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Post by iconoclast on May 21, 2023 16:17:07 GMT -5
Have you taken the time to study out the Lord's Day/ Sabbath?
What do you see?
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Post by iconoclast on May 21, 2023 16:23:19 GMT -5
From A Baptist Catechism with Commentary, by W.R. Downing; used by permission..I recommend this catechism to every reader. It is up to date, Christ centered, and biblical.
www.lulu.com/shop/w-r-downing/a-catechism-on-bible-doctrine/paperback/product-21872455.html?page=1&pageSize=4
Quest. 51: What is the significance of the Fourth Commandment?
Ans: The Fourth Commandment reveals that God is sovereign over time, and requires man to keep as holy unto God such times as he has appointed in his Word.
See also: Gen. 2:2–3; Ex. 16:25–30; 23:10–12; 31:13–17; Lev. 19:30; 23:3; 26:2; Numb. 15:32–36; Deut. 5:12–15; 2 Kgs. 4:22–23; Neh. 13:15–22; Isa. 58:13–14; Ezk. 23:38; Amos 8:4–5; Matt. 12:1–13; 28:1; Mk. 2:23–28; Lk. 4:16; 23:56; 24:1; Jn. 7:22–23; 20:1, 19; Acts 13:14–41; 17:3; 20:7; Rom. 14:5–6; 1 Cor. 16:2; Gal. 4:10–11; Col. 2:16–17; 2 Thess. 3:10–12; Heb. 4:1–11; 10:25; Rev. 1:10; 10:5–6.
COMMENTARY
The Fourth Commandment reveals the absolute sovereignty of God over man with regard to the use of his time—labor, rest, worship and recreation.
The Sabbath, reflecting the rest of God upon finishing the work of creation, comes to man as a Divine blessing and gift, not a restriction or burden (Isa. 58:13–14). The division of this Commandment is four–fold:
first, the strongest admonition both to remember the Sabbath and to keep it holy [set apart]. Second, the recognition of work, Third, rest from work. Fourth, the reason for the Sabbath. It reflects the Divine rest after the work of creation—a rest of pleasure and satisfaction.
The First Commandment reveals the absolute sovereignty of God over our worship;
the Second, the spirituality of our worship;
the Third, our inward– attitude in worship.
The Fourth Commandment reveals the absolute sovereignty of God over our time—work and rest, worship and vocation, labor and recreation.
One must work before he can rest. Six days are the God–given time– frame for work. Note that six days of work are not necessarily commanded, but rather that all man’s work is to be done within six days that he might rest on the seventh: The opening words “Six days shalt thou labour…” must not be arbitrarily separated from the remainder of the statement, “…and do all thy work,” implying a six–day time–frame for work that the Sabbath might remain separate as a day of rest.
The weekly Sabbath was not the only “Sabbath” that God commanded Israel to observe.
There were weekly (Ex. 20:8–11; Deut. 5:12–15),
monthly (Numb. 28:11–15; Rom. 14:5–6)
and yearly Sabbaths (Ex. 12:1–20, 43–50; Lev. 23:15–44; Numb. 28:16–25; 29:1–40),
one observed every seven years
(Ex. 23:10–11; Lev. 25:1–7, 18–22; 2 Chron. 36:20–21)
and one observed every fifty years (Lev. 25:8–18).
Some were purely rest–days, some were feast–days and some were days of corporate worship. To correctly understand the full significance of the weekly Sabbath, one must understand the whole Sabbath–principle commanded by God. The following is a short study on the various “Sabbaths”:
The Sabbath–principle of Israel was a principle of rest for man, animals and the land, instituted by God. It looked back to creation and Israel’s deliverance from Egypt, looked to God in covenant–relationship and looked ahead prophetically to the redemption of the whole creation. This principle was also a principle of celebration. Both typically anticipated the redemption– rest in the Lord Jesus Christ and in future glory (Deut. 5:12–15; Rom. 8:18– 23; Heb. 4:1–11; 2 Pet. 3:7–18).
To be biblical and consistent, one must make a distinction between the provisional [ceremonial, civil] and the perpetual: The Sabbath [rest and worship]–principle is perpetual, as reflected in both God’s creation–rest (Gen. 2:2–3; Ex. 20:11) and the need for man to rest, i.e., “the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mk. 2:27).
The Sabbath–principle points ahead to the redemptive rest in the Lord Jesus Christ (Deut. 5:12–15; Heb. 4:1–11. Note that Heb. 4:9 literally reads “a Sabbath rest” in the Gk.), and so has a typical significance which will find complete fulfillment in the final redemption of man and the earth, when the Sabbath rest of God and man shall find its ultimate realization (Rom. 8:18–23; 2 Pet. 3:13).
What, then, in essence, is the perpetual and ultimate significance of the Sabbath? The Sabbath is described as “the Sabbath of the Lord God,” i.e., his
Sabbath and is traced back to his primeval rest of celebration, accomplishment, satisfaction [“all was very good”] and anticipation (Gen. 2:1–3). The national or covenant significance to Israel was both temporary and typological (Ex. 16:25–30; 23:10–12; 31:13–17; Deut. 5:12–15), awaiting its true and full significance among believers within the New or Gospel Covenant (Heb. 4:1–11).
Believers are now brought into union with Christ and so rejoice in his finished redemptive work and spiritually “rest” by faith in him. We celebrate our glorious salvation. Note the anticipation of that “[Sabbath–]rest which remaineth for the people of God” (Heb. 4:9). We await our future glorification (Rom. 8:14–23) and the restoration of all creation which, again, will render everything pristine and “very good” in the creation of “new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness” (2 Pet. 3:7–13). With creation ultimately and infallibly restored, and the elect of God finally and fully
redeemed, the full and final rest of God will be accomplished. The Sabbath then, ought to be a celebration of our redemption, a delight, a rest, both physical and spiritual and an anticipation of that glory which is to come. Such thoughts ought to sanctify and make the Lord’s Day a delight.
While it is true that in neither the Old or New Testaments did God explicitly change the weekly Sabbath from the seventh to the first day, since the resurrection of our Lord, Christians have met on the first day of the week (Matt. 28:1; Acts 2:1ff; 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2; Rev. 1:10). It was our Lord’s resurrection–day, the Day of Pentecost, which marked out the New Testament church as God’s ordained institution for this Gospel economy by the empowering of the Spirit; and anticipates the full and final restoration of all things, of which his resurrection was but the first declaration. The first day
(traditionally “Sunday”) thus distinguishes Christian worship from Jewish worship. This was the inspired apostolic practice throughout the New Testament. Thus, observing the first day of the week as the Lord’s Day is not merely traditional; it is implicitly and explicitly biblical (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2).
Have you found that promised rest in the Lord Jesus? Do you find the Lord’s Day a delight? Do you take time to anticipate and rejoice in the coming Sabbath of creation?
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Post by Admin on May 26, 2023 8:47:07 GMT -5
www.doyouconfess.com/quotations/#4th....From Reformed Covenantor;
An online brother from Puritanboard has been compiling links concerning the Lord's Day which I will repost here.
J. C. Ryle on over-busyness, personal religion, and the Sabbath
JC RyleThe restless, high-pressure hurry in which men live endangers the very foundations of personal religion. Daily private prayer and daily Bible-reading are too often jostled into a corner, and hastily slurred over. Body and mind are wearied out, when Sunday arrives, by the intense struggle of week-day life. Church services are listlessly attended, and sometimes neglected altogether. The temptation to idle away God’s day, or to spend it in visiting or dining out, becomes almost irresistible. Little by little the soul gets into a languid and relaxed condition, and the fine edge of conscience becomes blunt and dull.
J. C. Ryle, The Upper Room: Being a Few Truths for the Times (1880; Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1970), p. 75.
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J. C. Ryle: God’s providential judgment against Sabbath-breaking
j-c-ryle-youngerJ. C. Ryle partly attributed his father’s bankruptcy to his habit of Sabbath-breaking:
I certainly cannot say I was surprised as much as some, and simply because I was a Christian I had long been vexed with the Sabbath-breaking which took place in connexion with the bank, visits to partners, and consultations about worldly business, and the like, and I had a strong presentiment that such a complete departure from my Grandfather’s godly ways, would sooner or later be severely chastened.
J. C. Ryle, Bishop J. C. Ryle’s Autobiography: The Early Years, ed. Andrew Atherstone (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2017), p. 88.
J. C. Ryle: The neglect of the Sabbath is the first step to infidelity
JC RyleOnce give over caring for the Sabbath, and in the end you will give over caring for your soul. … Begin with not honouring God’s day, and you will soon not honour God’s house; – cease to honour God’s house, and you will soon cease to honour God’s book; cease to honour God’s book, and by and by you will give God no honour at all. Let a man lay the foundation of having no Sabbath, and I am never surprised if he finishes with the top-stone of no God.
J. C. Ryle, The Upper Room: Being a Few Truths for the Times (1880; Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1970), p. 418.
J. C. Ryle: Christ upheld the true meaning of the Sabbath
j-c-ryle-youngerCommenting on John 5:16-18, J. C. Ryle wrote:
We must distinctly understand, that neither here nor elsewhere does the Lord Jesus overthrow the obligation of the fourth commandment. Neither here nor elsewhere is there a word to justify the vague assertions of some modern teachers, that “Christians ought not to keep a Sabbath,” and that it is “a Jewish institution which has passed away.”
The utmost that our Lord does, is to place the claims of the Sabbath on the right foundation. He clears the day of rest from the false and superstitious teaching of the Jews, about the right way of observing it. He shows us clearly that works of necessity and works of mercy are no breach of the fourth commandment.
J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: John, Volume One (1869; Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1987), p. 279.
C. Ryle on the true manner of keeping the Sabbath
JC RyleCommenting on John 9:13ff, J. C. Ryle reminded his readers of the true manner of keeping the Christian Sabbath in opposition to Judaical Sabbatarianism:
These verses show us how little the Jews of our Lord’s time understood the right use of the Sabbath day. We read that some of the Pharisees found fault because a blind man was miraculously healed on the Sabbath. They said, “This man is not of God, because He keepeth not the Sabbath day.” A good work had manifestly been done to a helpless fellow-creature. A heavy bodily infirmity had been removed. A mighty act of mercy had been performed. But the blind-hearted enemies of Christ could see no beauty in the act. They called it a breach of the Fourth Commandment!
These would-be wise men completely mistook the intention of the Sabbath. They did not see that it was “made for man,” and meant for the good of man’s body, mind, and soul. It was a day to be set apart from others, no doubt, and to be carefully sanctified and kept holy. But its sanctification was never intended to prevent works of necessity and acts of mercy. To heal a sick man was no breach of the Sabbath day. In finding fault with our Lord for so doing, the Jews only exposed their ignorance of their own law. They had forgotten that it is as great a sin to add to a commandment, as to take it away.
Here, as in other places, we must take care that we do not put a wrong meaning on our Lord’s conduct. We must not for a moment suppose that the Sabbath is no longer binding on Christians, and that they have nothing to do with the Fourth Commandment. This is a great mistake, and the root of great evil. Not one of the ten commandments has ever been repealed or put aside. Our Lord never meant the Sabbath to become a day of pleasure, or a day of business, or a day of traveling and idle dissipation. He meant it to be “kept holy” as long as the world stands.
