Genesis 2_1-3 - Is Sunday the Christian Sabbath？
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Summary
In this sermon, Pastor Ken teaches about the importance of the Sabbath and how it relates to the creation of the earth and the order of creation. God rested on the seventh day and made it holy, which is why we have a seven day week.
Transcript
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Amen. Well, I'm going to open up with a question. Are Christians called to keep the Sabbath?
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That's an important question. If so, when is the Sabbath? Saturday or Sunday?
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Is the command simply to rest one day and seven, or is it a specific day?
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These are very common, very common questions in the Christian church.
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We're here in Genesis 2, and I want to warn you, today we will be systematic.
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Today we'll be very similar to maybe a discussion around infant baptism.
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There's not an explicit verse that says that we must baptize infants.
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There's also not an explicit verse saying that we cannot baptize infants.
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There is not an explicit passage of Scripture that says that we must keep the Sabbath on the Lord's Day.
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That's not something we read directly in the New Testament.
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and therefore it requires a systematic argument.
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Now, systematic theology is the hope to have a coherent theology.
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So to weave this together today might take a bit of work.
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And so we're going to be hopping around a variety of geographies of the Bible as we get through this.
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Now, for those who are visiting, this is my third sermon in Genesis.
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The first sermon was an introduction and an overview of the entire book.
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The second sermon was on an overview of chapter 1, where I was arguing for the young earth creation view in 24-hour days,
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in which we saw a wonderful unfolding of that passage.
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We also learned that Genesis covers nearly one half of all human history.
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one half of all human history is, it's 44%, but it's close to one half, is caught up in just that
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one book. The book is divided into two sections, chapters one through 11 and chapters 12 through
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50. One through 11 really speak to the world's need for redemption and chapters 11 or 12 through
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50 speak to the redemption and how that comes through God's chosen people. Now, in my last
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sermon, again, we talked about this young earth creation view that the earth is essentially
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6,000 years old and that it has what we would call the appearance of age. And so let me
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explain what this means? God created mature trees that were one day old. God created rivers with
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canals that were eroded, yet one day old. God created Adam as a man, yet one day old. So we have
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this new old situation. And we talked about that in depth last week. We also saw that when Scripture
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uses the phrases like evening and morning, number, and day and night, when the Scripture uses those
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phrases, it typically refers to a 24-hour day. But when the Scripture uses all of those phrases
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together, as it does in Genesis 1, verse 5, it is certainly talking about a 24-hour day. This was
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great evidence to support the 24-hour day view. But the most important, I think, decisive passage
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of Scripture is Exodus 20, verse 11, when it's speaking of the Sabbath. In the fourth commandment,
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And it says, For in six days the Lord has made the heaven and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day.
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Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
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I think this passage from Moses absolutely confirms a seven-day week, which is 24-hour days.
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You cannot look at that passage of Scripture and arrive at, oh, they're thousand-year-long days.
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So the earth is really more like maybe 14,000 years or maybe they're not just thousand year ages.
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They're long ages that could be thousands or hundreds of thousands of years.
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I don't think you can hold that position and read Exodus chapter 20, verse 11.
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And so, as I mentioned earlier today, we are talking about the institution of the Sabbath.
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And I hope that you really pay attention, because I believe it is a very important topic for the restoration of society.
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Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
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And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all of his work that he had done.
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So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy.
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Because on it, God rested from all of his work that he had done in creation.
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First, I want you to remember that Genesis was originally written as one complete narrative.
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It wasn't until the medieval era that we added these chapters and divisions and verse numbers.
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And so this passage of scripture really feels like it should be in chapter one.
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It's very strange to have the entire creation account and the conclusion in chapter 2.
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So just you need to understand that because this is really like, here's the creation days,
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and then it goes, thus the heavens and the earth were finished.
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It really does, in my opinion, make more sense for it to be in chapter 1.
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But hey, you know what? That wasn't the Lord's will for the medieval era.
