Dale Partridge - September 23, 2025


Genesis 2_1-3 - Is Sunday the Christian Sabbath？


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41 minutes

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5,555

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357

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00:00:00.000 Amen. Well, I'm going to open up with a question. Are Christians called to keep the Sabbath?
00:00:14.900 That's an important question. If so, when is the Sabbath? Saturday or Sunday?
00:00:22.440 Is the command simply to rest one day and seven, or is it a specific day?
00:00:29.480 These are very common, very common questions in the Christian church.
00:00:37.240 I hope to address some of these questions.
00:00:39.080 We're here in Genesis 2, and I want to warn you, today we will be systematic.
00:00:46.440 Today we'll be very similar to maybe a discussion around infant baptism.
00:00:52.440 There's not an explicit verse that says that we must baptize infants.
00:00:57.660 There's also not an explicit verse saying that we cannot baptize infants.
00:01:03.960 And the same is true with the Sabbath.
00:01:07.600 There is not an explicit passage of Scripture that says that we must keep the Sabbath on the Lord's Day.
00:01:16.940 That's not something we read directly in the New Testament.
00:01:19.960 and therefore it requires a systematic argument.
00:01:24.340 Now, systematic theology is the hope to have a coherent theology.
00:01:31.220 The alternative is an unsystematic theology.
00:01:36.060 So to weave this together today might take a bit of work.
00:01:41.180 And so we're going to be hopping around a variety of geographies of the Bible as we get through this.
00:01:47.680 Now, for those who are visiting, this is my third sermon in Genesis.
00:01:52.620 The first sermon was an introduction and an overview of the entire book.
00:01:56.680 The second sermon was on an overview of chapter 1, where I was arguing for the young earth creation view in 24-hour days,
00:02:06.540 in which we saw a wonderful unfolding of that passage.
00:02:11.700 We also learned that Genesis covers nearly one half of all human history.
00:02:17.680 one half of all human history is, it's 44%, but it's close to one half, is caught up in just that
00:02:26.560 one book. The book is divided into two sections, chapters one through 11 and chapters 12 through
00:02:35.360 50. One through 11 really speak to the world's need for redemption and chapters 11 or 12 through
00:02:43.120 50 speak to the redemption and how that comes through God's chosen people. Now, in my last
00:02:53.100 sermon, again, we talked about this young earth creation view that the earth is essentially
00:02:58.560 6,000 years old and that it has what we would call the appearance of age. And so let me
00:03:06.440 explain what this means? God created mature trees that were one day old. God created rivers with
00:03:16.640 canals that were eroded, yet one day old. God created Adam as a man, yet one day old. So we have
00:03:27.880 this new old situation. And we talked about that in depth last week. We also saw that when Scripture
00:03:38.000 uses the phrases like evening and morning, number, and day and night, when the Scripture uses those
00:03:47.580 phrases, it typically refers to a 24-hour day. But when the Scripture uses all of those phrases
00:03:53.520 together, as it does in Genesis 1, verse 5, it is certainly talking about a 24-hour day. This was
00:04:02.760 great evidence to support the 24-hour day view. But the most important, I think, decisive passage
00:04:10.560 of Scripture is Exodus 20, verse 11, when it's speaking of the Sabbath. In the fourth commandment,
00:04:17.040 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.
00:04:27.820 Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
00:04:31.240 I think this passage from Moses absolutely confirms a seven-day week, which is 24-hour days.
00:04:39.160 You cannot look at that passage of Scripture and arrive at, oh, they're thousand-year-long days.
00:04:47.040 And that's why we have age in the earth.
00:04:51.020 So the earth is really more like maybe 14,000 years or maybe they're not just thousand year ages.
00:04:57.440 They're long ages that could be thousands or hundreds of thousands of years.
00:05:02.080 I don't think you can hold that position and read Exodus chapter 20, verse 11.
00:05:08.140 And so, as I mentioned earlier today, we are talking about the institution of the Sabbath.
00:05:15.260 And I hope that you really pay attention, because I believe it is a very important topic for the restoration of society.
00:05:24.380 I really believe that.
00:05:26.460 Verses 1-3, it says,
00:05:27.800 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
00:05:34.080 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.
00:05:42.900 So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy.
00:05:47.200 Because on it, God rested from all of his work that he had done in creation.