It is one thing to employ the Sabbath in works of mercy, in ministering to the sick, and doing good to the distressed. It is quite another thing to spend the day in visiting, feasting, and self-indulgence. Whatever men may please to say, the way in which we use the Sabbath a sure test of the state of our religion. By the Sabbath may be found out whether we love communion with God. By the Sabbath may be found out whether we are in tune for heaven. By the Sabbath, in short, the secrets of many hearts are revealed. There are only too many of whom we may say with sorrow, “These men are not of God, because they keep not the Sabbath day.”
J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on John: Volume 2 (1869; Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1987), pp 166-68.
J. C. Ryle on over-busyness, personal religion, and the Sabbath
JC RyleThe restless, high-pressure hurry in which men live endangers the very foundations of personal religion. Daily private prayer and daily Bible-reading are too often jostled into a corner, and hastily slurred over. Body and mind are wearied out, when Sunday arrives, by the intense struggle of week-day life. Church services are listlessly attended, and sometimes neglected altogether. The temptation to idle away God’s day, or to spend it in visiting or dining out, becomes almost irresistible. Little by little the soul gets into a languid and relaxed condition, and the fine edge of conscience becomes blunt and dull.
J. C. Ryle, The Upper Room: Being a Few Truths for the Times (1880; Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1970), p. 75.
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Post by Admin on May 26, 2023 8:48:41 GMT -5
Wilhelmus à Brakel on the Sabbath as a day of rest for religious worship
May 21, 2023
Wilhelmus a BrakelQuestion: Is it immaterial which of the seven days one observes, and if not, which of the seven is the sabbath?
Answer: The commandment conveys that it is the seventh, which follows upon six days of labour. “Six days shalt thou labour.” This is not a command to work (which belongs to the second table), but a stipulation as to how long one may work, and a direction when one must cease to labour and when the sabbath begins. It says as much as that whatever we are under obligation to do must be performed in six days, for the seventh day is a time of rest; it is the sabbath of the Lord thy God. God rested on the seventh day and has thus given us an example. He has set this day apart for sacred purposes and has commanded man to hallow this day to the glorification of His Name.
Secondly, the manner in which this day is to be hallowed is as follows: “Thou shalt do no manner of work.” We are enjoined to serve God in the first commandment, and this encompasses all our activity of soul and body at all times, during both day and night. The fourth commandment, however, requires the service of God in the full sense of the word, that is, with cessation of labour.
Not to work, or to rest, can be interpreted as doing nothing, being quiet, and being idle. It can also refer to nonactivity due to an injunction of God, commanding us not to work. It can also mean 1) not to do a thing or 2) not to work so as to enable us to do something else, since we cannot do two things simultaneously; or it can also refer to resting conjoined with being engaged in a different activity.
(1) Doing no manner of work does not refer to being idle, for God cannot be pleased with idleness.
(2) We are also not commanded to be idle, for God has not commanded that anywhere.
(3) The commandment not to work has also not been given to enable us to do something else in its place — something spiritual. The implication would then be that one is not to be active, but rather to be engaged exclusively in the spiritual service of God. The cessation of labour would then be necessary due to labour being a hindrance to spiritual exercises.
(4) The command not to do any manner of work is also not conjoined to another element of sabbath observance, as if being idle and serving God were conjoined as two collateral activities. This would suggest that he who would have done no work would have observed this commandment partially, and this would likewise be true for him who had served God spiritually and nevertheless had done some work.
(5) Rather, doing no manner of work and religious worship must be conjoined as being one injunction. Doing no manner of work must be understood in a spiritual sense, so that it refers to the manner of religious engagement, and thereby is distinguished from religion in the general sense of the word as it is enjoined in the first commandment. It is not rest which is commanded, but rather, a holy rest. “Tomorrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the Lord” (Exod 16:23); “… in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD” (Exod 31:15).
Wilhelmus à Brakel, The Christian’s Reasonable Service, trans. Bartel Elshout, ed. Joel R. Beeke (1700; Grand Rapids MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 1992), 3: 141-42.
Categories: Dutch Reformed, First Day of the Week, Lex Triplex, Moral-Positive Commandment, Natural and Moral Law, Regulative Principle of Worship, Sabbath, Wilhelmus à Brakel
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Post by Admin on May 26, 2023 11:59:15 GMT -5
A. A. Hodge on the Sabbath as a positive commandment
April 30, 2023
A.-A.-HodgeThe law of the Sabbath, in fact, is also a positive commandment, having its ground in the will of God as supreme Lord. That a certain portion of time should be set apart for the worship of God and the religious instruction of men is a plain dictate of reason. That a certain portion of time should be set apart for rest from labour is by experience found to be, on physiological and moral grounds, highly desirable. That some monument of the creation of the world and of the resurrection of Christ, and that some permanent and frequently-recurring type of the rest of heaven, should be instituted, is eminently desirable for man, considered as a religious being.
But that all these ends should be combined and secured by one institution, and that precisely one whole day in seven should be allotted to that purpose, and that this one day in seven should be at one time the seventh and afterward the first day of the week, is evidently a matter of positive enactment, and binds us as long as the indications of the divine will in the matter remain unchanged.
The time of observance was changed from the seventh to the first day of the week in the age of the apostles, and consequently with their sanction; and that day, as “the Lord’s day” (Rev. i. 10), has ever since been observed in the stead of the ancient Sabbath, in all portions and ages of the Christian Church. We accept this change as it comes to us, and believe it to be according to the will of God — (1.) Because of its apostolic origin; (2.) Because of the transcendent importance of the resurrection of Christ, which is thus associated with the creation of the world by God, as the foundation of the Christian religion; and (3.) Because of the universal consent of Christians of all generations and denominations, and the approbation of the Holy Ghost that dwelleth in them that is implied thereby.
As to the observance of the Christian Sabbath, the obvious general rule is, that it is to be observed, (1.) Not in the spirit of the law, which Christ condemns (Matt. xii. 1; Luke xiii. 15), but in the holy and free spirit of the gospel, (2.) In accordance with the ends for which it is instituted, and which have been above enumerated.
Archibald Alexander Hodge, A Commentary on the Confession of Faith, ed. William H. Goold (British edn, London: T. Nelson and Sons, 1870), pp 282-83.
Categories: A. A. Hodge, American Presbyterians, Creation, Lex Triplex, Moral-Positive Commandment, Natural and Moral Law, Resurrection, Sabbath, The Work of Christ
Benjamin Colman on the importance of the Sabbath to the state of religion
April 23, 2023
… I hope the Reader will … in a particular manner be led and excited to consider and improve his Sabbaths as a Sign and Memorial of the Covenant of Grace, and the blessed Seasons and Means of Sanctification.— So our Fathers, like wise and good Men, began with God in the planting of these Churches: They covenanted with God to be his People and to keep his Sabbaths, and they found Him to be the Lord their Sanctifier. The reverend Observation of the Lord’s-day was their distinguishing honour and glory, and the fruits of holiness to the praise and glory of God abounded among them.—
As the World grows upon us in its numbers and trade, we are growing out of this our primitive purity and beauty; but it is visible that the decay of Sanctity bears proportion to our declension in Sabbath Sanctification. We had need therefore to remember how we have received and heard, and hold fast and repent; let no man take our Crown. I know no one Rule more compendious, comprehensive and effectual for the revival and perpetuity of Religion among us than this, that we keep the LORD’s Sabbaths, as a Sign between Him and us thro’ out our Generations, that HE is the Lord that doth sanctify us.
Benjamin Colman, The doctrine and law of the Holy Sabbath: in the order wherein it lies through the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament. In two sermons, preached at the lecture in Boston, October 15. and December 10. 1724 (Boston: Thomas Hancock, 1725), ii-iii.
Categories: American Congregationalists, Benjamin Colman, Covenant of Grace, Doctrine of the Covenants, Lex Triplex, Natural and Moral Law, Sabbath
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Post by Admin on May 26, 2023 12:02:07 GMT -5
John Holmes Agnew on commemorating Christ’s work of redemption on the Christian Sabbath
April 9, 2023
God’s moral government of the universe of intelligent beings, is his chief glory. But Jesus Christ, and he crucified, or, Jesus Christ in the accomplishment of the work of redemption, is the bright sun, which throws light, and warmth, and beauty, over this whole moral system. In this work, angels are ministering spirits; and every high archangel, and seraphim, and cherubim, will sing a louder song, and shout with more transporting joy, when all its grand purposes are fulfilled, than when they heard the potent word of God bidding creation into beautiful existence. This is the golden chain which will for ever bind in happy union to one another, and in higher and holier adoration to God, all the pure and immortal spirits of his great kingdom.
Oh! what a work is this! Ye angels! swell your notes, and let the universe hear of its glory—let heaven re-echo His praise. It is the new creation, and in comparison with it, the former shall be remembered no more, nor come into mind. By it is made known to the principalities and powers in heavenly places, the manifold wisdom of God. And while the material system is continually wasting away, and the heavens and the earth which God brought into being and form, shall be rolled together as a scroll, shall wax old like a garment, and be changed as a vesture, the new heavens and new earth will be growing in beauty and glory, be permanent as the throne of God, and to its years there shall be no end.
Inasmuch, then, as the work of redemption is recognized in the Bible as the chief work of heaven, is represented as intended to display to the hosts of seraphim and cherubim the manifold wisdom of God, and containing in it exhibitions of the perfections of Jehovah, which awaken the earnest investigation, and profound adoration of angels, who desire to look into it; and inasmuch as it is the great purpose of the Sabbath that man shall commemorate the attributes of God as unfolded in his works, the strong presumption is, that now, since a greater work is accomplished than when God rested from all which he had created and made, and his perfections are more gloriously displayed in it, the completion of this work will be the object of commemoration, and the day on which Christ entered into his rest, having ceased from his work as God did from his own, will be the day on which the righteous will enter into the courts of the Lord’s house; and in private also feel that this is the day which the Lord hath made and set apart for the duties of devotion. That day was the first day of the week, when the Redeemer burst the bars of death and arose triumphant over the grave.
John Holmes Agnew, A Manual on the Christian Sabbath (Philadelphia PA: Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1852), pp 101-03.
Categories: American Presbyterians, Angels, Doctrine of God, John Holmes Agnew, Resurrection, Sabbath, The Work of Christ
Robert S. Candlish on the Sabbath as the birth-right of humanity
April 2, 2023
As to the first, there is implied in the lordship over the Sabbath which the Lord Jesus claims, as the Son of man, a right of property in it. The Sabbath was made for man; the Son of man is Lord of it. He asserts a right of property in his own name, and in the name of man; of mankind universally, and of every individual man in particular. This is a gracious charter, investing every child of Adam with a title to the free and undisturbed use of a weekly day of rest. It is a chartered title, which he may legitimately plead against all or any of his fellow-men who would invade or abridge his rest. A weekly Sabbath is the birth-right of humanity, ratified and vindicated by Him who represents humanity. The Sabbath was made for man. The Son of man is Lord of it.
