I invite you to turn this morning in the scriptures to Exodus chapter 31. Exodus chapter 31 this morning. We have spent some time working through this book and we're making somewhat of a transition today. This is in our evening service that we're working through this and tonight, or like I said, tonight we'll be back in Mark. but this morning we're looking at verses 12 through 18. You'll notice that's the end of the entire section here, but it's linked together, this discussion on the Sabbath with the golden calf event. So Exodus chapter 31, beginning at verse 12 this morning. And the Lord said to Moses, You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, Above all, you shall keep my Sabbath, for this is a sign between me and you and throughout your generations that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you. You shall keep the Sabbath because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death. Therefore, the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations as a covenant forever. It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed. And he gave to Moses when he had finished speaking with him on the Mount Sinai the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone written with the finger of God. May the Lord bless this morning the hearing of his word. Well, there is no doubt that if you want to inspire the charge of being legalistic or strict, Just mention that you believe today that Christians should keep the Sabbath day holy. It has almost become a dangerous discussion in Christianity. Most Christians generally attend a morning, many Christians attend a morning worship service on Sunday. Well, that's about the extent of their devotion and their commitment to Jesus. We have been programmed to think that convictions about Sabbath are old school. They're strict. It's for the older generations who held something just a little too rigid for us. And such convictions will absolutely kill our witness today. I mean, come on. You can't run around telling people that we value the Sabbath and get to anyone today in any kind of meaningful way, right? Who wants to be known as a strict sabbatarian? Ugh, what a phrase. Strict sabbatarian? Are you kidding me? I mean, that just makes you kind of recoil a little bit, doesn't it? So what's happened is that we have given the greatest amount of concession and allowance for disregard in this area of the commandments of God, haven't we? Have you ever thought about why this single commandment is the most ignored and the most neglected of all the rest? Have you ever really given thought to that? Why this one? I mean, you would agree, I'm sure today, that you can't bow down to idols in the course of your life. That's first commandment, second commandment. You can't worship another God. You can't curse God's name. You can't go out and disregard your parents and disrespect them. You can't go out and commit murder, adultery, theft. You can't slander your neighbor. You can't go around coveting. You know these are nine commandments of the Lord that you just, you can't go around and do and practice. But the fourth, ah, come on. That gets the pass. Why? One of the things that really has affected me in the book of Exodus is just how much attention all of the commandments of the Lord get. But peculiarly and consistently, this one. Did you notice this is the one He raises here? Right before the golden calf event? It just keeps coming up. For some of us, it might be like a bad-tasting medicine in the cabinet. I've got to take that again. Over and over and over. we're going to see it again in Exodus chapter 35. He just keeps saying it. And I believe because of that, we really do need to think a lot about this commandment. There's a reason there's so much repetition with this particular commandment, and we really need an entire heart change with regard to this commandment. That, of course, was the promise of the Lord, that he would circumcise our hearts to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. The fourth commandment then has to be the chief application of expressing love. We're going to look at that. And I'm hoping the way we get here today is to better understand what the intention of the Lord was with this particular commandment. We have to understand that and why it matters so much to him for us. Why did this commandment mean so much to him? What was it saying? It's a sad phenomenon when the issue comes up. I immediately get all sorts of questions, and I'm not covering every aspect of this today. There's too many questions. But how it generally goes is everyone begins to ask, what can I do and what can I do on the Sabbath? And I've stopped even answering those kind of questions. Because generally, it first comes as a cop-out. Is that how the Lord wants the commandment to be framed? that we're always coming and asking what I can or can't do. The commandment is framed positively. And I think we have to think about that this morning. I want to consider what the commandment signifies, who we are disregarding when the commandment is not honored, and why its observance matters so much for our lives. So what it signifies, who we disregard, and why it matters in the course of our lives. If we can get there this morning, I think it'll be really helpful for you to appreciate and practice something that the Lord intends for us. And if it is God's will, our sanctification, we should think a little bit about the fourth commandment in that regard. This commandment was offset in a special way from all the others to say something about the relationship between God and His people. You'll notice that in verse 12 as the commandment is given and re-emphasized here and further instruction is provided about the Sabbath, the meaning of it. Notice how the Lord introduces it in this particular portion of Exodus and where it was inspired and why. And the Lord said to Moses, you are to speak to the people of Israel and say, above