Invocation

Holy Father, you have called and gathered us on this blessed Lord’s day and we will give you thanks. For your works are great, O Lord, studied by all who delight in them. Full of splendor and majesty are your works and your righteousness endures forever. You have given us this Lord’s day, as a day of rest, and we have set it aside as Holy to remember your great works of creation and redemption. We remember Lord that you are gracious and merciful. You provide food for those who fear you, for you remember your covenant forever. Having shown us the power of your works by giving us the inheritance of the nations. Your works, O Lord are faithful and just, and all your precepts are trustworthy established forever to be performed by us with faithfulness and uprightness. You have redeemed us from sin and death, and commanded your covenant forever. Holy and awesome is your name! And you have taught us that to fear you is the beginning of wisdom, and that all who practice fearing you have good understanding. Your praise endures forever. Cause our hearts to rest as we remember this day your might works. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, and the holy Spirit, one God, world without end, and Amen.

Confession

Ezekiel 20:18–21 (ESV)

18 “And I said to their children in the wilderness, ‘Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers, nor keep their rules, nor defile yourselves with their idols. 19 I am the Lord your God; walk in my statutes, and be careful to obey my rules, 20 and keep my Sabbaths holy that they may be a sign between me and you, that you may know that I am the Lord your God.’ 21 But the children rebelled against me. They did not walk in my statutes and were not careful to obey my rules, by which, if a person does them, he shall live; they profaned my Sabbaths.

Keeping the sabbath holy by resting from our work is a sign that we are walking in His statues and carefully obeying His rules. What could serve as greater evidence against us today then the neglect of setting aside this day for rest and worship. The Lord told them to keep the sabbath so they would know that he is the Lord their God. And when they refused he promised he would pour out His wrath upon them.

Romans 1:18 ESV

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

Romans 1:23–25 ESV

23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. 24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

If keeping the sabbath is a sign we are walking faithfully with the Lord, then the sign of His wrath on the church is the rampant wickedness we see in our culture today. The spread of homosexuality and every perversion is not something that brings God’s wrath, but the sign of His wrath. But it began here, for judgement always begins in the household of God. It began when we stopped walking faithfully with the Lord by neglecting the sabbath. A restoration of society will not come unless there is a restoration of the church, politics is downstream from culture, so don’t expect politics to be the savior either. It starts with you, first confessing your sins of unfaithfulness to the Lord, including your failure to keep the sabbath. Then it moves to us, as a corporate body confessing our sin together, pleading with the Lord for repentance and restoration. So, let’s confess together first silently, then using the confession printed in the bulletin. Let’s pray.

Gospel Lesson (stand)

Mark 2:23–28 ESV

23 One Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. 24 And the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” 25 And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him: 26 how he entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?” 27 And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”

What the Sabbath is for, will determine how you use it. People get hung up on the dos and dont’s of the sabbath and miss what it is for—rest and worship. Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath, and calls you to His enter into His rest. Amen.

Pastoral Prayer

Our Father and God, we come to you in the name of your Son Jesus, our king and Lord of the Sabbath. Let us, O Lord, find our rest in Him. For in Him we have been redeemed from sin and reconciled to you, and even as Christ has sat down at your right hand in heaven, so we have ascended with Him and are seated with him in heaven at rest. May our prayers, rise like the smoke of the offering, with the sweet smell of incense as we lift to you Lord our cares and concerns. With confidence we draw near asking for more grace to meet the sufferings that attend the Christian life. For all those who suffer with incurable pain, and debilitating sicknesses. Be a constant source of comfort and ease the anxiety of those who wait for you to deliver them whether in this life, or that which is to come. Be with our elder Dave Brock this morning, heal and give him strength to recover. Beyond our physical health, we need spiritual health and vitality. O Father, pour out your Spirit upon this congregation and renovate our hearts so that our every thought, word, and deed aligns with our confession that Christ is our Lord. May you bless and prosper the families of Hope, especilly those who are raising children. At the start of this new school year, help us to nurture our children in the faith, showing them that there is not a square inch in all of Creation that Christ does not claim as His own. Provide for the financial needs, so that we may care for our own and have enough to share with others. May these little societies, the building blocks of our church and republic, be ruled by men committed to follow Christ, whose submission to their head, will set a godly example for their wives and children to follow. Unite the husbands and wives of your church in an untreatable bond of covenant-keeping love. As we picture for a watching world the union Christ has with His church. Bless our congregation with a teeming horde of covenant children, that as ballistic missiles we may launch them to wreck havoc on the gates of hell. Only a reformation of the family will bring about the reformation of society. Pour out your spirit in revival, speak life to dead bones, so that out of the ashes of this once faithful country we may begin to rebuild a nation that is truly under the Lordship of Christ. Strengthen our president Joseph Biden so that he may finish his race. Forgive him for his sins, and lead him to repentance, so that he may rule according to your word and for your glory. We ask that for everyone you have placed in authority over us. Would that all our leaders understood that their authority comes from you, and is to be used according to your purposes—the glory of God and the good of your people, the church. For our nations high-handed sins, especially for abortion and sexual immorality we repent and plead with you to forgive us. Cleanse our land of the scourge of secularism, and the many ways it has infected the church and our families. Make us aware of its destructive influence and reform us after the image of Christ. How grateful we are Lord that you have made us a particular church within the broader catholic Church. To all those saints in this valley in faithful church give your blessing, and make them successful in their mission to gather and perfect the saints. We ask this also for allot eh churches in our presbytery and denomination. Keep these institutions from the corrupting influence of the world, and from compromising their faith in the face of suffering and persecution. Cause those who are suffering such things to endure with patience until the end. And visit your wrath and judgment on those who do such things to your people. Don’t allow the smug pride of our enemies to triumph over us, but break their teeth in their mouth, silence their mocking voices, and make their way slippery a path leading down to their death. We ask especilly for those Christian brothers and sisters in Christ who suffer these things in Islamic countries. Strengthen the churches in such places, and prepare us to suffer with the same kind of boldness should persecution come our way. We are not now, what we should be, remind us this Lord’s day of the rest of the life that is to come, so that in our efforts to strive after the holiness without which no man will see you we may not fall short. Above all we offer our lives, such as they are, in humble service to Christ our king. So continue to work in us those things which are pleasing in your sight, through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen.

