The Fourth Commandment - Part I

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Preacher: Ross Macdonald Scripture: Exodus 20:8-11

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Well this morning we begin part one of what's going to be now two weeks on the fourth commandment and partly that was unexpected, but I think
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Reflecting on it. It seems providentially for the best. I hope you'll agree a time we get through next week's service
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So this morning as we begin the fourth commandment, we're going to have some heavy lifting Again, as I have said in times past this will be a triumph for note -takers
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The strongest memory is weaker than the weakest ink and so do do take notes again
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Sometimes a topic this large this controversial This embedded in church history can be hard to catch at least at first glance now these things we have covered over the past years and For that reason you may be
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Surprised that some things fall into place over the next two weeks that were fuzzy or out of reach in years prior
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Or perhaps things will start to get a little more clear But still be fuzzy and the next time some years down the road
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That's when things will fall into place and this is part of growing in doctrine. You don't go from milk to steak
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There's you know steakums or shave steak in between and you could see these next two weeks as an opportunity for that So Exodus 20 beginning in verse 7
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Sorry verse verse 8 Remember the Sabbath day to keep it. Holy Six days you shall labor and do all your work.
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But the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God In it you shall do no work you know your son know your daughter
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Know your male servant know your female servant know your cattle Know your stranger who's within your gates for in six days
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The Lord made the heavens and the earth the sea and all that is in them and rested the seventh day
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Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it So the fourth commandment this morning, we're going to look at it in three parts
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This is more foundational. We're gonna sort of build a foundation in these three parts and then next week we're going to apply
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We're gonna have four parts of application next week So the three parts this morning are first the ordinance of the
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Sabbath Secondly the obligation of the Sabbath and then third and last the outlook of the
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Sabbath Okay, the ordinance the obligation and the outlook so beginning with the ordinance verse 11 in Six days the
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Lord made the heavens and the earth the sea and all that's in them and rested the seventh day Therefore the
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Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it As we read in this explanation and that is an explanation for the fourth commandment
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We find that God finished his work of creation on that seventh day He hallowed that day making it holy by virtue of his rest
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Because the work of creation had been completed because he was now ceasing or resting from that work
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He set that day apart making it holy and this is set forth to us in the fourth commandment
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Now as we need to Rehearse God was resting from his creative labor not from labor pure and simple
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God is not such that he gets tired. God is not like us God is pure being there is no sense of him somehow becoming deficient and needing to be restored or refreshed or renewed as God rested from his labors in creation
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So Adam and Eve as his image bearers would have known to likewise rest from their labors in Imitating God we have to remember that at this point in Genesis 2
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Adam and Eve are in an unfallen state They are upright They intrinsically understand how to represent
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God and they think God's thoughts after him a very important point They inherently think
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God's thoughts after him they instinctively patterned their lives After the pattern
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God puts before them in this imitation. It was shown to Adam and Eve in their unfallen state
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That their labor would not be ceaseless But rather that their labor would be divided marked out by a time of rest set apart as a day
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Like God set apart his day during the week of creation Now what would this
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Edenic rest have been comprised of did God? Set apart the day by taking a big nap throughout the the seventh day.
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No Would they have imitated him by taking an afternoon snooze? No They would have ceased their labors on the earth as God ceased.
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He's his labors in creating the earth To begin with God never stopped working
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Jesus clarified this in John 5. My father has been working until now and I have been working identifies himself with the father
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Robert Raymond and his systematic theology observes rest. Therefore cannot mean merely ceasing from labor much less recovery from fatigue
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Gaining bread by the sweat of the brow is a result of the fall Adam and Eve are unfallen
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So it's not that somehow they're so beleaguered and they're sweating and they're toiling and they just need rest the fall hasn't happened yet Their labor is a joy.
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There's no sweat. No thorns. No hindrance. No obstruction They sing as they work in ways that the twelve dwarves could only dream of right?
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They whistle they're happy as they work to have this vocation from God it it fulfills their very purpose of being
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Everything flows before them as they exercise dominion over all that God has made. Nothing is against the grain
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Everything flows naturally from this It's the very delight of their hearts and yet they imitate
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God by marking out this day as a day of worship So again, Robert Raymond the rest that Adam and Eve would have imitated and enjoyed was not inactivity
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But new activity very important point Not a cessation from labor, but a different kind of labor again, not a cursed labor not a groaning labor, but a different kind of labor a hallowed labor a set -apart labor unlike the labor of the previous six days
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It was a distinct communion with God That Adam and Eve enjoyed on the
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Sabbath It was a communion with God and God's communion with them that this day was set apart for this is how the day was hallowed
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And so as Jesus taught in Mark chapter 2 and we'll circle back to this the Sabbath was made for man
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Very important that we see in Jesus teaching is there were several Sabbath controversies
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Most of which are shared by the synoptic Gospels In fact, we have more to do with Sabbath controversies in the ministry of Jesus than any other issue
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Stemming from the Ten Commandments that's very significant or at least the gospel writers felt
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It was very significant in the life of the early church. Keep note But as Jesus taught in Mark 2 27 what we have for the
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Lord's own lips was the Sabbath was made for man He does not say the
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Sabbath was made for Israel But now that's all types and shadows that are done away with no the
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Sabbath was made for man mankind The Saddam was made for Adam The Saddam was made the
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Sabbath was made for Adam and Eve and notice the order of creation The Sabbath was created for Adam rather than Adam being created for the
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Sabbath. This is universal in its scope Even without the fall this would have been something that Adam and Eve kept
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So neither is it something given only to sinful man nor only to Israel in the flow of redemptive history?