Hear that, ye men of toil. Is it not good news for you? A weekly day of rest is yours; yours by divine right. It belongs to you as men. It is your property; as much your property as the bread for which you work so hard. Society is not entitled to defraud or deprive you of it. Your task-masters are not entitled to defraud or deprive you of it. You are not entitled to defraud or deprive one another of it. What surrender of your right you may fairly be expected to make, out of deference to the necessities of society, or of your employers, or of one another, may be a question forced upon them and you by the actual circumstances of the world and the conditions of human life, especially in so highly artificial a state of civilization as ours. Where such necessities are real, and really require the sacrifice, you may, and you should, without scruple and without grudging, consent to forego some portion of your privilege. The terms of the great charter securing it to you in perpetual possession, leave room, doubtless, for such accommodation.
The Sabbath was made for man; the Son of man is Lord of it. If the exigencies of human life, therefore, require a certain measure of work to be done on the Sabbath, it may be, it must be, lawful and right on your part, when you are lawfully called upon, to do it. But beware, ye working men. See that the exigencies to which you are asked to make even the smallest concession of your precious right, are real. Tell those who have more in their power than you have in estimating these exigencies, or in creating them, that you will watch them narrowly. Bid them consider their responsibility. Remind them that they are meddling with your right, that they are dealing with your property.
It is at their peril, if they either bribe, or tempt, or force you, to labour that is not clearly necessary. It is an act of robbery, let who will, or what may, bear the blame of it; society, or heads of houses, or masters of workshops; bad laws, bad customs, bad family arrangements; bad habits as regards even church-going itself. Whoever it may be, or whatever it may be, that exacts from you an hour’s service on the Sabbath that could be dispensed with or spared without prejudice to a higher duty, you are wronged, cruelly wronged. That is stolen from you to which you have as just a title as the heir has to his inheritance, or the monarch to her throne.
And will you be so foolish, so infatuated, so mad, as to listen to false friends, flattering you with the hope of relaxation, recreation, amusement? They promise you liberty. What are they themselves? And what is their liberty? If it is liberty to you, it is at the expense of Sabbath labour and Sabbath bondage to your fellows. It is liberty, moreover, which you will find it hard indeed to defend against griping avarice and the insolence of power, when the very men who give it to you, finding you free to play, will hold you free to work too; and, one by one, will drag you in, till Sabbath and week-day, all alike, there shall be one dreary monotony of work, work, work, all the year through, among all your families and in all your habitations.
Oh, would that ye knew your best and truest friend-that Son of man who tells you that the Sabbath was made for you, and that he, on your behalf, is Lord of the Sabbath! Would that ye understood what really is the only charter of your freedom in this toiling world, the charter which challenges for you, at the hands of all and sundry who have any control over you, a right, a sacred and indefeasible right, to have the Sabbath wholly to yourselves, that you may give it wholly to your God!
Robert S. Candlish, Man’s Right to the Sabbath: The Sabbath made for Man; The Son of Man Lord of it. A Sermon (Edinburgh: Johnstone & Hunter, 1856), pp 44-48.
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Post by Admin on May 26, 2023 12:10:23 GMT -5
W. J. Grier on the observance of the Sabbath day
March 26, 2023
The observance of the day rests upon the divine command and the divine example (Ex. xx. 11; Gn. ii. 2, 3). The principle underlying it is that man must copy God in his course of life. In the creation there was the sequence of six days of creative activity and a day of rest. Rest, of course, with God does not mean mere cessation from labour. It has a deeper and richer significance – it speaks of satisfaction and delight in the works of His hands. It is interesting to note that the seventh day was man’s first upon earth – he began his career by keeping sabbath with his God.
Christians often look on the Lord’s day as primarily for the sake of advancing religion. There is a danger in placing the emphasis too much in this direction. Its main significance is in the things of which it speaks.
It witnesses to creation by God’s power at the beginning of history; and it reminds us of redemption accomplished through the crucified and risen Saviour.
But these great truths do not exhaust its significance.
It speaks also of eternity – of the sabbath rest that remains for the people of God. Its witness to these great truths as it recurs every week is every whit as necessary under the New Testament as under the Old.
Dr. Geerhardus Vos points out the danger of the modern Church becoming so ·busy with religious propaganda on this holy day as to leave too little place for the quiet ‘ God-ward occupation with piety’. The day is ‘set apart’ from mere secular employments and worldly pursuits and enjoyments, and ‘set apart’ to God and His worship. It is no doubt possible for Christian workers to be so much taken up with religious propaganda on this holy day as to empty it too much of the opportunities for the ‘rest’ and reflection which lie at the heart of its significance. As we ponder upon the great truths of which the Christian sabbath speaks, it becomes like a Pisgah-height from which we view the promised land. We cannot afford to be without what Dr. Vos has called its ‘eternity-typifying values’.
W. J. Grier, ‘The Development of the Lord’s Day from the Jewish Sabbath’, The Christian Graduate, 13, no. 3 (September 1960), p. 99.
Silas Milton Andrews on the Sabbath and excessive slumber
March 19, 2023
Do we find it difficult to rise as early on that day as during the week, that with the morning we may commence our duties? Let conscience speak, and we shall wake early. Let our love to God, and his service, only be as strong as our attachment to the things of the world, and no more of the Sabbath will be wasted in slumber, than of Monday morning. Men who labour through the week, contend for this indulgence; that they are wearied and need rest: besides, that the Sabbath is given for rest.
But, no reader of the Bible can say, that it is the rest of indolence and spiritual inactivity. The worship of God does not commonly demand the labours and exercise of the body; the mind only is called into healthful action; and this is also refreshing to the body. In answer to the plea, that being worn down with the cares of the week, and its toils, we may, consistently with duty, lie later on Sabbath morning than any other, it may be asked, Have we a right to expend our strength during the week, so as to unfit us for the duties of the Sabbath when they arrive?
If we found ourselves disinclined early to seek the Lord, last Sabbath, are we not bound to guard against such languor, when this holy day shall again dawn? Is not duty plain, that we ought to relax our labours on Saturday, that we may not lose the most precious hours of the Lord’s day? Were we our own, we might exercise our pleasure. But we are not. Man’s chief end is, to glorify God, and enjoy him, in this world, as well as hereafter.
Suppose you hire a man, to labour for you — you have a right to all his time; but you give him five days in the week for his own employment on condition that he will devote himself wholly to your work on the sixth. Has this man a right, so to arrange his business, and expend his strength, during the five days he labours for himself, that when the sixth day arrives, he cannot rise until late, nor commence his work until the morning be nearly past?
Silas Milton Andrews, The Sabbath at Home (Philadelphia PA: Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1840), pp 11-12.
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Post by Admin on May 26, 2023 12:14:54 GMT -5
Paul Bayne: May the Sabbath be sanctified without preaching?
March 5, 2023
Instead of appetite to the word, now some think the Sabbath may be tolerably sanctified without any preaching: some count it enough if they be where preaching is, let it be what it will be; far from such as is able to work on their souls; as if the orders of the person, not the supernatural gifts of knowledge and wisdom made the Sermon (but these must not be severed): some count such plain preaching (as heretofore was effectual in them) less diligent, and less learned. Thus the devil not able quite to make them cast off the ordinance, persuades them that change is no robbery; and that they may sleep the quieter (neglecting such preaching as was powerful in them) he casts them this pillow, suggesting that they leave not that which was effectual in them toward God, but that only which was indigent and unlearned.
Paul Bayne, The trial of a Christian’s estate: or a discovery of the causes, degrees, signs and differences of the apostasy both of the true Christians and false in a sermon preached in London by Master Paul Bayne, and afterward sent in writing by him to his friend W.F. (London: Nathanael Newbery, 1618), p. 14.
amuel Fairclough on Sabbath profaners as Achans
February 12, 2023
First of all, doth not the impious profanation of the Sabbath impropriate from God that which he hath ever reserved to himself, without any redemption by appropriating it to unnecessary journeys, hellish and lascivious revellings, wicked sports, and recreations? hath not God inhibited it peremptorily, above a hundred times in express Scripture? hath he not annexed a combination of public vengeance for it, Amos, 8. even to set fire on the Gates of our chief City therefore? Jerem. 17. Hath not this of late troubled most of the Lord’s Hosts, made the hearts of the Elders melt like Water, slaughtered more then twice thirty-six, in respect of their livelihood, and calling? who then can doubt that a profaner of the Sabbath is an Achan and troubler of Israel?
Samuel Fairclough, The troublers troubled, or, Achan condemned and executed. A sermon preached before sundry of the honourable House of Commons at Westminster, April 4, 1641 (London: Henry Overton, 1641), p. 12.
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Post by Admin on May 26, 2023 13:49:29 GMT -5
William Ames on the moral and perpetual duty of observing the Lord’s Day
February 5, 2023
Doct. 2. That one day of seven be holily observed, is of moral and perpetual duty; as with us, the Lord’s Day.
Reas. 1. Because this is expressly commanded in this moral law, as spoken immediately by God himself, together with the other commands, and written by his own finger on tables of stone, as they were; which things were only proper to the moral law.
Reas. 2. Because it was thus ordained from the beginning of the Creation.
Reas. 3. Because it is never less necessary, that some seventh day be observed, than it was at the first institution. And that the Lord’s day, or first of the week, or seventh is now by Divine authority appointed to us, that it be holily kept, appeareth:
1. From the ground and reason of the change, because as God from the beginning, appointed the seventh day of the week, or septenary circuit of days for his rest from Creating of things: So Christ appointed the first of the week, or of the seventh days of ordinary recourse, because on that day he rested from his penal and afflictious labours of his humiliation, or emptying himself, whereby he restored and created the world, as it were new again, unto a better condition than it had lost.
2. By the frequent apparitions of Christ in the convention of his Disciples on this day.
3. From the sending and shedding abroad of the Holy-ghost, on this day.
4. By the practise of the Apostles.
5. By Apostolic constitution, 1 Cor 16.
6 From the very title and name of the Lord’s day, that it hath in the New Testament
7. From the rigorous observation of this day in the Primitive Church, by occasion whereof they were accounted worshippers of the sun; because this first day of the week was by Heathens attributed to the Planet of the Sun, as the rest were to the rest of the Planets.
Use Is of Exhortation, that out of conscience towards God, and obedience to this command, we have a care of observing the Lord’s day.
William Ames, The Substance of Christian Religion: Or, A Plain and Easy Draught of the Christian Catechism, in LII. Lectures, on chosen texts of Scripture, for each Lord’s-Day of the Year, Learnedly and Perspicuously Illustrated with Doctrines, Reasons and Uses (London: Thomas Davies, 1659), Lecture XXXVIII, pp 231-32.
Patrick Fairbairn on the Sabbath and the Decalogue
January 29, 2023
Patrick_FairbairnIt is only in accordance with what might have been expected, that the peculiar and distinguished place, which was thus secured to the Sabbath in the history of God’s providence toward the Israelites, was also given to it in the laws and statutes which he imposed upon them.
The command to remember the Sabbath, and keep it entire, as a day of sacred rest to Jehovah, formed one of the ten delivered from Mount Sinai, and along with the other nine possesses three marks or notes of distinction, which entirely separate it from the merely judicial and ceremonial statutes given to the Jewish people.
1. It was spoken immediately by the voice of God, amid the most striking manifestations of the Divine presence, and in the hearing of the people, Exod. xix. All the other laws were revealed only to Moses, and by him communicated to the people. This clearly marked off the Ten Commandments, and among the rest the law of the Sabbath, from the other statutes and ordinances given to Israel, as being in some respects of a more fundamental nature and more essentially connected with God’s character and glory than the rest.
