Lesson 5 Commandment 4

[0:00] Okay, I need a volunteer. I need a volunteer to drink a cup of water for me. Do you have a volunteer? Is it cold? Okay.

[0:11] Now, so here's my cup of water, and I promise I didn't do anything to it. It's just water. It's just water. So, okay, wait, before you do, you need to use your other hand.

[0:22] Not that hand. Yeah, okay. And then, as you raise it up, you need to put your pinky up. Right? No. The thing. Okay, wait, wait. And also, as you do, you need to just take a tiny sip, not a big sip.

[0:38] Okay. Okay. Oh, wait, wait, wait. One more thing. You need to set it back down, and when you pick it up, you need to pick it up in a square, and then take the little sip.

[0:51] Oh, my God. I'm thirsty. I can't even use it. I'm going to get some holy water in there. Don't do that. Great job. Great job. Now, wasn't that – oh, don't spill it.

[1:04] That's supposed to be in a square, Dan. Yeah, yeah. Would you like to – anybody else want to drink your water? Was that pleasant? Did you enjoy that?

[1:15] One of the things about the commandments that come up, particularly with the fourth commandment, is that there's this massive amount of pickiness that kind of comes into the fourth commandment that the Pharisees had.

[1:36] And this pickiness was not really the point. Law is good. Law is good. God's law is good. But God's law is not meant to be something that is this persnickety, sort of narrowed down, every little detail kind of a thing.

[1:54] And so as we come to this fourth commandment, which is perhaps the most controversial of the Ten Commandments, I want us to kind of look at it and hopefully we can get a good picture of what the Sabbath is.

[2:07] So let's read the passage from Exodus and talk about what is the Sabbath first before we go any further. It says in Exodus chapter 20, verse 8, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

[2:23] Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant or your livestock or the sojourner who is within your gates.

[2:44] For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

[2:56] Now a couple of comments just about the text that we see here. The first thing I want you to notice is this. It starts with a positive.

[3:09] Almost all the other commandments have a negative as its beginning point at least. Right? The only other one that's like this is going to be the fifth commandment, honor your father and mother.

[3:21] But it starts with this positive. And the positive, the word that we begin with is the word remember. It's the word remember.

[3:31] It's not about something else that you do, but you remember. And the reason you remember is because this commandment is something that was already established before the ten commandments came along.

[3:45] Right? We see that it does have a negative. Right? You got six days to do your work, which is positive. And you're not supposed to do any other work.

[3:56] So the negative is kind of implied. The other thing is that when you get here, it's built upon creation. It's built upon creation. Six days the Lord made the heaven and earth.

[4:08] The seventh day the Lord rested. And it is the Lord himself who partook of the first Sabbath. And he blessed it.

[4:21] And he made it holy. We are just to remember that it is holy. We don't make it holy. It already is. We're just remembering it.

[4:32] We're just recognizing it. We're just acknowledging it. Right? And so in creation, one of the things that you have is you have the establishment of three things for all people.

[4:46] You have the establishment of our personal lives. And so God gave us marriage. And you can see that a man is to leave his father and mother and cling to his wife.

[4:56] So he establishes marriage, what marriage is, how marriage ought to function. He also gave us work, our civil lives. Right?

[5:07] He told Adam to tend the garden, to cultivate it. And so he gave man a purpose. He gave man a thing to do. That's his civil life. That's how he used to live out in society is to work.

[5:20] But then he also gave man his religious life. And he gave him the Sabbath day in order for him to keep that Sabbath, to remember that Sabbath. And what's interesting to me is that all three of these things are things that are still with us to this day.

[5:35] They were established at creation and they're with us today. And we are like God when we honor or remember the Sabbath day.

[5:46] Now, this day was one in seven. And it came at the end of the week. There were six days of work and then there was a day of rest. Now, we assume that that means that that was Saturday.

[6:02] Because the Israelites, they honored or remembered the Sabbath day on Saturday. For Christians, it has changed to Sunday. Now, the goal of this lesson is not to explain why.

[6:16] Okay? There are a lot of reasons why it's changed to Sunday instead of Saturday. That's not my goal. You know, maybe down at the end of the lesson we can talk about a few things.

[6:27] But I'm just not prepared to do that. There's a ton of information out there that we could look at to deal with that. But we're just going to just make the assumption that it is the Sunday and move on.

[6:38] The other thing that we're going to do is we're not going to try to get into minute discussions about what can and can't be done. Because that's what the Pharisees did. And I always like to kind of look at extra little laws that the Pharisees had because I find them super fascinating.

