WEBVTT 00:00:09.359 --> 00:00:10.800 Well, good morning. 00:00:11.919 --> 00:00:18.160 Today is Sunday, the thirtieth of August, twenty and fifteen, and God is still on the throne. 00:00:18.320 --> 00:00:19.760 He was all week long. 00:00:20.079 --> 00:00:23.199 He will be in the week to come, and he is today. 00:00:24.239 --> 00:00:30.399 God is good, God is gracious, God is patient, he puts up with us, he saves us. 00:00:30.640 --> 00:00:32.240 And it's all about him. 00:00:33.200 --> 00:00:40.079 And God, unlike us, knows exactly what he's doing. 00:00:40.479 --> 00:00:46.479 And God, unlike us, does exactly as he pleases. 00:00:47.039 --> 00:00:54.479 And God, unlike us, all that he pleases is always and only good. 00:00:55.119 --> 00:00:56.880 Isn't that good news? 00:00:58.000 --> 00:01:06.959 Part of what God pleases is expressed in the tender commandments that He has given us. 00:01:07.200 --> 00:01:13.280 Commandments that are not meant to bind us, but commandments that are meant to free us. 00:01:14.799 --> 00:01:20.719 Specifically, we're going to be looking at the fourth commandment this morning. 00:01:20.799 --> 00:01:26.400 And I would ask you to turn in your Bibles to Exodus chapter 20. 00:01:27.200 --> 00:01:32.879 Exodus chapter 20, the fourth commandment, verses 8 through 11. 00:01:33.359 --> 00:01:43.439 We will also briefly, in the course of our reflection on this, look at Deuteronomy chapter 5, a place where the Ten Commandments are repeated. 00:01:43.599 --> 00:01:52.719 I don't know if you realize that, but the Ten Commandments are given twice in almost exactly the same words, except for this fourth commandment. 00:01:52.959 --> 00:02:09.599 Given 40 years after this, after the generation that was taken out of Egypt by God's gracious and powerful and mighty hand, and the Red Sea parted, and they went across, and they came to Mount Sinai, and God gave the words that we're going to be reading this morning. 00:02:09.680 --> 00:02:11.520 But that generation rebelled. 00:02:11.680 --> 00:02:14.080 It died off as a result of rebellion. 00:02:14.240 --> 00:02:19.919 It complained and groused and groaned and sounded an awful lot like us. 00:02:20.800 --> 00:02:32.000 And God graciously, after that generation was gone, God gave the ceremonial and moral law, especially in the Ten Commandments, yet again. 00:02:32.319 --> 00:02:37.520 What we want to look at specifically is the fourth commandment. 00:02:37.680 --> 00:02:43.439 And we're going to be reading from Exodus chapter 20, verses 8 through 11. 00:02:43.520 --> 00:02:44.960 It's on page 61. 00:02:45.039 --> 00:02:49.199 If you don't have a Bible with you that's your own, grab one from the front of the pew. 00:02:49.840 --> 00:03:01.520 Genesis Exodus, the second book of the Bible, chapter 20, verses 8 and following, which simply says, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. 00:03:03.039 --> 00:03:05.039 What in the world does that mean? 00:03:05.439 --> 00:03:07.919 We want to try to unpack that this morning. 00:03:08.159 --> 00:03:11.199 Six days you shall labor and do all your work. 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:16.960 But on the seventh day, the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. 00:03:17.199 --> 00:03:26.000 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 livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 00:03:26.800 --> 00:03:35.759 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. 00:03:35.919 --> 00:03:41.439 Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. 00:03:41.599 --> 00:03:47.680 This is the fourth word, the fourth of the commandments, the fourth message that God gave. 00:03:47.840 --> 00:03:49.360 And we're in the middle of a series. 00:03:49.520 --> 00:03:55.199 If you're just returning from the lake or wherever you've been, you found us in the middle of this series. 