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This is something that is grounded in creation The Sabbath was made for man
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God created man and then gave man a day of rest to imitate him for the purpose of communion and worship
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This is exactly what our Confession states I think as a right summary of biblical teaching as it is the law of nature
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That in general a proportion of time by God's appointment be set apart for the worship of God So by his word in a positive moral
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Perpetual commandment binding all men in all ages He has particularly appointed one day in seven for a
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Sabbath to be kept holy unto him Now what our Confession? States that I'm trying to put before us in this first point is the
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Sabbath is a law of nature In other words, it is a creation ordinance
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It is a creation ordinance This is something rooted in what it means to be human
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This is something in the fabric of how God has created the space -time cosmos
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This is a creational ordinance as much as marriage is a creation ordinance This is part of how
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God made us part of what it means to be human in our relationship with God Now a society that denies the
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Sabbath will for this reason create Sabbaths for itself It's inescapable.
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No society. However, godless, however materialistic however atheistic
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No society under the Sun has ever Gotten out of this
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Sabbath framework of the world If it's not the Lord's Sabbath, then it's a
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Sabbath of their own making a Sabbath of their own invention It's festivals and holidays after their own gods
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If you live in a communist regime, then it's festivals and feast days for the state
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Sabbaths will be kept because it's a creational ordinance and you can see in our own land in our own society
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The further we have as a society moved away from the Sabbath the more holidays
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And Mondays and weekends we we have it seems year by year new holidays new months of devotion
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New times that now everyone has to be occupied with they keep sprouting left and right
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It's for this very reason the Sabbath is a creation ordinance in the garden
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Adam and Eve had joyful Unobstructed service in the labor that God had given them
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But when they imitated this day of rest they put aside their worshipful labors of Dominion their soul
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Satisfying labors of Dominion and they rested in set -apart worship.
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They delighted in communion with God And this is why man is morally bound to the
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Sabbath because of this creational grounding But of course there's more to it than just the creation ordinance.
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It's also a sign of redemption In other words, though it is a morally binding commandment
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Though it is grounded in creation and ordinance of creation The Bible unfolds with the story of Israel and the
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Sabbath becomes a sign between God and his people Not of how he created them But of how he redeemed them and so we have a creation ordinance that takes on this special Significance as a sign of redemption
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Exodus 31 verse 12 and the Lord spoke to Moses saying speak to the children of Israel saying
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Surely my Sabbath you shall keep it is a sign between me and you Throughout your generations that you may know.
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I'm the Lord who sanctifies you chapter 31 You shall keep the
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Sabbath therefore for it is holy to you Again, the fourth commandment was given in light of God as the
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Creator That's what we saw in Exodus 20 verse 8 But there was something more that makes God's Sabbath command with Israel this unique sign.
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It's a sign between me and you You can see now it becomes something intimate Something of a calling here.
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We have a creational ordinance This is binding on all men in all places in all times But then
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God takes that Sabbath command and he says by the way my people this is between me and you This is a sign between me and you this is so that you will know
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I'm the one who sanctifies you Deuteronomy 5 where we have again the giving of the
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Ten Commandments Here we have not the creation given as the explanation, but in fact the redemption from Egypt Deuteronomy 5 verse 15
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Remember you are a slave in the land of Egypt and the Lord your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand
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Therefore the Lord your God commanded you keep the Sabbath day The result of this redemption is
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God's people as this sign of the redemption. They keep the Sabbath day They remember it to keep it.
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Holy As slaves to the Egyptians, they didn't dare stop working This wasn't an option for Israelite slaves
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Their time didn't accrue Taskmaster it's time for my three weeks. I'm gonna take the kiddos to Aruba.
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It doesn't work that way There's no company picnic when you're a slave in Egypt. It was making bricks without straw toil toil toil
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And when God freed them he gave them this day of rest It was a rest.
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They hadn't known for four centuries and now God said every week You'll remember my redemption by having a day without labor a day set apart to commune with your
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Redeemer The one who unlike your earthly taskmasters brought you into freedom and gave you peace and rest
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To not keep the Sabbath then Was an affront to the grace of God To not care for the
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Sabbath to not delight in the Sabbath To not Keep the
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Sabbath in a way but rather desire to work was essentially saying I want to go back to Egypt I'd rather be a slave.
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I want to work. I don't want your rest I don't want this sign between me and you
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But God has given us this sign It declares his kingship Exodus 31 goes on to say in this way
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You've become a king over us God marks out his kingship over creation according to the Sabbath command
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He declares his preeminence over all of time, how have we been looking at the first four commandments? As we said that the first commandment as Jesus summarizes it is to love
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God Right to love God with all of your hearts soul mind and strength.
