and perfect He is.

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If you start following your own sin and the perfection of God, you know that you shouldn't be around. Indeed.

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Amen. So, a fear mixed with jealousy. When he talks about Eli, and Israel's going to war, and his sons are going with the ark, and he's not trembling for his sons.

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He's trembling for the ark. And what happens when Israel is defeated before the

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Philistines, and the ark is taken? He died. He died.

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Out of grief, he rocked back and fell and broke his neck. But I think of his daughter -in -law.

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I forget which son's wife it was. It escapes me. It was Hathmeir Phinehas.

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I've narrowed it down to the two. But she's giving birth.

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And she actually dies in childbirth. And what are you going to call? It's a son. Ichabod.

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The glory has departed. And so even in her dying, she's recognizing the glory of the

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Lord has departed from Israel. This visible token of His presence, and His presence is

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His favor to be there, to be among them. And they were jealous over that.

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And that was a greater defeat to them than just a loss in a battle.

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God had left them. I tried to pitch Melissa on naming a son to name

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Ichabod. Good for her.

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But it's true, honey. He will be a testimony against our nation. Ichabod.

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I would have gotten him as Sleepy Hollow. Oh, Sleepy Hollow. That's how most people know

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Ichabod nowadays, right? The coward of Sleepy Hollow. Oh, terrible.

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But yes. But Eli's heart trembled for the ark. You know, we talked earlier about the worst things that work for good.

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And we talked about desertion. Feeling that the Lord has left us. We don't feel the comfort of His presence.

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We should be jealous for His presence, for His comfort, for the visible token of it.

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And so what he's talking here about, if we have a love for God, we're full of fear, lest it should go ill with the church.

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We should be fearing that it goes ill with the church. Never mind our nation, which we have to face now.

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The presence of God in His ordinance is the beauty and strength of a nation. And where is our beauty and strength as a nation?

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We see more and more worldliness, like leprosy, you know, that's increasing.

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This should cause us to be jealous and fearful. And we should be in prayer.

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And we should be seeking to be the change we want to see, and praying for the church, praying for the nation.

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But we should have an understanding here of what Thomas Watson is talking about. So any more questions or comments about that before we move on to the next one?

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No? Maria? No, and it's interesting, because isn't that when Bill seems to take it, and then he gets disease and they return it?

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Yeah, God is not mocked. They thought they had the victory over Israel, and it was their strength and their gods who helped them, and it was actually

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God who had defeated Israel because of their sin. And so because they tried to make sport and put in their temple, the

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Lord unleashed a little wrath on them. So yeah, they were, the

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Philistines were plagued with tumors and all sorts of stuff. And it got to the point where they're like, we just need this, we need this thing to go.

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So yeah. And they just put it on a cart. They put it on a cart. Good luck.

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See you later. Why did they lie? It was like a trophy, basically. It was a trophy, yeah.

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Yeah, they brought it to the temple of their god, Dagon, right? And spoils of war.

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Our god defeated your god. And then they come into their temple the next day and Dagon is on his face before the ark, worshiping.

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They're like, that's not right. They put him back up. And the next day he comes in and his hands are cut off and his head's cut off.

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It's like, okay, you win. We're going to take him out of here. Why did they convert right there?

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That's the depravity of man. That's unfortunately. That's the thing too.

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It's really interesting. Atheists today, people say, well, if god would just come down and talk to me,

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I'd believe. No, you wouldn't. You would not care.

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Von Sinnenstein has this great debate and he's like, if something would happen, if the pope at the podium would rise up three feet in the air, maybe then

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I would believe. No, you'd try to find some explanation for how it happened or why it happened. Keep in mind, when we go through scriptures, how many people have interacted with god and still hated him from Cain mouthing off to him.

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I don't know where my brother is. Am I my brother's keeper? Because Abel was a keeper of the flock so he's making a pun even in disrespecting god.

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And then he's concerned about, oh, I'm going to be hunted. I'm not going to have any peace.

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No brokenness over his sin, just sad about the consequences. And then we go all the way up to the

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Pharisees. They recognize he's from god. They're seeing the miracles that he's doing and they still hate him.

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Resurrection, three days later, we'll just bribe the guards to tell them you fell asleep and we'll make sure you don't get in trouble.

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That's the depravity of man. That if it wasn't for the grace of god, we would believe in him but we would still hate him.