00:05:53.200 All right, a few things.
00:05:54.680 First, I want you to remember that Genesis was originally written as one complete narrative.
00:05:58.600 It wasn't until the medieval era that we added these chapters and divisions and verse numbers.
00:06:03.300 And so this passage of scripture really feels like it should be in chapter one.
00:06:08.260 It's very strange to have the entire creation account and the conclusion in chapter 2.
00:06:14.700 So just you need to understand that because this is really like, here's the creation days,
00:06:18.720 and then it goes, thus the heavens and the earth were finished.
00:06:21.540 It really does, in my opinion, make more sense for it to be in chapter 1.
00:06:25.200 But hey, you know what? That wasn't the Lord's will for the medieval era.
00:06:28.300 Second, the creation account is written in what's called a chiasm.
00:06:31.740 A chiasm is a Hebrew form of poetry.
00:06:34.600 And it's really important to understand what this means.
00:06:36.440 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.
00:06:46.000 It looks like an X.
00:06:47.240 And it's showing to mirror.
00:06:49.160 It's showing to mirror.
00:06:50.080 So chiasm means a mirroring.
00:06:52.880 It would almost be like a form of poetry that went A, B, C, C, B, A.
00:06:58.080 A, B, C, C, B, A.
00:07:00.000 That's what a chiasm is.
00:07:01.820 And that is the structure that we see in Genesis chapter 1.
00:07:05.900 And that's why, in my opinion, it's so absurd that you just broke the chiasm, medieval era.
00:07:10.560 You have the chapter 1 that it's opening up, and it's saying,
00:07:14.100 Genesis chapter 1's, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
00:07:17.280 And then Genesis 2.1 closes with, thus the heavens and the earth were finished.
00:07:21.560 It's like it took the A, and you put it in the next chapter.
00:07:25.300 So I just want you to see that that's the kind of structure, what's going on there.
00:07:30.500 Now, verse 2 is translated in several different ways.
00:07:34.260 So I want you to look to your Bibles, look to 2.2.
00:07:38.400 It's translated several different ways.
00:07:39.980 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.
00:07:47.000 ESV says, on the seventh day, God finished his work.
00:07:49.760 I like the way the NASB renders it.
00:07:52.920 By the seventh day, God completed his work.
00:07:59.060 In other words, the work of creation was completed in six days.
00:08:02.340 And on the seventh day, he rested.
00:08:03.720 But if you read it in an ESV, it can almost sound like, well, he finished some of it on the seventh day.
00:08:08.800 Now, I don't think that's an accurate representation of the Hebrew.
00:08:12.800 And I really want to talk about the apologetic point of six days and one day rest.
00:08:20.100 Six days of work, one day rest.
00:08:22.180 Very important.
00:08:22.740 Pay attention here.
00:08:25.340 Most measurements of time are by nature.
00:08:30.020 Okay?
00:08:30.600 A day.
00:08:31.580 It's measured by nature.
00:08:33.320 You don't need to read the Bible to know what a day is.
00:08:35.860 There's day and there's night.
00:08:38.580 There's light and there's darkness.
00:08:41.600 You'd figure that one out without the Bible.
00:08:43.620 Oh, that's a day.
00:08:44.480 Okay, look, these are kind of repeating here.
00:08:47.460 Months.
00:08:48.500 You know, we get the word month because it's about the word moon.
00:08:52.180 And it follows the moon cycle, which is a 29 and a half day cycle.
00:08:57.300 And so you would soon to figure out by nature that we have moons or months.
00:09:05.100 That something is happening every month that, oh, a cycle of the moon happens.
00:09:10.800 You'd figure that one out again without having a Bible.
00:09:13.200 You'd also figure out seasons pretty quick.
00:09:16.060 Unless you lived in Phoenix where you'd only have two.
00:09:18.040 But if you lived in a normal place in the world, you'd figure out, oh, there's four seasons.
00:09:26.300 and you'd realize that those seasons are corresponding with the Earth's orbit and the cosmic world.
00:09:33.980 But what does not correspond with any rhythm of nature is a seven-day week.
00:09:41.040 In fact, I would say the math is neater with a 10-day week.
00:09:47.340 And so you go, wow, we have a seven-day week.
00:09:51.480 And we have a seven-day week that is recognized around the globe.
00:09:57.800 Why?
