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Our Gospel reading this morning is from Luke chapter 6 verses 1 through 11. This is God's Word. On a Sabbath while he was going through the grain fields, his disciples plucked and ate some of the heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands. But some of the Pharisees said, Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath? And Jesus answered them, Have you not read what David did when he was hungry? He and those who were with him, how he entered the house of God and took and ate the bread of the presence, which is not lawful for any but the priest to eat, and also gave it to some of those with him. And he said to them, The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. On another Sabbath he entered the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was withered. And the scribes and the Pharisees watched him to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath so that he might find reason to accuse him. But he knew their thoughts, and he said to the man with the withered hand, Come and stand here. And he rose and stood, and Jesus said, I ask you, Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or destroy it? After looking around at them all, he said to him, Stretch out your hand. And he did so, and his hand was restored. But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus. Here is a reading of God's holy word. Let's pray. Father in heaven, as we come to consider this your fourth commandment, we pray that you would open our eyes and our hearts and teach us. In Jesus' name, Amen. So I have a good friend in Los Angeles. He teaches at the Biblical Institute of Los Angeles. We've been friends since 1981. That's a long time. Over 40 years. And so yesterday we were on the phone discussing the superiority of all Detroit and Michigan sports teams. And he asked me, What commandment are you on tomorrow? And I said, It's the fourth commandment. Remember the Sabbath. He laughed. He said, Oh, you mean the one that everybody ignores? I said, Yeah, it seems that way, doesn't it? And that is unfortunately true. And if you read some theologians, some commentators who are very well respected, that is a conclusion they've come to that the Sabbath no longer applies to us as Christians. I'm going to disagree with them. And I will give you a few reasons why. Exodus 20 says, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Remember what are the Israelites being asked to remember? Now all the other commandments are you shall or you shall not. But this one is remember. They're told to remember something. And I think it's at least two things. The first thing comes from Genesis chapter two after God had created everything in the space of six days and all very good. Genesis chapter two says, Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them in the seventh day God finished his work that he had done and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. So I think the first remember is we're supposed to remember that God created everything in six days and on the seventh day he rested and he made the seventh day the Sabbath day holy. Now the argument that the Sabbath as no longer applies is that it was part of the Mosaic covenant. But you see that's not the case. I mean it is but it was before the Mosaic. It was before anything else. It was before sin. The Sabbath was introduced by God in his creation mandate. So if you go back that far it has nothing to do with the Mosaic law. It goes all the way back to when God said let there be light all the way through to the end when he created male and female and said it's all very good and then he rested on the seventh day and made it holy. So the first reason that the Sabbath still applies is because it's part of the creation mandate. The second reason is found in Deuteronomy which we read earlier. Deuteronomy 5 15 says you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm therefore your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. Again when did God bring Israel out of Egypt? It was before he gave the Ten Commandments and he's asking them to remember remember you were a slave and because you were a slave you now have a day a seventh day to rest and remember because you were oppressed you should not be an oppressor you should give all of those who work for you the seventh day as well. So I think the key there is when it says remember the Sabbath to keep it holy every other commandment says you shall or you shall not but this one says remember and what we're remembering is that it was a creation mandate and that Israel was a slave. What does that have to do with us? Well in the gospel Jesus says come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn from me I am gentle and humble in heart and I will give you rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Come to me is the invitation is universal to all who are weary and burdened and certainly Israel was weary and burdened. If you look back to Exodus chapter 3 the Israelites have become too numerous for us Pharaoh said come we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and if war breaks out we'll join our enemies fight against us and leave the country. So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor and they built Fittom, Ramses and the store cities for Pharaoh. But the more they were oppressed the more they multiplied and spread so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites and they worked them ruthlessly they made their lives bitter with hard labor and brick and mortar with all kinds of work in the fields and all their hard labor the Egyptian used them ruthlessly. So the Sabbath was a rest at least for the body and in the Bible study on Thursday Alex Semenov pointed out I hope I'm not embarrassing him. Alex pointed out that it seems like for Israel the Sabbath was a rest for the body and for us it's a rest for the soul. Now that's not completely true on either side but that's a pretty good generalization because we are also weary and weighed down. Hebrews chapter 2 says since verse 14 since the children have flesh and blood he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death that is the devil and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. Now of all the commands in the 10 commandments this I believe the Sabbath command is the command that's most susceptible to legalism. I think I was talking to Reed Campbell about this and he said that when he was in Israel he noticed there were all kinds of things on Saturday that were not allowed. For instance if I'm remembering this right he said that if you could ride the elevator on a Saturday you just couldn't push a button. You weren't allowed to push so if there's 20 floors you couldn't push a button to which floor you wanted to go to because pushing a button was considered work and you weren't allowed to do it. I hear some people chuckling but they take it very seriously not allowed. So what would happen and there were signs to warn them of this is the elevator was going to stop on every floor. It was set up to do that. So if you're in a building with three or four floors no big deal but if you're in a building with 20 floors it's going to take a long time especially if you are on the 11th or 12th or 15th floor it's going to stop at every floor because you're not allowed to push a button. There's all kinds of rules that you're not allowed to take more than two or three steps to go to a room or things like that because it's considered work and you're not allowed to work on the Sabbath. Now Jesus pointed this out in Luke chapter 11. One of the experts in the law answered him teacher when you say these things you insult us also and Jesus said in you experts in the law woe to you because you load down people with burdens