Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to our first reading, Exodus
chapter 20, the holy law of God. And reading for our text, the
fourth commandment, that is from verse 8 to 11. Remember the Sabbath day to keep
it holy. Six days shalt thou labour and
do all thy work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath
of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt not do any work,
thou nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant. nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger
that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made
heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested
the seventh day. Wherefore the Lord blessed the
Sabbath day and hallowed it. Exodus chapter 20 verses 8 through
to 11. One of the Ten Commandments. Now you will
have noticed in the hymns that we have sung, and the last one
we will sing, that it is pointing to our Lord Jesus Christ as the
great anti-time of the Sabbath, a rest in Christ. This is a beautiful truth that
is set forth in the Word of God. Instead of the toiling and labouring
that the Israelites had for six days, and then they could rest,
under the Gospel, in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord has finished
the work. He has accomplished the salvation
of his people, and that finished work is where we begin our week. on the Lord's day and then the
remainder we work out that which the Lord has wrought in. But
the day remains a Sabbath day and a keeping of Sabbath remains
to the people of God is set forth in Hebrews. And why I've given
out our text as from the law is because it is this commandment
that in our day and generation is oft laid aside as being a
commandment that can be forgotten, the others can't, but this one,
well, it doesn't apply anymore. In the days of our hymn writers,
Joseph Hart, Gadsby, and those that wrote the hymns that we've
seen today, There is no question in those assemblies and really
generally through the land as to the keeping of the Sabbath
day. And we are very thankful in our
denomination that generally it has been, and still for the most
part we hope is, that the whole day is kept separate unto the
Lord. Indeed, if we were to read then,
I'll read it to you, the 1689 Confession, Baptist Confession,
on the Sabbath day. We read this, the Sabbath day
is kept holy to the Lord by those who, after the necessary preparation
of their hearts and prior arranging of their common affairs, observe
all day a holy rest from their own works words and thoughts
about their worldly employment and recreations and give themselves
over to the public and private acts of worship for the whole
time and to carry out duties of necessity and mercy. So reads the 1689 Baptist Confession. And yet we find today that many
will just keep the Lord's Day with just one service, and then
the rest of the day they live as for this world. And the Lord's
Day is not kept, the churches, the chapels are empty, men are
lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, and the sad thing
is that this is amongst those that profess to fear God and
profess to be a Christian. I want to put this perhaps in a
bit of a personal context. when I was young, when I was
unregenerate, then the Sabbath day was a very irksome day to
me. I didn't like it. I wanted to
be doing all the things in the week. I had to go by my parents
to the house of God, but I sat in the house of God, and I say
it to my shame, using that time to shut out the Word and to plan
all that was going on in the week. So what we've read in the
Baptist Confession, though I couldn't be doing works, yet my thoughts
were about worldly employment and recreation. And so I tried
to use the time and really was breaking the Sabbath all the
time. When the Lord called me by grace,
it was one of those things that the Lord made a great difference
in. Not only did he bring me to have
an aching void that this world could not fill, and to give me
to be drawn after Christ, But he made this world to be a vanity
and vexation of spirit. And I remember at work we changed
the hours of work from 40 down to 37 and a half hours a week. I was working as a design engineer
in Australia. And at that time, I was still
training and going to night school. And the firm decided that they
would make one day a month to be a day that we had off instead
of reducing our hours. So we still worked 40 hours a
week, but one day a month we'd have off. And they decreed that
day should be the Monday. Well, I did not want it Monday
because I had night school that night. It meant I couldn't have
a full day off because I'd have to go drive up past work and
to night school. I tried and tried to get it changed
to Friday, and they refused to do it. But you know, I proved
that it was appointment of the Lord. There was many times the
Lord blessed my soul on the Sabbath day, on the Lord's day. And on
the next day, I so desired, and really I had another another
Lord's Day, a day when I didn't have to go to work, a day when
I could continue in the things of God. And if we are truly blessed
by the Lord, we love his company, we love the word, we love his
people. And when we get to the end of
the Lord's Day, when we have to return on the Monday to our
labours, then it is sometimes with a heavy or a sad heart. there's going to be another eight
days before we can again meet together. And I believe this,
that where our souls are healthy, and I haven't sadly remained
in that sweet frame, I really desire to walk in that. And for the Lord's people, really
every day we are to seek the Lord, but some have changed it
and they said, well, the Sabbath is no more, There's no one day,
there's no special day. You worship the Lord all the
time and every day. And therefore there's no time
away from the world. There's no day that everyone
in the community of the church can gather together around the
word. And really, to me, it just bespeaks
people that though they may have a name to live, yet the world