[6:52] They had some 600 extra laws about the Sabbath and what you could and couldn't do on the Sabbath. Right? And so here's a good one. Right? You couldn't spit on the dirt on the Sabbath.

[7:05] You could spit on a rock but not on the dirt. Because the spit might divide the dirt and that would be plowing. So you'd be doing good work.

[7:19] You know, that was not God's intention with the Sabbath. God's intention with the Sabbath was not to try to narrow down and to get so persnickety about every little detail of our lives.

[7:33] But the Sabbath was given as a gift. And I want us to turn and think about why he gave us the Sabbath by looking into the New Testament at something that Jesus encountered in Mark's Gospel, Chapter 2.

[7:48] And it's got two stories about the Sabbath that go back to back. Right at the end of Chapter 2 and the beginning of Chapter 6. And I just want you to listen to it. And as I read it, I want you to think about the kinds of things that are going on there.

[8:03] You know, and I'll show you this chart here in a second when we get to the end. It begins in verse 23. It says, One Sabbath he was going through the grain fields and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain.

[8:18] And the Pharisees were saying to him, Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath? And he said to them, Have you never read what David did when he was in need and was hungry?

[8:29] He and those who were with him. How he entered the house of God in the time of Abathar, the high priest, and ate the bread of the presence, which is not lawful for any but the priest to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him.

[8:43] And he said to them, The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath. Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand.

[8:56] And they watched Jesus to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man with the withered hand, Come here. And he said to them, Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?

[9:11] But they were silent. And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, Stretch out your hand. He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.

[9:23] The Pharisees went out immediately, held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him. Now, I just want us to look at some big picture ideas here of what we've got.

[9:36] And what you have is the Pharisees thought that man was made for the Sabbath. In other words, the Sabbath is something that has to be kept, because if it's not kept, it's going to denigrate, right?

[9:49] But Jesus says, No, the Sabbath was made for man. It's a gift for man, right? Well, the Pharisees talked about you couldn't help somebody on the Sabbath.

[10:04] So when that guy comes in with the withered hand, they don't want to see anything happen, because they think that that's going to be doing work. But Jesus is saying, No, it's good to do acts of mercy on the Sabbath.

[10:15] It's good to do acts of mercy on the Sabbath. The Pharisees, you couldn't do work that was necessary. Okay, so the disciples are walking through the grain field. And when they pluck off the heads of grain, what's happening?

[10:28] What are they doing? They're working. What is it that they're after, though? Their food. Okay, so you know they're going to pull the heads of grain off, and then what are they going to do?

[10:39] They're going to blow out the chaff, right? Kind of crush it, mash it up, and then they're going to eat it, because they're hungry. Is it necessary to eat? Yes. It is necessary to eat.

[10:51] Jesus is saying, Listen, no, you can do work that's necessary. His example of David going into the temple and eating the showbread, the reason he uses that is because he's saying, Listen, I have one law, and I have another law.

[11:08] The one law is the table of the showbread is for the priest. I have another law that says do not murder, which means protect life. So David was seeking to obey the moral law of God by violating a ceremonial law.

[11:26] Does that make sense? What he wasn't doing is saying, Therefore, the ceremonial law was null and void. So Jesus is not saying the Sabbath is void. What he's saying is that it's okay to do acts of mercy and acts of necessity on the Sabbath day.

[11:43] It was given to man as a gift. It's a gift. And I want you to think about this. It's in the Ten Commandments, and the Ten Commandments were given on what mountain?

[11:55] Sinai. That's right. And where had all of Israel been just a month before this? In Egypt. In slavery. And how many days a week did they work as slaves?

[12:09] Seven days a week. So when they come out and God tells them, You get one day rest. What a gracious thing that was.

[12:21] And not only that, but he's going to work and provide for them in the manna. You remember how it works, right? Are you supposed to go gather up manna on the Sabbath day?

[12:33] No. How did you have food for the Sabbath day? Go on to you. Go on to you. Go on to you. Well, you're right. He gave you a double portion on Saturday so you could plan ahead.

[12:43] All of that was showing and demonstrating that their life was not in their hands and what they did to work, but their livelihood was protected by God so they could take this day off to think and reflect and worship God.

[13:02] That's why he gave it to them. What a gracious thing to give them. You're no longer slaves. You've been set free. So here's this day to rest. I think it's such a beautiful, beautiful image for us.

[13:16] And here's the thing. The positive aspect of this command is the idea of taking time off from survival labors, the things that are normal labors for us that we use to survive with, and take time to think and reflect upon God, to obey him, to get into his word.

