Well, I invite you to turn tonight to the book of Numbers, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, chapter 15, chapter 15, as we are continuing our study in the Ten Commandments tonight. And the particular commandment that we are considering is, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, 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 your male servant or your female servant or your livestock or the sojourner who is within your gates 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 and down at verse 32 of numbers chapter 15 again numbers chapter 15 while the people of israel were in the wilderness they found a man gathering sticks on sabbath day and those who found him gathering sticks brought him to moses and aaron and to all the congregation they put him in custody because it had not been made clear what should be done to him and the lord said to moses the man shall be put to death all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp and all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death with stones as the Lord commanded Moses and there's the reading of his word and in our Heidelberg Lord's Day 38-103 we read what is God's will for us in the fourth commandment first that the gospel ministry and education for it be maintained and that especially on this festive day of rest I regularly attend the assembly of God's people to learn what God's Word teaches, to participate in the sacraments, to pray to God publicly, to bring Christian offerings for the poor. Second, that every day of my life I rest for my evil ways, let the Lord work in me through His Spirit, and so begin already in this life the eternal Sabbath. Well, tonight we are considering the fourth commandment, and a few weeks ago I said in our consideration of the second commandment, really outside of the fourth, that really has been more abused and misunderstood has been the second. And then tonight we come to the other commandment that really does get the least sort of treatment and probably the most abuse of them all. It's really the commandment that is surrounded with controversy, isn't it, in our day? It's the one commandment that people really struggle with. Engage someone about Sunday or even the word Sabbath, and you will soon find yourself into a big debate of whether it really should be a part of the Christian life. Should we really be holding this day of rest and setting it apart from other days? And probably you'll find yourself in some kind of heated discussion over this issue. Understanding Sunday as a Sabbath set apart to our Lord is really utterly foreign to many Christians today. You remember 1981, that Oscar-winning movie, Chariots of Fire, came out and that told the story of Eric Liddell, the British runner who in the 1924 Olympics refused to run on Sunday because that would be breaking the Sabbath. Rarely do you hear a story like that anymore today in our society. Occasionally it comes up. There was a rugby player, Ewan Murray, in Scotland a few years ago who announced that he would no longer be playing on sundays out of his commitment to the christian sabbath and we in the states sort of say are you kidding do you really set aside sport you know sporting events to go and do that i i can't validate this story it's just been passed to me whether it's true or not i really don't know but i have heard the story of d james kennedy who was convicted about this one day Sunday afternoon lunch where he attended a local diner to eat and he was talking with one of the cooks at the counter and during the course of the discussion the cook told Kennedy that he was a Christian and Kennedy went on to ask him why he doesn't attend any church and the cook looked at him in shock and he said because of people like you after that Kennedy was so convicted he never went out to eat again on Sunday in my time in Southern California years ago when I was attending seminary I used to drive from Temecula to seminary when we lived out in Temecula and I was accustomed to listen to all the local radio call-in programs there was a big one down here and every now and then this issue would come up and does the fourth commandment stand today is it really something that we should be doing are we commanded like Israel to keep the Sabbath unto the lord our god and the same answer always came back inevitably no no no no no christ fulfilled the sabbath and therefore you are no longer under any obligation to honor it every day is a sabbath day now that's the typical view every day is set apart to the lord so that there really now is no day special and set apart ultimately for the people of god that you are that you should honor that you should keep Christ has abolished that and so many Christians today in practice really do functionally believe in nine out of ten commandments they of course would say you shouldn't murder you shouldn't steal you shouldn't commit adultery but when it comes to this one for some reason this one gets the pass now that should trouble us somewhat because we would say adamantly that the new testament does address the fourth commandment a few weeks ago we looked at jesus's dealing of it and and expected to recover what had been lost in the sabbath for the people of god that he made the sabbath was was made for man to enjoy and that there were benefits that were to be derived from this as god intended for his people so it seems problematic then that our lord would would lay this seventh um this seven day rest pattern before us six days you work and then you rest the seventh at creation of the world to imitate him we're going to look at all this commanded as part of his moral law by even writing it on stone for his people promising to take that