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He says this is the first commandment What's the first commandment? Textually speaking you shall have no other gods before me
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So the first commandment if we can understand how the Lord is giving the law to his people the first commandment says
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I want your heart nothing else before me And the second commandment I want your sight
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You shall have no carved image of any likeness of anything. I want your sight. I want your imagination.
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I want your mind You shall love me with all of your mind the third commandment. I want your tongue.
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I want your speech I want what you hear to be about me And now the fourth commandment.
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I want your hands. I want your feet. I want your skills I want your labor. I want your time so the comprehensive
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Significance of the first table entails everything about what it means to be human The Sabbath then is a creation ordinance in this way what it means for man to be a creature
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Our mind is not our own our eyes are not our own Our mouth is not our own our ears are not our own. Our hands are not our own.
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Our time is not our own God stamps out this day to be holy unto him and if the
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Ten Commandments are summarized by loving God and Loving neighbor then the Sabbath is the center of how we can grow in loving
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God and in loving our neighbor It displays not only his reign over us as our creator
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But also his grace toward us as our Redeemer So that's the first point the
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Sabbath is a creation ordinance as well as a sign of our redemption now secondly
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The Sabbath is also an obligation BB Warfield the great
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Princeton theologian What they called the Lion of Princeton the most epic beard
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I'm convinced in church history someone argued John Knox. I'm partial as a Scot But I have to admit
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BB Warfield's got him beat Lord in the new heavens and new earth. Give me the beard of BB Warfield, please
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Speaking at an international Congress in 1915 he began his address in this way I am to speak to you today not of the usefulness nor of the blessedness of the
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Sabbath, but of its obligation and I am to speak to you of its obligation
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Not as that obligation arises out of its usefulness or out of its blessedness
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But as it is imposed by God in his Word Do you begin in the way that Warfield begins?
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Not out of its practical usefulness not out of its potential blessedness, but out of its obligation
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Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy Sinclair Ferguson, I mentioned this some weeks ago and we were rehearsing
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Evangelical obedience this his wonderful book the whole Christ where he recounts the marrow controversy and he says in a footnote
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Virtually all evangelical speaking today. He says virtually all evangelical scholars the good guys the gospel believing gospel teaching scholars who espouse
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Exegetical antinomian ism. It's a very fancy phrase to say lawlessness unintentionally
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Sinclair Ferguson is saying that there they end up basically declaring lawlessness or living lawlessly nevertheless uphold the substance of the
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Ten Commandments as expressive of a gospel centered lifestyle Because of the way in which it forms the substance of the
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New Testament exhortations the dominant exception among them is the Fourth Commandment in some sense this highlights how the
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Sabbath command serves as a Theological litmus test you see what Sinclair Ferguson is saying Whether you view the
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Fourth Commandment as an obligation from God is a litmus test to lawlessness And he points out that the merrow men understood that like every command among the
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Ten Commandments The Sabbath command had to come before Sinai if you remember the merrow men understood that what was expressed in tablets of stone
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Was actually what was put on man's heart prior to the fall in creation The the ten words that are expressed in stone were inherently put on man at creation though now repressed in unrighteousness
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And so for that reason like all of the commandments this was preceding the Mosaic administration
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It's for lack of covenant theology that the church has gone astray Lack of careful thinking about covenant theology that the church has gone astray when it comes to rightly understanding the law of God That's what
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Sinclair Ferguson is saying now our reformed tradition Our confession our catechism they all point to the obligation of the
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Sabbath We're going to take up question 67 next week with some of the practical application
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But question 66, how is the Sabbath to be sanctified? The Sabbath is to be sanctified by a holy resting all that day
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Even from such worldly employments and recreations as are lawful on other days spending the time in the public and private exercises of God's worship except so much as is to be taken up in the works of necessity and mercy now what in that statement a marvelous statement a
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Hard -wrought statement a lot of controversy in the 16th and 17th centuries over this issue
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It's amazing to see how there's a constellation of divergences on the fourth commandment among the reformed and So don't take these kinds of statements confessional or catechismal statements lightly.
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They were hard -wrought This wasn't something that they shot from the hip They really poured over scripture and over history and over what was being taught and understood from the scriptures contemporaneous to them
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What's everything in that statement orbit around? the worship of God the worship of God How is the
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Sabbath to be sanctified a holy resting all that day? for what for public and private exercises of God's Worship, what's the resting for?