all. What? See, you just read right over the Bible. Above all, I'll come back to that. You shall keep my Sabbaths. For this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you. Well, let's just tackle the above all right now. Why is he saying above all? Most translations really pick up at this particular point here that you'll have some of the older translations verily verily it says something and they understood the emphasis of the original here some say surely or only and i believe the esv really captures the intention here when it gets that above all i have said a lot to you on this mountain moses well we've been looking at that for a while we've been studying the tabernacle we've been studying all this instruction all this that god had planned to come down and dwell with his people and all of a sudden at the very end of all the instruction he says, but above all, this one really matters. I want you to really take this one to heart. You keep the Sabbath. This one. And you stop and you say, well, why? Why so much emphasis? Why so important to him? Well, you come to Exodus and you can't help, as I said, to be impressed with how much attention the Lord keeps giving and inspired this much about this particular commandment. Israel was introduced to this commandment before the giving of the law formally on Sinai, weren't they? You'll remember in Exodus chapter 16, it had to do with manna in the wilderness. And remember what it said, behold, I will rain down bread from heaven for you and the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day that I may test them whether they will walk in my law or not now the test was this six days you shall gather it but on the seventh day which is the sabbath there will be none so the commandment was a test about the heart and core of where one's trust was. Who were they trusting? And you see this juxtaposition or set right by side here with the golden calf of it. And it's a commandment that provides a platform for worship. This is how the Lord always intended this commandment to be understood. That's why worship is the great issue in chapter 32. Remember, when Moses explained to Pharaoh why the Lord was bringing them out of Egypt. Remember the purpose of what he said? Why he was delivering them? I'm bringing them out that they may worship the Lord. Worshiping people. A people set apart to worship the Lord. To give him praise. To acknowledge. To receive from him. To glory in him. To have their lives set apart. To bow down the meaning of worship. Bow our lives to him. That's what they were delivered for. I was thinking last time in Mark's gospel, we considered the young man, or the scribe who had come to Jesus and asked what was the greatest commandment. And we've looked at that already today. And he understood that the summary of the law was love. First, love for God, love for neighbor. And that this love had everything to do with the heart. What good would outward ceremony be? What good would it be to do all the externals without a heart that genuinely loves. Remember, he said that. I asked Darcy in preparing this sermon, I said, well, in light of all that we've heard in Mark about the gospel and grace and deliverance and forgiveness, when you hear, now keep in mind, she did not grow up, she's going to be mad at me for saying all this this morning, but she didn't grow up in a Reformed church. It was a sort of Baptistic church. And these things weren't emphasized. I asked her this, I said, when you hear, keep the Sabbath day holy, coming out of all that, what do you hear? She says, well, it has to be about your whole self. If that's what God wants, the Sabbath and the commandment has to be about your whole self. Yes, I'm doing a good job here, I think. If you look here, at the last commandment of the first table, the fourth commandment. Remember, love of God, love of man. This was a commandment that gave the greatest opportunity for Israel to express love for the Lord. Think about it. There is no greater act of devotion, there is no greater act of love than to take a day of rest and enjoy him. The intention. Always the intention of the Sabbath. The fourth commandment is a commandment then that most exposes the heart. Why? Because this is a commandment that is a gauge of where you are. It's a gauge of your spiritual vitality. where is my trust where is my heart do i love the lord have i come believing him so much hearing his word hearing what he's proclaimed to me putting his sign on me in baptism have i come believing all these things that i long and thirst as we sang out in the psalm how i heart thirst for the living god my heart pants do i long and thirst to have an opportunity to come and express my thankfulness and express my love my trust and receive from him what he knows is best for me i believe that someone said to me the other day well why doesn't the lord just command just say you look worship this many times and do this and do this. Why is it so difficult to figure all this out? And I said, why would he want to limit the day like that? You would love a Pharisee checklist. This is what the Pharisees wanted to do. This one gets to the heart of where you are. Something would be wrong to ask. Do I have to? Man, what an exposure. If the congregation gathers and Israel was gathering to worship, we'll look at, we knew they did, morning and evening on the Sabbath. If the congregation gathered, you'd have to follow that up and say, well, where your treasure is, there your heart will be. So in all of this, notice. Now the Lord begins to explain the meaning of the Sabbath. A really helpful passage so that you know why and understand it. The first thing that the Lord says here is that it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations that you may know that I, the Lord, do what? Sanctify you. This is a sign about your identity. Identity. Tonight's a sermon about identity. It's a sign of a very special relationship that's going on. I am your God and