Tithe/offering

Keeping the sabbath is an expression of our dependence on God. We cease our labors, which is essentially resting from making money, to remind and discipline us to remember that we depend on God for life and breath and everything. So to is the tithe and expression of our dependence on God. We give to him not because he has needs, but to confess our neediness of him. We acknowledge, before others, that we believe only He can sustain us and give us life, and that our money is not sufficient to free us from the troubles of this life, but more importantly to free us from sin and death. Your tithes and offerings, are a confession of your dependence on the Lord. Let’s pray:

O Holy Father accept our confession of our love and dependence on you in these our tithes and offerings. And as we give, may we not find it burdensome, or be counting the cost. For we know Lord, that you give us bread for today, and with that we will be content. Teach us through the discipline of tithing to renounce our hold on the things of this world, and cling tenaciously to Christ, who gave His own life for us to pay the debts we could never pay. So we offer these tithes with a grateful heart. Receive them and use them for the good of your church. Through Christ Jesus, Amen.

The Redemptive Pattern of the Sabbath

Intro

There is often a scene in action movies, where the hero/s of the story have just come through some ordeal, and they have barely made it with their lives, and they just lie there panting, grateful and amazed they have made it through, and reflecting on what had just transpired. And if this movie’s hero has rescued others, they will also lie around him, marveling that the hero had just saved them from this ordeal, as they pant weary from the struggle they rest. And sometimes in the story this happens repeatedly, as they tackle one ordeal after another.

Those stories capture something true about the Christian life. A series of ordeals that the Lord rescues us from, after each he gives us rest. The Sabbath not only signifies the completion of God’s work of creation, it also signifies his completed work in our redemption. The hero of our story has defeated our greatest enemy, death, delivering us from its powerful grip. But there are still skirmishes going on every day as we, with Christ, wage war against the world, the flesh, and the devil. So each week we need not only rest from our work in creation, we need rest from our battle against spiritual forces, too. We saw last week the creational pattern of the sabbath, how as a creation ordinance it has significance for us today, since the Lord laid down that pattern of six days of labor and one day of rest in his works of creation. This morning we are looking at Deut. 5 to see how God gives a different reason (which is not so different after all) for why Israel should observe the sabbath and keep it holy. And so we ask: What is the redemptive pattern of the Sabbath? We find that the sabbath is testimony of the Lord’s (completed) work in redemption (recreation); it also acted as a typological ordinance designed to point to Christ, and that it point forward to eschatological rest in the life to come.

Deuteronomy 5:12–15 (ESV): 12 “ ‘Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. 13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 14 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. 15 You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

It served as a testimony to the Lord's work of redemption.

One of the first things you notice when you read the ten commandments from Exodus and compare them with what we just read in Deuteronomy is found in the different motives for keeping/observing the sabbath (Ex. 20:11; Deut 5:15). The emphasis in Exodus was on looking back to God's completed work in creation. By remembering the Lord's redemption, you could keep the Sabbath.

But here in Deuteronomy, the emphasis is on redemption, God's deliverance of Israel from slavery in Egypt. Here they are told that by keeping the sabbath they will remember God's redemption.