[13:41] It is a mercy. It is a gift. But of all the commandments, this is the one commandment that in the controversy, so many people will out and out reject and disobey.

[14:01] And what I mean by that is that there are people who will be like, no thanks, I am not doing this. And I want you to think about this. Here's what he says in Deuteronomy.

[14:11] He says, and now Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? But to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all your ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I'm commanding you today for your good.

[14:28] The law was given for their good. They're supposed to love God, and they love God by obeying God. Jesus says that in John chapter 15. If you love me, you'll keep my commandments. Keeping these commandments is a way to obey God.

[14:42] There are so many people that want to teach and say this, that the commandments of God are not things that we have to obey, but they're things that we get to do.

[14:54] Because a lot of people want to take the pressure off of some sort of ought or some sort of requirement. And I understand that. As Baptists, we have our favorite Baptist verse, right?

[15:05] Not of works, lest any man should boast. First, we don't want there to be any kind of work that we've earned from God anything. But just remember, these commandments are not given to Israel so that they can earn anything.

[15:20] He's already set them free. And because he has set them free, he's just telling them how they ought to live in such a way that honors him and that matches his character and who he is.

[15:33] The law is good. That's what I'm trying to get after. The law is a good thing. Paul says the same thing. He says, now we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully. And that's the problem, right?

[15:46] The Pharisees used the law in an unlawful way. They made it a burden. They added to just this one commandment so many extra laws.

[15:57] Because they were afraid people were going to break the Sabbath. They wanted to keep people as far away from breaking the Sabbath as possible. So they created all these other laws that got in their way.

[16:08] And they lost the whole point of the Sabbath to begin with. And one of the reasons that we just struggle with any law, but one of the reasons that we struggle with this law is because we have a problem in our heart.

[16:22] We have a problem in our heart because even though we're Christians, even though we're Christians, we still have remaining sin in us. Listen to what Paul says in Romans chapter 7.

[16:35] He says, What Paul is saying is that somebody who's lost can't talk this way.

[17:10] Somebody who's lost has zero desire to do anything good. And by good, we mean anything that glorifies God. This is what a Christian is like.

[17:21] A Christian has this battle going on inside of us. Even though our sin was finished at the cross, we have remaining in us this sinful nature.

[17:33] Okay? Think of it like a guerrilla warrior. Right? A guerrilla warrior. Everybody knows what a guerrilla warrior is. Right? Not this. Right? But instead, somebody who sneaks around, hides, sets traps, and tries to win the battle through subterfuge.

[17:51] Right? That's a guerrilla warrior. When we became a Christian, it was like the battle was won. But the guerrilla warrior wasn't rounded up to kind of put an end to everything.

[18:04] He still remains in us. Which is why we as Christians still struggle with sin. Because he's constantly doing things to try to lead us in the wrong direction.

[18:16] But as Christians, we now have the ability to do good and bad. Right? And when we do, when we want to do good, but we end up doing bad, it's because our sinful nature in us has been the part of the law that leads us astray.

[18:30] And what happens when we think about something like the fourth commandment is that that comes out in things like wrong priorities. You think about trying to honor the Sabbath day or remember the Sabbath day and keeping it holy.

[18:43] Wrong priorities come from that guerrilla warrior in us that makes us not want to do these things. It puts to us higher priorities and different priorities.

[18:56] You know, I'll give you, I'll give you, for instance, the Southern Baptist Convention, which we are a part of, boasts 16 million members. Now, that number is probably lower nowadays.

[19:08] That's probably about a five-year-old number. On any given Sunday, there are six million Southern Baptists in worship.

[19:21] Now, granted, some of those are doing things that are necessary. Okay, and we'll get to that here a little bit and you'll understand why I'm saying that. But many of them, and many of them are probably sick.

[19:33] Right? So, I mean, you've got several reasons why. But even if you allow for half, there's so many people not attending worship on any given Sunday. Because we don't have a high priority on loving God above all things.

[19:50] We still hold the idea in our mind that we can love God and something else equally. And I know it doesn't seem that way, but it is that way.

[20:01] And hopefully by the end of our time together, we can kind of see that. But we should prioritize our relationship with the Lord over all things.

[20:11] That's what he says, right? No one can come to me unless he hates his father, mother, sister, brother, yes, even his own life. That's the kind of love we're to have for him. Our guerrilla warrior in us also puts forward to us this idea of pride.

[20:25] We think to ourselves, we know more than other people. We think we know better. And so we don't have to go down there to that church on Sunday because I already know all these things. I can't tell you the number of times I've had people tell me, You know, there was a time I thought to myself, like, how can y'all just keep preaching through the Bible?