same law write it on the hearts of his new covenant people and then expect nothing of its observance among redeemed Christians that would be a really astonishing thing to say when he's written that law now on our hearts it's a striking claim and again like the second we're faced with the very important question as to whether it's still required uh is it right or is it wrong should we should we be observing it is the fourth commandment something that still has a place and that's what we're looking at tonight was the sabbath only for old testament israel what was different uh you probably were stunned reading that passage in numbers tonight of how hard that passage sound with regard to the sabbath and then of course reading as our heidelberg has captured it how festive it was described i want to deal a little bit with that for a moment these are of course important questions but what i want to do is look at the commandment from the old covenant as israel received it with moses with the goal of looking at the ultimate intention of the sabbath from creation showing what christ has of course freed us to now enjoy um to enjoy but before we begin uh notice here the fourth commandment itself says remember the sabbath day to keep it holy six days you shall labor and do all your work but the seventh day is the sabbath of the lord your god in it you shall not do any work and then it goes on to specify that everyone in the household is not to work i believe it's rightly been said that the value and delight that you place in your life on honoring the fourth commandment will tell a lot about uh your convictions and your spirituality and how much you value the rest of god's law it is a kind of test for the rest of the law and that of course should be the desire of the redeemed christian now i've selected tonight a particular text to have us think about this for a moment in light of what it was like to break this commandment under the old covenant what was it like to break this commandment under the old covenant and what is god teaching us about that problem about the human heart and about how he viewed this commandment it's really important to capture because the intention of putting israel under the law as we've been studying and i don't want to lose where we are in exodus i think that's the danger here is to lose that god has set up an arrangement here at sinai israel has said all the words of the covenant we will do all of them they've made a promise and remember we've looked at paul said that the problem was and we looked at where israel was they we have seen no confession no no contriteness of heart we have they've not understood things as they should paul said that the intention of god giving the law was to bring about a knowledge of sin very important by the law comes the knowledge why was the law added for transgression the law was added to make clear the exceeding sinfulness of sin the law was given to show you what's going on in your heart well and and and and the penalty for breaking that under the old covenant is here captured well Well, Numbers 15, we have an incident similar to the third commandment. You'll notice here that while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath. So they bring him to Moses and Aaron, to all the congregation. They lock him up. They put him in custody. They needed to find out what was the major penalty we should give to a man who picks up sticks. This is intentionally interesting, isn't it? That intentionally challenging us to think, picking up sticks? Picking up sticks? Are you feeling the way in which the old covenant with Moses, Israel being under the law, are you feeling the weight of this? That should be the effect. That should be the effect when Paul makes the distinction 12 times in the new testament you're not under law anymore you're under grace why is paul making that distinction when we study life under the old covenant we should feel the burden of it we should feel the heaviness and the weight of it but here is israel under this and what do we have a man went out on the sabbath and is gathering sticks and you say well why is he gathering sticks obviously he had some kind of need he needed them maybe he needed a fire what was the issue here is it really such a big deal to gather sticks on the sabbath i mean we know that the lord had expressly forbid any work on the sabbath day in exodus 31 the sanctions had been given and then of course the penalties had been described that whoever profanes the sabbath day shall surely be put to death for stick gathering does that qualify and so in our text the people take him out they put him under guard to see what kind of death the lord will require and just like last week with this man who blasphemed and cursed the name of the lord who was stoned in verse 35 we read the lord saying the same thing he says the same thing the man must surely be put to death and all the congregation of israel everyone has to give consent to this everyone has to be on board there's no dissent in the camp on this all of you are to take him out and all of you are to stone him now these are the passages that are really confusing for us many today and look at this and so i mean this is what gets christianity killed out in the public square isn't it look at what life in leviticus and numbers was like this is your god we hear that all the time and christianity then is pitched as a bunch of rules and lists of what can be done and what can't be done and and and and here we have it here it is this is this is what you guys claim in your bible i said in my last sermon on the subject even today we struggle with how to process this then think about sabbath discussions in our day where do sabbath discussions