2. It was written, in common, with the other parts of the Decalogue, by the finger of God on one of the two tables of stone, whereas the ceremonial and judicial laws were written by Moses in a book. This difference evidently implied, that the one was much more important and stable than the other—was not, like the latter, to be left to inferior hands or committed to wasting parchments, but deserving to be engraved by God’s own pen as in the rock for ever.
3. These Ten Commandments, as one great whole, were preserved, and alone preserved, in the Ark of the Covenant, Deut. x. 2, 5; 1 Kings viii. 9. The book which contained all the other laws and ordinances of God, delivered to Moses, was not placed within, but at the side of the Ark (Deut. xxxi. 26), manifestly implying, that in the Jewish economy the things written there held a very inferior place to those written on the two tables, and that the one, as a sort of outward appendage, might be removed and taken out of the way, whereas the other stood among the final and imperishable things of God.
Patrick Fairbairn, ‘The Sabbath. Part III.’, Christian Miscellany, 1, no. 10 (5 March 1842), p. 76.
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Post by Admin on May 26, 2023 13:54:02 GMT -5
Robert Murray McCheyne on the Sabbath as a day of blessings
January 22, 2023
Robert_Murray_M'CheyneBecause it is a day of blessings. -When God instituted the Sabbath in paradise, it is said, “God blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it” (Gen. ii. 3). He not only set it apart as a sacred day, but made it a day of blessing. Again, when the Lord Jesus rose from the dead on the first day of the week before dawn, He revealed Himself the same day to two disciples going to Emmaus, and made their hearts burn within them (Luke xxiv. 13). The same evening He came and stood in the midst of the disciples, and said, “Peace be unto you;” and He breathed on them and said, “receive ye the Holy Ghost” (John xx. 19). Again, after eight days, – that is, the next Lord’s day, – Jesus came and stood in the midst, and revealed Himself with unspeakable grace to unbelieving Thomas (John xx. 26).
It was on the Lord’s day also that the Holy Spirit was poured out at Pentecost (Acts ii. 1; compare Lev. xxiii. 15, 16). That beginning of all spiritual blessings, that first revival of the Christian Church, was on the Lord’s day. It was on the same day that the beloved John, an exile on the sea-girt isle of Patmos, far away from the assembly of the saints, was filled with the Holy Spirit, and received his heavenly revelation.
So that in all ages, front the beginning of the world, and in every place where there is a believer, the Sabbath has been a day of double blessing. It is so still, and will be, though all God’s enemies should gnash their teeth at it. True, God is a God of free grace, and confines His working to no time or place; but it is equally true, and all the scoffs of the infidel cannot alter it, that it pleases Him to bless His word most on the Lord’s day. All God’s faithful ministers in every land can bear witness that sinners are converted most frequently on the Lord’s day – that Jesus comes in and shows Himself through the lattice of ordinances oftenest on His own day. Saints, like John, are filled with the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and enjoy their calmest, deepest views into the eternal world.
Unhappy men, who are striving to rob our beloved Scotland of this day of double blessing, “ye know not what you do.” You would wrest from our dear countrymen the day when God opens the windows of heaven and pours down a blessing. You want to make the heavens over Scotland like brass, and the hearts of our people like iron. Is it the sound of the golden bells of our ever-living High Priest on the mountains of our land, and the breathing of His Holy Spirit over so many of our parishes, that has roused up your satanic exertions to drown the sweet sound of mercy by the deafening roar of railway carriages?
Is it the returning vigour of the revived and chastened Church of Scotland that has opened the torrents of blasphemy which you pour forth against the Lord of the Sabbath? Have your own withered souls no need of a drop from heaven? May it not be the case that some of you are blaspheming the very day on which your own soul might have been saved? Is it not possible that some of you may remember, with tears of anguish in hell, the exertions which you are now making, against light and against warning, to bring down a withering blight on your own souls and on the religion of Scotland?
Robert Murray McCheyne, I Love the Lord’s Day (1841) in Andrew A. Bonar (ed.), Memoir and Remains of Robert Murray McCheyne, Minister of St. Peter’s Free Church, Dundee (Edinburgh: Oliphant Anderson & Ferrier, 1892), pp 597-98.
W. J. Grier: The Sabbath was not only for the Jews
January 15, 2023
WAS the sabbath simply a Jewish institution? Was it only temporary in its design? Was it abrogated with other special laws of the Old Testament? Did it leave no divinely appointed substitute? The answer turns largely on this – is the fourth commandment binding upon the Church today?
The text of the commandment itself has some bearing on this issue. The commandment, given at Sinai, was based, not on something done to Israel alone, but on something done in the creation of the world: ‘For in· six days the Lord made heaven and earth: …’ (Ex. xx. 11). The implication is that ‘the sabbath was made for man’, and not for the Jew only.
There are traces of the observance of the sabbath before the giving of the law at Sinai (see Ex . xvi. 23). The reckoning of time by weeks long before Moses (Gen. xxix. 27) may have had for ‘its forgotten background’ the original institution of the sabbath at the creation. A few Old Testament references (Ne. ix. 14; Ez. xx. 12) might indeed seem to imply that the sabbath had its beginning at Sinai, but they mean no more than that in its specific Old Testament form it had its beginning with the legislation under Moses. The very word ‘remember’ in the commandment (‘Remember the sabbath day’) presupposes, as Franz Delitzsch points out, an acquaintance with the sabbath. It would seem as if the sabbath were intended to be a great river of blessing following man throughout his career on earth.
W. J. Grier, ‘The Development of the Lord’s Day from the Jewish Sabbath’, The Christian Graduate, 13, no. 3 (September 1960), pp 97-98.
John Holmes Agnew on the utility of the Sabbath to preserving true religion in a nation
January 8, 2023
Finally, the utility of the Sabbath is apparent in its moral efficacy in preserving the worship of the true God, and sustaining a sense of accountability. You may walk over the length and breadth of any land, where the Sabbath and all its precious and reforming influences have never been known, and your eye will meet no pure worshipper of the living Jehovah; and you may plant your foot on the portal of no temple dedicated to the service of the Eternal and Holy One. But instead, you will everywhere find the deluded multitude bowing their knees to the workmanship of their own hands, having changed the glory of the incorruptible God, into an image made like unto corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. And if you follow them to their fanes, you witness, most probably, the defiling worship of a prostitute goddess.
Or you may go to those who have lived under the light of Gospel truth, but have no regard for the Sabbath of God, and their conceptions of the Deity are such, (if they are not actual Atheists,) as leave them entirely irresponsible for their conduct, and sweep away from their minds all sense of accountability to God. Look at infidel France, when she Strikes out of her statute-book the weekly Sabbath and substitutes the Decade. She has the countenance and the mien of a maniac, and seems rushing to her own ruin, and looking fury in the face of her best friends. She cries night and day up and down the streets, “There is no God,” and pays her formal devotions to the substituted goddess of Reason.
She lights up a fire and burns the Bible, or for the amusement of the people and the gratification of her maniacal and fiendish spirit, ties it to the tail of an ass, and parades it through the market-places. She drives her horses and cattle into the house of God, swears there is no immortality, and that death is an eternal sleep; wishes she might imbrue her hands in the blood of the Redeemer, talks with Satanic malevolence of the delight it would have given her to drive the nails, and thrust the spear, and builds her thousand altars to be stained with the blood of millions of human victims. And when she has accomplished her purpose, and stripped herself of her glory, she goes out naked, to die unblest and unlamented, without a mourner to follow her to the tomb.
And let those who would abolish the Sabbath, or lessen its sanctity in the eyes of men, go and sit upon her grave, and ponder well the course she took, and the end to which it conducted her. Let them go and call up her spirit from the shades of the sepulchre, and inquire of it whether the observance of the Sabbath is not the safeguard of liberty and religion; and whether its neglect is not paving the way for the introduction of infidelity and scepticism, and the loss of individual and national accountability, and with tears of blood she will answer in the affirmative, and solemnly warn you not to tread in her steps.
And let it not be thought that the Bible is sufficient in itself, without the Sabbath, to prevent these consequences, and diffuse a wholesome moral principle. It is not. Without the energies of this holy rest, it could make little impression on the stony heart of man. And therefore God appoints the Sabbath and the ministry of reconciliation in union with it, that he may summon up the attention of men to its important and essential lessons. No; without the sanctity of this precious day, the Bible and all other moral influences would fade away, and die from off the earth. They would be but a “broken reed at best” before the mighty strength of unrestrained corruption. Law and gospel would both be forgotten, and the moral government of Jehovah be trodden under foot.
And in confirmation of this assertion, you may look to cities and towns in your own land, where the Sabbath is little regarded, and you see God dishonoured, his name wantonly profaned, and all his laws set at nought. And just in proportion as this day is desecrated, will the knowledge and worship of the true God fail from the mind, the moral sense of the nation be impaired, its power decay, its foundations be destroyed, and its pillars fall. And then It will stand forth a monument of the wisdom of God, and the folly of man; and it will hold up to the light, the too much forgotten farewell sentiment of the Father of this country [George Washington], that “national morality cannot prevail in exclusion of religious principle.” And we may add, that religious principle will not pervade a community, in exclusion of the Sabbath, which is the only sufficiently general, impressive, and popular medium of inculcating it.
John Holmes Agnew, A Manual on the Christian Sabbath (Philadelphia PA: Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1852), pp 129-32.
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Post by Admin on May 26, 2023 16:01:47 GMT -5
Thomas Boston on sinners being weary of the Lord’s Day
January 1, 2023
What pain and difficulty do men often find in bringing their hearts to religious duties? And what a task is it to the carnal heart to abide at them? It is a pain to it, to leave the world but a little, to converse with God. It is not easy to borrow time from the many things, to bestow it upon the one thing needful. Men often go to God in duties, with their faces towards the world; and when their bodies are on the mount of ordinances, their hearts will be found at the foot of the hill, going after their covetousness, Ezek. xxxiii. 31. They are soon wearied of well-doing; for holy duties are not agreeable to their corrupt nature. Take notice of them at their worldly business, set them down with their carnal company, or let them be sucking the breasts of a lust; time seems to them to fly, and drive furiously, so that it is gone ere they are aware. But how heavily does it drive, while a prayer, a sermon, or a sabbath lasts?
The Lord’s day is the longest day of all the week with many; and therefore they must sleep longer that morning, and go sooner to bed that night, than ordinarily they do; that the day may be made of a tolerable length: for their hearts say within them, when will the sabbath be gone? Amos viii. 5. The hours of worship are the longest hours of that day: hence when duty is over, they are like men eased of a burden; and when sermon is ended, many have neither the grace nor the good manners to stay till the blessing be pronounced, but like the beasts, their head is away as soon as one puts his hand to loose them; why, but because while they are at ordinances, they are, as Doeg, detained before the Lord, 1 Sam. xxii. 7.