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God's worship the Sabbath is a rest from our earthly labors for the communion and worship
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With God our Creator our Redeemer when you view the Sabbath in this way You see it as a gift from the
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Lord Think Israel's fundamental failure was they were not able to view the
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Sabbath as a gift Their heart was bent toward their own desires. They could only then see the
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Sabbath as a restriction as a burden rather than as a gift Rather than seeing the
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Lord in his graciousness say rest put that aside come delight in me Israel said tyranny
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Free us from this free us from this tyranny from these burdens having to rest in you having to spend the day contemplating and communing with you
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Contemporary church like Israel now views the Sabbath as a curse as a burden from the law something to be eschewed something to be escaped from But the
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Lord desires his people as we'll see next week in Isaiah 58 the Lord desires his people to call the
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Sabbath a delight Call it a gift call it a joy Call it something precious guard it like a gift with the man -made inventions of the
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Pharisees of course with that same fleshly default we all have the Sabbath the Sabbath over centuries became shriveled up into some old brittle wineskin and When Jesus walked among his people he could hardly recognize the
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Sabbath for what it was intended to be when he gave the Sabbath It was very different from how the
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Jews were practicing the Sabbath in his day Mark chapter 2 that Sabbath controversy
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We've already alluded to the Sabbath was made for man not man For the
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Sabbath when Jesus rebuked the skewed view of the Pharisees He further gives this revelation of his identity
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It must have been jaw -dropping if they understood the significance of what he was saying He completed that controversy at the end of mark 2 by saying even so the
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Son of Man is the Lord of the Sabbath Now there's times where verbal tense is significant and times where sort of in a default manner here
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I'm convinced that the verbal tense is very significant Jesus does not say
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Even so the Son of Man was the Lord of the Sabbath Even so the Son of Man is for a time the
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Lord of the Sabbath the Son of Man is now always forever the
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Lord of the Sabbath In other words, he's claiming. I'm the Lord who was there at creation.
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I'm the Lord who gave the Sabbath I'm the Lord of the Sabbath. This is not a lordship that has transferred
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This is who he has always been the Lord of the Sabbath Therefore he has the authority to correct their perversion of the
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Sabbath and he does so by addressing the law Going deeper with the law rather than turning away from the law to address the
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Sabbath Jesus doesn't say well this law is passing away. Don't you don't have to worry about it. I'm the Lord I'm gonna change things up No He actually points to the law
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Does you tell me is it lawful to give life or to take it away to heal or to destroy? He points to the law to the principles of the law as a way of showing what the
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Sabbath was meant to be for man Now some Well intention, but some reject
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God's claim on their time reject his his kingship Reject what the first table has to say about our humanity in relationship to his divinity some reject
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God's claims on their time according to this moral commandment by pointing out well
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Once he used to ordain a specific day for worship set apart from all else But now
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I I worship him every day. I don't need to bore myself with a whole day of restrictions. I Worship God wherever I am.
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I worship God and whatever I'm doing whether I eat or drink I glorify God every day is a
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Sabbath to me But again, I would draw you back to the Garden of Genesis Where Adam and Eve in pristine righteousness with no trace of sin with no flaw at all
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Never use their daily labors as an excuse to not keep the Sabbath It would have been wonderful if they could have been
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Setting apart every day for labor and worship But they knew they have to think
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God's thoughts after him if God divided that day from the other days Then they too would divide that day from the other days
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This is all prior to sin Very important point to understand it in this way effectively empties the moral law of God as a creation ordinance
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Remember the Sabbath day What does that verb speak to remember?
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It's saying this isn't something new Of course, there is a future aspect to that from from this point forward remember, but he's also saying harken back to creation
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Remember that I gave you this day Remember I'm convinced that your patriarchs kept to this principle and now
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I Clarify and I elaborate more about how you will keep this day holy to me. Remember this day
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Remember as your father's remembered remember this day that I've given you to keep it. Holy We remember it in this way.
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The Sabbath was a gift to Israel their rest from their labor was a picture of their redemption It was a foretaste of their promise
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How much more is the Sabbath the gift to the church This picture of arrest from our labor a foretaste of our hope one day.
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We will enter into the Canaan as it were So, how do you understand the
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Lord's Day How do you understand the Lord's Day? It's the burning question
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You've got today The next week as we come back again next week to rehearse this.
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How do you understand it? many different views
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Some of them sadly amounts a little more than which view lets me play sports and go to movies.
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That's the one that I hold It's like which one allows me to do that. That's the one that I'm convicted about We allow our flesh to create our theological convictions big problem
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Very helpful book Ryan McGraw. Well, I think one of my five read many many books on the Lord's Day There shouldn't be so many books on the
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Lord's Day, but many I could recommend many if you're interested But I think one of the best and it's nice and concise
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Ryan McGraw Excellent pastor scholar scholar on John Owen the day of worship published by Reformation Heritage tremendous book
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Very practical has a wonderful appendix at the end. I highly recommend it Ryan McGraw day of worship
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He says I maintain that our aversion to Sabbath keeping is not always an exegetical or theological problem
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It's rather a symptom of the greater problem of worldliness that is entering the church
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It's usually not a theological or exegetical problem, I don't know if I can quite understand the verses in that way
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It's usually the problem of creeping worldliness, but Jesus is the
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Lord of the Sabbath Now you run that by your unbelieving neighbors or co -workers
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Say I Can't do that shift. It's the Sabbath All right for the most part unless you're you know
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Coming from a certain backgrounds as some of our dear brothers and sisters are They just look at you sideways.
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What what is that? You have this set -apart time this time that you don't do anything you run that by unbelievers and it just sounds archaic bizarre
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That's the church's failure That's our failure Two generations ago in Massachusetts.