00:03:55.280 --> 00:04:00.719 We looked several weeks ago at the first commandment, which basically says, make God a priority in your life. 00:04:00.960 --> 00:04:02.960 It's a question of priorities. 00:04:03.280 --> 00:04:10.240 God must have the first place in our lives, and everything else in our lives must be somewhere else. 00:04:10.479 --> 00:04:12.319 It's a matter of priorities. 00:04:12.560 --> 00:04:20.399 The second one, the second commandment, has to do with worship, both what we worship or who we worship and how we worship it. 00:04:20.560 --> 00:04:22.240 And the point is really simple. 00:04:22.560 --> 00:04:26.720 We are not to worship just God just as we want Him to be. 00:04:26.879 --> 00:04:29.519 We are to worship God just as He is. 00:04:29.600 --> 00:04:41.519 And there's something so deep within us that we want to make God either in our own image or at least somebody that we like and we can manage and control, and God will not be controlled by us. 00:04:41.759 --> 00:04:46.319 And we are to worship and serve the God who is, not the God we want. 00:04:46.399 --> 00:04:48.000 It's a question of worship. 00:04:48.240 --> 00:05:02.319 And then we saw last week the third commandment, the third commandment which had to do with taking the name of the Lord in vain, which has a whole lot more to say to us than don't curse. 00:05:02.560 --> 00:05:06.079 Taking something in vain means emptying it of value. 00:05:06.879 --> 00:05:33.360 And even as believers, even as we go through the 168 hours a week in our lives, if we were to take away all of the God talk and all of the Christian activities and all of the time that you spend coming to church or reading your Bible or having devotions or whatever it is, if you took all of that out of your life, would your life really be fundamentally different from anybody else in the world? 00:05:33.600 --> 00:05:42.000 It's quite possible that we can fill our life with God things and Christian talk, and yet it doesn't really make a day, uh a difference in our lives. 00:05:42.240 --> 00:05:46.560 That is taking the name of the Lord our God in vain, as much as cursing is. 00:05:46.959 --> 00:05:52.720 This morning we're seeing the fourth of the tender commandments. 00:05:53.199 --> 00:06:08.639 And if you take nothing else away from our time together this morning, what I hope you will understand, the point of it, the point that I'm trying to emphasize, there's much more than in this section than this, in this simple these simple verses. 00:06:08.800 --> 00:06:14.399 But the point being, God says to you and to me, he says, Stop. 00:06:15.920 --> 00:06:16.480 Stop! 00:06:18.639 --> 00:06:29.519 Just stop all your ceaseless frenzied activities and recreate, not just recreate, but recreate from within. 00:06:30.399 --> 00:06:36.720 Physically, emotionally, spiritually, and refocus on me, says God. 00:06:37.120 --> 00:06:39.920 That's what the Jewish Sabbath was all about. 00:06:40.560 --> 00:06:41.279 Stop. 00:06:42.240 --> 00:06:46.079 Recreate and refocus. 00:06:46.800 --> 00:06:51.439 Well, let's try to uh to understand this a little bit. 00:06:51.680 --> 00:06:57.600 As we begin with the the fourth commandment, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. 00:06:58.079 --> 00:07:04.079 Um I don't know whether how many of you would have taken up the challenge that I had given to, you know what's coming. 00:07:04.160 --> 00:07:05.439 Next week is the fifth commandment. 00:07:05.519 --> 00:07:08.000 I mean, you know, one, two, three, four, five, it's not hard. 00:07:08.240 --> 00:07:11.680 In the week before the service, uh, that's Sunday. 00:07:11.920 --> 00:07:15.120 Give a focus on the passage that we're going to be talking about. 