In scripture, this is called a typological progression. As the story of redemption unfolds, the Lord fills in more details about earlier events. By the time we get to Revelation and the close of the canon, we have all the needed details about all that God has revealed to us. Therefore, by tracing the development of various elements gives us greater understanding of their significance. This is called biblical-theology, and that is what we are engaged in with this sermon series on the Sabbath.

The text from Deut. shows that the Sabbath has developed since God first gave it to Adam in the Garden, and then reiterated it to Israel in wilderness, from what we see here as the Lord instructs the second generation, posed on the edge of the promised land (rest). They are encouraged to look back to God's completed work in redemption. The exodus, as this salvation from Egypt was called, is God's deliverance of Egypt, typifying her salvation from sin. With the promised land being a type of eternal rest.

So the first thing we notice from the difference between a creational pattern for the Sabbath and a redemptive pattern is found in their motive for resting on the Sabbath. First it is because the Lord has finished his work in creation, but it is also to be kept because the Lord had redeemed them from Egypt. Both creation and redemption serve as patterns for the significance of a sabbath rest.

Consider that Israel had been enslaved in Egypt for nearly four hundred years. That's longer than we have been a nation. They were oppressed, subject to the constant tyranny of the Pharaoh and his pogroms. And God delivered them from him with great might and power. In an ordeal that involved defeating Egypt's gods, Israel went out of Egypt, leaving it a smoldering ruin, marked by plagues and death. Their last act, sanctioned by the Lord and with the blessing of the Egyptians, they plundered them, taking the opulence and wealth with them into the wilderness.

Similarly to the creational pattern of the Sabbath which we considered last week. To sanctify the sabbath is to meditate on God's works of redemption. Israel was command to observe the Sabbath by remembering how the Lord had delivered them from Egypt. So to are we called on the Sabbath to remember the redemption Christ has accomplished for us. Just as the Lord had spoke in creation and with great might and awesome power all that is came from nothing, so to the Lord spoke and delivered His people from sin and death. That redemption from Egypt is a type of the salvation the Lord would bring when in the fullness of time he send His Son, as a new Moses to free His people from sin and death.

But until then, the Lord gave Israel sundry laws that would be as tutors, lead them to the promised Christ.

It acted as a typological ordinance pointing to Christ.

To the Sabbath, that creation ordinance of a seventh day rest, were added other Sabbaths, and celebrations. Particularly the yearly sabbaths and the year of Jubilee, along more precise directions for what could and couldn't be done on the Sabbath.

The Sabbath had become a way for Israel to acknowledge her dependence on the Lord. In Ex. 16 when the Lord feeds Israel manna from heaven, he gives Israel commands regarding the Sabbath. On the sixth day they were to gather twice as much, and this time instead of rooting by the next day, it would keep, and sustain them on the Sabbath. For they were prohibited from going out and gathering Manna on the Sabbath. That was to teach Israel that the Lord would provide for them. He gave them the bread, and he gave them the rest. Both came from Him and were to be received with thanks.

The yearly sabbath was an even greater reminder of this principle of dependence. Since Israel was an agrarian society, every seventh year, they were to allow the land to rest. Miraculously, the Lord promised he would give them enough in the sixth year to sustain them through the seventh, and all the way until the eight years plantings were harvested. Again, the lesson being that God is the one who cared and provided for Israel. By allowing the land to have rest, they expressed their dependence on God, showing that they understood that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. (Deut. 8:3).

And like other aspects of the law, this was designed to lead Israel to a closer, more dependent relationship on God and His word. It showed them in very tangible ways God's provision, reminding them of creation and redemption, of what he had done for them in the past, and what he would one day do when he brought them to a fuller rest than they had received in the promised land.

But sadly, these yearly sabbaths, along with the weekly sabbaths, were neglected by Israel over her sad tenure in the land. When the Lord promises to expel Israel from the land, one reason is so that the land can have its sabbaths (2 Chron. 36:21). When they returned under the ministry of Ezra and Nehemiah, they were zealous not to make the mistakes of the past, so a system of elaborate laws designed to fence the law, and ensure that Israel kept the sabbath were strictly enforced.

While this may have started with good intentions, in subsequent generations it was perverted and twisted into a form of works righteousness. It is these laws which led to confrontation with Jesus and the Pharisees, which revolved mainly around the nature of the Sabbath. I.e. was the sabbath a work done to commend you to God, or was it a gift meant to be enjoyed. Some diehard Westminster Sabbatarians are really in danger of missing this distinction. The Sabbath was made for man, and Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath.

Israel missed this, and it caused her to miss the Christ. Along with other laws that she had missed the point of, her mistaken theological conclusions had made it almost impossible for her to receive Jesus as the Christ. For the Sabbath was always meant to signify something more, something greater. A promised rest in the life that is to come.

It provided a reminder of eschatological rest.