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We had blue laws many states did you couldn't go anywhere on the Lord's Day? It's not because people necessarily were flooding to the church with with revivalistic faith
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It's just that we had such an influence over the moors of our society that these blue laws were in effect and were embraced by all
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There was a restraint upon the evil of our flesh There was release given to the workers to the servants as it were on that day
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It's the church's failure that we've let that that once faithful torch now shriveled to a single smoking ember
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We had once a vibrant witness that the Lord had an authority over everyone's time And you ought to be in his worship on his day that used to be our cultural export to the rest of the world
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Now, what do we export? This was once the glory of the English -speaking nations that inherited the
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Protestant Reformation in other parts of the European You know inheritance they struggled they had
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Sabbath controversies They never quite kept it like England and Wales and Scotland and America and Canada It was the glory of Protestantism that we had kept a
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Sabbath. I'll give you some examples from that next week You have historians like Philip Schaaf saying it was the ground and pillar of our freedom as a society
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J .C. Ryle in his own day Said let us be jealous over our own conduct in the matter of observing this day
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There's little danger of the day being kept too strictly in our present age There's far more danger of it being profaned and forgotten entirely
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He was saying that in the 19th century if only he could see our day There is little danger of us being too strict.
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There's a far greater danger of us profaning and forgetting the Sabbath entirely
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We have sold our Calvinistic birthright for a worldly mess of pottage, so how do we prevent it?
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How do we turn the tide? How do we restore what's been lost? We begin with the
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Sabbath as an obligation centered on the worship of God an
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Obligation centered on the worship of God so much of the practical discussion.
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We'll have next week on Remembering the Sabbath to keep it holy centers on our interests
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Rather than on God's interests so often discussions and roundtables devolve to our desires being stretched uncomfortably over God's will
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Even a fixation on the prohibitions Convincing yourself that this is the way you're keeping the fourth commandment can be wrong in this very way
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It's what we see among the Jews in Jesus day They thought that they were so obsessed with keeping the commandment.
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Jesus said you're breaking the commandment You've missed the whole point of the commandment the post -exilic
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Jews, especially put this hedge around the Sabbath command Everything was on utter lockdown But that way of thinking meant everything had to be filtered through What can be done and what cannot be done and how much can you measure and what if you do this but not this
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But this in this way everything gave me him technically about what could be done. What could not be done In other words, everything became about them their activity
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Their inactivity, but Jesus says no, I'm the Lord of the Sabbath. It's about me
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When he says the Sabbath is made for man that doesn't make it the Sabbath of man What do we see in Exodus 20 verse 10 it is the
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Sabbath of the Lord It's the Lord's Sabbath It's a day about him not about us
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You can make it about you as you moan and grumble about all the things you can't do You can make it about you when you obsess and fix it on everything that you are doing and are not doing
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It's not about either of those things. It's not about you. It's about him It's made for your benefit
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It's made for his worship It was not made for us to do as we please
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It was made for us to honor and enjoy God. It was not for our idleness, but for his worship
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Keep circling back to that marvelous insight from Augustine love God and do as you please If you would just love
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God truly and rightly do whatever you want on the Sabbath Because if loving God was guiding you you would know intrinsically what to do.
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That's how Adam and Eve knew what to do They loved God perfectly Without fault without shadow of turning they intrinsically inherently knew how to enjoy him and delight in him and imitate his rest
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So we must begin with God's obligation rather than man's desire as a dear old saint
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Doug Vickers maintained many times over the years at nerf meetings that he would get up and present a
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Revered saintly old man, and he said our thinking cannot rightly proceed from man to God It must rather proceed from God to man
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You must have that in place as you wrestle with the question. How do you understand the Lord's Day?
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You cannot let your thinking proceed from you toward God's will God's commands
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God's obligation You must let God's commandment God's obligation God's desire
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Proceed down to your own thinking your own practice now third and last
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The outlook of the Sabbath the outlook of the Sabbath Question 65
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Which day of the seven has God appointed to be the weekly Sabbath answer?
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from the creation of the world to the resurrection of Christ God appointed the seventh day of the week to be the weekly
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Sabbath and the first day of the week ever since To continue to the end of the world, which is the
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Christian Sabbath Now here of course is a point of history redemptive history also church history
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And so much of the Reformed Intercollegiate debate if you could put it that way
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Was over this day the day shifting the basis for that. Is it one and seven as a significance to the first?
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Is it arbitrary are we following the sort of apostolic example? Is it given by divine appointment and and so on a
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Sabbath as our Confession teaches a Sabbath was given as the seventh day at creation that much is clear
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How much is made clear when God makes that a sign between him and Israel at Sinai?