is their home. They're not looking for heaven. They don't desire to come apart
and rest a while. When our Lord brought the disciples,
there was much coming and going, and he said, come ye apart and
rest a while, it wasn't worldly rest, it wasn't worldly employments. They sat and they heard his word. And we have this reflected then
in the confessions, I believe it is something where it needs
to be reaffirmed to us regularly and to counter the spirit not
just of the world but of the church in our present day. And so I wanted to trace with
the Lord's help going from the creation right through the law
to our Lord's teaching, which we read in Matthew, and then
the types and what is set forth as a time. And of course, my
contention is that the one day in seven, as a holy hallowed
day, is of perpetual obligation. It continues, the people of God. So I want to begin going back
to the creation in Genesis chapter 2 and where we read from verse
1 thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host
of them And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had
made, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He
had made. And God blessed the seventh day
and sanctified it, because that in it He had rested from all
His work which God created and made. And so we have this, not
only a day of rest where God rested, but it was sanctified,
it was set apart. And the reason why it was set
apart was because that in it he had rested from all his work
which God created and made. Remember, this is the literal
creation. This is the creation of the heavens
and the earth. It is a work of God. And may
we remember that the greater work of God and work of our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ is the work of redemption. Keep that
in mind as we go further on. Especially the reason here, this
is a day because God has rested from all his work. Think of the
works of creation, the work of our Lord Jesus Christ in redemption
upon the cross. It is finished. Then we have the Law of God and
this is where we read and this is where I've taken for our text. It is the longest commandment
and again it goes back to the creation. In verse 11, for in
six days The Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that
in them is, and rest of the seventh day. Wherefore the Lord blessed
the Sabbath day, and hallowed or sanctified, made it a holy
day. And this then is incorporated
in the Ten Commandments, that which stands not just for the
Jewish nation, but which stands forever. The Lord came not to
destroy the law, he said, but to fulfill it. What is interesting,
that even before the law was given upon Mount Sinai, the children
of Israel were given the manna that they were to have miraculously
from heaven. And you can read of that in Exodus
16. And in that chapter we read how the manna was to fall every
single day upon the ground. And yet when it came to the sixth
day, there was to be twice as much manna. Every day they had
not to store it up to the next day, it had to be fresh. But
on the sixth day they were to store it up, because on the seventh
day there was to be none They were not to be gathering their
food on that day of rest. And so that came to pass. It
was a miracle that God not only gave the manna, but withheld
it on that day or gave twice as much the day before. And there
were those that despised it. Those that went out to gather,
they found none. And the Lord was angry with them. And that is recorded even before
it was set forth. in the commandments and we are
told that the law was given, the law was there right from
creation, the law was given to Adam, but there is no sin is
not imputed when there is no law, it needs to be written down.
The law was given that all the world might be brought in guilty
before God. We need to need to remember that
by the law is the knowledge of sin. What? By nine commandments
is the knowledge of sin? No, by 10 commandments is the
knowledge of sin. And many, many a testimony over
the years have been heard of those who've made profession
of faith and they have been brought under conviction because they
have broken the one day in seven. They've used the Lord's day for
their own labours and not given it to the Lord, a breaking of
the Sabbath. And so we cannot, there's no
reason of thinking, well, the Lord has given this commandment
that has more space in the word of God than any other. It possibly
is referred back to in more times than others. It goes back to
creation. and it's reaffirmed here and
we have the further reaffirming in the 31st chapter of Exodus
as well and verses 16 and 15 and 16 or from 14 actually where again
the Sabbaths are reaffirmed and it was in this case it is for
Israel especially that they should observe their Sabbaths in their
generations. It is a sign between me and the
children of Israel forever. For in six days the Lord made
heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was
refreshed." And the chapter finishes with the two tables of testimony
written with the finger of God being given. And of course, the
first ones were broken, The second tables, the two tables were written
by God and they were laid up in the ark, a real reminder that
our Lord Jesus Christ has fulfilled the law and made it honourable. But no one would say, well because
Christ has fulfilled the law we can now kill each other and
we can now hate our brother or we can cover, we wouldn't plead
a exemption from observing the law of God because the Lord has
fulfilled it. How shall we sin that grace might
abound? And so we have also blessings
that are set forth upon the observance of the law. This is given to
the children of Israel, especially in Isaiah's day and Isaiah's
beautiful a teacher, really, of the gospel. In Isaiah 56,
we read, of course, if you trace it through, Isaiah 53 is our
Lord's sufferings and death. Isaiah 54 is the church of God
singing that was barren and now it's breaking forth into singing.