00:07:15.360 --> 00:07:16.160 It helps a great deal. 00:07:16.319 --> 00:07:31.920 And if you did that this week, and if it would even be possible for us to approach a text like this without all of our preconceived ideas, saying we know what it means, but just listen to it and say, what am I observing about this? 00:07:32.720 --> 00:07:47.040 Probably most of us would say there's something different about this commandment, different from the other nine. 00:07:47.600 --> 00:07:52.959 And if you haven't noticed that, then you may have just been on autopilot. 00:07:53.199 --> 00:07:56.800 There is something that just feels different about this verse. 00:07:56.959 --> 00:07:59.839 I mean, this commandment, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. 00:07:59.920 --> 00:08:08.000 Okay, six days you shall labor, the seventh day of Sabbath, your Lord shan't work, shall not your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, livestock, sojourners in your gates. 00:08:08.240 --> 00:08:08.879 What? 00:08:09.839 --> 00:08:23.519 If you were making, if you had the privilege, which you do not and I do not, to come up with our own list of the top ten, would you put Sabbath keeping anywhere on that list? 00:08:24.079 --> 00:08:31.439 I wouldn't put it four, I wouldn't have put it 44, I wouldn't have put it 404, I probably wouldn't put it 4,000 and 4. 00:08:31.600 --> 00:08:33.039 What's going on here? 00:08:33.360 --> 00:08:34.720 Shall not murder, I get that. 00:08:34.879 --> 00:08:35.840 Adultery, I get that. 00:08:35.919 --> 00:08:36.879 We have problems with all of that. 00:08:37.039 --> 00:08:41.600 Murdering in our heart, adulteress in our hearts, uh, putting God first, I get all of that. 00:08:41.759 --> 00:08:46.480 But what in the world is all of this about Sabbath keeping? 00:08:47.039 --> 00:08:51.279 It just has a bit of a different feel to it. 00:08:52.879 --> 00:09:05.200 Um actually, this particular commandment has been treated differently really from the time it was given. 00:09:05.519 --> 00:09:13.120 Very quickly, this commandment became a whole system of rules and regulations and oppressive kind of a thing. 00:09:13.279 --> 00:09:18.240 Whereas the others, we understand there's a moral principle here, but here we see law. 00:09:18.399 --> 00:09:25.360 Here we see, here we don't do this and don't have fun, and it's Saturday, and you know. 00:09:26.000 --> 00:09:31.360 Um maybe I'm exaggerating, but actually, if you look in the history of things, I'm not. 00:09:35.360 --> 00:09:44.320 This quickly in the history of Israel became something that was really quite oppressive very early on. 00:09:44.639 --> 00:09:55.039 It's easier for me to just read a section William Barclay is uh is talking, and he was saying the Jewish approach to the Sabbath didn't go well. 00:09:55.200 --> 00:10:07.039 The principles behind it became regulations, and law, a principle of what God is saying, became legalism with the Sabbath in a way that wasn't quite true with the others. 00:10:07.279 --> 00:10:14.159 So he describes how this was understood by uh by the Jews in the course of the centuries. 00:10:14.399 --> 00:10:17.840 Nowhere was this more evident than in the Sabbath law. 00:10:18.000 --> 00:10:20.080 For example, the law forbade work. 00:10:20.960 --> 00:10:22.480 But what is work? 00:10:23.919 --> 00:10:31.919 So they laid down 39 different classifications, major classifications of work called the fathers of work. 00:10:33.360 --> 00:10:35.759 Bad enough to have one father, much less 39. 00:10:36.240 --> 00:10:40.639 Each classification was capable of infinite subdivision. 00:10:40.960 --> 00:10:46.080 One class of work which was forbidden was the carrying of a burden, a weight. 00:10:46.399 --> 00:10:48.399 But what is a burden? 00:10:48.720 --> 00:10:56.000 So it came to be argued whether or not a man could lift his child on the Sabbath. 00:10:56.879 --> 00:11:05.600 Yes, he may, but not if the child has a stone in his hand, for the stone is a burden even though the child is not. 00:11:05.840 --> 00:11:10.240 Now, you may think the child is a burden, but that's that's a different issue. 