always go it's always about maybe not in southern california but at least it was for me up north it's always about whether you could mow your lawn on sunday that seemed to be the extent of sabbath discussion what we can't or what we can't do we've had this the same sort of approach to looking at this we look at this in the old and we read this and we think okay well this is just about uh the list here the rules and god has somehow hemmed us in with the laws and the rules and and doesn't this prove that doesn't this prove the very thing that people criticize us for i mean the man was just out picking up sticks and he gets stoned for that are you kidding me we're in 2016 and you see we have two sort of options in looking at this we say well like some have done in history that's the god of the old testament he's mean and the god of the new testament is nice and therefore we don't want to mess with the god of the old testament we just want to talk to the god of the new testament some have taken that approach or we try to bring into view our sabbath keeping with the same rigor of the old covenant and consequence maybe not stoning but at least the rigor so that either way you're going to end up as a legalist or an antinomian on whatever side you pick but we do have to look at this for a moment this is why i wanted to do it as part of the old covenant what should we answer why was the lord so serious about the sabbath that's the question you should be asking in the old covenant and to understand why the lord was so serious about this why he commanded that this man be stoned we have to understand what the sabbath was commanding in the commandment itself you'll notice that god says for in six days the lord made heavens and earth the seas and all that is in them and rested the seventh day so he rooted this particular commandment all the way back at the time of creation and this pattern of work and rest rooted in creation it was a creation ordinance that was to be normative for life genesis 2 1 said thus the heavens and the earth and all the host of them were finished and on the seventh day god ended his work which had been done and he rested and on the seventh day from all the work which he had done god rested god rested and we find that as he looked over in his rest his created work and all that he had done he delighted in that work he took great delight in the work of his hands and we know that that end of creation was for the glory of god this resting told us that the work had been completed and he was glorified this work rest pattern was established and then of course and and we know in the sixth day in the making of man that he created us in his image that we might image him in this work rest pattern and that's exactly what what what happened uh throughout and what god desired throughout history god said fill the earth and subdue it on the seventh day god rested the lord taught the people they were to rest the implications of that are huge they were patterning the work rest pattern of god himself now if you recognize that this was rooted in creation that this was a normative pattern that god had set up from the beginning we have to recognize that this this principle of one and was something that he had established for the benefit of man. Now let me ask this question. Throughout history, and you can just testify of this in our own day, you know this, what is the one commandment that people do not take seriously? It's this one. I mean, I've already said, if I went through and said, you shall not murder, you all would say, yeah, we shouldn't murder. Commit adultery, no, we shouldn't commit adultery. Steal, you shouldn't steal. hold up idols in your homes you'd say no everything right down the line covet but it comes to the fourth and this is the one we all fudge on enter now israel put under the law for a minute so that we would understand something about the command do you think the problem was any less for israel the problem was great for israel the lord always warned about it that they should not disregard his sabbath it was a big emphasis throughout the old testament so what was really at stake in this case of a man going out and picking up sticks on the sabbath and receiving the severe blow that he did now put breaking of this under moses and what do you have cursed is everyone who does not continue to do all things written in the book of the law to do them curse how had this man who had simply gathered sticks broke the sabbath what was the sabbath calling us to do take a few verses for a minute isaiah 58 if you turn your foot from the sabbath from doing 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. Listen to this. Then you shall delight yourself in the Lord. Consequence. 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 has spoken that the sabbath was intended to be something in which we would be able to delight ourselves in him an opportunity a day set apart to be focused i want to propose to you three reasons for the sabbath actually four um as i look at this the commandment itself and what goes through israel one has been presented to you in the commandment itself it's rest and refreshment six days you shall labor and do all your work and on the seventh day you shall rest that your ox and your donkey may rest and that your son of your female servant and stranger this is exodus 23 12 may be refreshed god knows you need that god knows you need refreshment it's for your own good it extends to your servants you don't want people working on the sabbath what this means is is that you are to rest from your ordinary labors and we shouldn't do those things that would fill our time that we do working the other six days of the week so but part