[20:42] I mean, don't you ever get tired of that? And it's like, you obviously haven't read the Bible. Like, there's no way you even understand this thing. The other thing is a lack of faith and worry.

[20:54] There's some people who think that if they don't work on Sunday, if they don't do something that they need to do on Sunday, they're not going to have time to get it done. You know, Erin has told me, you know, that at college, she sees a lot of kids who put off all their homework until Sunday so they can take Friday and Saturday and just kind of, you know, kick back for the weekend and then just cram on Sunday.

[21:17] And I think about that, and I think that's because there's such a lack of this teaching in our society. I mean, when was the last time you heard somebody teach on the Sabbath day that that's something that we ought to do? Well, it's been a long time.

[21:28] It's been a long time. So the point is, is that whatever reason that we don't honor or remember the Sabbath day and to keep it holy, we've got to remember that it's coming from us and not from God.

[21:46] And so the question is, knowing that we have this potential to break this law, what do we do about that? And I want to read the rest of what Paul says in this passage. He says, So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.

[22:01] For I delight in the law of God in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.

[22:13] Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? And the answer is, thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I, myself, serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

[22:27] He's just describing reality. He wants to follow God. Sometimes he just doesn't. So what am I going to do about that? He says, thanks be to God through the Lord Jesus Christ. It's Jesus Christ.

[22:39] His death upon the cross, what he has done, that is our hope. So we find ourselves saying, well, man, I just haven't kept the Sabbath like I needed to.

[22:52] He covers that sin, right? Or we might say to ourselves, man, I just don't even know that this is real. It's like, well, listen, he even covers that sin. And so we don't do this because we've got a problem with our hearts.

[23:09] And Christ rescues us from our hearts. So let's talk about then why should we keep the Sabbath? Okay? And this is a big question.

[23:21] And the reason this is a big question is because for years, for years, the church has been taught that there is not a Christian Sabbath. Now, you may not be familiar with that, but there has been a large teaching that the fourth commandment of the Ten Commandments is the only commandment that has been rescinded and is therefore not applicable to us.

[23:46] Has anybody ever heard somebody teach that? I'm so thankful that you haven't heard that. And so that's a good thing. So what I'm about to go through then is not really going to be trying to convince you as much as it is giving you a picture of the beauty of what it is that God has for us in the Sabbath day.

[24:08] And here's what I find interesting. So look at this star for a second. And here's my question for you. What does this star mean? It represents a state.

[24:22] Texas. Okay. Somebody else? On the flag of the United States. Y'all are too smart for me.

[24:34] Now, if you didn't know some of the flags, you might just look at a star and kind of not really know exactly what it means. But when you put it in context, you fully know what it means.

[24:46] Now, y'all picked up on it because you saw the blue and y'all were just making assumptions. But that's okay if you ruin my illustration. I don't care. But the point is that when it's on a flag, if you see a star someplace else with not a blue background, you wouldn't really know what it means because it's out of context.

[25:04] When it's on the flag, it's in context. Now we know what that star represents. That star represents a state, which is exactly what it means. But we know that because of the stars and stripes and the colors and everything else.

[25:17] And it represents freedom and it represents so many other things, right? Well, so often the Sabbath is looked at like a single star. Out of context.

[25:28] And what I want to do is I want to look at the Sabbath in context of the Bible and then a couple of two or three passages to kind of help us get a grip on the beauty of the Sabbath day.

[25:42] So think about the context of the whole Bible. The message of the whole Bible is that man is a sinner. Man is not acceptable to a holy God because of his sin.

[25:54] Man cannot save himself by any kind of work at all because it would never be perfectly acceptable to God. And so God then made a way for sinners to come to him and be acceptable to him through the work of Jesus Christ upon the cross.

[26:14] So that's the message of the whole Bible, right? That's the primary, central message of the whole Bible. So the question is, how does the fourth commandment relate to that? How does the fourth commandment illustrate that?

[26:27] How does the fourth commandment get meaning from that? And I would say it this way. The fourth commandment helps us to understand that what we're doing is we're ceasing from our work because it can't save us.

[26:41] And we're resting upon the work of Jesus Christ. That's what the whole message of the Bible is about, right? Don't do your work, but rest upon the work of Jesus.

[26:52] So in the Sabbath day, what do we have? We have this reminder that says, stop trusting in your work and rest upon the work of Jesus. I think that's just beautiful. I just think that's beautiful.