00:11:10.559 --> 00:11:14.240 Then there comes the inevitable question, what is a stone? 00:11:14.799 --> 00:11:18.000 And it goes on and on and on. 00:11:18.879 --> 00:11:20.399 The Sabbath changed. 00:11:20.559 --> 00:11:36.320 Instead of being something designed to protect the wealth and wherefell of human beings, it became a day of prohibition, the list of things which might not be done stretching out into an almost endless series of rules and regulations. 00:11:38.399 --> 00:11:50.399 This, what all I'm really saying is that from the beginning, this particular commandment was treated differently and responded to differently. 00:11:50.720 --> 00:11:58.639 The letter of the law, the regulations, the prohibitions, and then how refreshing it was to hear from Jesus. 00:11:58.879 --> 00:12:07.279 When to hear from Jesus, he said, folks, folks, um, the Sabbath was made for man. 00:12:07.679 --> 00:12:09.840 Man wasn't made for the Sabbath. 00:12:10.879 --> 00:12:19.679 And Jesus gave this refreshing, gracious correction of the misunderstanding of what this is all about. 00:12:21.039 --> 00:12:28.159 It's very interesting that this is the only one of the ten that is not repeated as a command in the New Testament. 00:12:28.320 --> 00:12:30.240 Don't know if you've ever noticed that. 00:12:31.120 --> 00:12:35.759 In fact, after the day of Pentecost, it's not even once referred to. 00:12:36.000 --> 00:12:43.440 Once the church was born on the day of Pentecost, this was not, you don't you don't find anything about the Sabbath in the book of Acts. 00:12:43.600 --> 00:13:09.600 You know that Jews were gathering, but no treatment of it, no command about it in the book of Acts, no command about the Sabbath in the epistles, no reference to the Sabbath in this sense in uh in Revelation, and even in the Gospels, although we see that people observed it when Jesus spoke about it, he had to correct the misuse of it. 00:13:09.840 --> 00:13:18.639 And yet all of the other of the Ten Commandments are specifically set forth as commandments in the New Testament. 00:13:18.799 --> 00:13:20.960 I wonder what that means. 00:13:21.279 --> 00:13:28.159 If we don't think about things like this, then we're probably not thinking when we're reading. 00:13:28.879 --> 00:13:30.960 So they made it a Christian Sabbath. 00:13:31.279 --> 00:13:34.879 There is no such thing as a Christian Sabbath in the scriptures. 00:13:35.039 --> 00:13:37.679 Uh that would be kind of the last thing that I want to say. 00:13:37.840 --> 00:13:46.399 The church misused it just as much as Israel did, although we find early in the book of Acts that believers gathered on the first day of the week. 00:13:46.480 --> 00:13:47.200 Not the Sabbath. 00:13:47.279 --> 00:13:49.919 The Sabbath is the seventh day of the week. 00:13:50.240 --> 00:13:51.039 Saturday. 00:13:51.279 --> 00:13:53.440 Believers gathered on the first day of the week. 00:13:53.600 --> 00:13:58.720 The Lord's Day, it was a day of celebration, it was a day of reflection of the resurrection. 00:13:58.879 --> 00:14:06.799 It was a time where believers gathered together for what we do, sitting under the teaching of God's Word, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer. 00:14:07.039 --> 00:14:08.799 It was not a burdensome thing. 00:14:08.960 --> 00:14:10.559 It was a time to stop. 00:14:13.120 --> 00:14:18.960 Refresh our souls, recreate, refocus our lives. 00:14:19.039 --> 00:14:24.879 And yet it quickly became every bit as abusive and oppressive as in the Old Testament. 00:14:25.039 --> 00:14:31.200 Emperor Constantine, 3, 321 A.D., purportedly was converted. 