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Second, the creation account is written in what's called a chiasm.
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And it's really important to understand what this means.
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So a chiasm is, it's a Hebrew form of poetry that was now given the name chiasm based off of the Greek letter chi, which is an X.
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It would almost be like a form of poetry that went A, B, C, C, B, A.
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And that is the structure that we see in Genesis chapter 1.
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And that's why, in my opinion, it's so absurd that you just broke the chiasm, medieval era.
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You have the chapter 1 that it's opening up, and it's saying,
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Genesis chapter 1's, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
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And then Genesis 2.1 closes with, thus the heavens and the earth were finished.
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It's like it took the A, and you put it in the next chapter.
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So I just want you to see that that's the kind of structure, what's going on there.
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Now, verse 2 is translated in several different ways.
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So I want you to look to your Bibles, look to 2.2.
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If you've got an ESV or an NASB or a New King James, all of you have different perspectives on it at this point.
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ESV says, on the seventh day, God finished his work.
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In other words, the work of creation was completed in six days.
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But if you read it in an ESV, it can almost sound like, well, he finished some of it on the seventh day.
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Now, I don't think that's an accurate representation of the Hebrew.
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And I really want to talk about the apologetic point of six days and one day rest.
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You don't need to read the Bible to know what a day is.
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You know, we get the word month because it's about the word moon.
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And it follows the moon cycle, which is a 29 and a half day cycle.
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And so you would soon to figure out by nature that we have moons or months.
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That something is happening every month that, oh, a cycle of the moon happens.
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You'd figure that one out again without having a Bible.
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Unless you lived in Phoenix where you'd only have two.
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But if you lived in a normal place in the world, you'd figure out, oh, there's four seasons.
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and you'd realize that those seasons are corresponding with the Earth's orbit and the cosmic world.
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But what does not correspond with any rhythm of nature is a seven-day week.
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In fact, I would say the math is neater with a 10-day week.
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And we have a seven-day week that is recognized around the globe.
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It's almost as powerful as the fact that it is the year 2025.
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Well, because it is 2025 years past the birth of Christ.
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So not only does God order time in the year around Christ, but He also orders time around His Word in His order for seven days of creation.
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That's the only reason why we have a seven-day week.
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If you're Islamic, if you're a Hindu, guess what?
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You get to submit to the Christian God's order for the days.
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and so another observation i think is worth noting is that work is good god works god works
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this is pre-fall this is a work of god work is good now you know why work doesn't feel good now
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well because of the fall we have exhaustion we have sweat we have toil but i wanted to just point
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work is good. It's good to create. It's good to tend, and it's good to rest. Now, we have an
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omnipotent God. Omnipotent means all-powerful. God's rest was not because of exhaustion or
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tiring. It was because it was good. It was a rest from satisfaction, from completion,
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not from exhaustion. Now, the Hebrew word for rest is Shabbat, and it's where we get the word
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Sabbath. And the word means in the Hebrew to put an end or to cease. You can also translate it as
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rest. And this is significant because life feels endless. I don't know if you're like me and you
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work on the internet, it's like a never-ending cycle of emails and content and reading and
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writing. Projects never have an end. In fact, I really like doing yard work because you go,
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oh, I finished that. On the internet, you're like, well, I finished one section of a million-part
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project that'll never be done. And so there's something nice about having an end to something.
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verse 3 it says so god blessed the seventh day and made it holy
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because why did he make it holy because on it god rested from all of his work
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so first it is extremely rare by the way for god to bless an inanimate object
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um all the blessings up until this point in genesis were to animals to people
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theologically i would argue that the blessing of the seventh day is not inherent in the day
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but is inherent in the fact that for those who keep the day the blessings of god will flow through
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the day. And so I believe it is a channel in which you will receive blessing for those who honor and
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keep that day. Another point that's really important to make is that...
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Sorry, I want to look at my notes. I might skip something here.