they can hardly carry and you yourselves will not lift a finger to help them. Woe to you because you build the tombs for the prophets and it was your forefathers who killed them. You see just as the Israelites were sorely oppressed by the Egyptians physically they were oppressed spiritually and apparently the Pharisees are doing the same thing. They're oppressing spiritually their own people by making rules that are more than God has commanded and that's one of the worst things you can do to the scripture is to add your own additions. I've said this before but I'll repeat it one of the first Pharisees was Eve. You see because God said that you should not eat the tree that's in the middle of the garden lest you die. You will surely die. So in the Hebrew it would be you will die die. Genesis chapter 3. So what did Eve say when she was tempted by the devil? The devil said you surely won't die and he only said die once not die die. She said we're not allowed to eat it or touch it. She added touch it. She added a further command. When you do that to God's word when you add a command to God's word even if it's a good intention and it always usually is usually people when they add a command they're saying well here's what we're not supposed to do I'm going to add a command here the Pharisees called it fencing the law. I will add a command here to make sure we don't get close to breaking this command. So I'll add one. Well that's what Eve did. But the problem with that is when you add to God's word you take away the power because it's your word not his. So just as the Israelites were sorely oppressed by the Egyptians physically they were also oppressed spiritually subject to false worship of the Egyptians and they were subject to the images they had made to represent false gods. He says come to me all you who are weary and I will give you rest. And he's saying is I will give you rest from work. And this isn't to denigrate work. Probably most of you are too young to remember John Kennedy who a former president of the United States when he was running for president he was at some coal mines in West Virginia and he was talking to the miners and he told them he had never worked in a mine like they had and some guy yelled from the back he said you're not missing anything. So it's not to denigrate work but ceaseless striving can lead not only to physical but spiritual ruin. I think the first is more obvious. Some people are prone to work themselves to death. The constant drive for more and bigger and better is an example of how we attempt to assert ourselves as masters of our own fate. Not only does this make some of us prone to drive ourselves but it's also the cause of us driving others as well. Maybe you've been on the receiving end of that drivenness. One of the early examples of that in the Bible is found in Genesis chapter 4 after Cain had killed his brother Abel he named his son Enoch and he built a city and named it after his son in an attempt to make a name for himself. And that's what Genesis 11 says. We see that the people have attempted to build a tower reaching to the heavens in order to make ourselves a name. That's why part of observing the Sabbath includes not only resting from your own work but also not employing others. Either you or your son or your daughter or your man servant or your maid servant or your ox or donkey or any of your animals or the alien within your gates so that your man servant and maid servant may rest as you do. And the reason is because you were once slaves. You were once an oppressor or oppressed so don't be an oppressor. Part of the mandate to observe the Sabbath is to acknowledge that you've been freed from oppression and that you will not yourself become an oppressor. The idea is that God has rescued us from slavery and removed the debt we could never pay. Therefore it affects how we treat others with understanding and compassion and forgiveness. Because the Lord says to Israel you were slaves too and He says to us you were slaves to sin and you were forgiven. Therefore forgive from your heart. And if our work is not striving to make a name for ourselves, what is it then? Paul says our work should be for the Lord. Whatever you do, work it with all your heart as working for the Lord not for men since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. And if our work is for the Lord then we should obey His command to rest from it as well so that we can worship Him. Remember when Moses was going to Pharaoh and saying, let my people go, he always attached a reason. Do you remember? He didn't say let my people go so that we can be wealthy. He didn't say let my people go so we could be self determining. He didn't say let my people go so we could enjoy recreation. He said let my people go so they may worship me. Celebrate a feast. It's a rest from striving for salvation because Jesus says take my yoke upon you. It's a rest for your souls, the promise of God's eternal joy and His glorious presence. So why the day? Because we're prone to unbelief. It takes some time, some time to read Hebrews chapter 4. It's a warning against unbelief because unbelief is what can kill your soul. Not believing the promises of God, not resting in the promises of God is to strive for your own name. That's why the writer of Hebrews says be diligent to enter the rest. Verse 11 he says let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall through following the same example of disobedience. Pick close attention to what you've heard, Hebrews 2.1. Don't neglect the great salvation, Hebrews 2.3. Consider Jesus 3.1. Do not harden your hearts, 3.8. Take care against an unbelieving heart, 3.12. Exhort one another every day against the deceitfulness of sin, 3.14. And fear the unbelief that will keep you from the promised rest, Hebrews 4.1. You may be asking, mean the ideal Christian life has lived in constant fear of being lost? No. Be careful. Hebrews 4.1 is written to holy brethren and the same thing commands us to fear. Jesus says my yoke is easy and my burden is light. What's he mean? It's easier to live as you were intended than to be constantly chafing to go in another direction which leads to death. Hebrews I'm sorry, 1 John 5 verse 1 says everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God and everyone who loves the Father loves his child as well. This is how we know we love the children of God by loving God and carrying out his commandments. This is love for God to obey his commandments and his commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who is born of God overcomes the world. That is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that's overcome the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. Psalm 37 says delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Now what does that mean? Does that mean? I was on vacation and my uncle David was an engineer for GM so he always buys GM cars and he has the coolest car. It's a fire engine red Chevy Blazer. I want it. Does that mean if I delight myself in the Lord I'm going to have that car? No, no. Delighting myself in the Lord and getting the desire of my heart is one and the same thing. Delight myself in the Lord, he is the desire of my heart. If I delight myself in the Lord I'm getting the desire of my heart. He will make his desires yours and you will know no greater joy than any you could imagine. Moses said let my people go so they may celebrate a feast with me. Jesus freed us from slavery of sins so that we might become his very bride and celebrate an eternal feast with him in heaven. An eternal feast of an eternal Sabbath rest. Let's pray. Father thank you for your word. We pray that all of us would come to delight in the Sabbath in the Lord's day. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Please stand.