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You know, the Philistines, if you read that story, when the ark comes into the camp there's a great shout and the

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Philistines say, there's a god in the camp. They recognize that's the god who put all those plagues on the

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Egyptians. They knew Israel's story. They knew their history and they were afraid.

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And you know what they said? Fight like men. It's better to die than to be slaves.

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Depravity of man. That's left to ourselves. We would actually fight god if we could.

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So yeah, it's a good question but unfortunately that's our situation apart from the grace of god.

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Oh, it's too early. I don't know where I put that. Oh, we can go more.

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Alright, sorry. I think, yeah. We have some time. We'll continue on, right?

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Sure, why not? Alright. Maybe next week we'll have a shorter one because I don't think we're going to get this whole chapter done in two sittings.

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But let's start. Number nine. If we are lovers of god, we love what god loves.

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We love god's word. David esteemed the word for the sweetness of it above honey and for the value of it above gold.

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The lines of scripture are richer than the mines of gold. Well may we love the word. It is the pole star which directs us to heaven.

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It is the field in which the pearl of great price is hidden. The man who does not love the word but thinks it too strict and could wish any part of the bible torn out as an adulterer did with the seventh commandment.

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He has not the least spark of love in his heart. There's a few.

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There's a few here under nine. So we love what god loves.

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If we love god, we love the things that he loves. And we love his word.

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Questions or comments about that? He's talking about David and we think of Psalm 119. The longest chapter in the bible.

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And it's about god's law. God's word. And here we say the law is a burden.

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Well it's a burden in our unconverted state. It's a burden with an unregenerate heart. Because we hate god.

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We don't want to obey him. But for the one who is saved. The one who is regenerate. God's law is wonderful.

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Sweeter than honey. More precious than gold and precious jewels. It's a lamp into our feet.

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A light into our path. It gives us what we need for life and godliness. So we ought to love the scripture.

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It tells us everything we need to know about god. I was talking to someone who at the time was professing to believe in christ.

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But they didn't go to church. They didn't read their bible. Do you know what it means to be a christian?

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And you read the bible and this is god's letter to us. He's revealing himself to us.

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Imagine you were dating someone or married to someone and they were away from you. And they wrote you this letter to tell you all these different things.

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And you just left it unopened on your dresser. Would you say oh I love them so much.

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Why didn't you read? Oh yeah that's a good point. It is. If we love god we should love his word.

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We want to know more about it. We want to read it. And understand it. And how could you even love god apart from his word?

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How would you know who god is? In your own imagination of what god is and you end up loving him in the scriptures.

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Because the god you create in your head would never tell you you've done anything wrong. The god of the scriptures tells you constantly what you've done wrong and what the solution is.

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Yeah it's true. When we don't love his word and we say we love god, we really just love a god of our own imagination.

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We've created an idol. He may bear some similarity to scripture but he's actually way far off.

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He's more made in your image than you're made in his image. So that's one.

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We love god's day. We do not only keep a sabbath but love a sabbath.

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If you call the sabbath a delight. The sabbath is that which keeps up the face of religion among us.

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This day must be consecrated as glorious to the lord. The house of god is the palace of the great king.

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On the sabbath god shows himself there through the lattice. If we love god, we prize his day above all other days.

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All the week would be dark if it were not for this day. On this day manna falls double.

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I love this guy. Now if ever heaven gate stands open and god comes down in a golden shower.

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This blessed day the sun of righteousness rises upon the soul. How does a gracious heart prize that day which was made on purpose to enjoy god

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What is manna? I know it's like what wilderness.

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That's what they said. That's what manna means. He already knows Hebrew. Manna is, what is it?

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That's what it means. It was a bread. It was something that came on the ground like dew in the morning and they would gather enough to eat and they always had enough and he would provide for them daily.

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Because they're out there in the wilderness. They don't have the ability to start growing crops and hunting and doing all these different things to provide their need every day.

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The lord's prayer is give us this day our daily bread. We need to eat every day. Well, we don't need to but it helps us to function well.

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To get a certain amount of calories in. You have two million people out in the wilderness and god is providing for them daily their bread.

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Every day they have just enough to eat and he said for six days I'll put manna out.

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On the sixth day because I don't want you going out on the Sabbath on the seventh day. There will be enough for you to collect twice as much.

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He didn't want them to save it. Any of those other five days don't try to hoard extra and think that it's not going to be there tomorrow.