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Yeah, another point I want to make is that God made this day holy.
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You know, it's the first thing in all of the Bible that is made holy is the seventh day, the Sabbath day.
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It's very interesting that God has made this holy.
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That which is holy and that which is blessed come to us through this beautiful Sabbath day.
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God was priming the people of God with a particular truth.
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One of the functions of the Sabbath is to have time to think about the creative and saving work of God.
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I want you to keep that quote in mind as we go through this.
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One of the purposes of the Sabbath is to be reminded of the creative and redemptive work of God.
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and i think that chapter 2 verse 3 is a bit of a prophetic action and i'll explain what i mean by
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that because the people of israel would later take this sabbath day and connect it this day of rest
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with the worship of god it's why jews to this day would be in the synagogue on a saturday
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It's why the Pharisees would hold this position.
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Jesus himself practiced this pattern of going on Saturday to the synagogue.
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And as it was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up and read.
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so at this point in genesis chapter 2 the sabbath was modeled but it wasn't commanded
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and it wasn't clarified but it was modeled that's all we have at this point it's just modeled
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it wasn't given until the giving of the law mount sinai exodus chapter 20 that god enshrines the
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Sabbath as the fourth commandment. So you have this long period between Adam and Eve and Moses
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that you don't have all the clarity or the command to keep the Sabbath.
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Though in chapter 16 of Exodus, God speaking of the manna, He further implements this
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Sabbatarian structure. He says, six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day,
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which is a Sabbath, there will be no gathering.
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And so again, you get a little bit more of an affirmation. There's some importance
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Ten Commandments, God attached it to the death penalty.
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31, verse 14 through 15, it says, Therefore you shall keep the Sabbath
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This is reinforced again in Exodus 35 and Numbers 15.
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Now, in Scripture, there are only a handful of sins that require capital punishment.
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It's homosexuality, adultery, unrepentant children, idolatry, and breaking the Sabbath.
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Those are the only times we see capital punishment for breaking sin.
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Now, this is important because Christians seem to have grasped the gravity of those other sins.
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while totally neglecting the vigilance of the Sabbath.
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We totally condemn homosexuality, but we'll break Sabbath all the time.
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Because the modern Christian argues that the fourth commandment
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is the only commandment not reinforced under the new covenant.
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In other words, these people go, we don't have ten commandments, we have nine.
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It just goes one, two, three, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.
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It's also out of step with all of church history.
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They often appeal to a few passages of Scripture, Colossians 2, 16-17, which says,
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Therefore, let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food or drink with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.
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These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.
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Romans 14 5 says one person esteems another as one day better than the other while another
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esteems all days alike this is the scriptures that you will hear in this argumentation for
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the elimination of the Sabbath but these passages I think when you look at them in context are
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addressing the issue of Christian liberty they're addressing the issue of Christian liberty
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There are some people in the Jewish culture that have come to Christ that were struggling to let go of those old habits from their old way in Judaism.
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And Paul said to them, don't condemn a brother for their convictions, though they may be wrong, and you might be strong.
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You might not need to keep those days because you understand that those things are fulfilled in Christ.
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Paul is speaking to the ceremonial law, not to the moral law.
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Yes, Christ fulfilled both the moral law and its righteousness, but Christ also fulfilled the ceremonial law.
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Now, does that mean that since Christ fulfilled the moral law, that we can now essentially go worship idols?
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We know that God fulfilled the law in Christ, but He did not abolish the law in Christ.
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I want to focus on this chapter in Romans chapter 12.
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One person esteems one day as better than the other, while another person esteems all days alike.
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The New Testament speaks of a very distinct day called the Lord's Day.
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It says, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day.
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And I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet.
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Now, this is a reference to the first day of the week.
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Well, because Christ resurrected on a Sunday, which is the Lord's Day.
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It's why we memorialize that day, every Sunday, as Christ's Day.