[27:03] Let's think about the idea of grace, right? You got Ephesians chapter two. This is Baptist verse. I said this a while ago. For by grace, you've been saved through faith.

[27:14] And this is not your own doing. It's the gift of God, not a result of work so that no one may boast. Think about how the fourth commandment relates to that.

[27:25] The fourth commandment relates to that in that, again, while we're ceasing to do our works, we're reminded of God's grace in giving us this rest.

[27:38] We're not saved by our works. We're saved by his works, which is a grace. So as we participate on any given Sunday, it ought to be a reminder of the grace of God and that he has saved us by his grace.

[27:52] Or think about Philippians. For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Now this is all about the power of God in us, right? How can the verse 12, verse 12 before this was work out your own salvation and fear and trembling.

[28:07] Well, how can you do that? You can't do it except that God is the one who's at work in you. Both to will, that's desire, and to work, that's the power to do it.

[28:18] So the power to do anything that he tells you to do comes from him. So how does that relate to the Sabbath day? When I see striving, the work that's done in me comes by his work, by his power.

[28:31] It reminds me of his power. Think about that. On the Lord's day, how is the Lord working for us? He's working for us in the singing of his word, the praying of his word, the reading of his word, the preaching of his word.

[28:46] He's working in that moment. And through that, empowering us to go live the life he's called us to live. And then I'll give you one final thing, and that's to think about the future.

[28:59] This verse right here, Hebrews 4, 9, says, So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. That Sabbath rest here is about one day in the future.

[29:10] One day in the future when this world is done and we're on to the next age. When we are in heaven, when we're in the final state, he calls it the final Sabbath rest.

[29:24] And so what we're looking for is we're looking for that day when we get the promised land, when we get heaven, when we get our final rest.

[29:34] And every Sunday, every Sunday that we join together and we remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, we should be reminding ourselves we are not home yet.

[29:50] But home is coming. Home is coming. Now to me, to me, thinking about these things helps us to kind of see, well, you know, that gives the Sabbath a little bit new life to me.

[30:04] You know, that this is the kinds of things I'm supposed to be thinking. That I'm supposed to be thinking about God's power, God's grace, God's work, God's promises. As a way to understand the Sabbath that we're keeping.

[30:19] That's what I should be being reminded of. You know? Every Sunday, every Sunday, I should be reminded that it's not by my work, but by God's work. It's not by my work, but it's by his grace.

[30:31] It's not by my work, but it's by his power in me. It's not by my work, but it's by his promise of a final rest one day. And I think sometimes we have a tendency to look at the Sabbath day not that way, but instead we have a tendency to look at it like, well, I better go, because if I don't, somebody's going to call me and ask why I didn't come.

[30:53] You know, all the years I worked in nursing, I tried real hard to tell my bosses, I kept remembering the Sabbath day to keep it open.

[31:05] They weren't real. Yeah. We're going to come to that here in just a second and talk about that. Let me see if there's any other questions before I get into the application.

[31:17] Under application, I'm going to do light, map, and mirror to kind of talk about how to live this out. But do you have any questions of anything I've talked about so far? Okay. It's just beautiful.

[31:31] I think so. It's just beautiful. I think so. Well, let's talk about application. Remember, all of these laws are supposed to help do three things. One is a light, so it shows us the character and the glory of God.

[31:44] One is a map, so it shows us as Christians how we ought to live. And one is a mirror, so it shows us our sin so that we'll run to Jesus for forgiveness.

[31:54] Forgiveness and salvation. Well, as a light, I feel like we've kind of touched on that already as we looked at these four things. But let me just go back and just review real quickly that what we're saying in a light is that the fourth commandment reveals to us the glory of God's grace, God's work, God's power, and God's promises.

[32:17] The Sabbath day reveals to us in light of the glory of God's grace, God's work, God's power, and God's promises.

[32:29] Now, I'm going to pause because I know I didn't put that up here for anybody to copy down. I apologize, but I'll wait for y'all to get that. Anybody need me to repeat it?

[32:40] One, one, one, one. Glory of God's grace. It reveals the glory of God's grace, God's work, God's power, and God's promises.

[32:53] Okay. Has everybody got that?

[33:11] I think that was a good point, so I just want to be sure if I wrote that down. Just kidding. All right. So let's talk about a map then. Okay. So this is going to be like how do we navigate this then?

[33:22] What does it mean for us to remember the Sabbath day? Let's talk negatively. Negatively, I think it means this, that we should cease from our normal labors so that we can then focus upon the Lord.

[33:35] Our normal labors. The things that we do for our livelihood. The things that we do just to kind of live life. So let's just say you're retired and you're going like, well, I don't have a job that I do, so like what am I ceasing from?