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He wanted them to be dependent on him to trust him daily to provide but he also said

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I don't want you working on the Sabbath. I want you to rest as the fact of the matter the

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Sabbath was made for man because man does need to rest but it's also the day to remember god and to worship him.

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He goes I don't want you to busy yourself and bother yourself with the day to day stuff of life.

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He goes order your days in such a way that on the seventh day you can rest and you can worship. So he would give them double the manna on the

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Sabbath or the day before the Sabbath that they would have enough food to eat the next day. So manna was bread.

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It was bread from heaven. That's the a little bit of a drawn out answer but Does it matter what day?

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I would say yes. Sunday? Yes. Saturday?

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Yes. Yep. Saturday is the seventh day of the week and so we have in creation when you go back to Genesis Genesis 1.

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Six days the Lord created. On the seventh day he rested and he sanctified it.

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He consecrated the day as holy. What are you allowed to do on this day?

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That's a good question. This is like the one thing like I want to be able to work.

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You want to be able to work? Don't you want to rest? Everybody wants to rest.

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Everyone wants a weekend off. He's like I want to work seven days. I don't mean to I just don't do good with idle time.

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What am I supposed to do? While I'm working I'm driving around I can still you know what

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I'm saying? Why can't I work? Why can't he like that? You know what I'm saying? Honestly. Honestly.

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Good question. You need a day that your mind is set completely on God so that you can straighten out all broken thoughts.

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When we're working our minds are doing different things. We're not focused on God.

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So the seventh rest is a time to reorder and reorient our thoughts about God.

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To spend one day with him alone when I say alone in the company of other believers but it's also a day that shows that you trust

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God enough to provide for you tomorrow. You don't need to work today because God is my father and he will provide for me.

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There's a lot of different reasons why we can get into those. Maybe not right now but and I understand your frustration.

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Trust me. And this won't be the last of your frustrations. It's just the beginning. I was going to say before it said

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No, it's okay. Before it said that if you don't love all the laws of God then you don't have any love in your heart.

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I don't really think that's true. There's some things you can brush. I feel like I have to say something that's not good.

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There's some things that are difficult about following the laws. So doesn't that mean so does that mean

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I'm not capable of loving anything? I don't understand what that was saying.

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There's things that would be easier if there wasn't law. I don't know what

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I'm saying really. I know what I'm trying to say but I don't know how to articulate it. Don't worry. I actually know what you're saying.

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You know why? Because I'm a human being too. I bet most people here, even though you feel like you're having a hard time articulating it, they know exactly what you mean.

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Because it's a struggle we've all had or are still having. The fact of the matter is, you say we're supposed to love

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God, we're not supposed to love these things. Come on. How do you not engage in these things? Following the law is difficult at times.

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Yes, because we still have to contend with the flesh. We still have a sin nature.

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We still have to put off the old and put on the new. We have to reckon ourselves dead to sin.

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The fact of the matter is that when Christ rose again He brought resurrection life to us.

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So that spiritually we're alive. But we still have to contend with the sin nature. And so we have that battle and it's an ongoing battle that we would grow in our sanctification.

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Because part of us does want to do those things. Go and read Romans 7 later tonight and see how

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Paul struggles with, you know, the things I don't want to do, that's what I do.

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The things I do want to do, I don't do. Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of sin?

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Thank God, bless you. Thanks be to God, right? For Jesus Christ. This is

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Paul talking about he's an apostle. He wrote most of the New Testament. And he's talking about the struggle with sin.

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The struggle with the flesh. So, what Thomas Watson is talking about here is he's presenting it as the

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Word of God presents it in the sense that God puts before us the standard.

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And the standard is perfection. And he recognizes that we failed to live up to it.

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That's why Christ came to take away our sin. So that's why we need to keep short accounts with God.

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That we would ask for forgiveness for our sins. That we would get up. He'd read Proverbs and talks about the wise man.

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He falls six times, he gets up seven. He just keeps getting up. The wise man is not someone who's more intelligent than someone else.

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The wise and foolish are their moral judgments. The fool says in his heart there is no God. But the wise man loves

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God. Loves His Word and wants to pursue Him. Doesn't mean he's perfect. But he's going in the right direction.

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So when we talk about the Sabbath. And that's something that's a controversy in the church today.

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There's some who say, oh, you know, the law has been abrogated and all the Ten Commandments are still kind of in place except that fourth one, you know, keeping the

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Sabbath. Now Christ is our Sabbath rest so we don't need to take a Sabbath rest. But God has shown that He is a

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God of order and not chaos. And He has ordered our lives in such a way He's made us.