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Now, what makes this so unique is the Greek word that's used for Lord's Day
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It's used in Revelation, and it's used in 1 Corinthians chapter 11.
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Now, it's an adjective, and it means belonging to the Lord.
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Now, what is it talking about in 1 Corinthians 11, verse 20?
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What I mean by that is that not all suppers are alike.
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they were gathered to break bread on the first day of the week
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1 Corinthians 16.2, on the first day of every week,
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Hebrews 9-10, which speaks to Christ being our Sabbath.
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Jesus saying, come to me, all you who are heavy laden,
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I don't think any Christian disagrees with that.
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You can conclude, however, on this argumentation
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But the question remains, how does the Lord's Day relate to the Sabbath day?
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Just because it's a Lord's Day doesn't mean that it's a Sabbath day.
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Why has every Christian since the apostles held that position?
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to answer that question i think we need to ask a deeper question
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is the sabbath a mosaic ordinance or a creation ordinance is it a mosaic ordinance
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or is it a creation ordinance was it just for the people of israel or was it for all humanity
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Was it like the Levitical priesthood, the sacrificial system, the Jewish festivals, which are fulfilled in Christ?
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Or is it more like a creation ordinance like the family, which is an everlasting ordinance for all time until the return of Christ?
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The rationale for the fourth commandment is not tied to Moses, but it's tied to creation.
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If you look at the fourth commandment, it says,
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For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them,
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Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
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Now the question many Christians still need answered is,
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After all, Exodus 31, 16-17 says the Sabbath is a command forever.
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At first glance, you can read these passages and go, wow, that looks pretty immovable.
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There's two things that brought to my mind when I was studying this.
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First, Jesus says in Matthew 17, or 517, that He fulfills the law, but He does not abolish it.
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He fulfills the law, but He does not abolish it.
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But He does not abolish the practice of Sabbath.
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Second, in Mark 2.28, Jesus claims to be the Lord of the Sabbath.
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In other words, Christ, as the forever substance of the Sabbath,
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and the Lord of the Sabbath has the authority to direct us to how the Sabbath is to be rightly observed.
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Many things changed from Old Covenant to New Covenant, from the shadow to the substance.
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It should not be odd to us that the Sabbath, at least the expression of it, might also change with it.
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So if there is a shift from Saturday, the seventh day, to the Lord's Day, Sunday, why the shift?
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Well, it would certainly be odd to keep the shadow in the face of the substance.
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Let's go sit and worship on the day of anticipation rather than the day of completion.
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It would also be strange to have our worship on Saturday in this way that we're waiting, though the substance is here.
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So I think this tension is actually further released when we understand how Christ becomes our Sabbath.
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And how is his resurrection and the day of his resurrection day become the Sabbath day?
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Well, first, I want to talk about a passage of Deuteronomy.
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God ties the Sabbath day to Israel's redemption from slavery in Egypt.
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because the sabbath in this passage of scripture becomes a redemptive memorial
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it's a redemptive memorial so you have the sabbath as a creation ordinance
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you have the sabbath you can't eat the manna on it you have the sabbath on the fourth commandment
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no work on it and then you tie the sabbath that it's a memorial for redemption you start to
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understand a little bit about the purpose of the Sabbath. Remember that the Old Testament
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is always preparing us for and pointing us to Christ. So God is revealing a little bit more
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until we get the ultimate revelation of the shadow, the substance of Jesus. But it says
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So just as Israel was commanded to rest in light of their deliverance from Pharaoh,
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Christians are commanded to rest in Christ in light of our deliverance from sin and death on the cross.
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That is a real connection systematically here that we're seeing.
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Second, because the Sabbath was a creation ordinance, we must see how the Lord's Day is a new creation ordinance.
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A lot of people don't understand that when Christ resurrected, it was the beginning or the dawn of a new creation.