you are my people, says the Lord. This is the sign of that, the Sabbath. The Sabbath and its observance was the greatest expression of who we are and designed to be who we are as a people. Set apart. Sanctified. And that's what the Sabbath exposes. Who is first? What place does the Lord have in the course of our lives? That's what the test is designed to be. And so at this point, he's reminding Israel of the purpose of their existence as a people. You get that. The Sabbath would always be intended to be a perpetual day where you could stop everything. And you could know that the Lord has set you apart to himself. And that you are peculiarly and specially his people. And that he was committed to sanctify you in this. What a great statement. And in that demonstration of their separateness when they came together as a people. And by the way, you see this throughout the scriptures right after the fall in Genesis. Remember Genesis 5? It says that men began to call out on the name of the Lord. This is what they did. They would gather. That's what they did as a people. God always wanted a people gathering. You see this throughout history. They would gather together and call upon his name. That's why we have a call to worship. That's what we did to start this. This would be a demonstration of their separateness and the greatest means of their sanctification. That's an amazing blessing that the Lord is announcing here in Exodus chapter 31 that I want you never to forget your purpose on the earth. I want you, notice the things that are said here, I want you, number one, to know me. And I'm going to make myself known to you on the Sabbath. And I'm going to make it known to you that you are my people and that I have sanctified you. You belong to me. I need that. You need that. After a week of self-gratification, after a week of self-worship, after a week of discouragement, after a week of struggle, after a week of being incredibly selfish with my life, feeling condemned often because of sin, I get to come here and hear this. How do you summarize the purpose of the Sabbath? This is how I'm going to keep you. You have no idea how much strength you get from this. This is how I'm going to keep you. This is how I'm going to sanctify you. It's about one issue. Who's first in your life? Who are you serving? And when you understand that, all of a sudden, and this will be even more so as we go here in a minute, the chains are taken off, if you will. And no longer am I hearing don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't. I'm hearing delight, delight, delight. It's the beauty of what's being described. In fact, this was always what the Lord declared about it in His intention, Isaiah 58. If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure, your pleasure, on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight. The holy day of the Lord honorable. And shall honor him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words. We do that all week. Then you shall delight yourself in the Lord. Wow. You want that? It's the chief desire of a converted and changed heart. And he's tying it to the Sabbath. And I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth and feed you with the heritage of Jacob, your father. The mouth of the Lord is spoken. I went back and I like to remind of how the Jews' typical Sabbath was observed. And Sabbath meaning rest. You'll notice here that all this emphasis on delight, it was a day for the Jews to enjoy the Lord, the nation of Israel. The Talmud describes the traditional Jewish practice and here it is. They viewed the Sabbath as a beautiful bride that would be greeted every week with joy. So they would speak of the Sabbath as a she. She's coming. In fact, here is one of their prayers. Come, let us welcome the Sabbath in joy and peace. Like a bride, radiant and joyous comes the Sabbath. It brings blessings to our hearts. Workday thoughts and cares are put aside. The brightness of the Sabbath light shines forth to tell that the spirit of love abides within our home. In that light, in all our blessings, all our blessings are enriched. All our griefs and trials are softened. They would have Sabbath blessings pronounced. Four of them. Then a Sabbath meal was shared. You had worship and prayer services. They would even have a ceremony that they said goodbye to the Sabbath. It's called the Havdalah. celebrated at nightfall blessings over wine and spices and lighting of a Havdalah candle. Not a Christmas candle, a Sabbath candle. Believe that. Everyone would depart to their homes and say, Shavua Tov. Have a good week. The Sabbath was understood to be a festive day of enjoyment. I want it to be a festal day for you. where you can put everything aside and you can enjoy me. Blessed, here's a blessing in worship I found. Blessed are you, eternal our God, who has sanctified us with commandments and finds favor in us, giving us the holy Sabbath as a heritage and love and favor, a remembrance of the creation, that day being also the first among all the holy occasions, a reminder of the exodus from Egypt. For you have chosen us and hallowed us above all nations, giving us your holy Sabbath as a heritage in love and favor. They understood the sign. They should have. What got lost in the generations. But we find these prayers of moments of real understanding. This is what the Lord wanted perpetually observed. The Lord want us never forgetting why we're here, who we belong to, what we're doing, why we work every week. Let me pause for a minute and think a little bit. What has happened in a church culture that has completely abandoned the Sabbath and abandoned worship and doesn't understand worship anymore? We'll look at next week what Israel did do. No more care to know God. No more care to study. Well, you can think about the consequences then of what follow naturally from that. Notice how serious God was about the Sabbath here in this particular section and the consequences in