00:09:59.120 Well, it's because of the account of Genesis.
00:10:03.980 It's almost as powerful as the fact that it is the year 2025.
00:10:10.640 Well, why?
00:10:11.600 Well, because it is 2025 years past the birth of Christ.
00:10:16.580 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.
00:10:30.220 That's the only reason why we have a seven-day week.
00:10:33.180 If you're Islamic, if you're a Hindu, guess what?
00:10:36.960 You get to submit to the Christian God's order for the days.
00:10:41.300 and so another observation i think is worth noting is that work is good god works god works
00:10:52.020 this is pre-fall this is a work of god work is good now you know why work doesn't feel good now
00:10:59.020 well because of the fall we have exhaustion we have sweat we have toil but i wanted to just point
00:11:05.780 work is good. It's good to create. It's good to tend, and it's good to rest. Now, we have an
00:11:11.760 omnipotent God. Omnipotent means all-powerful. God's rest was not because of exhaustion or
00:11:19.060 tiring. It was because it was good. It was a rest from satisfaction, from completion,
00:11:27.900 not from exhaustion. Now, the Hebrew word for rest is Shabbat, and it's where we get the word
00:11:35.860 Sabbath. And the word means in the Hebrew to put an end or to cease. You can also translate it as
00:11:47.340 rest. And this is significant because life feels endless. I don't know if you're like me and you
00:11:54.940 work on the internet, it's like a never-ending cycle of emails and content and reading and
00:12:02.020 writing. Projects never have an end. In fact, I really like doing yard work because you go,
00:12:08.920 oh, I finished that. On the internet, you're like, well, I finished one section of a million-part
00:12:16.020 project that'll never be done. And so there's something nice about having an end to something.
00:12:23.320 verse 3 it says so god blessed the seventh day and made it holy
00:12:27.520 because why did he make it holy because on it god rested from all of his work
00:12:33.320 that he had done in creation
00:12:35.120 so first it is extremely rare by the way for god to bless an inanimate object
00:12:46.420 um all the blessings up until this point in genesis were to animals to people
00:12:52.740 even to plants but he blesses here a day and
00:12:58.360 theologically i would argue that the blessing of the seventh day is not inherent in the day
00:13:07.480 but is inherent in the fact that for those who keep the day the blessings of god will flow through
00:13:15.340 the day. And so I believe it is a channel in which you will receive blessing for those who honor and
00:13:23.620 keep that day. Another point that's really important to make is that...
00:13:40.520 Sorry, I want to look at my notes. I might skip something here.
00:13:45.340 Yeah, another point I want to make is that God made this day holy.
00:13:56.100 He hallowed it.
00:13:59.000 You know, it's the first thing in all of the Bible that is made holy is the seventh day, the Sabbath day.
00:14:06.940 It's very interesting that God has made this holy.
00:14:10.540 and
00:14:12.140 this is something that we have to see
00:14:16.020 is that God makes this day
00:14:17.660 it's a blessing
00:14:18.300 where it flows through the blessing
00:14:21.140 it is made holy
00:14:24.600 it is separated
00:14:25.400 it aligns with these words from Jesus
00:14:28.180 that says
00:14:28.800 the Sabbath was made for man
00:14:31.900 not man for the Sabbath
00:14:33.400 that we are the beneficiaries
00:14:35.920 of the Sabbath
00:14:36.740 not God
00:14:38.620 We are the ones that take the benefit.
00:14:41.040 The blessing flows to us.
00:14:43.220 That which is holy and that which is blessed come to us through this beautiful Sabbath day.
00:14:50.500 Robert Godfrey says,
00:14:52.160 God was priming the people of God with a particular truth.
00:14:57.480 One of the functions of the Sabbath is to have time to think about the creative and saving work of God.
00:15:10.340 I want you to keep that quote in mind as we go through this.
00:15:14.120 One of the purposes of the Sabbath is to be reminded of the creative and redemptive work of God.
00:15:22.140 and i think that chapter 2 verse 3 is a bit of a prophetic action and i'll explain what i mean by
00:15:31.020 that because the people of israel would later take this sabbath day and connect it this day of rest
00:15:39.940 with the worship of god it's why jews to this day would be in the synagogue on a saturday
00:15:47.060 It's why the Pharisees would hold this position.
00:15:52.320 The Jews held this practice.