[33:49] Well, I think there's other things that you do for your life, right? You clean house. You do some other things like that. I think that's a day to not do those kinds of things. Mowing your yard.

[34:00] I think that's a day not to do that kind of stuff, you know? I'm not going to get real persnickety on these things because what I want to do instead of, because this is where people are going to say, well, can I do this on the Sabbath?

[34:12] Can I do this? Can I do this? Can I do this? And what I don't want to do is I don't want to answer those kinds of questions. What I'd like to do is give you a positive framework to say, do these things and then let you in freedom figure out the things maybe you should cut out.

[34:30] Because what I'm hoping is that you'll fill your life so much with the positives that you'll realize that you don't need some of these other things that negatively you might say, hey, you shouldn't do that.

[34:41] And I think for each person, some of these things are going to be a little different. Now I say that, so let's walk through it. Let's talk about positively what this means.

[34:51] And I get this from looking at what Jesus has said, looking at what you see in the rest of the scriptures. There's three kinds of works that we should do on the Sunday, on the Lord's day.

[35:02] One, works of worship. Works of worship. Works of worship include attending worship, attending to the preaching of the word, right?

[35:14] The preaching of the word is necessary for us. We need that in our lives. So we should cease our normal labors for the purpose of making sure we're under the preaching of the word every Sunday.

[35:27] This is why, not this past Christmas, but the Christmas before last. I'm sure that you have the normal habit like I would. Christmas fell on Sunday.

[35:39] And we still had Sunday worship on Christmas day. Why is that? Because the Lord tells us to remember the Sabbath day, not Christmas day, right?

[35:51] Now, I'm not saying Christmas is bad. I'm just saying that one has priority over the other. And the Lord's day has priority over Christmas day. Now, I think that it's wise for us to recognize that people have family in and we do some things maybe a little bit differently.

[36:05] But I think it's okay to say, no, we're going to come and have the Lord's day. You know, that's why I won't ever cancel it for anything. You know, what if there's a wildfire here and it comes through?

[36:17] Yeah, maybe we might because in God's providence, he ejects us from this land. That's what happened to us when Hurricane Harvey came through. We all had to evacuate. And we all went separate directions.

[36:29] And so on that Sunday morning, we weren't together. And it was rough. You know, we were like, man, this is, I want to be with my people. You know, I want to pray together. I want to talk together.

[36:39] How are you doing? You know, did you survive this crazy thing? But we weren't together. Because in God's providence, he sent us packing. Well, that's just what we had to do. So we had to find other places to go to church on that Sunday.

[36:52] You know? I thought it was special that we had Christmas on Sunday. Yeah. It happens every, what, five years? Seven years. Every seven years. You know, here's the other thing.

[37:05] When we do that, even though you have family that come in, it is a testimony to your family to say, this morning we're going to worship.

[37:17] So at our last church, one of our older gentlemen there, his name is Rusty. Rusty is, oh, I guess Rusty's probably 78, 79 now.

[37:28] But when I got there, one of the things he would talk about is that anybody who comes to stay with him at his house, it doesn't matter who it is. If they come and spend the night Saturday night, they're going to church with him on Sunday morning.

[37:42] And he tells them, he says, now, if you're coming Saturday and spending the night, bring your church clothes because we're going to church Sunday morning. And every now and then somebody would say, well, I'll just, you know, we'll just leave Sunday.

[37:53] He says, well, then you're not spending the night at my house Saturday night. You go get a hotel. And it had to do with the fact that this is the Lord's day. And so we need to honor this day.

[38:05] And one of the things about making sure that we do that kind of a thing, making sure that, you know, and I'm not talking about everything that would happen on a given Sunday. You know, if you've got family coming in and we're doing a members meeting and you're like, I'm not going to a members meeting.

[38:20] I think that that's okay. Right. I don't think that's a big deal. I think it's being under the preaching of the word that's the most important. Right. And so one of the things that this does is it shows to those around us the unity we have in Christ, that Christ is most important, that we are united to him and we're united to one another.

[38:43] And that becomes an evangelistic tool. Let me show you a verse. This is the prayer of Jesus. Jesus, his high priestly prayer in John chapter 17.

[38:54] The whole chapter is just nothing but a prayer of Jesus. As he's praying this, he gets to verse 20. I do not ask for these only. These only. That's the disciples that are in front of him.