the Old Covenant. Listen to this in verse 14. You shall keep the Sabbath because it's holy for you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. For whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest. Holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death. Therefore, the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations as a covenant forever. How many times is Sabbath mentioned to keep emphasizing how important it is? As much as we are able, try to look at this from the Lord's perspective of people who say, no thanks. Think about it. There's a reason he's strong here. What has he told us about the Sabbath? Well, I want you to rest. I want you to know why you exist as a people. I want you to not be enslaved to your work. It's all about money. No, it's not. No, it's not. I want you to know me. I want you to know that I'm sanctifying you. What was the Sabbath declaring? Gospel. Ultimately, it's a day set apart to teach us this. That we are resting from trying to deliver ourselves. We never are to forget that. Because we always forget that. We come together and we agree and we confess that we're sinners and we are in constant need of forgiving grace and help in time of need. And then our eyes and hearts are turned to the fulfillment in Christ as we understand that He came to work in my place for my salvation and entered that rest so that on the Sabbath, until I finally have entered, I can proclaim that. That's what we do in the supper. We proclaim the Lord's death until He comes. And better understand that I'm resting from my works and learn all the more to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ who is my Sabbath. So, someone in Israel says, Ah, stop being so legalistic. Huh? Here's what they're saying. This is a sign between me and you throughout your generations that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you. Not interested in that? Not that important to know. As one pastor said, you're not worth the time it would take to get to know you. Notice he says, I'm going to sanctify you. I hear, it's a time as a pastor, more people cry out for practical application. All my ministry, I've heard it. Well, we need more practical stuff in life, how to live. The very people who I see take worship very lightly and write it off as legalistic. The very thing that sanctifies them. Let me give you the most practical application you'll ever get here. You want to talk sanctification? You want to talk about how to get sanctified? Keep the Sabbath. To avoid it, you're saying to the Lord, I'd rather be with the world. And for practical applications, James says, if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Whoever does that makes himself an enemy of God. That's about as practical as I could ever get. See the test. People who honor it are saying, who don't honor it are saying, I don't want you. I don't want your grace. I don't want your gospel. It's the whole problem of humanity that every day we go out and live for ourselves. You see what God's hearing? This is a test. It's a test of vitality. It's a test of where you are. And yet he can look at our lives and see that we're committed to everything else. I mean, think about it. I'm committed to my earthly father. If he invites me to something, if he had a celebration not too long ago where he was honored for something, I'm there. I wouldn't dare miss it. I'm committed to be at work every week. I'm committed to having my kids at school on time. I'm committed to numerous soccer practices throughout the week. Can you believe that? Soccer, of all things. And multiple times throughout the week. Well, we give good hours to that. I played college basketball. I never missed one of those daily two-hour practices, and they were torture. That coach screamed at me, and I was there. Committed to my greatness. I'm committed to gym time. Going to get it in. i'm i'm committed to have my kids and you could add grandkids to whatever they're wherever and whenever they need to be and what time they need to be there now here comes the sour spirit don't be legalistic about that come on you don't have to you don't have to worship grow be sanctified understand receive grace receive you don't have to the one time i should say and i shouldn't good luck on your own if that's your attitude it's a test test it's where your heart is could i ever say of any of the other commandments to And to further accent and emphasize, this is a test, could I ever say of any of the commandments, go ahead, just do it once. It's okay. Go ahead and commit adultery. You don't do it very often. You'd call me a cult leader. Go ahead and murder. Go ahead and steal. Go ahead. Do it. Go ahead and break the Lord's day. God says, verse 16, Therefore, the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. It's to be forever. You can't say, well, that's just the Old Testament. Jesus spoke highly of it in the New Testament. It was made for your benefit. Not to be a slave to. To be a benefit. You'll notice it was a death in the Old Covenant. And you say, well, we don't have death in the New Covenant like we did in the Old Covenant. Well, yes and no. There is death from disregard of this. A recent church historian chronicled the decline of the Sabbath and the commitment in American churches to honor it. One by one, the evening services across denominational lines were dropped. No emphasis on keeping the day holy. The results? Spiritual vitality is almost completely lost. Droves are leaving the church altogether. It all makes sense. If one of the purposes of the Sabbath is witness, this is how everyone's going to know my people are sanctified, gathering together. If one of the purposes is witness, this is how everyone knows that. This is how people know your separateness. You get up, you go to church, you're gathering with God's people. So everyone knows love is demonstrated by this. All men will know you're my disciples by the love that you have for one