00:15:56.360 We know this.
00:15:56.920 Jesus himself practiced this pattern of going on Saturday to the synagogue.
00:16:03.700 It's in Luke 4.16.
00:16:05.660 And as it was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up and read.
00:16:11.500 That's speaking of Christ.
00:16:12.440 so at this point in genesis chapter 2 the sabbath was modeled but it wasn't commanded
00:16:19.640 and it wasn't clarified but it was modeled that's all we have at this point it's just modeled
00:16:27.280 it wasn't given until the giving of the law mount sinai exodus chapter 20 that god enshrines the
00:16:33.980 Sabbath as the fourth commandment. So you have this long period between Adam and Eve and Moses
00:16:43.300 that you don't have all the clarity or the command to keep the Sabbath.
00:16:48.440 Though in chapter 16 of Exodus, God speaking of the manna, He further implements this
00:16:56.420 Sabbatarian structure. He says, six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day,
00:17:01.740 which is a Sabbath, there will be no gathering.
00:17:06.320 And so again, you get a little bit more of an affirmation. There's some importance
00:17:09.600 of this day. Now, when
00:17:13.820 Sabbath was commanded in the
00:17:17.920 Ten Commandments, God attached it to the death penalty.
00:17:22.680 To the death penalty. Exodus
00:17:25.800 31, verse 14 through 15, it says, Therefore you shall keep the Sabbath
00:17:30.000 This is reinforced again in Exodus 35 and Numbers 15.
00:17:58.780 Now, in Scripture, there are only a handful of sins that require capital punishment.
00:18:03.220 There's not many.
00:18:05.040 It's homosexuality, adultery, unrepentant children, idolatry, and breaking the Sabbath.
00:18:15.160 Those are the only times we see capital punishment for breaking sin.
00:18:21.380 Now, this is important because Christians seem to have grasped the gravity of those other sins.
00:18:28.120 while totally neglecting the vigilance of the Sabbath.
00:18:33.540 We totally condemn homosexuality, but we'll break Sabbath all the time.
00:18:39.620 Why is that? Why is that?
00:18:44.260 Because the modern Christian argues that the fourth commandment
00:18:49.460 is the only commandment not reinforced under the new covenant.
00:18:56.440 In other words, these people go, we don't have ten commandments, we have nine.
00:19:01.480 Well, they have nine.
00:19:02.700 You don't need to keep the fourth one.
00:19:05.180 It just goes one, two, three, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.
00:19:08.800 It's a very strange position to hold.
00:19:12.120 It's also out of step with all of church history.
00:19:16.480 They often appeal to a few passages of Scripture, Colossians 2, 16-17, which says,
00:19:28.480 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.
00:19:38.520 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.
00:19:42.440 Romans 14 5 says one person esteems another as one day better than the other while another
00:19:53.320 esteems all days alike this is the scriptures that you will hear in this argumentation for
00:19:59.920 the elimination of the Sabbath but these passages I think when you look at them in context are
00:20:06.540 addressing the issue of Christian liberty they're addressing the issue of Christian liberty
00:20:10.960 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.
00:20:25.640 And Paul said to them, don't condemn a brother for their convictions, though they may be wrong, and you might be strong.
00:20:36.180 You might not need to keep those days because you understand that those things are fulfilled in Christ.
00:20:42.760 Paul is speaking to the ceremonial law, not to the moral law.
00:20:47.300 Yes, Christ fulfilled both the moral law and its righteousness, but Christ also fulfilled the ceremonial law.
00:20:54.480 Now, does that mean that since Christ fulfilled the moral law, that we can now essentially go worship idols?
00:21:03.420 No.
00:21:03.700 No.
00:21:04.600 No.
00:21:06.100 We know that God fulfilled the law in Christ, but He did not abolish the law in Christ.
00:21:13.340 Now, the question I have for you is this.
00:21:16.180 I want to focus on this chapter in Romans chapter 12.
00:21:22.040 It says,
00:21:26.180 One person esteems one day as better than the other, while another person esteems all days alike.
00:21:32.140 Are all days alike?
00:21:34.520 Are all days alike?
00:21:38.000 And I don't believe so, and here's why.
00:21:40.700 The New Testament speaks of a very distinct day called the Lord's Day.
00:21:45.400 The Lord's Day.
