Congregation, have your spiritual exercises that I preached about back in August, I believe, been coming along for those of you that were here? Have you benefited from meditation? Have you grown closer to God's word as a result? How about fasting? Have you engaged in this act of Christian worship yet? I know some of you have many questions about that one. Did you wrestle with God and did He answer you? Have you remained ever vigilant in a guard post that Christ, your King, has set you in? Have you been remaining ever watchful over your soul and those Christ has placed under your charge? Christian, if you have not been engaging in meditation and watchfulness as a daily practice, then I would challenge you to ask yourself, who is your first love? What priority does Christ have in your life? No matter what excuses put forward, why have you faltered in your duty? Do not be that fig tree that Christ will wither. For these are two commands, meditation and watchfulness, that is to be practiced daily by a Christian. if you are called a Christian. So I pray that the Lord will draw you back to your first love and the heart-driven desire to perform your duties to God, just as Christ did not shrink back from taking the cup that his father had him drink as he went to the cross to die for the sins of his people. You, if you are his. and congregation do not think that duty is something that lacks love, that is something that is forced, that is a misapplication of the word. God commands and requires duty throughout the word. And when he does, it is to be performed with a heart of love, desire, and willingness. It is not forced. The ones you force yourself in the negative sense of the word, the failure of the performance is on you, not on the call to that duty. It is a sinful reaction to God's Word when we perform our Christian duties out of a sense of, quote, I'm forced to, or, quote, I have no choice but to do it. Such a spirit of mindset reveals that you actually may not belong to Christ, and that you claim to be a Christian, but live your Christian life more like a papist, or let me be more clear, like one that unconsciously believes in work's righteousness. Meaning, your work, your duty, your work, your duty is what's going to save you. So I pray to God that you repent of such a mentality, if that is your mentality, and that you do not look at your duty to God as something that is forced. So by the Spirit's help then, this Lord's Day morning, I hope to highlight from God's Word another great and holy duty we owe to God as Christians. Scratch that. As human beings. Period. Turn with me to Exodus chapter 20. Exodus chapter 20. Starting at verse 8. I'll be preaching out of the modern English version. And this is the Word of God. Exodus 20 verse 8 through 11. Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you should not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant or your livestock or your sojourner who is within your gates. For six days The Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy." Thus far, the reading of God's Word. So this morning, I will focus this first part of the sermon on the Sabbath in relation to creation. And then our second part will be on the Sabbath in relation to redemption. So in this first part, I want to go over three points. The creation ordinances or commands, number two, the light of nature, and number three, the autonomy of man. So our first point, creation ordinances or commands. Now children, children, are you paying attention, children? How many days did it take God to create the heavens and the earth? How many days? Six, right? I hope you said six. And on which day did God create Adam? Do you remember? On the sixth day. So when God finished, children, when he finished, what did God say about all of his creation? It was what? Very what? Very good. It was very good. Do we recall what God told Adam and Eve that their duties would be? What were their duties? They were told to work, to marry and have children, to take dominion or charge over God's creation. Right? Do we remember that? Parents, are you catechizing? These are what are called creation ordinances or commands. God also told Adam directly about what tree not to eat of. He told Adam what not to eat of. So let us read Genesis chapter two. Go with me to Genesis chapter two. I'm gonna read verses one through three. Genesis 2. So the heavens and the earth and all their hosts were finished. On the seventh day God completed his work which he had done and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it he had rested from all his work which he had created and made. So God rested and did what on the seventh day of creation? What did he do? He rested from the work he had done the previous six literal days. When a text states that he sanctified the day, what does that mean? Was it just for himself or was it for all humanity? You see, in addition to the duties that God gave to Adam, that he was to perform to God, Adam and his offspring were also expected to sanctify the seventh day since God has sanctified it, commemorating his creation. Shall we argue that because we don't read that literal command from God to Adam, that this was not a creation ordinance or command to keep the seventh day holy until the time of Moses? Tell me, if that is your argument, where in Genesis chapters 1, 2, and 3 do you read where God told Eve not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil? Where did God tell Eve not to eat the tree? He told Adam. But where did He tell Eve? You don't read that, do you? Do you say that Adam told her? Where is that verse? Where do you read Adam telling her what God commanded and expected as their duty to him? We infer it, don't we? And every sensible Christian knows that this communication was passed on to Eve from the flow of the text and the general descriptions given about how God and Adam communicated. they walk together all the time, without the text telling us the minute details. You see then, the same argument is applied to the fact that God did command Adam and his offspring to also keep the Sabbath day holy, and not to work, but to worship him on that day. Our second point, the light of nature. So turn with me to Romans chapter one, Romans chapter one. Romans chapter 1, starting at verse 18. Hear the word of God. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth through unrighteousness. For what may be known about God is clear to them, since God has shown it to them. the invisible things about Him, His eternal power and deity, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, and are understood by the things that are made, so that they are without excuse. Because although they knew God, they did not glorify Him or give thanks to Him as God, but became futile in their imaginations. and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools. They changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man, birds, four-footed beasts, and creeping things." That's far God's Word. You see, mankind in general knows, knows that the true God exists. and they have suppressed that knowledge by corrupting it with their vain and made-up beliefs. Is it not common to all cultures and every society of humans to work? We see every society of humanity works for a living. They all have a form of marriage and of having children. They all take control and change their environment in which they live. They manipulate it, don't they? No matter how primitive or how advanced, every society of humanity changes and takes dominion of the environment in which they live, and also of the animals. They domesticate animals, they raise animals for food. Do they not? Humanity, whether they have lived in caves or on the mountaintops, have used the natural resources around them to build their homes, to gather their food, and to raise their children. All from the light of nature. Do you know what else is very common and universal among humanity? Worship. All humanity worships a deity or deities. It is in humans, because God has put it in man to worship Him. And with that worship, guess what else comes with it? Every single human society has separated and sanctified, if you will, holy days. Every single one. Days where, guess what? Their society stops all work and labor. To what? To worship their gods and perform rituals, however broad in general or specific in detail they may be. Every single human society has done this and continues to do this. It's the light of nature. It's in man to worship and to set a day apart or days apart. And as we read in Romans, mankind has corrupted everything that God has given to us. Man has corrupted what our work should be, what our family structures should be, such as one husband having many wives or one wife with many husbands. They have corrupted how we should take dominion over creation, and doing so in an irresponsible way, or not at all. And then there is the spiritual. They have changed the worship of God to the worship of corruptible things, as we just read. And yes, that even means that the keeping of the seventh day that God sanctified in the week of creation gets dropped. And other man-made holy days with man-made worship, rituals, and sacrifices takes its place. You see, mankind has utterly corrupted the creation ordinances of God. This is why God commanded in written form that which he commanded from the beginning of creation that was to be universal, and that is the sanctification of the Sabbath day so that we do not forget. Point three, the autonomy of man. Congregation. When did God command the keeping of the Sabbath day? Was it before or after Adam's fall? See, this commandment, I'm going to argue, is unique. As it is a moral command that was commanded prior to sin entering into the world. And if you look at all the other nine commandments, their response to sin but the commandment has been applicable to pre-lapsarian or pre-fall Adam. Adam and Eve did not know evil when the day of the Lord, the sanctification, the Sabbath, was instituted by God. See, the other commandments direct us away from committing sin. Now, I know some would like to get into theological debates about this and, you know, argue over this minutia of detail, but I'll just declare that I agree with James Usher when he writes in the Annals of the World, after the first week of the world ended, it seems that God brought the newly married couple into the Garden of Eden. He charged them not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which means it was after the Sabbath was established, right? So when God created Adam, God called him good. Adam was autonomous. Was Adam autonomous, is my question. Was Adam autonomous before he fell? Let me ask again. Was Adam autonomous before he fell? Children, college students, do you know what autonomous means? Do you know? Children, I think you do. Children, how many times have your parents told you what to do and what not to do? How many times have they told you, you can't do that. Do this instead. Get down from there. Stop jumping in the pulpit. You see, children, you are like the college students here, thinking you can do whatever you want, or whatever you desire to do, you think you are autonomous, like the college students think. Meaning doing whatever you want, when you want, but when your parents, your professors, college students, or an authority figure tells you to do this or that, you realize you are not autonomous. So I ask you again, was Adam in his good, sinless, prelapsarian or pre-fall state, was he autonomous? No, he was not. He was not autonomous. Adam was not autonomous. His will was still constrained by God. He did have the freedom of will to choose. But God commands Adam. And when God is asserting authority over Adam, that means He is not autonomous. And Adam was constrained to do what God stated or commanded. God named Adam. And in naming Adam, He asserted authority over Adam. So when Adam named the animals, Adam was asserting authority over the animals. Do you see a pattern? When Adam named Eve, Adam asserted authority over his wife, just as God had commanded the natural order of things. By the way, this helps us put 1 Corinthians 11 and other passages that deal with husband-wife relationships into perspective as well. But I will not digress. Humanity was not autonomous before the fall for God asserted authority over