[39:08] But also for those who will believe in me through their word. That's you. That's me. We believe through their word. Right. Through their word. So then he says this, that they may all be one, united, just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

[39:33] It becomes an apologetic. It becomes a defense of the faith. It becomes a defense that Jesus really came into this world when we gather together and unite together and we refuse to let anything get in the way of that.

[39:48] It speaks volumes to your children, your grandchildren. It speaks volumes to brothers and sisters and parents that will come and spend the weekend with you and you say, we're going to church on Sunday.

[40:02] Now, I'm not telling you that you have to be like my friend Rusty and tell them that they've got to go to church with you or they can't spend the night with you. However, that's what I do because that's what I just feel convicted to do.

[40:17] But I am saying that when we say, no, Christ first, it's such a great evangelistic tool for us to help display who God is.

[40:27] But these works of worship are not just coming to church and hearing the preaching. Works of worship can be you and your family taking a walk down the trail, grabbing a chair and sitting beside the river, grabbing a fishing pole and fishing a little bit.

[40:46] Because what are you doing? You're out in creation. If you do anything out in creation, looking at creation, thinking about who God is, looking at the splendor, the glory and all that he's done. That is an act of worship.

[40:59] You decide to get together with some family or some friends and somebody brings a guitar or somebody brings out a piano and you all sing together. Or you decide, you know what, I'm going to watch Ken Ham with Answers in Genesis this afternoon because I want to see that lecture on that thing.

[41:15] Or you decide, you know what, I'm going to read this book that the pastor recommended. I'm going to spend my afternoon reading this book that helps me understand more about God. Or, you know what I'm saying, like there's a bunch of things that you can do on a Sunday that help you.

[41:29] So, like spend some time worshiping the Lord. Spend some time, extra time that you don't have in the middle of the week. Diving into some of these things. There's all kinds of ways to worship the Lord.

[41:41] The one primary way we need to do is be in the preaching of the word. Let's talk about the second thing then. The second thing would be works of mercy. Works of mercy.

[41:51] Mercy. This is like the guy with the withered hand. You do good to people. Right? You do something that helps somebody else. You do something that serves somebody else.

[42:03] They're absent, so you check in on them. They're in the hospital, so you go visit them. I think this is a great time for most people to take and go visit the sick. Go visit a shut-in.

[42:14] Go visit somebody who hasn't been to church in a long time. Take the Sunday to do that. It's good to go serve them. Participate in hospitality. Now, let's just talk about hospitality for a second.

[42:28] Hospitality is a New Testament command. Hospitality is more than just giving a meal to somebody. But it is welcoming them and making them feel a part of their life.

[42:41] And it's a command that we're all. It's not just pastors, but every member of the church is commanded to show hospitality. And let me just ask you this question.

[42:52] When's the last time you had somebody from this church body either in your home or they had you in their home? Because I think that a church grows in unity the more that we show love to one another.

[43:10] And I know that it's hard to... Sometimes it's our homes. And we're just like, you know, there's just not enough room. Or there's just not enough this.

[43:21] Or sometimes it's this. But there are other ways to be hospitable. Spending time together. You know, we can think about things like grabbing a bite to eat with somebody.

[43:34] You know, and going someplace else besides our own homes. And we're going to come back to that in a second. But like, there's so many ways we can show hospitality. I'm just encouraging you to think about how can I connect to other people.

[43:45] Because I think that is a work of mercy as well. So, works of necessity. Works of necessity. These are things that must get done. There are certain jobs in our society that I think fall into this.

[44:01] Anything that has to do with the protection and sustaining of life is a work of necessity. So, doctors, hospitals, nurses.

[44:13] It's a work of necessity. Police, fire. It's a work of necessity. Now, does that mean that you shouldn't try to get off?

[44:23] No, it doesn't mean you shouldn't try. But it is a work of necessity and has to be done. And there are some people that have to then just miss and not be a part of things because they're doing a work of necessity. But a work of necessity is also, you just tried to pull out of the driveway and you got a flat tire.

[44:38] You can't get to church in that moment without changing that tire. So, you're going to have to change the tire. It's okay. If you can't change the tire and you call somebody else, then they get to do a work of mercy by coming to change your tire.

[44:49] You know? And sometimes that happens. Sometimes the plumbing goes crazy and you got a water heater that bursts on a Sunday morning. And water's going everywhere. And you've got all this damage to it.

[45:00] Like, here's a work of necessity. You've got to take care of it. It's the ox in the ditch. Right? Let me talk about this. You have to eat on Sunday.

[45:16] I don't think that anybody should ever fast on Sunday. I know a lot of people like to fast. That's fine. But, like, some people will fast on a Sunday. And I'm thinking to myself, why? This is the Lord's Day.