00:21:47.860 John testifies about it in Revelation 1.10.
00:21:50.480 It says, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day.
00:21:54.280 And I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet.
00:21:57.080 Now, this is a reference to the first day of the week.
00:21:59.640 It's a Sunday, the Lord's Day.
00:22:03.180 This is, why is it the Lord's Day?
00:22:05.260 Well, because Christ resurrected on a Sunday, which is the Lord's Day.
00:22:09.640 It's why we memorialize that day, every Sunday, as Christ's Day.
00:22:16.880 Now, what makes this so unique is the Greek word that's used for Lord's Day
00:22:21.100 is only used twice in all of Scripture.
00:22:25.560 It's used in Revelation, and it's used in 1 Corinthians chapter 11.
00:22:31.500 Now, it's an adjective, and it means belonging to the Lord.
00:22:40.000 Now, what is it talking about in 1 Corinthians 11, verse 20?
00:22:44.720 It's talking of the Lord's Supper.
00:22:49.100 What I mean by that is that not all suppers are alike.
00:22:54.780 there is supper
00:22:58.420 and then there is the Lord's
00:23:00.420 supper and not all days
00:23:02.960 are alike
00:23:04.300 there are regular days
00:23:06.480 and then there is
00:23:08.860 the Lord's day
00:23:09.780 so it's a term of distinction
00:23:11.840 and it's a very important term
00:23:13.960 for our argumentation
00:23:15.880 we also see
00:23:18.320 the Lord's day confirmed in Acts 20
00:23:20.680 verse 7
00:23:21.200 they were gathered to break bread on the first day of the week
00:23:25.240 1 Corinthians 16.2, on the first day of every week,
00:23:28.120 they put something aside for the saints.
00:23:32.540 Hebrews 9-10, which speaks to Christ being our Sabbath.
00:23:37.280 Jesus saying, come to me, all you who are heavy laden,
00:23:42.520 and I will give you rest.
00:23:45.060 Christ is our Sabbath.
00:23:46.440 I don't think any Christian disagrees with that.
00:23:49.300 You can conclude, however, on this argumentation
00:23:51.960 that all the days are not the same.
00:23:54.120 They're not the same.
00:23:55.740 But the question remains, how does the Lord's Day relate to the Sabbath day?
00:23:59.340 How do we get there?
00:24:00.720 How do we get from Saturday to Sunday?
00:24:05.640 Just because it's a Lord's Day doesn't mean that it's a Sabbath day.
00:24:09.400 How do we bridge that gap systematically?
00:24:13.320 Why has every Christian since the apostles held that position?
00:24:19.860 What's the theology behind that?
00:24:21.340 to answer that question i think we need to ask a deeper question
00:24:27.120 is the sabbath a mosaic ordinance or a creation ordinance is it a mosaic ordinance
00:24:38.200 or is it a creation ordinance was it just for the people of israel or was it for all humanity
00:24:46.440 Very important distinction.
00:24:49.080 Was it like the Levitical priesthood, the sacrificial system, the Jewish festivals, which are fulfilled in Christ?
00:24:55.820 Or is it more like a creation ordinance like the family, which is an everlasting ordinance for all time until the return of Christ?
00:25:06.120 Very important distinction.
00:25:07.920 I would argue for the latter, and here's why.
00:25:10.200 The rationale for the fourth commandment is not tied to Moses, but it's tied to creation.
00:25:15.520 If you look at the fourth commandment, it says,
00:25:17.160 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them,
00:25:22.100 and he rested on the seventh day.
00:25:24.220 Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
00:25:27.180 He's not talking about Moses.
00:25:29.040 He's not talking about the law.
00:25:30.980 He's talking about creation.
00:25:33.060 It is anchored in creation.
00:25:38.500 Now the question many Christians still need answered is,
00:25:41.380 Can the Sabbath day change?
00:25:44.000 And if so, how?
00:25:46.220 What's the theological reasoning for that?
00:25:50.000 After all, Exodus 31, 16-17 says the Sabbath is a command forever.
00:25:55.900 It is a command forever.
00:25:59.340 At first glance, you can read these passages and go, wow, that looks pretty immovable.
00:26:02.780 How do you get there?
00:26:03.960 What's the theological jump you need to make?
00:26:06.780 There's two things that brought to my mind when I was studying this.