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The pattern of course was repeated to Israel this pattern of creation, but then as we said with Deuteronomy 5
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It also has this forward -looking picture of redemption that attaches to attaches weight to the command
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From Adam to the end of Christ's earthly ministry this finished creation was the pattern of the
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Sabbath The work of creation the end of that creative labor the last day of the week as the day of rest
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That's from God creating Adam all the way to the second Adam the last
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Adam very significant theologically All right We're going from Adam to the last
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Adam going from this work of creation to this work of new creation very significant
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Now redemption has been accomplished Christ has come Christ has risen victoriously over all his enemies
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Even the last enemy death itself and so in light of this resurrection this vindication of Christ completed work
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When he rises on the first day now, we imitate him why he's the Lord of the Sabbath He's the
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Lord of the Sabbath he's completed his work of Redemption and ushered in this new order of redemption this new order of creation
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Believers are new creatures in him our last Adam our representative And now begins this week of labor until we enter into our awaited rest
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That's how we're putting this all together Turning around the significance of the resurrection you can see our
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Confession the confessional tradition in which we stand Says that the resurrection is essentially as significant as creation itself
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That's a massive claim The resurrection is as significant as creation itself
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CS Lewis Greg and I read a great book Called the medieval mind of CS Lewis by Jason Baxter And toward the very end
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Baxter was summarizing an argument that Lewis used in his book miracles. And this is what Lewis said about the uniqueness of Jesus resurrection
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So many other miracles were just a short -circuiting of the natural process When Christ turned water into wine he was doing quickly what nature does every season in an annual biological miracle
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The same could be said for healing Christ healing the sick was if you will a more dramatic way of bringing health to an ailing body
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But it was not Qualitatively different from when I find myself healing from a wound or recovering from an illness.
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You see what he's saying it The same qualitative experience of being healed Christ sort of short -circuited the process
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He did it in an instant what naturally takes place over time But he says the resurrection is not a miracle like this the resurrection of course is not a resuscitation
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We cannot say Lazarus was resurrected Not properly speaking not capital
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R The resurrection was the first miracle of a new age
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That is the beginning of a great reversal a holy new Chapter in the world an opening of a door that had been previously locked
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Whereas modernists tend to think of the resurrection as important because of its proof value
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Right. Here's an argument historically that we can use to defend the faith Lewis isn't denigrating that but he's saying it's so much more.
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It's not just a proof to win an argument It's the first act drawing all of creation up to an entirely new level of dignity
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Refashioning space and time itself as well as the relationship between mind and matter that's
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Lewis Now what I would emphasize there is the resurrection is a miracle of this new order of this new age this new dignity in Creation in such a way that it refashions space and time
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Itself. Can you see why? the first day of the week
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Is the day we honor the Lord of the Sabbath the resurrected one Should not be surprising that we find from the very beginning disciples in this new pattern of worship
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Not clear in some ways. It was more pragmatic They're going into synagogues on the seventh day to preach the gospel
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And so naturally they as Christians gather the next day on the first day of the week but we find this pattern begin to take on significance to say that it happened in sort of a
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Fuzzy clumsy pragmatic way is not to deny God's providence over it or his leading through it
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We find that from the very beginning Matthew 28 1 remember this is written later in the church's practice
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You're not reading it like it's hot off the press from the foot of Calvary Matthew's recording things and words are being used in Luke acts that are showing us a few decades forward into the life and practice of the early church
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So then with perhaps new eyes we see the significance of the first day Jesus Christ arose on the first day of the week
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We find him appearing to his disciples on the first day of the week very important He makes his presence known to them on the first day of the week
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John 20 Luke 24 He appears to the assembled disciples after a week on the first day
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John 20 26 we find this new pattern of assembling and worshiping emerging when the
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Disciples are gathered on Pentecost and the Spirit is poured out upon them as they
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Testify and preach the gospel to the crowds. What day is it first day? that's when the
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Lord pours out his spirit upon his gathered people as They proclaim the gospel to all that are listening when
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Paul spreads the gospel of Christ among both Jew and Gentile alike He does so on the first day of the week
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This is as they gather acts 20 verse 7 They hear the word on the first day of every week 1st
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Corinthians 16 They're to take up offerings when they're together on the first day of the week decades later
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We find John in the Spirit on the day of the Lord Now we have this new technical term in the life of the church.
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It's the Lord's Day and though the church fathers all Interact with the fourth commandment in their struggle with different heresies and Judaism pressing in and so forth
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They all recognize the first day has come to them by apostolic issue if not by direct appointment than at least with approval
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It's on the first day of the week that we to Continue to gather and assemble on this day of the
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Lord By the time we get to Constantine, of course, the day is truly set apart when you get to Charlemagne Essentially you have a king exercising the fourth commandment over all of his domain
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The day is no different for his people It has changed in circumstance.
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No doubt Not in a clumsy way, but in a theologically significant way by virtue of Christ's resurrection.
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It has changed in circumstance not in substance not in substance We're still to assemble.
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We're still to worship. We're still to commune We're still to gather in anticipation of the fullness of our redemption.
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We're still to remember the Sabbath to keep it holy Now Jesus as the last
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Adam This is this resurrected last Adam. He takes his seed where the first Adam failed
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All right. This is all embedded within the Sabbath. Remember the Sabbath has an outlook
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It has a perspective a projection It's a foretaste of what we're awaiting
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Eden as Richard Barcellos argued Eden though a glorious place was not the end.