[45:26] This is Resurrection Day. This ought to be a feast day, you know? So, why would you fast on Sunday? So, you've got to eat. So, this is where a lot of people who say, you know, this is the Lord's Day.

[45:38] This is the Sabbath Day. Some will not go out to eat at a restaurant on a Sunday. Because they're saying, I'm making somebody else work on a Sunday.

[45:49] And I understand that. I understand that. That's a good way of thinking. But I think to myself, so then you're going to go home and make your wife work. And all the women are like, yeah, that's right.

[46:01] You preach it. You preach it. Well, they're working already. You know, it's not just for you. Right. Right. So, that's where, that's that kind of place. And that's where a lot of the rubber meets the road on this.

[46:14] Because so many people will try to become real persnickety about these kinds of things. And I'm just like, listen, you've got to eat. And if you want to get persnickety, then if you walk to the pantry, grab a loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter and a knife and spread it, you're probably working.

[46:34] So, I don't want to, I don't want to do that. I don't want to set for us some sort of standard and say everybody should. You know what I'm saying? You've got to eat. So, in freedom in Christ, figure out how you're going to eat.

[46:47] Don't let it become a big deal. Right? Just don't spit on the dirt. Just don't spit on the dirt. That's right. So, we're supposed to do works of worship, works of mercy, works of necessity.

[47:01] And I think that if you focus in on these things, I think you'll find these other things that maybe shouldn't be there will end up falling off. They'll just end up falling off because you'll fill up your day.

[47:11] Is it wrong to take an extended time on Sunday to go take a nap? No. No. But you do need to understand that the word rest here does not mean sleep.

[47:25] I don't think that's the only thing we should do and therefore we feel like we've done our due. But I don't think it's wrong. It's to cease from one kind of labor to do another kind.

[47:35] Right? We're ceasing from the normal labor so that we can do works of worship, works of necessity, and works of worship. As a mirror, then, let's just get down to this final thing.

[47:50] As a mirror, the law shows us our sin. And so maybe looking at this, you begin to look at your own heart, your own life, and say, wow, I haven't been keeping the Sabbath day.

[48:01] Or maybe you can look at other people and say, wow, I know a lot of people that are not keeping the Sabbath day. And I understand that we can say that and we can look at that and we can look at the times that maybe we, you know, we don't have the, what's the old thing that we used to do?

[48:15] Where you got a little badge or something because you went so many years without missing a Sunday. Right? We used to track that kind of thing. And you get this badge that's got all these stars or something on it.

[48:28] I can't remember exactly what it had. But like, and maybe you're the kind of person that's never missed a day. But are you really remembering the Sabbath day and keeping it holy by showing up with a bad attitude?

[48:43] With an attitude that says, I don't really want to be here. With an attitude that says, I hate this song. With an attitude that says, golly, he sure is preaching long again. Nobody says that here, I know.

[48:55] He's talking about ice cream again. He's talking about ice cream again. You see what I'm saying? It's not just the not attending, but sometimes it's the attending without our heart being there.

[49:06] We're physically present, but our hearts are far from the Lord. I think that's just as much a violation as just never a coming. And I think that we've got to examine ourselves.

[49:17] And when we do, here's what we're going to find. We see that and we go, wow, man, I feel guilty. Good. Now run to Jesus Christ. Because what's happened in Jesus Christ?

[49:28] He has covered our sin. He has purchased and died for all of it. It's why he came. It's why he came. And that law ought to send us running to Christ.

[49:42] Particularly this law. This commandment. I think ought to send us to Christ because of what it represents and how much of it just focuses us on God's grace and his power and his work.

[49:56] So my prayer is that we will long to worship the Lord in a way that honors him. He's the one that gets to tell us how to do it. And live in that covered righteousness of Christ.

[50:12] Seeking to honor him and to love him. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the privilege it is to take a look at this particular commandment.

[50:23] To be able to have this displayed for us. Lord, thank you for the truth that's here. Help us. Help us to live out this truth. To honor you and to walk in your ways.

[50:36] And Father, we thank you for Christ who covers our sin. Who has forgiven us all our trespasses where we have failed in this commandment. And Lord, help us as we receive your grace to be gracious to others as they struggle with this commandment.

[50:53] To be gracious and kind with them. To be encouraging and challenging. But at the same time to be merciful and gracious to them. And we pray this in Christ's name. Amen.

[51:04] Amen. Any questions about anything? You can answer them. Yeah. All clear as mud, huh?

[51:16] I'd just like to make a comment. Amen.