of the sabbath and the lord knew this a great benefit of the sabbath was that you actually would rest your bodies he cared about that he wanted you refreshed and your bodies rested think about that blessing for a moment how much do people and how many problems do people have i wonder how much stress and tension and health problems because they're not laying hold of the sabbath they're running themselves ragged god knows we need that second the day was ordained as a means for god's people to worship him to praise him to be unhindered from all the activities of of that fill your work week if i went through and said how how well did you do and really communing with your lord throughout the course of the week in all of your busyness of your weeks how much did you really sit down and read your bibles and do your devotions how much did you really pray to the lord you probably did not do as well as you wanted and the psalm one psalm designated for the sabbath that we sang before this sermon the song for the sabbath speaks about the blessings of flourishing in the courts of the lord on the sabbath day enjoying the lord on the sabbath day um receiving from the lord a day of rest and convocation and fellowship and assembly together as the people of god leviticus speaks of this numbers would give in in chapters 28 descriptions on bringing offerings to the lord they would have readings and prayers uh scripture exhortations we find this in the time of jesus when he's entering in on the sabbath in the synagogue the point is it was set aside not only as a day of rest but as a day of worship and a praise and enjoyment as a community, bringing offerings, encouraging one another, stirring one another up, Hebrews, to good works. Third, the Sabbath was instituted as a covenantal sign that you are set apart from the world. Listen to Exodus 31. Surely my Sabbath you shall keep, for it's a sign between me and you throughout your generations that you may know that i am the lord who sanctifies you i set you apart that's why we're here today we're set apart there's a visual of this set apart to god you think in genesis early on it says that men began to gather together and call upon the name of the lord there was sabbathing going on it's a sign between me and the children of israel forever why he goes on to say for in six days the lord made heavens and the earth the seventh day he rest and was refreshed it's a perpetual thing i want you to keep he said so not only was it for refreshment not only could uh should you do it because the lord your god did it at creation left you a pattern to imitate not only because it's a holy day with which you should worship and enjoy him but it's also a sign that you belong to him it encourages you that he's meeting with you and has set you apart that's not enough there's another reason i found for the sabbath deuteronomy 5 observe the sabbath day to keep it holy as the lord your god commanded you listen to verse 15 and remember that you were a slave in egypt in the land of egypt and that the lord your god brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm therefore the lord your god commanded you to keep the sabbath day why then the sabbath the sabbath functioned as a celebration of the gospel ministry the sabbath was always a reminder to them of redemption they were pulled out from their slavery their past we know it all typified slavery and bondage to sin and it was a reflection of the marvelous deliverance deliverance where they passed through the sea where he drowned pharaoh and his armies where they came through victorious on the other side i brought you out of there i want a whole day for you because i know how busy you are and i know how hard it is out there i want you to come together and you remember my love for you it's the intention rest refreshment get to imitate and pattern your creator a day for spiritual worship a day to praise and honor him a day to encourage your brethren a day of a sign that sets you apart from the world that you're not of the world that you don't belong to the world that you belong to the kingdom of heaven even the senate of dork said this same day is consecrated for divine worship so that in it one might rest from all their servile work. See the whole pattern there. They know works. With these accepted works of charity and pressing necessity. There are those works that need to be done. We know that. They've always made that exception. And from those recreations which impede the worship of God, it's a synod of dork. Let me sum it up. Let me sum it up tonight. The Sabbath is an opportunity for you to rest and to love your God with all your time. To love your God with all your time. Now back to this man. Under Moses, the rigor of the law was intended to make people experience the real problem of the human heart. The Lord wanted you all to know the real problem of the human heart when you look at this Old Testament stuff. What's the problem of the human heart? What did the law expose about the human heart? What's wrong with this man? Doesn't it show and say something? That the Lord went to all this care to explain that he's giving this command to be a blessing for his people. Doesn't it show how alienated in the heart we are from God? That he gives us this festive day of delight in him and we will do all we can to take a break from him. that's it we will do all we can to not have to do this i've noticed some people who love to take vacations just to escape worship it wasn't that he picked up sticks yes and no it was that six days he was called to work and he completely disregarded what the sabbath was intended to bring him it was a display of where his heart is a man gathering sticks would not let go of his