00:26:09.280 First, Jesus says in Matthew 17, or 517, that He fulfills the law, but He does not abolish it.
00:26:17.180 He fulfills the law, but He does not abolish it.
00:26:19.520 That is, He fulfills the forever portion.
00:26:22.840 He is the forever portion of the Sabbath.
00:26:26.120 Okay?
00:26:27.020 He is our forever portion of the Sabbath.
00:26:30.040 But He does not abolish the practice of Sabbath.
00:26:33.760 He might abolish where it's located.
00:26:37.720 It's no longer located fully in the day.
00:26:42.020 It's located fully in Him.
00:26:45.540 Second, in Mark 2.28, Jesus claims to be the Lord of the Sabbath.
00:26:54.500 He's the Lord of the Sabbath.
00:26:57.520 In other words, Christ, as the forever substance of the Sabbath,
00:27:00.920 and the Lord of the Sabbath has the authority to direct us to how the Sabbath is to be rightly observed.
00:27:12.680 He has the authority to do so.
00:27:14.940 Many things changed from Old Covenant to New Covenant, from the shadow to the substance.
00:27:20.820 It should not be odd to us that the Sabbath, at least the expression of it, might also change with it.
00:27:27.240 So if there is a shift from Saturday, the seventh day, to the Lord's Day, Sunday, why the shift?
00:27:35.480 Well, it would certainly be odd to keep the shadow in the face of the substance.
00:27:39.300 That would be weird, right?
00:27:41.120 Let's go sit and worship on the day of anticipation rather than the day of completion.
00:27:49.680 That would be a very strange thing to do.
00:27:52.260 It would also be strange to have our worship on Saturday in this way that we're waiting, though the substance is here.
00:28:03.420 And he has set his seal on another day.
00:28:07.160 And he has also claimed to be our rest.
00:28:10.700 So I think this tension is actually further released when we understand how Christ becomes our Sabbath.
00:28:16.340 How does he become our Sabbath?
00:28:17.700 And how is his resurrection and the day of his resurrection day become the Sabbath day?
00:28:24.320 Well, first, I want to talk about a passage of Deuteronomy.
00:28:27.560 Again, we're getting systematic.
00:28:29.000 Follow along with me.
00:28:30.260 Deuteronomy chapter 5.
00:28:31.740 It says, well, I'll just say this.
00:28:33.940 God ties the Sabbath day to Israel's redemption from slavery in Egypt.
00:28:41.360 It's a very important verse.
00:28:42.960 because the sabbath in this passage of scripture becomes a redemptive memorial
00:28:49.720 it's a redemptive memorial so you have the sabbath as a creation ordinance
00:28:55.140 you have the sabbath you can't eat the manna on it you have the sabbath on the fourth commandment
00:29:01.980 no work on it and then you tie the sabbath that it's a memorial for redemption you start to
00:29:08.500 understand a little bit about the purpose of the Sabbath. Remember that the Old Testament
00:29:12.980 is always preparing us for and pointing us to Christ. So God is revealing a little bit more
00:29:21.880 until we get the ultimate revelation of the shadow, the substance of Jesus. But it says
00:29:29.340 in Exodus
00:29:31.780 you shall remember
00:29:34.280 that you were a slave in the land of Egypt
00:29:37.120 and the Lord your God brought you
00:29:39.400 out
00:29:39.800 from Egypt with a mighty hand
00:29:43.100 and an outstretched arm
00:29:44.800 therefore
00:29:45.780 the Lord your God commanded you to keep
00:29:48.920 the Sabbath day holy
00:29:50.680 so he now connects
00:29:52.720 the redemptive memorial
00:29:54.640 with
00:29:56.680 the Sabbath day
00:29:58.740 This is very important systematic theology.
00:30:01.620 So just as Israel was commanded to rest in light of their deliverance from Pharaoh,
00:30:11.860 Christians are commanded to rest in Christ in light of our deliverance from sin and death on the cross.
00:30:20.540 That is a real connection systematically here that we're seeing.
00:30:25.580 Second, because the Sabbath was a creation ordinance, we must see how the Lord's Day is a new creation ordinance.
00:30:40.520 A lot of people don't understand that when Christ resurrected, it was the beginning or the dawn of a new creation.