Thomas Boston, Human nature in its fourfold state, of primitive integrity, subsisting in the parents of Mankind in paradise. Entire depravation, subsisting in the unregenerate. Begun recovery, subsisting in the regenerate. And consummate happiness or misery, subsisting in all mankind in the future state. In several practical discourses, ed. Michael Boston (1784; United States: The Booksellers, 1787), pp 60-61
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Post by Admin on May 26, 2023 16:14:46 GMT -5
Jonathan Edwards on Christ’s delight in the Lord’s Day
Posted November 27, 2022 by reformedcovenanter
Categories: American Congregationalists, Ascension of Christ, Holy Spirit, Jonathan Edwards, Prayer, Preaching, Private Worship, Regulative Principle of Worship, Resurrection, Sabbath, The Work of Christ
Jonathan EdwardsThe Lord Christ Jesus takes delight in his own day. He delights to honour it. He delights to meet with and manifest himself to his disciples on it, as he showed before his ascension by appearing to them from time to time on this day. He delights to give his Holy Spirit on this day, as he intimated by choosing of it to pour it out on the primitive church in so remarkable a manner upon it, and by giving his Spirit to the apostle John on this day.
God blessed the seventh day of old, or appointed it to be a day wherein he especially would bestow blessings on his people as an expression, as it were, of his own joyful remembrance of that day and of the rest and refreshment he had on it; Exodus 31:16–17, “Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath … for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed,” as princes give gifts on their birthday, on their marriage days, and the like.
But how much more reason has Christ to bless the day of his resurrection, and to delight to honour it, and to be conferring his graces and blessed gifts on his people on this day. It was a day wherein Christ rested and was refreshed in a literal sense. It was a day of great refreshment and joy to Christ, being the day of his deliverance from the chains of death, the day of his finishing that great and difficult work of redemption that had been upon his heart from all eternity, the day of his justification of the Father, the day of the beginning of his exaltation and the fulfilment of the promises of his Father, the day when he had eternal life, which he had purchased, put into his hands. And Christ does delight to distribute gifts and blessings and joy and happiness on this day, and will to the end of the world.
O, therefore, how well is it worth our while to improve this day, to call upon God and seek Jesus Christ on it!
Let awakened sinners be stirred up by these things to improve the sabbath day, as they would lay themselves most in the way of the Spirit of God. Improve the sabbath day to call upon God, for then he is near. Improve the sabbath day for reading the holy Scriptures and diligently attending his Word preached, for then is the likeliest time to have the Spirit accompanying of it. Let the saints that are desirous of growing in grace and enjoying communion with Christ improve the sabbath in order to it.
Jonathan Edwards, The Perpetuity and Change of the Sabbath (1730-31) in Mark Valeri (ed.), Sermons and Discourses, 1730-1733: The Works of Jonathan Edwards Volume 17 (New Haven CN: Yale University Press, 2000), p. 246.
John Downame on resting from worldly business on the Sabbath
Posted November 13, 2022 by reformedcovenanter
Categories: Early English Reformed, John Downame, Lex Triplex, Natural and Moral Law, Sabbath
One whole day in seven is of necessity to be kept holy. This the Scripture calleth by excellency the Sabbath Day, without a difference, as it were the elder brother to all the rest of the days of the week, which is called Sabbaths in the plural.
The parts of the sanctifying of this day are two: one, to rest from worldly businesses, and from those works and duties of our calling, which at other times are not only lawful, but expedient and necessary to be done. The particular works that we are thus to abstain from, are of two kinds: First, great as well as small, and small as well as great. A greater and more excellent work can hardly be imagined, then the building of God’s own House, the material and outward Tabernacle, yet even That the Lord by a strict & precise caution doth specially forbid upon this day, Exod. 31. 13. Yet, saith he, ye shall observe my Sabbaths: Not setting your hand in that day unto this work, though it be most holy.
Those holy women that had Odours, Ointments, and all things in a readiness, yet in a religious observation of God’s Ordinance, forbear on the Sabbath to embalm the precious body of our Lord and Saviour Christ, and are commended by the Holy Ghost for it. They rested, saith LUKE, the Sabbath Day, according to the Commandment. Again, how small a thing is it to gather a few sticks! But when one presumed to do this, and with an high hand in profanation of the Sabbath, we know what his doom was from the mouth of God himself, Numb. 15. 32, 33, 34, 35, 36.
In the second place come things both necessary and delightful, of profit, and of pleasure. In seed time and in harvest the fittest seasons for all worldly commodities, thou shalt keep Sabbath, saith the Holy Ghost, Exodus 34. 21. Of this kind are travailing and journeying upon that Day; whereof the Law is given, Exodus 16. 29. Tarry every man in his place: Let no man go out of his place the seventh Day.
Likewise Fairs, Markets, and all kind of buying and selling: for which cause Nehemiah that godly Magistrate, When the gates of Jerusalem began to bee dark before the Sabbath, commanded to shut the gates, and charged that they should not be opened till after the Sabbath, and set some of his servants at the gates, that there should be no burden brought in upon the Sabbath Day.
Sporting also, banqueting, and such like, which distract our minds from God’s Service, are then to be avoided, which is that the Lord calleth, Not to do our own delight upon that Day, Esay 58. 13. The doing of which things, or of any of them, is contrary to this outward sanctifying of the Sabbath.
John Downame, The Sum of Sacred Divinity Briefly & Methodically Propounded: More Largely & Clearly Handled and Explained (London: William Stansby, [1625]), 1.8,
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Post by Admin on May 26, 2023 16:43:06 GMT -5
William Ames on ceasing from our works on the Lord’s Day
Posted October 2, 2022 by reformedcovenanter
Categories: Early English Reformed, Lex Triplex, Natural and Moral Law, Sabbath, William Ames
Doct. 3. One part of our duty is that on the Lord’s day, we cease from all our own works.
It is gathered from the Text; In six days shalt thou doe all thy work; but on the seventh day thou shalt do no work. &c. That is, no work that is thine. Now that work is said to be our work, which neither directly belongs to the worship of God, nor yet is otherways imposed upon us by any necessity from God; but is chosen by our selves for some human, or worldly end.
Now such are 1. All our common and mercenary works. 2 All things, that call away our mind from that intention that is required unto the worship of God on that day, though otherways they be not servile. Yet such things are not forbidden, as either belong unto common honesty, or are of a very urgent and not of a made necessity of our own. The reason of this rest is, that we may be at convenient leisure for divine worship: For worldly businesses do in divers ways withstand this more solemn worship of God.
Reas. 1. Because the very external acts of both are for the most part such, as that they cannot consist or stand together at one time.
Reas. 2. Because the mind being distracted with such worldly business, cannot compose or settle it self in good order to perform solemn worship to God, as it ought.
Reas. 3. Because the taste, and savour, and power of holy exercises is impaired, and dulled at least, or blunted by mixture of such things with them, which in comparison should be but vile to them.
Use Is of Reproof, of such as easily break the rest of this day, either by their ordinary and vulgar occupations; or with merchandizes, or with sports or plays, or with troublesome and long feastings on it, &c.
William Ames, The Substance of Christian Religion: Or, A Plain and Easy Draught of the Christian Catechism, in LII. Lectures, on chosen texts of Scripture, for each Lord’s-Day of the Year, Learnedly and Perspicuously Illustrated with Doctrines, Reasons and Uses (London: Thomas Davies, 1659), Lecture XXXVIII, pp 232-33.
William Ames on the sanctified rest of the Lord’s Day
Posted August 7, 2022 by reformedcovenanter
Categories: Early English Reformed, Lex Triplex, Meditation, Natural and Moral Law, Preaching, Private Worship, Regulative Principle of Worship, Sabbath, Sacraments, William Ames
Doct. 4. The other part of our duty on the Lord’s day, is to sanctify this our rest; that is, to apply the leisure that we have, to God’s worship, as well publicly as privately.
Duties of this kind are first, a preparing of our minds to God’s solemn worship. Secondly, Hearing of his Word. Thirdly, Solemn prayers. Fourthly, Partaking of the Sacraments. Fifthly, Works of Charity. Sixthly, Meditation and conference about holy things. Seventhly, A religious considering of the works of God, of Creation and Providence, and even of such as occasionally we then hear or see, though they be otherways worldly.
Reas. 1. Because in such duties, we make profession of Religion, and of that honour, that is due unto God; which therefore is to him honourable, and accepted.
Reas. 2. Because by this means, we build up our selves, and advance our communion that we have with God: For seeing that by worldly occupations through the six days of the week, our mind is somewhat pressed towards the earth, it was by a most wise purpose and counsel of God ordained, that every seventh day at least again they should be lifted up to heaven, and sent up thitherwards by all such means, that they might be restored to their former step or degree, from which they had been declining:
And seeing we contract also some filthiness from such worldly businesses, on the Lord’s day they should be wiped off, and we cleansed from them by the exercises of sanctification. And seeing many occasions fall on the other days, which bring their own difficulties and tentations with them; on this day we ought to be well furnished and armed, so that it ought to be our day of spiritual mustering or weapon showing; and a day of lustration. A cleansing our selves from all filthinesses before contracted; and a day of our ascending into heaven, in as far as our Faith and Charity, with other heavenly gifts, on this day should be singularly kindled in our hearts.
Reas. 3. Because by this means also we build up one another in the practise of our Religion, so that he who hears the preaching of the word, though he learn nothing himself, yet he teaches others some good thing, even in this, that he hears, and thereby presses that he both should do so and other too: So hereby he teaches others, that God is to be solemnly worshipped, and his word with reverence to be heard.
Use 1. Is of Admonition, that we beware of the neglect of these duties, which can not consist with any vigour either of religion to God, or of love and care of our own salvation: Or lastly, of love and Christian affection towards the Church, and our neighbours.
Use 2. Is of Direction, that according to this rule we judge of the duties, which on this day we perform about God’s worship: For all of them in common should rise up so high as to a sanctifying of this day; and this sanctifying again of the day, depends on our sanctifying of the name of God, and our advancing of our own salvation: Unless therefore we seek such fruits in our consciences, we have therein just cause of great humiliation; but if we feel them in any degree, we have as great reason to give the Lord as great thanks for it.
William Ames, The Substance of Christian Religion: Or, A Plain and Easy Draught of the Christian Catechism, in LII. Lectures, on chosen texts of Scripture, for each Lord’s-Day of the Year, Learnedly and Perspicuously Illustrated with Doctrines, Reasons and Uses (London: Thomas Davies, 1659), Lecture XXXVIII, pp 233-35.
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Post by Admin on Jun 2, 2023 22:13:13 GMT -5
Kit Culver...The fourth commandment concerning the Sabbath (Exodus 20:8-11) is perhaps the most important to consider since it’s often at the center of debates and disputes regarding theDecalogue. Many who affirm that the Decalogue continues in force argue that the Sabbath commandment is the one exception; the “Ten Words” have become nine by
virtue of Jesus’ coming. Others contend that the entire Decalogue stands or falls as a whole. Among those who hold this position, some maintain that the Sabbathcommandment must be obeyed as given; it is an ordinance for the seventh day (soAdventists and many messianic Christians). The more common view among Sabbatarians(those who uphold a Sabbath law) is that Jesus’ resurrection on the first day of the week shifted the Sabbath observance from the seventh day to the first day (the “Lord’s Day”).
The day and ceremonial observances have changed, but the fundamental obligation remains the same. Most Protestants and Romans Catholics, however, aren’t sabbatarian in the strict sense; they might acknowledge the importance or even the duty of a regular Sunday gathering for worship, but they don’t accept the idea of a Sabbath law.