another, chiefly demonstrated in love for God and gathering and love for man and neighbor and concern for him. Well, you wonder why our witness is so pathetic today? It's a test of everything. We disregard that which tells the world most of who we are. It would make sense that our witness is lost. We're not trained in sanctity and sanctification. This is where it happens. The Sabbath is the greatest test of your Christianity and love for the Lord. And it has everything to do with sanctification. It's an amazing thing, as it's been said. As we keep it, God uses it to keep us. But there's one more thing the Lord emphasizes here. The greatest blessing of its observance. What is it? Notice what he says. It's a sign between me and the children of Israel forever, for in six days, the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day, he rested, rested and was refreshed as long as God has a people on the earth he says I want you refreshed just like I was at creation the Lord was reminding them by speaking of the Sabbaths in plural this was a perpetual pattern that he himself did at creation it doesn't belong just to Israel and you know it's really fascinating it's been observed look at this here Since chapter 25, where he started giving instructions on the tabernacle, do you know he uses the same construction in the Hebrew? The Lord said, the Lord said, the Lord said six times. And once we get to verse 12, here, in this section as it closes out, God commands rest the seventh time. Six times the Lord said, and now he commands rest. Creation, right here. Tabernacle, creation. So right after all the building plans are given and everything's mentioned, the Spirit, what does the Lord do? He puts a halt on the whole building project and He says, think for a minute of the goal. I'm not letting you forget the goal to what we're doing here. Well, you could say that with our building project. I won't let you forget the goal. What is the goal? It's not about your building or your kingdom. The purpose is that you would have a place for Sabbath. That's the goal. That I'm going to meet with you. And I'm going to feed you. And I'm going to help you. And you get to come and take delight in me and worship me. That's the purpose of all of this. In this way, all of this anticipates the final completed project by Jesus. The building, His building, His work. And the goal of that being that we get to rest. That's what we're going to go do forever. All creation anticipated already the consummation by Jesus, our rest. Sabbath was the gospel sign. We'll close here with this. Every time the Psalms speak about the Sabbath, and particularly the psalm that we're going to sing here in a minute, Psalm 92, the only designated psalm for the sabbath in the superscription a song for the sabbath when it's given under inspiration like this psalm 84 was we have others but peculiarly psalm 92 it's presented as the most exciting the most thrilling fulfilling thing one can do with their life listen to this a song for the sabbath it's good to give thanks to the lord and to sing praises to your name oh most high to declare your loving kindness in the morning and your faithfulness every night for you lord have made me glad through your work i will triumph in the works of your hands the righteous flourish like a palm tree planted in the house of the lord he is our rock and our salvation planted in the house it's a whole day for you to refresh be refreshed and enjoy your lord to know him to serve him to love your brethren to glory and and praise for his gospel of grace to you to get everything you need for the way heading to zion as we sang out isn't that just the the blessing of what you experience here today that you've taken for granted and i've taken for granted call it a delight i hate to say this because it's been so abused it's the key to the christian life I don't want ever to do what the Pharisees did to the Sabbath and make it a list of rules, do's and don'ts to the extreme and wreck this beautiful garden God gave us to enjoy by erecting walls and fences so that we can never enjoy it. But this is the Lord's refreshment to you. If you're like me, we're often a mess in the course of the week. I know some of you are sitting here this morning discouraged and frustrated and condemned because of sin and wondering if God loves you, struggling to see how you're going to get out of the mess you're in. The monotony of the work week. We've got moms here who have to deal with a lot of children at home. Monotony. Same thing, same thing, same thing. Over and over. Feeling confined. And the Lord comes on this day meets with you, you know what he says to you? You're mine. I love you. I've forgiven you. I've washed you. I'm going to encourage you. I'm not here to strike you. You need to be here. Next time we'll see how Israel did. Next time we'll see. But I encourage all of the brothers and sisters here today, enjoy the freedom the gospel's brought you. Freedom. Let us welcome the Sabbath in joy and peace like a bride radiant and joyous comes the Sabbath. And I'll now in fulfillment say what the Jews could never say. For Jesus Christ is brought to us in blessing that we would learn more and more to rest in Him. Amen. Heavenly Father, thank You for the blessing of rest. And forgive us that our attitude has been so sour and we have commitments everywhere else. So sour to You. Have You made a burden for us to come and worship You? It really is a test of where we are. A test of belief and faith in Your promises. May, Lord, we respond by loving Your worship, delighting in You, and receiving what we need and never trying to join with the world and do this on our own. What a tragedy. Thank You for this day of rest. May we, the Escondido URC, take it all the more seriously. For any who feel chains because of this day, take them off today and let them enjoy the very intention with which You gave it. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.