bondage and his own will it exposed the disregard of his own problem when god was offering him a rest from his sinful ways he was rejecting the gospel and many people choose that. Jay Dalma said, someone who wants to keep control of his own affairs would experience the interruption of his daily duties on the Sabbath as a hindrance. That is so good. Dalma's right. True joy means we have to be able and true observance is that we're letting go of the ordinary concerns when the lord's day comes and it's the best thing for us it's joy the alma says it presupposes that we enjoy other people it requires the mutual encouragement among the saints a day for communion of the saints a day for the covenantal sign that we are giving think of the witness to our neighbors of coming and gathering together. Think of that simple witness of coming and gathering together out from the world as the people of God. I remember growing up and there was always our neighbors watching us drive off to church. That was a good thing. That was a good thing. We wanted to invite them and we did. Dalmas says this enjoyment, this festive Sabbath requires that we devote Sunday day to God. It's a day for worship, prayer, and praising God. Now, we just considered in Mark's gospel, Jesus walking through the grain fields on the Sabbath, and he was accused for breaking the Sabbath, for plucking heads of grain when his disciples were hungry. What was in his heart? Pure love, pure love for God, pure love for man, and He had come to fulfill this. And fulfilling that for us, giving us that rest, becoming our rest, He is our Sabbath. He then gives back to us, set in freedom, having a righteousness from Him, the blessing of its original intention in the new covenant i i want us to understand that what was jesus constantly doing well he was fixing the original intention of things in the gospel think about divorce divorce happens pharisees were divorcing for any reason a man could put away his wife for any reason because of under the old covenant the hardness of their hearts heart problem moses had to write certificates of divorce and what did jesus say from the beginning that was not so not god's design what do we have here from the beginning the same is true from the the sabbath was always intended to be a blessing and our sin wrecked it our sin wrecked the design and jesus came to fulfill it pay for our sins give us righteousness and recover the blessing of it that's the beauty of this so that our heidelberg has a whole different feel in the celebration of it doesn't it what does god require of you that the gospel be maintained um the ministry of the gospel in schools be maintained on this day of rest that i attend worship is it a burden to come up to the house of the lord is it a burden to come and enjoy him that i listen to this diligently attend church to hear god's word what have we been emphasizing so much in mark or hearing god's word to use the sacraments what are sacraments signs and seals of grace to you this is um this is his gospel promises being illustrated he's wanting to help and encourage and strengthen you to call publicly on the lord we get to come together and as a body call upon him and he hears our prayers and strengthens us going out into a new week we get to give offerings for the poor we don't really take that as seriously as we should think of the blessing of that you get to put in and give offerings to all these hurting people and god establishes a church and gives deacons to serve to determine best how to use your monies that we would help people that's part of the encouragement and helping people. And that all the days of my life I'm being taught to rest from my evil works. The Lord working in me through His Holy Spirit. And so begin. Think of this beautiful statement. Begin in this life the eternal rest. If you don't like it now, what do you think eternity is? The eternal rest. And think of the glory of this thought that in the old covenant they had to work six days and then rest. in the new covenant we gather on a different day for this reason that what they had to work six days and then rest we rest hearing of all the grace and strength and gospel of jesus christ and then go out and work why because we're free you're free you're free in his death and resurrection i hope that gives you a more positive treatment tonight of the sabbath there's so much more to say but i hope it encourages you to set apart this day of rest anticipating the eternal day of rest it's his desire to refresh you to help you to strengthen you it's a sign that you belong to him that you've been redeemed enjoy it we say what is the chief end of man to glorify god what is the hardest thing that we have to do to just enjoy him and this is an opportunity for you to do that all anticipating a day when you will actually see your Savior face-to-face in glory and enjoy your eternal rest. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, thank you for this day of rest. And thank you that we live in the time in which we live. You show us through this being under the law and the old covenant, the rigors, and it really does expose the hardness of our own hearts. But Jesus came to give us hearts of flesh, as we talked about tonight, by the power of Your Holy Spirit, regenerated hearts so that now our wills would be bent to enjoy and honor what You desire for us in freedom, in peace, in joy. And so open that to our hearts and minds. Let this not be a burden, but may we, as was the intention from the old when You said, we should call the Sabbath a delight. May we do that. loving and worshiping you, anticipating entering into our eternal rest that has helped out for us in Jesus Christ. In his name we pray, amen.