As redemptive history unfolded throughout the old covenant, the people of God from sabbath to sabbath were reminded that there was a rest that was still in the future for them. At first those who go in and possess the promised land find a kind of rest. They are home again, at least, and Joshua gives them some deliverance from their enemies. But if you turn from the high point of Joshua to the reality of Judges, you find out that there are still giants in the land; you discover their homeland is not yet fully theirs, for enemies remain.

Rest is then when all enemies are defeated, and home is restored. With each new judge, hope soared. Maybe he would deliver them from their enemies and give them rest. Then it was kings. And through David, Israel got as close as they were ever going to get to experiencing that rest. For he beats back the enemies of God, and expands the borders of Israel, bringing in a reign for his son Solomon that is one of peace. And was promised in the Davidic covenant that the Lord was going to build him a sure house (dynasty) that would endure forever, and one of his sons would bring them rest from their enemies.

Throughout this time, Israel is learning that it's not just the enemies out there that need to be dealt with in order for them to have peace, they also needed someone to deal with the enemy within. For their own hearts often turned against the Lord, serving and worshipping other gods, and failing to uphold the terms of the covenant. The Sabbath, therefore, was reminding them, week in and week out, year in and year out, that they had to depend on the Lord to give them rest.

All along, the Lord was using the sabbath to form a people that would trust in Him to deliver them from their enemies; who would depend in Him to give them rest. As the Lord said to Isaiah, "For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” (Is. 30:15). Israel would learn through the sabbath that it was not in striving that they would be saved, but in rest. And they were called to wait on the Lord and remain faithful to him.

The prophets painted dazzling pictures when they described that coming rest. Giving the people hope while they wait.

Isaiah 25:6–9 (ESV) — 6 On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. 7 And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. 8 He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. 9 It will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”

All these foreshadows of rest carried the people forward to Christ. Next week we will consider it much greater detail how Christ is Lord of the Sabbath, fulfilling what the Mosaic law pointed to, and changing its significance as a celebration not merely of creation but of recreation; not of the exodus, but a new exodus out of sin and death, and not to a thin strip of land in Palestine, but a new heaven and a new earth, with rest on every side. For Jesus offered something greater than Moses, or Joshua, or David could ever give, he offers an eternity of rest in glory.

And as we will see, he didn't abrogate the Sabbath, but suffused it with new meaning, especially after centuries of abuse. Because as it turned out, just as Israel had needed the sabbath to teach them to wait for Christ, so to does the church need the sabbath as we wait for Christ to come again. As we will consider next week, our rest is secured, Christ having won it, and now gives us spiritual rest, having reconciled us to God in His death and resurrection. Because we have been united to him by faith, we too are seated with Christ in heaven, at rest from all our enemies. Until one day he will return and bring to its consummation the promised rest of the world to come.

So, while we wait we remember the Sabbath. We observe it, by remembering the redemption of Christ. Each Lord's day we come and rehearse the story of our salvation from sin and death. Worship is the most fitting response of people at rest. For we set aside our vocational work for one day, so that we remember we are dependent on God. We stop striving to get the dollar, for one day, so that we train ourselves to recognize everything we have comes from God. By the way, the Lord's day is never a fast day, it's always a feast day. Why? Because the Lord feeds you richly with His Word and Sacrament. And that richness should carry out into the rest of the day. Sunday should be the day you serve your best cuts of meat and break open the best wine. For on the Sabbath you rest in God, and in the finished work of His Son Jesus Christ, who is your promised rest.

The redemptive pattern of the Sabbath is forming us to be a people who depend on the Lord, whose trust is in Him alone. The sabbath conditions us while wait for the fulfillment of His promise of rest. So we set aside the day as holy by remembering God's mighty works in creation and redemption. Amen.

Lord’s Supper Meditation

The psalmist paints a picture of someone at rest in Psalm 23:

Psalm 23:title–6 (ESV) — A PSALM OF DAVID. 1 The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. 3 He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. 4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

The Lord has prepared a table for you in the presence of your enemies. Meaning that even though now we are not in our final rest, we can have the same kind of rest the psalmist had when he expressed his dependence on God. This meal is a reminder to you that Christ has defeated your greatest enemies, death and hell, and in His own death he has reconciled you to God, making you at peace with him. Not only does he feed and care for you all week long, but on the Lord's day he shows His special care, for here he gives you himself, not corporeally, but sacramentally, to feed your soul while you wait. The peace offering the worshipper shared in the sacrifice, as a sign that they were at peace. When you are at peace, you are at rest. So this meal signifies the rest that Christ offers you, now spiritually, but one day also physically. So come and taste and see that the Lord is good, come and delight in his promised rest.

Charge

Since the Sabbath is a reminder that God has saved you from sin, you show your dependence on Him for salvation by observing the sabbath.

Benediction

Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do. Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all. (Eccl. 9:7; 2 Thess. 3:16).