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revelation 21 5 speaking of christ says that he who is seated on the right hand of the throne
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said behold i am making all things new what are you when you're in christ
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you're new why are you new because christ is the first fruits the new seed the start
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the beginning, the new Genesis, the second Adam.
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Adam is the old, fallen humanity on the old, fallen earth.
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Third, under the Old Covenant, the rhythm was this.
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The one in who we will find our rest is coming.
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The new covenant, Christ, the Lord of the Sabbath, reverses the order.
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The circumcision and the Passover pointed forward to the Christ to come.
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Baptism and the Lord's Supper point back to the Christ who came.
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Sabbath, on the seventh day, pointed to the Christ to come.
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Sabbath, on the Lord's day, points to the Christ who came.
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We are on different sides of the beginnings of creation.
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Yet the pattern of one day in seven still remains.
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Therefore, just as God's people of old set a day apart to remember the saving acts taking him out of Egypt.
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So now we set apart the Lord's day to remember his saving acts taking us out of sin.
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They had the Passover lamb that saved their lives.
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We have the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, that saves our lives.
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So, truly, the forever command of the Sabbath is not annulled, it's transformed.
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And this has been the position and practice of all the saints since the age of the apostles.
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Well, sadly, we have been born into a time where the Sabbath has been trivialized.
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You cannot go back into any era of church history
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and find the church not counting Sunday as a vital day of rest.
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Corbin, several months ago, pointed out that it was once very illegal in many of the colonies
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to have a business open on the Sabbath in America.
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John Adams, in writing his letters to Abigail Adams' wife,
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the number one reason most Christians fail to keep the Sabbath
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to realize that that work finds its rest in Christ, our toil.
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God has given you a wonderful day to rest from your work.
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It's not the Lord's morning, it's the Lord's day.
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Now, historically, the church met in the morning and in the evening.
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I don't know if you know this, but if you go back in time, especially in America's history, churches were gathering in the morning and in the evening.
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Pastors were preaching completely different services because we would worship the Lord day and night.
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sinclair ferguson recently remarked he said i judge the health of a local church not by their
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morning service but by their evening service if they do not have an evening service that says
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something in and of themselves a lot of churches today for various reasons we probably just can't
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even afford to do an evening service at this point but the reality is
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we want to recover a sabbath-keeping society you should want to recover a sabbath-keeping
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society the reason we don't have a sabbath-keeping society is because we have not had a struggle so
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much with the first day is that we have not learned the disciplines of the six days
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we have not learned how to actually complete our work in six days so we allow it to overflow to
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the seventh day. That is an issue of discipline and diligence and failure on behalf of men and
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women. We need to learn how to be better at completing our work in six days. You have six
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days to do your work, but rest on the seventh day. Now, because Sabbath keeping has been so
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widely abandoned, I think it'll be extremely difficult to recover it. It's kind of like
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given the sugar of society, now I have to come off of it.
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We've normalized things and become so desensitized to things
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that it's almost hard to see the rationale for why
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women shouldn't be wearing leggings in public. We can't even
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Christ is the Sabbath. He kept the law for us perfectly.
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The reality is, we ought to desire to work from that rest.
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I would love to see this town look as it looked a hundred years ago.
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Did you know a hundred years ago that downtown was there?
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And I guarantee all of the stores were closed on Sunday.
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You have to see that Sabbath keeping is a form of cultural evangelism.
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that time belongs to Him and that our lives are ordered around His Word rather than our goals.
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Father, we thank You, Lord, and we ask that You would bless this congregation with a conviction around the Sabbath.
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Lord, I wish that I had more time to unpack the systematics of it all, Lord,
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but we ask that You would give our congregation those resources, those tools, that content.
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We pray, Father, that you would give us a conviction that we might be a small piece of light,
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a small piece of salt that would season this town.
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We know that national fruitfulness begins with local faithfulness,
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That we would learn this discipline of Sabbath keeping.
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but because of gratitude for the righteousness you've given us.