00:30:51.480 revelation 21 5 speaking of christ says that he who is seated on the right hand of the throne
00:31:01.000 said behold i am making all things new what are you when you're in christ
00:31:09.800 you're new why are you new because christ is the first fruits the new seed the start
00:31:20.240 the beginning, the new Genesis, the second Adam.
00:31:27.960 Adam is the old, fallen humanity on the old, fallen earth.
00:31:33.320 Christ is the second Adam in the new humanity
00:31:36.560 who is restoring the heavens and the earth.
00:31:41.180 The systematics are very important here.
00:31:44.460 You start to see how this all works together.
00:31:46.320 Third, under the Old Covenant, the rhythm was this.
00:31:52.760 Six days of work, and then rest.
00:31:59.240 It was emphasizing the labor of the law.
00:32:05.080 Six days of work, and then rest to come.
00:32:09.720 The rest was coming.
00:32:13.140 The one in who we will find our rest is coming.
00:32:16.320 But it's after this work.
00:32:20.520 The new covenant, Christ, the Lord of the Sabbath, reverses the order.
00:32:30.080 He says we first rest in Him.
00:32:33.120 And from that rest, we work.
00:32:37.240 It's not that our work justifies us.
00:32:40.680 It's from Christ who justifies us.
00:32:44.580 But we work, but we work from rest.
00:32:49.300 We don't anticipate any longer.
00:32:54.420 Again, it's like, what do the sacraments do?
00:32:59.540 The circumcision and the Passover pointed forward to the Christ to come.
00:33:09.040 Baptism and the Lord's Supper point back to the Christ who came.
00:33:14.580 Sabbath, on the seventh day, pointed to the Christ to come.
00:33:21.720 Sabbath, on the Lord's day, points to the Christ who came.
00:33:26.640 We are on different sides of the beginnings of creation.
00:33:34.780 The shadow has given way to the substance.
00:33:38.080 The sign has met its fulfillment in Christ.
00:33:40.900 Yet the pattern of one day in seven still remains.
00:33:47.660 Therefore, just as God's people of old set a day apart to remember the saving acts taking him out of Egypt.
00:34:00.060 So now we set apart the Lord's day to remember his saving acts taking us out of sin.
00:34:06.860 They had the Passover lamb that saved their lives.
00:34:12.940 We have the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, that saves our lives.
00:34:22.260 So, truly, the forever command of the Sabbath is not annulled, it's transformed.
00:34:29.720 It's not annulled, it's transformed.
00:34:32.980 And this has been the position and practice of all the saints since the age of the apostles.
00:34:40.300 Now, why does this matter?
00:34:41.820 I'm going to close with this.
00:34:43.340 Why does it matter for you?
00:34:46.340 Well, sadly, we have been born into a time where the Sabbath has been trivialized.
00:34:51.920 You cannot go back into any era of church history
00:34:55.620 and find the church not counting Sunday as a vital day of rest.
00:35:04.440 Corbin, several months ago, pointed out that it was once very illegal in many of the colonies
00:35:11.700 to have a business open on the Sabbath in America.
00:35:17.140 John Adams, in writing his letters to Abigail Adams' wife,
00:35:20.440 used to say
00:35:22.140 that he would stop
00:35:24.420 writing from Braintree, Massachusetts
00:35:27.500 to Congress in Pennsylvania
00:35:29.400 if he was traveling
00:35:31.080 on the Lord's Day.
00:35:32.920 He would stop, find a tree,
00:35:35.220 and sit, pray, read the Scriptures
00:35:37.200 and worship until Monday.
00:35:40.400 That was the practice.
00:35:43.860 Oh, we're traveling
00:35:45.420 through the week, covered wagons.
00:35:47.580 well we can't travel on the Lord's day
00:35:51.060 we must sit and worship
00:35:53.580 the number one reason most Christians fail to keep the Sabbath
00:35:59.660 is because they use it as a day to quote
00:36:02.680 catch up on things
00:36:05.140 and I understand I've been guilty of this too
00:36:08.560 but the Sabbath is intended
00:36:12.920 to realize that that work finds its rest in Christ, our toil.
00:36:22.640 God has given you a wonderful day to rest from your work.
00:36:30.920 Now, I want to make one just caveat point.
00:36:33.260 It's not the Lord's morning, it's the Lord's day.
00:36:36.340 Now, historically, the church met in the morning and in the evening.