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It was the beginning to an end It had within its seeds of a better world where sin could not enter where we couldn't lapse into a cursed condition
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As William Dumbrill says Eden is the representation of what the world was to become But the world was meant to be
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Adam and Eve confirmed in that place rather than pulled away from it, but it's still a representation
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What the world is to become is actually the eternal state of glory. It's the new heavens in the new world
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The Sabbath promises that rest The Sabbath is a foretaste of that promised rest just like the
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Sabbath the Israelites kept was a foretaste of Canaan it was a promise to them of entering into Canaan and Finding this promised rest and dwelling with God as his people and sweet intimate communion
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That of course is all pointing forward to us upon whom the end of the ages has come. These things were written for our sake
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The writer of Hebrews. I'm so glad our brother opened the service with it. I want to say that was planned Wasn't thank you brother.
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I Think the most significant argument and where I would like to close our focus this morning lies in Hebrews chapter 4
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Hebrews chapter 4 Hebrews chapter 4 you remember this is a letter Where the writer of Hebrews is arguing there is no way back.
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You cannot go back to Judaism You cannot have your cake and eat it too The persecution is ramping up the hostility against Christians is pronounced it's fierce people are losing their livelihoods if not their lives
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So some of the Jewish believers are saying let's just be Jews at least we're tolerated at least we're legal in the eyes of the
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Romans Let's just go back to Jewish practices. We can be right with God that way
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The writer of Hebrews is arguing there is no going back. It's a superiority of Christ Over the shadows and types that were always pointing to him the superiority of Christianity in the gospel over the covenant of law and As this arguments moving forward he interacts with Psalm 95.
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That's where he's quoting So, let me just read you the relevant excerpts Psalm 95 David is writing today if you hear his voice do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion as In the day of trial in the wilderness when your father's tested me.
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They tried me. No, they saw my work For 40 years. I grieved with that generation
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And I said it's a people who go astray in their hearts. They don't know my ways So I swore in my wrath
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They shall not enter my rest Now what you'll need to note about Psalm 95 in order to follow the writer of the
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Hebrews argument Is that David says today if you hear his voice? Now is
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David writing as one of the Israelites wandering in the 40 years in the wilderness? No, where's
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David writing from? He's in the land He's in the land But then he's saying today if you hear his voice in the land today if you hear his voice don't heart in your hearts
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Lest you die in the wilderness We're not in the wilderness. We made it into the land.
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No. No, you're not understanding. You're not gonna enter his rest Oh, we entered it. We're in the land. No, no
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No, there's a greater rest yet to come if you don't hear his voice and obey today
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You'll be as dead as those that died in the wilderness. You won't enter his rest in the same way But they didn't enter his rest.
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You see the argument. This is what the writer of Hebrews is gonna draw from Hebrews 4 beginning in verse 1 therefore
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Since a promise remains of entering his rest. What have we said? The Sabbath is a promise of rest a
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Promise of rest not only is it a rest? It's a promise of a greater rest yet to come therefore since a promise remains of entering his rest
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Let us fear Lest any of you seem to have come short of it For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them
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But the word which they heard did not profit them not being mixed with faith Crucial to the argument, right?
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Crucial to the argument in chapter 4 not being mixed with faith in Those who heard it for we who have believed we who have faith do enter that rest
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As he has said so I soar in my wrath. They shall not enter my rest
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You see how he's drawing from Psalm 95 we who have believed to enter that rest He has said
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So I soar in my wrath. They shall not enter my rest why? Because of unbelief that's the argument
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Although the works were finished from the foundation of the world If he has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way
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He's going back to creation back to the fourth commandment back to the seventh day Sabbath He spoke of the seventh day in this way.
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God rested on the seventh day from all of his words And we read it in Exodus 20 it's right out of Genesis 2
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God rested on the seventh day from all of his works and Again in this place They shall not enter my rest
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So Adam and Eve didn't enter that rest None of the patriarchs entered that rest
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Not only did the wandering Israelites not enter that rest David said we have not yet entered into that rest and you better listen today if you would enter into that rest and The writer of Hebrews saying you must have faith if you would enter that rest we who believe do enter that rest
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But if you lose heart and you abandon your faith you will not enter that rest And again in this place, they shall not enter my rest since therefore it remains
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Some must enter it God didn't promise it to not deliver it to some
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He set apart a people for this rest Some must enter it and to the and those to whom it was first preached did not enter it because of disobedience
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Again, he designates a certain day saying in David today After such a long time as it has been said today if you will hear his voice don't harden your hearts if Joshua had given them rest
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Then he would not after would have spoken of another day. You see the argument Right. It was all the rest that was promised was just entering into Canaan Then David wouldn't many centuries later be saying today
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So Joshua leading them into Canaan was not the rest Canaan was not the rest it was a picture of the eternal rest
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It was a picture of the promised rest and he's saying what David is warning you is still true for you today today
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If you hear his voice don't harden your heart. Don't rebel. Don't disobey have faith we who believe to enter that rest
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So what's the conclusion of his argument here There remains therefore a rest for the people of God There remains therefore a rest for the people of God you should know something about that word rest
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Throughout the entire argument spanning Hebrews 3 through Hebrews 4 every time you read the translated word rest except here
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It's the same words from the Greek word caught up houses Except here in this summary statement there remains therefore a rest the word there
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It's only used here in the entire New Testament. We have a fancy word when that takes place a hapax legomenon
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It only appears here in the New Testament Sabbatism May be a better translation
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Sabbath rest There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God Now the argument continues for so this is an explanatory for He who has entered his rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from his
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Let us be therefore diligent to enter that rest now this is part of the argument right there remains therefore a
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Sabbath rest for the people of God for or because He who has entered his rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from his
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Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest now John Owen held That he who has entered his rest is not the believer but Christ and I fully agree with that You have to do some torturous logic to explain how in verse in verse 10
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He who has entered his rest is the believer this entering into completed rest When the very next verse is the exhortation be diligent to enter that rest
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Hardly makes sense. Have you entered into it or not? If the argument to the believer is be diligent believe here today to enter that promised rest
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Then the he who has entered his rest is Christ Christ entered his rest.