Chapter 55 is the gospel. Everyone that thirsteth, come
ye to the waters. And then there's the blessings
of the Gospel in 56, and it would have been a wonderful thing if
the eunuch being blessed by Philip had gone on his way still reading
through Isaiah, and he would have got to 56 and read the blessing
on the eunuch. Neither let the eunuch say, Behold,
I am a dry tree. And it goes on, For thus saith
the Lord unto the eunuchs, that keep my sabbaths, and choose
the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant, even
unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place
and a name better than of sons and of daughters. I'll give them
an everlasting name that shall not be cut off." These things
were dealt with as well by Nehemiah, but before we pass on from that,
Think of the end of Isaiah 58. If thou turn away thy foot from
the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call the
Sabbath a delight the holy of the Lord honourable, and shalt
honour him not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure,
nor speaking thine own words, then shalt thou delight thyself
in the Lord, And I will cause thee to ride upon the high places
of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father,
for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken in. And when they came
back from captivity in Babylon, where you find Nehemiah, dealing
with those that were trading on the Sabbath day and chastening
them for it and forbidding the gates to be open on the Sabbath
day. And so there is a continuance
right through the history of Israel. And then we come, of
course, to the passage that we read of our Lord Jesus Christ,
where in Matthew 12, He was accosted as they went through the corn
on the Sabbath day, and his disciples were plucking the ears of the
corn. We find in the New Testament
the severity of the old is not there. The woman that was taken
in adultery, whereas Moses commanded that she was to be stoned, yet
the Lord said, neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more. The
severity upon the transgression was taken away, but not the commandment,
thou shalt not commit adultery. He said, go and sin no more. Repentance, a turning away from
it. So we have again here with the
Sabbath, the severity is taken away. The man that was caught
gathering sticks on the Sabbath, that was then stoned to death,
this did not apply anymore, not the severity. But our Lord in
this passage, he doesn't say, well, what are you talking about
the Sabbath? We, that this is to be done away
is not to apply. But he applied it as we read
in the confession, that there are to be acts of mercy. They
already were plucking their sheep out of a pit if it felled in
a pit. And yet they couldn't see the inconsistency that they
wouldn't allow our Lord to heal someone on the Sabbath day. Of course, there are those that
would say, well, we don't really want to keep the Lord's day,
one day in seven for the worship of God, so we're going to spend
the whole day and we're going to do works of charity. We're
going to work for charity. or some will make sure that they
become a nurse and every Sabbath day they will make sure they're
on duty instead of trying to get some time for worship. And so really the whole spirit,
it is the spirit of the one day in seven that allows for, indeed
requires, mercy and compassion to be shown on that day, but
it is a day, as our Lord says in Mark, the Sabbath was made
for man and not man for the Sabbath. It is a day for him, for his
blessing, so that he, without being troubled with things that
need to be done, and I've felt this so many times myself, you
can seek to read the Word of God in the week, and we do regularly,
but you can easily have Satan coming and saying, well, there's
this got to be done and that to be done, you've got to turn
aside to this and that. But when it comes to that one
day in seven, and I say the Lord's Day, then we can say to the devil,
dear pa, this is not your day, this is not my day. It's not
for the things of the world, it's for the things of God. It's
for my soul. It's for me to enjoy the things
of God for my soul. So what happened then when our
Lord rose from the dead? We said right at the start that
in the creation ordinance it was because God had finished
all of his work. And we find when the Lord rose
from the dead, He rose on the first day of the week, the day
after the Sabbath. Those that were coming to anoint
Him, they rested, they prepared the spices, but they rested on
the Sabbath day. They didn't say, well, this is
a reason we can break the Sabbath day and we can go and anoint
our Lord at the grave. No, they rested on that day. And it's perhaps a reminder to
us, because I think that there'll be many that will say, well,
we're going to visit a cemetery, or we're going to do these sort
of things on the Lord's Day. And you think of those dear women
and how much they loved the Lord. And yet they rested, they waited
until it was a day that was not the Lord's but theirs to go and
anoint him. Just a thought there. But the
Lord rose from the dead then on the first day of the week. Very, very significant. The work
of God in redemption, the work of our Lord was finished. He
had risen from the dead. And it was on that day that the
disciples were gathered together in the upper room. It was on
that day the Lord appeared to them. He blessed them and favoured
them. And just to make it reinforced,
we find that Thomas was not there with them and he had to wait
another eight days, that is to the next first day of the week. And then the Lord visited them
again. And so it's emphasized that this
would be so. And it was with the early church
as well. Of course, when the apostles
went forth, at first they preached on the Jewish Sabbath, because
that's when the people were gathered together in the synagogue. But
when they had preached the Lord Jesus Christ, Then they went
back through, established the churches, which were then meeting
on the day that the Lord arose. And we find that in their practice,
when Paul wrote to the Corinthians regarding the collection of the
saints, he says that they were to put it in order so that he
says, upon the first day of the week, that every one of you lay
by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be
no gatherings when I come." And there's a reference to the first
day of the week that they were gathering together. When Paul
was at Troas, we read, upon the first day of the week, when the
disciples came together to break bread, that is the Lord's Supper,
Paul preached unto them, and this was the time when the young
man fell down from the loft. And so the practice of the early
church was to meet on the day that the Lord rose from the dead. I go back to that reason given
right of the creation and it was that God had finished his
work one day in seven. It seems a thing Very strange
to me that there could be those that claim to be Christian that
would then say, well, actually, in the New Testament, we don't
have one day that we may worship the Lord. Churches are established,
but who knows, half the congregation might be working on that day.