Adam. And guess what? Humanity, that portion of humanity that will be in heaven, also will not be autonomous, even in our glorified and perfect state. For even then, will be worshipping God as he commands and doing whatever it is that God commands. This then leads to one conclusion for fallen man. We, you and I, and every single human being on this planet right now and tomorrow and until the end of the world are not autonomous at all. If sinless man was not, much less are we. Therefore, if Adam and Eve were commanded to keep the Sabbath day holy, how much more you and I It is a creation ordinance, like working, marriage, and et cetera, that all humanity is bound to keep, Christian or not. So Christian, the moment you hear a Christian leader tell you that we are not bound to the Sabbath, or that you have an option not to believe it, Then his teaching is no better than that of a pagan that substitutes the Sabbath with one of their man-made holy days. Because guess what? Those Christian leaders that say no to the Sabbath will substitute it with their holy days. Turn a deaf ear to those teachings. They are not in line with scripture. You see, the Ten Commandments teach us that we are to keep these laws of God because they reflect His will and His commands towards us and inform us what our duties are to Him. So woe to that man or woman that seeks to challenge His will because the law is His will. The Ten Commandments have told us then in Exodus 20, not just that we are to keep his law and how, but he has given us the why, to commemorate his creation. So we see the Sabbaths to be kept because of a creation ordinance or command, a command to every single human being, just like every single human being is commanded to worship God. So in Exodus 20 we are given the Sabbath in view of general revelation in that it was a law of God written upon the hearts of man to keep one day holy to him. Which man's corruption twisted that law into the keeping of man-made holy days all over the world. The book of general revelation that preaches God's will is not as clear in man due to man's sin. So direct special revelation was required to preach God's will directly to man. Which leads us to the second part. Please turn with me to Deuteronomy chapter 5. Deuteronomy chapter 5. Deuteronomy chapter 5, starting at verse 12 through 15. Hear the law of God. Keep the Sabbath day to keep it holy, just as the Lord your God has commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work. you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your livestock, nor the foreigner that is within your gates, so that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. Remember, that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord, your God, brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore, your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day." Thus far, God's word. Whereas the fourth commandment in Exodus 20 began with the word, remember, One reason being because humans are too prone to forget their duty. Here the fourth commandment in Deuteronomy 5 begins with the word keep. This restatement of the commandment in Deuteronomy 5 is very similar to that in Exodus 20 with an obvious distinction. God tells Israel to keep it holy because of God's delivering them from slavery in Egypt. You see, where the fourth commandment in Exodus 20 was based upon the creation ordinance, and therefore universal law for all of humanity, here, the reason to keep it is based upon Israel being delivered. Israel has a dual obligation and duty to keep the Sabbath day holy. One, because of creation. Two, because of redemption. Turn with me to Jeremiah chapter 23. Jeremiah 23. Jeremiah chapter 23 starting in verse 7. Hear the word of God. Therefore, surely the days are coming, says the Lord, when they will no more say, as the Lord lives, who brought up the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt, but as the Lord lives, who brought up and led the descendants of the house of Israel out of the north country and from all the countries where I had driven them, then they will dwell in their own land." See Judah here, what Jeremiah is referring to, have been conquered by the Babylonians. Their return to the promised land would now be a further reason for the keeping of the Sabbath day as holy. It will commemorate God's redemption once again. The very words in Jeremiah echo the fourth commandment as stated in Deuteronomy 5. This deliverance from the Babylonian captivity is described as a greater deliverance from bondage than that of their deliverance from Egypt. Now congregation, witness a greater deliverance that will never be forgotten. Let us go back to Deuteronomy 5. Go back to Deuteronomy 5. Verse 15, Remember that the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. You see, God did that again. He did that again when the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. He went to the cross where His mighty hand and outstretched arm nailed to the cross worked the greatest deliverance from bondage the world will ever know and delivered His people from the wrath of God due to their sins. delivering us from the worst bondage that befell mankind because of Adam. Deuteronomy 5.15 Jesus Christ has delivered His people by His mighty hand and outstretched arm. This, this my brethren, This is why you and I are called to keep the Sabbath day holy unto God. This right here. Because Jesus Christ has delivered us with a mighty hand and outstretched arm. If the deliverance from Babylon was greater than the deliverance from Egypt, how much more our deliverance by Christ. Thomas Watson wrote, Great was the work of creation, but greater the work of redemption. It cost more to redeem us than to make us. In the one there was only the speaking of a word, in the other the shedding of blood. The creation was the work of God's fingers, Psalm 8 verse 3. the redemption, the work of His arm. In creation, God gave us ourselves. In redemption, He gives us to Himself. So the Sabbath, putting us in mind of our redemption, ought to be observed with the highest devotion. Herein, we must offer holy violence to ourselves." End quote. Brethren, our acts