Though Christians take different approaches to answering the question of sabbath obligation and observance, it should be addressed in the same way as every other component of Torah. The sabbath commandment also had three horizons of significance and three referents, the central one being Jesus Himself.
d. As part of the Decalogue, the sabbath commandment was a central feature of Israel’s Torah; Yahweh gave it to Israel as one aspect of the covenant relationshipHe established with them as the Abrahamic people. Again, the Mosaic Covenant defined God to Israel and Israel to itself (it was Yahweh’s covenant “son”) and it
prescribed how the relationship of covenant Father and son was to be lived out.
The obligation of a weekly sabbath observance was a key component of this definition, but it was only one dimension of a more comprehensive prescription; the Law of Moses prescribed numerous sabbath observances which together
pressed Israel with the truth that it was a sabbath people – a people called to live in a sabbath relationship with their God; a relationship characterized by the peace and settledness of authentic, full and harmonious intimacy (ref. Leviticus 16:29- 31, 23:4-39, 25:1-12; Deuteronomy 16:1-8). Moreover, Israel was a sabbath people because they were a redeemed and consecrated people: Israel was Yahweh’s elect son, liberated and gathered to Him to dwell with Him in His sanctuary land, thereby entering His rest (cf. Exodus 15:17, 19:1-6, 20:1-2 with 31:12-17; Deuteronomy 5:12-15; Ezekiel 20:12-20; ref. also Hebrews 3:1-11).
Israel’s historical and covenantal circumstance lay behind its sabbath obligations and this is critically important to understanding why God connected the sabbath commandment with His creation rest. Sabbatarians typically use this connection to support the claim of an enduring sabbath law. The idea is that God established the weekly sabbath as a “creation ordinance” binding on all people in all ages.
Viewing the Decalogue as eternal, unchanging “moral law” only reinforces this notion. But the most obvious flaw in this approach is that it treats the concept of sabbath apart from Israel and its role in God’s purposes for the world. It connects sabbath and creation, but not in relation to Israel.
Yahweh directly associated His sabbaths with Israel, but in terms of the nation’s redemption and consecration. Israel was His elect son, chosen in Abraham to dwell with Him as a son to a father. In that way, Israel would be His light to the nations and fulfill its calling to be His instrument of blessing (reconciliation and
regathering) for the world of men. Israel’s mission was the reason for its consecration and this consecration was achieved through a great work of redemption; Yahweh redeemed His covenant “son” to set him apart to Himself
and this meant gathering Israel to His dwelling place (Exodus 4:22-23, 15:17).
But this redemption and ingathering reflected the circumstance in Eden and Israel’s role in addressing it. The fall shattered the creation’s perfection, and sabbath – settled rest in God’s presence – was replaced with alienation, fear, enmity and exile. But this would not be the last word; one day sabbath would again characterize God’s creation and His relationship with His image-son.
Israel was at the center of this project and was to be its “first fruit.” God chose Abraham and his descendents to be the beginning of His “new creation” and this meant that Israel needed to be a sabbath people living a
sabbath existence with Him. Hence the sabbath emphasis in the covenant
and the depiction of Canaan – the place where covenant son and Father were to dwell together – as a new Eden, the place of sabbath rest (cf. Exodus 3:8; Leviticus 26:1-12; Numbers 13:1-27; Psalm 95).
- Israel’s inheritance of Canaan, there to live in Yahweh’s presence, was a prototypical fulfillment of God’s oath in Eden. It involved the end of Israel’s exile and alienation and a new father-son relationship with the son
restored to the Father’s “house.” And as “sabbath” characterized the first Eden, so it was with the new Eden. This explains Yahweh’s statement that He gave His sabbaths to Israel and why it was that the concept of sabbath
saturated the relationship between Israel and its God. Israel was Yahweh’s new Adam – His restored image-son dwelling with Him in His Edenic sanctuary. This is also why Yahweh made sabbath-keeping a primary litmus test of Israel’s faithfulness toward Him and future with Him (ref. Isaiah 56:1-7, 58:1-14; Jeremiah 17:19-27; Nehemiah 13:1-22).
This relationship between creation, Israel and sabbath is the basis for understanding how Jesus fulfilled Torah’s sabbath demand – not just the weekly sabbath, but the very principle of sabbath expressed in all of Israel’s sabbatical obligations (festal sabbaths, the seventh-year sabbath, the Jubilee, etc.). He fulfilled the sabbath obligation imposed by the Law of Moses by fulfilling all Torah as God’s true Israel. This truth lies behind His answer to those who accused Him of breaking the Sabbath: Sabbath was made for man (that is, it speaks to the image-son’s blessedness in sharing in the Father’s rest) and the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath, not as ruling over it, but as being the One it served– the One to whom it pointed; the true Image-Son in whom it has found its destiny
and fulfillment (Mark 2:23-28; cf. Matthew 12:1-8; also John 5:1-20).
As with all Torah, the relevance of the sabbath commandment for Christians is determined by its fulfillment and transformation in relation to Jesus. Because Christians share in Christ’s life – they are sons in the Son, they share in His relation to God and to God’s Torah, whatever specific law or commandment may be in view. With respect to the sabbath commandment, it was part of God’s Torah for Israel. The principle and obligation of sabbath was woven into Israel’s covenant, indicating that it was a core dimension of Israel’s identity, relationship with God and role as His image-son for the sake of the world. So Jesus fulfilled the sabbath obligation (in all its expressions), not by meticulous observance of appointed days, but as the faithful embodiment of Israel. He fulfilled the sabbath
obligation by being, in every respect and to the full extent, Yahweh’s consecrated Image-Son living in perfect harmony with Him. Sabbath wasn’t about stillness or the absence of activity, but the peace and settledness (contented complacency) that come from undistracted and unimpaired intimacy, devotion and worship.
Israel’s sweeping sabbath prescriptions showed them that they were to be a sabbath people and Jesus fulfilled these prescriptions by living a truly sabbatical life; in every moment and every circumstance, He lived as Yahweh’s consecrated Image-Son, fully and fiercely devoted to His Father and His purposes and work.
The proof that Jesus fulfilled the sabbath obligation wasn’t how He spent one day in seven, but the fact that His food consisted in doing His Father’s will; the fact that He could truthfully declare that men saw His Father when they saw Him.
Jesus showed that sabbath speaks to a way of life – a way of being human in relation to God. Sabbath is a principle at the heart of the Creator/creature relationship (the relationship that has man at its center), not a time frame
governed by certain activities. Sabbath is the condition that exists when the Creator/creature relationship is all that God intends it to be. The Law of Moses sought to express this through its multiple sabbath ordinances imposed upon Israel, the image-son; Jesus brought the reality of sabbath into the light of day by His sabbatical life as true Image-Son. And as it was for Him, so it is for those who
share in His life as Last Adam and True Man.
The starting point, then, for Christians considering their sabbath obligation is to
recognize that “keeping the Sabbath” involves being a sabbath person. Whateverone might believe about sabbath days and observances, the foundational, all important issue is union with the Messiah. Sabbath concerns a way of being human – not just in oneself or in relation to God, but in terms of the human vocation. Sabbath speaks to human existence when man is truly man. And since this humanness is found only in the resurrected Messiah, people have no hope – indeed, no clear understanding – of fulfilling their sabbath obligation except as they share in Him (Hebrews 3; Colossians 2:16-17). But once taken up in His life and given His mind, they are enabled to see that sabbath-keeping isn’t about a day or an observance, but the life of new creation. It is about living as fully human, fully consecrated image-sons: “He who observes the day, observes it for the Lord,
and he who eats, does so for the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he whoeats not, for the Lord he does not eat, and gives thanks to God.” (Romans 14:5-9)
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Post by Admin on Jul 20, 2023 1:41:45 GMT -5
THE SABBATH OF THE LORD
The “Lord’s Day” in Revelation 1:10 – Was it the Seventh Day Sabbath or the First Day Christian Sabbath?
The answer to this question serves much to determine and to identify the Sabbath Day that has God’s stamp of authority, and sanction by the holy Scripture as the “Sabbath Day” set aside for holy purposes and the worship of God.
The text written by the apostle John says: “I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea”
Several major religious groups, the Jews alongside the Seventh-Day Gentile keepers; the Christian-Sabbath believers; and still some others, who do not keep any specific day but hold that every day is a sabbath—lay claim to being in possession of the correct interpretation of the teaching of Scripture anent the “4th Commandment.”
To prove, examine, and determine which day is the Sabbath of the Lord, and to cover more grounds, we will confine our discussions only to the views and positions of the first two major groups—the Jews and the Seventh-Day Gentile keepers, and the Christian Sabbath-Day keepers.
Which day is the Sabbath of the Lord?
The Seventh Day Sabbath keepers argue and categorically state that the seventh day, being part of the Ten Commandments, cannot be changed or abrogated. The Christian Sabbath keepers on the other hand hold and cite among other major biblical reasons that the resurrection of Jesus Christ in the first century A.D. is central to all aspects of the gospel dispensations and ought therefore to be kept as the Sabbath of the Lord.
To clarify and establish biblical proofs, we will look at and validate with Scripture the exposition works of three recognized Bible expositors: Arthur W. Pink, John Gill, and Herman Hoeksema anent their exegetical conclusions on the above issues.
To start, we will now look at Pink’s work on the “biblical warrant and sanction of the transfer of the seventh-day Sabbath to the first-day Christian Sabbath.” He writes:
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CHRISTIANIZATION OF THE SABBATH
It should be apparent that the particular day of the week on which the Sabbath is to be observed, resolves itself into what Covenant we do walk under before God. If the Sinaitic covenant has been disannulled, then of necessity the Day of rest has been changed. On the other hand, to insist that the Sabbath as given to the Jews is not abolished, requires us to perpetuate the whole system of Mosaic ordinances which stood on the same bottom with it. That this is not simply an inference or dogmatic assertion of ours, that it is actually a scriptural proposition, is clear from the whole argument of Heb. 7-10. "For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law" (Heb. 7:12). "The covenant being changed, the rest which was the end of it being changed, and the way of entering into God's rest being changed, a change of the day of rest must of necessity thereon ensue" (John Owen). With these introductory remarks we now proceed to offer proofs for the first day of the week being the Christian Sabbath.
First, it was plainly adumbrated in O. T. times. This change in the weekly Day of rest from the last to the first day of the week, that is, from the seventh to the eighth, as everything pertaining to the Christian era, was intimated under various types and shadows. The work of creation was finished in six days, and on the seventh God rested from His work, which completed a week, or the first series of time. The eighth day, then, was the first of a new series, and on that day Christ rose as the Head of a new creation. The eighth day is accordingly signalized in the O. T., pointing in a manner the most express to the day when Christ entered into His rest, and when in commemoration thereof His people are to rest.
Circumcision was to be administered unto children on the eighth day (Gen. 17:12). On the eighth day, but not before, animals were accepted in sacrifice (Lev. 22:27). On the eighth the consecration of Aaron as high priest, and his sons, after various ceremonies, was completed (Lev. 9:1). On the eighth was the cleansing from issues, emblematic also of sin (Lev. 15:29). On the eighth day atonement was made for the Nazarite who was defiled (Num. 6:10). When the sheaf of the first fruits was brought to the priest, it was to be accepted on the eighth day (Lev. 23:11)–a distinctive type of the resurrection of Christ. The eighth day was sanctified at the dedication of the Temple (2 Chron.7:9), and in its sanctification at the time of Hezekiah (2 Chron. 29:17).