00:36:40.500 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.
00:36:56.120 And it's not the same service twice.
00:36:59.420 Pastors were preaching completely different services because we would worship the Lord day and night.
00:37:06.060 sinclair ferguson recently remarked he said i judge the health of a local church not by their
00:37:13.820 morning service but by their evening service if they do not have an evening service that says
00:37:19.040 something in and of themselves a lot of churches today for various reasons we probably just can't
00:37:27.540 even afford to do an evening service at this point but the reality is
00:37:31.800 we want to recover a sabbath-keeping society you should want to recover a sabbath-keeping
00:37:42.320 society the reason we don't have a sabbath-keeping society is because we have not had a struggle so
00:37:49.660 much with the first day is that we have not learned the disciplines of the six days
00:37:53.780 we have not learned how to actually complete our work in six days so we allow it to overflow to
00:38:00.600 the seventh day. That is an issue of discipline and diligence and failure on behalf of men and
00:38:06.740 women. We need to learn how to be better at completing our work in six days. You have six
00:38:13.420 days to do your work, but rest on the seventh day. Now, because Sabbath keeping has been so
00:38:22.260 widely abandoned, I think it'll be extremely difficult to recover it. It's kind of like
00:38:29.200 feminism or immodesty. It's like we've been
00:38:33.280 given the sugar of society, now I have to come off of it.
00:38:37.760 We've normalized things and become so desensitized to things
00:38:40.920 that it's almost hard to see the rationale for why
00:38:44.720 women shouldn't be wearing leggings in public. We can't even
00:38:48.860 grasp it. It's become so
00:38:52.680 numbing to us.
00:38:53.860 why should all the stores in Prescott
00:39:00.060 be closed on Sunday
00:39:01.160 it's difficult for us to
00:39:06.080 grasp how would that even happen
00:39:08.040 without absolute revival
00:39:10.000 and I believe that's
00:39:12.080 true we need to
00:39:13.960 actually pray for revival but you want to
00:39:16.000 know one thing it'll never happen
00:39:17.960 in this city if it can't happen
00:39:20.020 in this church
00:39:20.700 and so I know you have things to do
00:39:24.880 you have six days to do those
00:39:27.060 things I know
00:39:29.040 you want to go to Costco I know you
00:39:31.000 want to go grab something at the store 0.74
00:39:32.660 in the Old Testament you'd be killed
00:39:37.060 for it
00:39:37.560 and so think about
00:39:41.100 these things don't be
00:39:42.820 legalistic about it are you saved
00:39:44.840 from the wrath of God for keeping
00:39:47.080 the Sabbath no
00:39:48.440 No, you're not. You're saved by Christ.
00:39:53.340 Christ is the Sabbath. He kept the law for us perfectly.
00:39:58.180 The reality is, we ought to desire to work from that rest.
00:40:07.500 Do we want to restore Prescott as a holy city?
00:40:10.760 I do.
00:40:12.720 I would love to see this town look as it looked a hundred years ago.
00:40:18.440 Did you know a hundred years ago that downtown was there?
00:40:21.420 And I guarantee all of the stores were closed on Sunday.
00:40:27.700 You have to see that Sabbath keeping is a form of cultural evangelism.
00:40:37.140 It is a form of cultural evangelism.
00:40:44.680 It's a public witness that Christ is the Lord.
00:40:48.440 that time belongs to Him and that our lives are ordered around His Word rather than our goals.
00:40:59.080 Amen? Amen. Let's pray.
00:41:02.860 Father, we thank You, Lord, and we ask that You would bless this congregation with a conviction around the Sabbath.
00:41:08.260 Lord, I wish that I had more time to unpack the systematics of it all, Lord,
00:41:11.880 but we ask that You would give our congregation those resources, those tools, that content.
00:41:18.440 We pray, Father, that you would give us a conviction that we might be a small piece of light,
00:41:23.580 a small piece of salt that would season this town.
00:41:30.340 We know that national fruitfulness begins with local faithfulness,
00:41:34.500 and we ask that you would make us faithful.
00:41:37.160 That we would learn this discipline of Sabbath keeping.
00:41:41.660 Not because it makes us righteous,
00:41:44.040 but because of gratitude for the righteousness you've given us.
00:41:47.980 We pray this in Jesus' name.
00:41:50.040 Amen.