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He knows our frame, that we're but dust. We need rest. And we need to remember our God. We need to gather and worship

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Him. You know, we make money but He provides. And so He says give your tithes and your offering.

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We're supposed to give a tenth of our income. And people argue about that. Nope, you just have to be a cheerful giver.

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You can give whatever you want. It's funny, whenever people say, you know, you can give more than that.

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Usually most people are not arguing to give more to God of their time, more of God of their money. Somehow the more is other stuff, you know, that's less costly

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I guess. But as far as what you can do on the Sabbath, the first I would say the first thing you want to consider about the

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Sabbath is that that first line. We do not only keep a

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Sabbath, but love a Sabbath. If you call the Sabbath a delight. We should glory in the fact that God gives us a day to rest from all the work.

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You know, Americans and in Europe they all take months for a holiday or something for a vacation.

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And we've got to get that racket going on. But we're all about, you know, five days and we need a weekend.

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We need two days off. God gave us one. He said you just need one.

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Do everything in an orderly fashion that you can leave that last day. It's now the first day of the week because it's a new creation.

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If you go through, this is more information that you need right now. So don't get lost in the weeds and the details of it.

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But throughout God's law there's lots of things that are referring to the eighth day, the first day of the week.

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And it was a picture of Christ who would be risen again on the eighth day, who would be starting a new creation the first day of the week.

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And so now we still have the principle one in seven, but instead of Saturday celebrating the

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Sabbath, the Christian Sabbath would be considered the first day of the week. It's the Lord's day in the

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New Testament that, you know, the Apostle John saying, I was worshipping, I was in the Spirit on the

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Lord's day. You know, they would gather on the Lord's day. And so they had already started moving to celebrate the

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Sabbath, that Sabbath rest on the first day of the week rather than the last.

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But it's an opportunity, it's our joy and privilege to gather to worship

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God because He's worthy. So what sort of work is permitted? Works of necessity, you know.

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If you're a nurse, if you're a firefighter, there are certain things that need to be done, you know, for people's health and you know, for their wellness.

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Those sort of things can be done, you know. I can preach on a Sunday and that's work.

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Just like the priests were doing sacrifices, you know, on the Sabbath day and they would do circumcisions.

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They'd do all these different things and it wouldn't be considered breaking the Sabbath because they're serving Him. So there are certain things that we can do, but rather than trying to figure out like, well, what am

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I allowed to do? Like, enjoy the Sabbath. And so if you're like, but I don't need that idle time.

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Well, we can talk about all this later on. It's a lot. It's very big. It's very comprehensive.

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I don't want to overwhelm you with all of it. But there's other things you can do to keep yourself busy.

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I mean, for us here at Hope, we have Sunday School, we have the worship service, we have fellowship time, you know.

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You can spend most of your day here and be occupied. And then go home. I mean, I'm always exhausted at the end of the day.

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I love being here. We had the music festival last

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Sunday. We were here from like 8 .30 to 5 .30. It was a long day and it was glorious.

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And I was exhausted by the end of it. But if you still have energy, you can read. You can do certain things.

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You can gather with saints and spend more time. Typically we would have a Sunday evening study at our house, you know, for another few hours.

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Get together for dinner and stuff. There's plenty to do to honor the Lord's day and keep you from being idle.

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Because I know if you're struggling with things, sometimes the worst thing we can do is be alone with our thoughts. Alone by ourselves.

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We need to be engaged in doing something. But you can find those things and honor and glorify

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God in it where it's not working. But that's to just give you a little or a big taste of the

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Sabbath. But, okay. So, now we're going to stop.

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Was there? Oh, Aaron, sorry, go ahead. Just to add to that, if you know you struggle, especially on the

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Lord's day, say, you know, I'm struggling with this. Can you help me in that? Because you'll find that there are more people who struggle with that too.

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And it's like, oh well, I know my struggles and now you're telling me you struggle too.

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I know better how to pray for you. And because the church is a body, we ought to be together to encourage one another and to be there for one another.

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Amen. The church is a body. Oh, you're going to hear me drum that home every chance

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I get to preach, to teach, to do anything. We are a body. We need each other. We are members of one body.

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Say, ah, I'm just a pinky toe. You don't need me. Watch and see how your balance is off when you try walking around without that little toe.

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We need each other. We really do. To encourage one another unto good works, to bear one another's burdens, to pray for one another.