Now can any spiritual mind suppose for a moment that this repeated signalization of the eighth day, in connection with the most solemn services of God's ancient people and in a manner so conspicuous, was without a special purpose? Did not the wisdom of God single out that day for some very important end? intimating thereby an antitypical new beginning? The eighth day corresponds with the first day of the week, on which according to all those appointments, Christ was received as the Firstborn from the dead, His sacrifice accepted, and on which, as the great High Priest He was "consecrated for evermore," having made atonement for His people, by which they are cleansed from all sin. That purpose of God is fully developed in the N. T., where He who is Lord of the Sabbath, without in the slightest degree changing the obligation to observe a seventh day, appropriated to Himself the first instead of the last day of the week.
Second, this change is clearly intimated by what is recorded of the first day in the N. T. The alteration in the day of Sabbath rest and worship was emphasized by Christ's personal visitations to His assembled disciples on the first of the week. After His appearing to the travelers to Emmaus, the Saviour was seen no more until His mysterious and blessed manifestation in the upper room. "Then the same day at evening, being the first of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you" (John 20:19). What is the Holy Spirit's object here in mentioning the particular day of the week? Was it not to inform us that this is now a particular day? Jews would understand at once what was signified by the notice that a religious "assembly" occurred on the seventh day, and Christians are to equally understand what is denoted by such an allusion to the first day.
The next detail to be noticed in the above passage is "the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews." What is indicated by those Words? Let it be remembered that the Lord had already "opened their understandings that they might understand the Scriptures" (Luke 24:45), which must mean that, in a measure at least, they now knew the types had given place to the reality. We also know that "He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments unto the apostles whom He had chosen, to whom also he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs" (Acts 1:2, 3). What other conclusion, then, can be drawn, but that the disciples now observed the Sabbath on the first day of the week, and that they therefore took the precaution of fastening the doors because they knew how incensed the Jews would be for their departure from the ancient observance of the Sabbath on the seventh day?
Thomas was absent on the above occasion, and when he learned of its marvels, expressed strong unbelief. Throughout the week the Lord Jesus did not re-appear. But when the disciples assembled again on the first day of the next week, Thomas being present with them, He stood once more in their midst and said, "Peace be unto you" (John 20:26). Is there nothing marked by that interval of time? His other interviews with them are not thus dated! Surely. the fact that Christ was not seen by His disciples for a whole week, and that He then appeared to them again on the first day when they met for special worship, clearly signifies His definite sanction of this as the appointed day of meeting with His disciples. And is not this most expressly confirmed by the Holy Spirit's advent at Pentecost? Most assuredly the Spirit's descent on the first day of the week crowned this ordinance and ratified the newly-instituted Christian Sabbath.
Third, the first day of the week was celebrated by the early Church. That this was how the apostles understood the matter appears from their custom, for they assembled together for the breaking of bread and the preaching of the Word "on the first day of the week" (Acts 20:7). Are we not compelled to conclude that what the apostles did, and what the churches did under their supervision, must have been done in accord with the revealed will of their Divine Master? But it will be objected, If God requires the Sabbath to be duly observed on the first day of the week during this Christian dispensation, why has He not given a definite command through His apostles to that effect in the Epistles? To this question we make three replies. In the first place, it savors strongly of impiety: a taking it upon ourselves to say how God is to make known His pleasure to us—He has other ways of declaring His will besides through express precepts.
In the second place, such a question loses sight altogether of the situation in which many of the early Christians found themselves—a situation very different from that which generally obtains today. In the first generation of the Christian era it was quite impossible for the Sabbath to be kept with the same sacred strictness with which the Jewish Sabbath had been observed. So long as the Christian Church was confined to the boundaries of Palestine, and its members were made up of Jewish believers and proselytes, as it was for some time, it was required of all the converts to continue in an exact observance of the Jewish Sabbath in compliance with the law of the land. They did, in addition, observe the Lord's day so far as that was possible privately; but they had it not in their power to render the first day one of holy rest for all their fellows.
When the Christian Church enlarged her borders and converts from the Gentiles were added thereto, the Christian Sabbath had to encounter most formidable obstacles and was met by almost constant opposition. Let it also be carefully borne in mind that many of the early Gentile converts were the slaves of heathen masters, and it will at once appear how impossible it was for the Church to secure anything approaching Sabbath observance, so far as that implies the setting apart of the first day from all secular interests and the devoting of it solely unto Divine worship. It was therefore most merciful on God's part to lay not upon them a burden which they could not have borne. Nevertheless there is clear evidence that those early Christians devoted at least a part of the first day to special worship so far as their distressed and persecuted state rendered possible.
But in the third place we ask, Is it true that no Divine command for the sanctification of the first day is to be found in the Epistles? And we reply, No, it is not. "Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come" (I Cor. 16:1, 2). "1 have given order" is certainly the language of authority, and cannot be regarded as anything less than an apostolic command. It is to be duly noted that Paul "gave order" concerning not only the principle of systematic Christian giving (for the relief of indigent saints), but also stipulated the time when such collections were to be made, that being appointed for "the first day of the week." Nor was such a regulation peculiar to the church at Corinth, as is intimated by his "so I teach everywhere in every church" (4:17), "so ordain I in all the churches" (7:17). Moreover, he expressly tells us "the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord" (I Cor. 14:27).
"In view of this important verse, we may remark: there is here clear proof that the first day of the week was observed by the church at Corinth as holy time. If it was not, there can have been no propriety in selecting that day in preference to any other in which to make the collection. It was the day which was set apart to the duties of religion, and therefore an appropriate day for the exercise of charity and the bestowment of alms. There can have been no reason why this day should have been designated except that it was a day set apart to religion, and therefore deemed a proper day for the exercise of benevolence towards others. This order extended also to the churches in Galatia, proving also that the first day of the week was observed by them, and was regarded as a day proper for the exercise of charity towards the poor and afflicted. And if the first day of the week was observed, by apostolic authority, in those churches, it is morally certain that it was observed by others. This consideration, therefore, demonstrates that it was the custom to observe this day, and that it was observed by the authority of the early founders of Christianity" (A. Barnes).
"For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his." There the apostle concludes his argument by declaring that the "rest" which remains for believers to enter into (4:3), and the new day appointed by God for this dispensation (4:9), have a new and special foundation, which the previous rests and days had no interest or concern in, namely, that the Author of it ceased from His own works and entered into His rest. Proofs that this verse refers to Christ are many. First, its opening "For," which denotes that the apostle now indicates whence it is there is a new Sabbatismos remaining for the people of God. He had before shown there could be no such rest but what was founded upon the works of God. Such a foundation this new rest must have, and doth have. It is the work of Him by whom the Church is builded: 3:3, 4.
Second, the change of number in the pronoun from the plural to the singular intimates the same thing. In vv. I and 3 the apostle had used "us" and "we," but here "he that is entered." This is the more noticeable because in the verse immediately preceding he had mentioned "the people of God." That it is not them who are here in view further appears from the fact that they never cease from their works while left in this world. No other reason can possibly be given for this change of number except that a single person is here expressed. Third, note it is not simply said of this person that "he that is entered into rest" (as in vv. 3 and , but "into his rest" absolutely. God spoke of "My rest-.' here He mentions "his rest'--Christ's rest!
Well, then, may we with the utmost confidence exclaim with the Psalmist, "This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it" (118:24). "We observe the day as henceforth our true Sabbath, a day made and ordained of God, for the perpetual remembrance of the achievements of our Redeemer" (C. H. Spurgeon). It should be pointed out that the passage we have last quoted is part of a remarkable prophecy, which set forth both the humiliation and exaltation of the Lord Jesus-"the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow." The passage is quoted in the N. T. no less than six times, being expressly applied to the Saviour. First, He is seen as "the Stone which the builders refused," and then as "become the head of the corner" (v. 22).
And how could that "Stone," contemptuously trodden underfoot by men, become "the head of the corner?" How indeed except by being raised! It was by His triumph over death that Christ became the Head of the corner-a "corner" is when two walls meet together, and in resurrection Christ became Head of both believing Jews and believing Gentiles' The Psalmist added, "This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes" (v. 23). And then follows "This is the day which the Lord hath made." What could be clearer? How perfectly it accords with Heb. 4:9, 101 That "day " was Divinely "made" to memorialize Christ's victory over the grave: God has "made it remarkable, made it holy, hah distinguished it from all other days: it is therefore called the Lord's day, because it bears His image and superscription" (Matt. Henry).
And so it is:.the Christian Sabbath is specifically designated "the Lord's day" in Rev. 1:10. It is called such, because it owes its pre-eminence to the Lord's institution and authority. By taking to Himself the title of "the Lord of the Sabbath" (Mark 2:28), Christ clearly intimated His authority to determine which day of the week a Sabbath rest was to be observed by His people, and by ceasing from His works and entering into His rest on the first day of the week, He has "limited" this one for us. Those who are determined to close their eyes to all this evidence and get rid of the first-day Sabbath at any price, wrest these words in Rev. 1: 10 by saying they signify "the Day of the Lord-when He comes in judgment. But the immediate context is dead against them: all that follows from 1:10 to the end of chap. 3 shows that this opening vision respected present and not future things. Moreover, the Greek is different from 2 Pet. 3:10! "The Lord's supper" (1 Cor. 11:21) memorializes His death; "the Lord's day" celebrates His resurrection.
Conclusion
A brief word on v. 11 must suffice: "Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any of you fall after the same example of unbelief." Here the apostle returns to his main exhortation and therefore uses the word ("Katapausis") employed in vv. 1, 3, to which we refer the reader-thus vv. 4-10 are an explanatory parenthesis. The "fear" of v. 1 is not that of dread or doubt, but of reverential respect unto the Divine threatenings and promises, such as would move its possessors to heed the one and inherit the other. The utmost of our endeavors and efforts are required in order to our obtaining an entrance into the rest of Christ (v. 11). We are to "labour" or give the greatest possible diligence thereto (cf. John 6:27). To mortify sin, deny self, cut off right hands, endure all sorts of afflictions and persecutions, are painful, difficult, and attended with many hardships. The future state of Christians is one wholly of rest, but his present state is a mixed one: partly of rest, partly of labour-labour against sin, rest in the love and grace of God.
Having traced through Scripture the original institution of the Sabbath in Eden, the brief but plain intimations of its observance by the patriarchs, its solemn renewal at Sinai and incorporation into the Moral Law, its being honored by Christ and freed from pharisaical additions, its Christianization, it only remains for us to state in a few words its importance, design, and value. The Sabbath is a memorial of Divine creation. It denotes that God is the sovereign Lord of our time, which is to be used and improved by us as He has specified in the Fourth Commandment. It is a commemoration of Christ's resurrection and a foresadowing of our Eternal Rest from sin. It is designed to preserve us from becoming wholly absorbed with the things of time and sense. It is a signal means of grace for the promotion of the spiritual life. In proportion as it is kept holy, godliness prospers. A due observance thereof lies at the foundation of a nation's happiness and prosperity. "Blessed is the man that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it" (Isa. 66:2).