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He completed his labor in The same way that God completed his labor and rested It's a reference to Christ God the
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Son resting from his work of redemption on the first day of the week a sign that his work had been completed
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Accomplished nothing remains to be done. And that's why the writer can say enter into that rest.
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It's the rest of Christ He's already accomplished it. It's now done there remains this rest enter into it
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Believe in him have faith in him lest you fall short or fall away We who believe do enter into that rest one day on that fixed day.
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We too will cease from our works We will rest as he has rested Hebrews 4 argues that this
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Sabbath rest remains for the people of God Because this eternal rest promised by God has not yet been fulfilled and since this promise of eternal rest remains this
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Sabbath rest remains believers must enter it by Persevering in faith aw pink his conclusion here then is a plain positive
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Unequivocal declaration by the Spirit of God there remains a Sabbath keeping for the people of God Nothing could be simpler nothing less ambiguous
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The striking thing is that this statement occurs and the very letter whose theme is the superiority of Christianity over Judaism It's written to those who are holy brothers partakers of the heavenly calling so one enters this spiritual rest by faith in the
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Lord Jesus Christ and shows forth that faith in part by Remembering the
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Sabbath to keep it holy. This is why the Sabbath contains in outlook
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From creation to the resurrection to the consummation. The Sabbath is a witness to the gospel
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This too is why we remember it to keep it. Holy now as we come to a close
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Ryan McGraw if I could draw him in again the true glory and beauty of the Sabbath day lies in the fact that when we
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Set apart this day For the corporate and private worship of God we partake in the primary joy of heaven
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Because the Sabbath is a type or a shadow of our heaven our earthly Sabbaths are designed to be the closest
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Reflection in this life of the glory that will be revealed in the life to come This is the highest reason the
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Sabbath must be a day of holy rest consisting in worship But I love this it is not those who speak most vehemently about keeping the
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Sabbath who love the Sabbath All right Pharisees were militant about the
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Sabbath. They didn't call the Sabbath of the light It's those who see the blessedness of the
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Sabbath and Cast themselves in dependence upon God Asking for his help to keep it.
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Holy in other words to apply this commandment to our lives first We have to see our inability to keep it
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Jeremiah Burroughs in one of his sermons a Puritan preacher. He said I wish you people would keep the Sabbath exactly just once Just to see how wearisome it is to your souls
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In other words, he said Like every commandment this exposes our sin.
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It shows us our flesh our distance from God It makes us cry out for Christ. We need a
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Savior Only Then can we return to the commandment having been cleansed through his blood of our sin
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Compelled by his love now to serve him Striving now to call the Sabbath a delight worshipping now with a grateful and thankful heart
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That's what Sabbath rest looks like Fine earthly Sabbath Lord beautiful hymn by Philip Doddridge.
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We ought to sing it next week I Know earthly Sabbath Lord. We love can you say that?
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Fine earthly Sabbath Lord, I love But there's a nobler rest above Thy servants to that rest aspire with ardent hope and strong desire.
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What does that look like? No more fatigue No more distress no sin nor death shall reach that place
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No groans mingling with the songs that dwell upon immortal tongues No rude alarms, no raging of foes.
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No cares to break our long repose. No midnight shade. No clouded Sun but sacred high
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Eternal noon Oh long expected day begin dawn on these realms of woe in sin
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Amen May the Lord of the Sabbath help us To remember the
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Sabbath and to keep it. Holy. Let's pray Father thank you for your word
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Lord. I know there's a lot of a Lot of passages considered this morning
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Lord, perhaps some concepts that are rather heavy and difficult and we pray Lord that You would apply now to our minds and hearts that which we can digest and apply
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Lord that which we can feed on and live off of in the days to come as we anticipate more
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From your word more application Lord about this commandment. We pray that you'd prepare us Lord And that you'd search us
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Lord. We would be those who think your thoughts after you Rather than make your thoughts fit our thoughts
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Lord or our desires We desire Lord that you would be magnified that on this day, which is your day.
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You would be honored Lord Thank you that there is a benefit for us Thank you that you truly have made it for us when we use it and understand it a right
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Lord Show us where we need to repent Lord Show us our need for our
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Savior Let us find his cleansing blood and return to keep the Sabbath holy
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With a song a song of thankfulness and gratefulness in our hearts for Christ our Savior The Lord of the