of worship and our Christian duties, our holy acts of violence by which we are to take heaven by storm, as Matthew and Luke tell us. The Sabbath day is not a day to sleep away with naps and a day to put off with recreations. It is a day in which we are to be fully engaged in spiritual exercises all the day long. So why is it then so hard for Christians to attend worship services, whether it's in the morning or in the afternoon or evening? You see, it costs Christ, your Redeemer, His blood to save you from your sins. So why are you cheap in not offering yourselves a living sacrifice a second time for a second worship to praise Jesus Christ for the redemption He has worked for you? Turn to Isaiah chapter 56 with me. Isaiah 56. Isaiah chapter 56 starting in verse 1. Hear the word of God. Thus says the Lord, preserve justice and do righteousness. For my salvation is about to come and my righteousness to be revealed. Blessed is the man who does this and the son of man who takes hold of it, who keeps from polluting the Sabbath and keeps his hand from doing any evil. Do not let the son of the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord speak, saying, the Lord has utterly separated me from his people. do not let the eunuchs say, I am only a dry tree. For thus says the Lord to the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths and choose the things that please me and take hold of my covenant, to them I will give in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name better to that of sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. Also the sons of the foreigner who join themselves to the Lord to serve Him and to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants, to everyone who keeps from polluting the Sabbath and takes hold of My covenant. Even them I will bring to My holy mountain and make them joyful in My house of prayer. their burnt sacrifices and offerings shall be accepted on my altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all people. The Lord God who gathers the outcasts of Israel says, yet I will gather others to them besides those who already gather to him. Thus far God's word. Do you see here in this text, not only the connection to our New Testament reading, but also do you see here how worship and keeping the Sabbath are inseparable? He's telling the sons and daughters, he's referring to Israel, you who do not enjoy the Sabbath, forget you, I'm going to give blessings to the eunuchs, to the foreigners, to the immigrants that have called upon my name, I'm going to give them another name because they love my Sabbath. Brethren, let us not find it hard to keep the Sabbath day holy. And in keeping the Sabbath day, to worship Him and to attend to called worship services. You see, we worship Him and keep His Sabbath day because, as we just read in this text, because of Christ's redemption. Because this text here is talking about Christ who redeems His people. and giving them another name, that name being that of Christ, giving them Christ's name, or Christian. Brethren, do not easily dismiss these opportunities that we have to gather together, to come to the mercy seat of Christ, to worship his mighty works of sacrifice, where he offered himself up on the altar of reconciliation. This is the reason then, that as Christians, we have a dual obligation to keep the Sabbath day holy to God. Not only to commemorate the creation, but to worship Him for the redemption wrought by God, the Son, for His people. And in that redemption, we celebrate creation once again, do we not? Do we not celebrate creation a second time when we keep the Sabbath? What am I talking about? 2 Corinthians 5.17 tells us, Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is what? A new creature. Old things have passed away, look! All things have become new. In Christ, you are a new creation. The Reformed churches have always confessed the keeping of the Sabbath. The Heidelberg Catechism, question 103, states in part, what is God's will for you in the fourth commandment? Answer, that the gospel ministry and an education for it be maintained, and that especially on the festive day of rest, I diligently attend the assembly of God's people. to learn what God's Word teaches, to participate in the sacraments, to pray to God publicly, and to bring Christian offerings for the poor. So my brethren, let us not transgress God's fourth commandment by thinking that an hour and a half of worship in the morning is fulfilling your duty because you want to get home and watch the game. The whole day is to be kept holy and sanctified to God. It is not a day of games or recreation, but of worship. So let us take advantage of second opportunities to worship Him. I began with a challenge, and so I will end with the same for all Christians here today. Who or what is your first love? What priority does Christ have in your life? In relation to the Sabbath, what is your first priority? As I have preached in the past, we are called to holy violence, to take heaven by storm. And we have to subjugate our flesh to perform our duties to God many times. Deny yourself Take up the cross and follow Christ. Christ stated, if you love me, you shall keep my commandments. You say you have faith. Show me by your works that your faith is living. Does not James say that? If you are here today and do not believe in Christ or think this law of God is of no value or force for today, then I implore you to repent of your sins, of your wickedness. For God has called you to worship Him and to keep this day holy since before the fall of our first parents. It is your obligation as a creation of God. Further, you are now under the wrath of God as a sinner, because of your multitude of sins, and the only end of that is death and separation from God. Come to Christ. Come to Christ. Come and escape from the wrath of God that you deserve. His sacrifice of Himself His mighty hand, His outstretched arm, is the only sacrifice that can appease the wrath of God that even now abides upon you. Come, fall upon the mercy and grace now extended to you by Christ's mighty hand and outstretched arm that is now offered to you. Let us stand and pray.