Here is a summary of the reasons why Christians should observe the Sabbath on the first day of the week. First, because that day was clearly anticipated by O. T. typology-- striking things connected with "the eighth day." Second, because the New Covenant necessitated a new Day of rest to signify the old covenant was abrogated. Third, because the honour and glory of Christ required it: on the day especially appointed for Divine worship, God would now have us occupied with His risen and exalted Son. Fourth, His own example bears witness thereto: His repeated meetings with His disciples (John 19) and His sending the Spirit on that day (Acts 2:1) set His imprimatur upon it. Fifth, because the early Church so celebrated it (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:1, 2): there is not a single recorded instance in the N. T. of the saints meeting together for worship, after Christ's resurrection on any other day but on the first of the week! Sixth, because we are expressly told that God has "limited" or determined "another day" (Heb. 4:9) than the old one, and that, because that Christ then rose from the dead (v. 10). Seventh, because we are Divinely assured that, in view of the raising up of the rejected Stone to be the head of the corner. "This is the day which the Lord hath made" (Psa. 118:24), and therefore is it called "the Lord's day" in the N. T. (Rev. 1:10).
It is true that though death was the Divinely ordained penalty for the Israelite who polluted the Sabbath, it is not threatened against us today; nevertheless, let not any proud rebel suppose he shall escape the anger of his offended Creator. Gal. 6: 7 applies here with its full solemn force: "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." No, God is not mocked. He has commanded man to spend one day out of each seven in rest from all unnecessary work. and if he disobeys, God will make him rest, rest on a bed of sickness. and if that does not suffice, rest in death!
"A Sabbath well spent,
Brings a week of content,
And strength for the toils of the morrow.
But a Sabbath profaned,
Whatever may be gained,
Is a certain forerunner of sorrow."
ARTHUR W. PINKTHE SABBATH OF THE LORD (3/3)
The CHRISTIAN SABBATH – as the “Lord’s Day” (continued)
Which day in the weekly-cycle of seven days is the “Sabbath of the Lord,” the day which God ordained for holy purposes and for the worship of God? One major group categorically states and maintains that the day is the “Seventh-day Sabbath” – the day being part of the Ten Commandments, and the day when God rested after completing His work of creation in six days. Another group claims that there’s no particular day designated but that “every day” must be observed to serve the above purposes of God. The third, the one that Christians universally keep is the “First-day” of the week, or the “Christian Sabbath” – the day that commemorates the “Resurrection” of Jesus Christ.
Which view has God’s stamp of authority, and has the sanction of Scripture? This we will answer from the facts of Scripture.
To start off let it be asked: – Is it true that because God ordained the Sabbath day, that it cannot therefore be changed or abrogated? With man, of course, that is certainly and definitely true. But with God it cannot be applied. Man, a puny and finite creature that he is, may never tamper nor tinker with it, or the fury of God’s wrath will be upon him, or with anyone who will. To change or abrogate what has been established and set is a divine prerogative that the great creator God alone exercises according to His eternal counsel and wisdom and divine purpose. Let me illustrate and prove that from the Scripture.
In the entirety of the whole counsel of God, one can glean, here and there and elsewhere, changes in the administration, dispensation and magnification of God’s laws, statutes and commandments. To cite a few examples: Hebrews 7:20 speaks about the change and abrogation of the priesthood from Levitical to the Milchezedec order. Why this was necessary certainly serves God’s divine purpose. The former was imperfect and the sacrifices insufficient, the priests being themselves sinners; whereas in the latter Christ needed not expiation of His own sin/s (except by imputation) being Himself perfect and therefore would serve and function perfectly as high-priest – Christ himself – who is now in heaven perpetually working and interceding before God for His people.
Another example is the circumcision command in the Old Testament (Gen. 17:11), which was changed to baptism in the New Testament (I Pet. 3:21). Again, why was the change made? In the OT all those things that pointed to Christ involved the shedding of blood (Heb. 9:22), but once the blood of Christ was shed there could be no more shedding of blood (Heb. 10:22). Both circumcision and baptism are pictures of salvation and especially of that which is most important in our salvation, the removal of sin by the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. The parallel is clear in the case of circumcision from Deuteronomy 30:6 and Colossians 2:11, and in the case of baptism from Romans 6:6 and I Peter 3:21. Again the change was necessary because Christ had already served the purpose of what circumcision foreshadowed.
Similar to this analogy was the use of animal sacrifices and the keeping of feast days which were all types and shadows pointing to Christ in the OT. But when Christ came – who is the reality of these types and shadows – and after that He had sacrificed himself, the ceremonial laws and feast days shadows were immediately abrogated.
Another statute that was changed was the use of emblems of the Lord’s Supper – Passover in the OT. In the OT, unblemished lamb with unleavened bread and bitter herbs were used to observe it (Ex. 12:5-8); in the NT Jesus Christ introduced the bread and wine to serve as a memorial of Christ’s offering His body to be broken and the spilling of His blood in order to secure the salvation of His people. Now all these are changes in the laws and statutes that God himself made. Moreover, regarding the matter of the magnification of God’s laws and moral laws, one needs only to read Jesus Christ sermon on the mount.
In light of all these changes in the laws and commandments of God, we see now the grounds of God’s authorization and the Scripture’s sanction, on the changes and abrogation of the sabbath – from the viewpoint of God’s progressive revelations and purposes – in the Creation Sabbath, the Shadow Sabbath, the Resurrection Sabbath, and the Eternal Sabbath.
Need I cite more Scriptures to prove that the sole Lawgiver, alone, and Jesus Christ, the Lord of the Sabbath, can change or abrogate what God himself had set and instituted?
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At this point, the sanctification of the Sabbath, or the First-day Christian Sabbath – the Sabbath of the Lord will be treated. HERMAN HOEKSEMA, in his book, “The Triple Knowledge,” vol. 3, pp. 267 - 271, writes:
THE OBSERVANCE OF THE FIRST DAY
“...it will be evident that it is important properly to observe the weekly sabbath, and that the desecration of that sabbath day is a sad sign of spiritual deterioration.
First of all, it will be plain that they who insist on the seventh day instead of the first day of the week are utterly in error, proceed from a wrong conception principally, and fail to understand the significance of the Christian sabbath.
This error is not to be found only in the mistaken notion that one day is holier than the other. The error of the Seventh Day Adventist much rather consists in this, that he does not understand the progress of God’s work, and fails to see that God repeatedly spoke of another day. He does not understand that our sabbath consists principally in our entering into the work of God, which He perfected for us in Christ Jesus our Lord, and that therefore, if we must celebrate a special day at all, the Christian church, following Scripture, chose the first day as being the resurrection-day of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Seventh Day Adventist insists on the sabbath of creation and of the shadows. He closes his eyes to the fact that God has provided some better thing for us.
The sabbath of creation is gone forever, and cannot possibly be celebrated by the Christian church. It was lost when man fell into sin and death.
The first paradise will never, and must never, return.
Moreover, the sabbath of the shadows was temporary, as are all the shadows. And the earthly land of Canaan is forever destroyed, to open up new vistas for the better, that is, the heavenly country. For this better country already the patriarchs of the old dispensation hoped, as they dwelt in the land of Canaan as in a strange country. For we read: “By faith he sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” Heb.11:9, 10. And again, in the same chapter, vss. 13-16: “These all died not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.”
A better day has dawned. And the dawn of this better day the Seventh Day Adventists ignores, does not see. It dawned on the first day of the week, the resurrection day of the Lord, that gives as rest. Small wonder that the disciples from the outset met on that day. Small wonder, especially in the light of the fact that again on the first day of the week the risen, glorified Lord returned in the Spirit, and sanctified that day until His coming again in glory. On that first day of the week God entered into His rest through our Lord Jesus Christ, when He raised Him from the dead. On the first day of the week He spiritually bestowed that rest upon His church, which is the temple of God with men. It is on that day that the people of God celebrate the sabbath of the Lord their God.
From all that we have said about the sabbath of the Lord, it will also be self-evident that it is quite impossible to legislate the world into proper observance of the sabbath day. It is impossible for the unbelieving world to observe the sabbath of the Lord our God. I have no objection that proper legislation be passed, and that the already existing laws be enforced, pertaining to restriction of labor, business, traffic, and public amusements on Sunday. But at best, such legislation may be conducive to create a better atmosphere for the people of God in the world to keep the weekly sabbath holy and to fill their minds and hearts with the things concerning the kingdom of God. Nevertheless, the ungodly cannot possibly celebrate the sabbath, even though they spend it in complete idleness and refraining from all labor. The sabbath is strictly a spiritual idea. The keeping of the sabbath is a high spiritual act, the expression of hope and faith on the part of the Christian sojourner in the midst of this present world. It is for this reason a very evil omen, a sign of apostasy, of a lack of spiritual life, of a sick faith and a waning hope, when they that call themselves Christians, that outwardly join the band of Christian pilgrims in the world, evince no longing to keep the sabbath properly, desecrate it, and more and more join the world to follow after their own desires, speak their own words, and do their own evil works.
For the Christian is really a stranger and sojourner, a pilgrim in a strange country, because principally he entered into the sabbath of the Lord through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. He is begotten again unto a lively hope, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. When he is regenerated, he receives the beginning of that new and resurrection life of the Lord. He ceased from his labor and toil. He rests from sin and from the world and its evil works. And he becomes a new man, the citizen of another country, the heavenly, of the new Jerusalem, that will descend out of heaven from God in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. He lives the sabbath life. Hence, his whole life is a sabbath life, a ceasing from sin, and an entering into the rest of God’s perfected covenant.
But in this world his life is a sojourner’s sabbath. For he will sojourn in Babylon. And in Babylon they do not know the sabbath of the Lord our God. They are aliens to the very idea of the sabbath, of the rest of God’s tabernacle. We need not be surprised, therefore, that in the world they devote the first day of the week to the pursuit of earthly and worldly things, of the things of the flesh. It is usually especially on the sabbath that all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, becomes emphatically manifest. But this is all the more reason why the Christian sojourner, living his sabbath life in the midst of the wold, where he feels that he is a stranger, where he meets with Babylon’s oppositions and reproach, where all things tend to draw him downward and to make it difficult for him to live his life of rest, shall long for the day of the Lord, the weekly sabbath, which the Lord in His great mercy provided for him, and shall insist to keep it holy. He shall not entertain the notion that by merely refraining from earthly labor he is observing the sabbath of the Lord. He shall not imagine that one day is holier than the other. The Pharisaical view of the sabbath is not his. But he shall as much as is in him desist from every earthly task, to remove from his mind and heart all earthly cares, in order that the whole day may be occupied only with the sabbath of the Lord, congregate with His people in His house diligently; meditate on His Word; take hold of His promises; and let his whole conversation be in heaven.
“Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it, that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and his hand from doing any evil.” Is. 56:2
For even as this keeping of the sabbath is itself the expression of a healthy and vigorous spiritual life, of the lively hope unto which we are begotten again by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, so the proper observance of the weekly sabbath will bear the fruit that the believer individually and the church of Christ organically are strengthened in the most holy faith. Quickened in the hope eternal, sustained and encouraged by the proper observance of the weekly sabbath, the believer will yield himself to the Lord, to work by his Holy Spirit in him. And he will be encouraged once more to take up his pilgrim’s staff and pursue his journey in the world, looking forward to the eternal rest that remaineth for the people of God.
Blessed is the man that doeth this for he has the sure promise of the Lord: ‘My salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed.’”
– HERMAN HOEKSEMA
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