And besides, what day? If it's not the first day, If
it's not the sixth day, then no day. And to think that in
the day when the Gospel is so clearly proclaimed, clearly set
forth, and where it is so evidently that we are to gather together,
not forsaking the assembly of yourselves together as the manner
of some is, it requires that there be a day when generally
there is not that requirement to work. And although the Lord's
Day or the Sabbath Day, Sunday, has been eroded in great ways,
in a way the Lord has overruled it. Maybe from the, I know in
Melbourne when there was talk of opening up trading on the
Sunday, And it didn't happen only in just a very limited way.
And it wasn't because of the submissions by the churches.
It was because of the sporting community. They wanted the day
for pleasure. They wanted a day when they did
not have to work, that they could have their sports and recreation. And because of that, it didn't
go ahead. Well, the word says, Men shall be lovers of pleasure
more than lovers of God. Shall the lovers of sport be
granted their day, and yet God's people say, we don't want it?
We would join them with their sport. We would join them with
their pleasures. We would join them with work.
But there's so little attractive in the Lord and in his people
and in his word that we can't bear to spend a day with the
Lord. From my own experience, I know
that speaks of a very dead and very carnal and worldly soul.
A soul that gives no evidence of preparation for heaven. It's
holding the world, holding it with both hands, and really professing
its rest is here below. We have in the first chapter
in the Revelation, the first mention there, or the one important
mention of the Lord's Day. John says that, I was in the
Spirit on the Lord's Day. And it is a beautiful title that
we could testify that this is the day that the Lord hath made,
and we will rejoice and be glad in it. the Lord's Day, the day
the Lord arose and the day that we would seek to worship him
and give him the honour and glory due unto his name. I want to think then of the types
that we've sung of, some of them of the Sabbath. We read in Hebrews 4, And if
we read from verse 8, For if Jesus, that is Joshua, had given
them rest, that is when they went into the land of Canaan,
then would he not afterward have spoken of another day? There
remaineth therefore a rest, or in the margin, or keeping of
a Sabbath to the people of God. For he that is entered into his
rest He also has ceased from his own works as God did from
his. Let us labour therefore to enter
into that rest, lest any man fail or fall after the same example
of unbelief. And so we have the times, we
have the time of our Lord's finished work. Our Lord testifying, He
came not to destroy the law, not to dishonoured, but he came
to fulfil it. And as we have stated in the
Old Testament, it was a covenant of works with all of their sacrifices,
the amount of labour and work that went into that. They had
to labour during the week, but then at the end they could rest
and they could then worship the Lord. But when our Lord has come,
he has finished the work. There's no more need for any
further sacrifices. The ceremonial law is finished,
that pointed unto Christ. Christ has fulfilled the law
in that way. And when he has shed his precious
blood, he has then died and risen again, and that work of redemption
is done. He hath given assurance unto
all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. The theme
that runs through all of Paul's writings and Peter's, especially
Paul to the Galatians, is that they're not saved by the works
of the law, but by the works of faith, and the faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And the condemnation to the Galatians
was that they were saying on one hand they were saved by Christ,
on another hand they wanted still to continue in the law with the
circumcision. Now the apostle didn't say to
them, now you be careful, that is not just circumcision, don't
you dare have one day in seven, don't you keep that because then
you'll be under the law and not under Christ. He doesn't at all. He deals with the ceremonial
law, and He deals with the fulfilment of the law in the Lord Jesus
Christ, in that we now rest first. We rest in Christ. We believe
He has finished the work. He doesn't need us to do it.
It's not works of righteousness which we have done, it's works
what He has done, and we have that first. We gather together
first. And then the remainder of the
week, we work out. They are the fruits, the great,
great difference between the same works that are done with
the thought we're going to earn heaven by them, and those same
works that are done with no thought of any merit or earning, but
just out of love to the Lord and obedience to Him. And it
is through the gathering together that as iron sharpeneth iron,
So the countenance of a man is friend, and the faith cometh
by hearing, and hearing by the word of God, and the strengthening
of the disciples, and the being with the Lord and with his people,
that we honour the Lord and we truly bless him for that work
that he has finished and done at Calvary. So the one day in
seven, it is the time of our Lord Jesus Christ and his finished
work at Calvary and in the Gospel. It is also that continuing of
a day of rest in not now the Jewish Sabbath, but the Lord's
Day, called the Lord's Day because the Lord arose on that day, because
the early church observed that day when they gathered together. It is also a type of heaven,
the same as Canaan was a type of heaven. And we know that here
below it is toil and trouble and sorrow. There remains that
rest in heaven. And it is a blessed thing for
the people of God to anticipate heaven, anticipate when they
shall be completely done with all here below, no more earthly
pleasures, no more work and labour and toil, no more striving against
sin and Satan, but forever with the Lord. Here below we have
a gospel rest in Christ. In me you shall have peace, in
the world you shall have tribulation. In heaven we have a heavenly
rest. eternal rest. And it is the foretaste
of it here below that really, I believe, makes a real stamp
as to the reality of our faith and how much we have been weaned
from this world, chosen out from it. Come ye out from among them,
touch not the unclean thing. I will receive you. Ye shall
be my sons and my daughters, saith the Lord. almighty. You might say, well, how? How
do we observe the Lord's Day? I believe if our spirit is right,
like we had in the Baptist confession, there is
a making provision. You think on the Saturday, preparing
the meals so that there's not as much work to be done. There's
differences among us. Some will never cook anything.
Some will just have cold meals. But the spirit is the same, to
minimize what needs to be done. And if we're having a good meal,
then it is that all the preparation is done before, and it's done
so easy can be heated up and done. Minimum washing up, cleaning
up. If your car's got to be filled
with petrol, it's filled the other day before. Make sure you
don't have to buy things on the Lord's Day. sometimes there'll
be emergencies, sometimes we would have to do those things,
but they are the exception rather than the rule. It is a day for
the Lord, not for ourselves. And so it is, again, with worship,
the confession stays the whole day, again and again it does,
and it seems to be a thing especially today, that it is only just part
day, just one service, and that an hour, and the rest of the
day is just given to our own pleasure. And how, how can one
argue to be spiritually minded and to love the Lord, His people
and heaven, and yet they cannot leave the world, cannot leave
its pursuits, cannot leave its pleasures, cannot spend a time
with the Lord. One day in seven, that is all
the Lord says. The rest is yours. This is mine. But men will say, no, we want
yours as well. We want to use your day as well. And there's many things. Sometimes it's very hard. The
amount of traveling I've done and going over to Tasmania from
the mainland many, many times. I think there was only one time
that the only way of getting back was to go on the Lord's
Day, and I remember it because I felt how wrong it was, and
yet that time I had to do it. And sometimes it is very difficult
not to include the Sabbath, but it should be our real desire
to make our plans so that wherever we are We can have it a day that
we rest from worldly obligations and pursuits and to spend that
day for the edification of our souls and our families and our
rest, rest of our bodies as well. That is God's provision that
we should have one day to rest our bodies and our minds and
to feed upon the word of God. and to worship Him, to give it
for worship and to praise of Almighty God. May it truly be
a means of trying our state and that we must be honest with ourselves
as to how we really are for eternity, how much this world is our home,
how much we've been weaned from it and how much we really delight
in the Lord. And I trust my desire would be
to go back to those early days when I loved that time in the
Lord's house and would spend a second day if I was able to. And yet we grow cold and worldly
and far off. But if we are rightly exercised,
our desire will be that we might have those little heavens upon
earth and desire to be with Christ and that eternal rest in heaven. Well, may the Lord bless this
word. May we not ever treat this part
of the Ten Commandments just as irrelevant, but may we see
how it has gone from the sixth to the first day, or seventh
day, to the first day of the week, and it is the Lord's day. It is a Christian Sabbath. I've
had those that profess they're Christians speak in a very deriding
way. There is no such thing as a Christian
Sabbath. There is. It is scriptural. It
is where those that are a true follower of Christ and his disciples
will have a Sabbath, a day of rest, a day of worship, a holy
day, recognizing the finished work. of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Lord add his blessing. Amen.