00:14:31.279 --> 00:14:42.799 And what happened quickly after that is he instituted Sunday as a Christian Sabbath, particularly in the cities of Rome where no labor, no transactions, no work could be done. 00:14:42.879 --> 00:14:45.120 It didn't last very long because it didn't work. 00:14:45.440 --> 00:14:48.240 But right away we were moved in the direction of that. 00:14:48.399 --> 00:15:01.440 In the Middle Ages, Thomas Aquinas built a whole theory of the Christian Sabbath that continued on through the Reformation, continued on in England, the Sunday Observance Act that continued to the blue laws in our country. 00:15:01.600 --> 00:15:04.960 Some of you are old enough to remember that things weren't always open on Sunday. 00:15:05.120 --> 00:15:16.720 The only difference now is the mall opens a little bit later and closes a little bit earlier, but you you didn't used to be able to do hardly anything on Sunday, and those are the so-called blue laws. 00:15:16.960 --> 00:15:23.519 The same kind of uh same kind of abuse, actually. 00:15:23.840 --> 00:15:35.600 Uh it wasn't long before the church was drawing up as detailed a list of rules and regulations uh for the Lord's Day as was done for the Jewish Sabbath. 00:15:35.919 --> 00:15:45.120 So all I'm trying to say is this is a little bit more of a perplexing uh commandment than the others in some way. 00:15:45.279 --> 00:15:50.960 So let's try to bring this to light, what the meaning is. 00:15:51.120 --> 00:15:57.600 So what I'd like to try to do is just walk through the text and try to expose it, to bring it to light. 00:15:57.759 --> 00:16:00.000 That's what Bible exposition is. 00:16:00.240 --> 00:16:05.840 We don't add our words to it, we draw out of it to the best of ability what we can. 00:16:06.000 --> 00:16:12.159 Let's see what this is actually saying, and then we have to ask ourselves, what do we do with it? 00:16:12.320 --> 00:16:14.559 Observation, interpretation, application. 00:16:14.799 --> 00:16:17.840 This church had that 40 years ago, right? 00:16:18.879 --> 00:16:19.440 All right. 00:16:19.600 --> 00:16:23.840 So let's ask ourselves, what does this mean? 00:16:24.080 --> 00:16:30.639 So I'd like to ask you to turn to Exodus chapter 20, uh, verse 8. 00:16:31.200 --> 00:16:41.440 And what we find there, the the words begins with uh remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. 00:16:41.600 --> 00:16:43.039 Remember and keep it holy. 00:16:43.200 --> 00:16:44.080 Now it's very interesting. 00:16:44.240 --> 00:16:48.480 The Sabbath was not instituted here in Exodus 20. 00:16:48.639 --> 00:16:52.879 They were to look back and remember something that they already knew something about. 00:16:53.039 --> 00:16:56.159 The Deuteronomy parallel passage says, observe it. 00:16:56.320 --> 00:16:58.879 Observe something you already know something about. 00:16:59.519 --> 00:17:04.400 Um and what we find is actually very interesting. 00:17:05.920 --> 00:17:16.160 Shortly before they were on Mount Sinai, but after the Jews had come out of Egypt and come across the Red Sea, they were doing what they did best. 00:17:16.319 --> 00:17:22.720 They were grumbling, they were complaining about God, they were asking themselves, why is God doing this to me? 00:17:24.079 --> 00:17:30.640 Do we ever find ourselves when life doesn't go the way we want it to, to say, God, why are you doing this to me? 00:17:30.960 --> 00:17:32.960 It's a terrible question. 00:17:33.359 --> 00:17:42.480 God is not doing something to us except seeking through the cross and the cross of Christ and the death of Christ to bless us. 00:17:42.720 --> 00:17:45.759 And he uses the bad things in our lives for good. 00:17:45.920 --> 00:17:50.400 He's not doing something to us, but it was it's deep in our hearts. 00:17:50.640 --> 00:18:04.720 And so for the Jews, when they were grumbling and complaining and they didn't like the food they had and there wasn't enough, then God so patiently and so graciously gave them the quail and the manna in the wilderness. 00:18:04.880 --> 00:18:09.920 And miraculously, each day the manna would would be there. 00:18:10.079 --> 00:18:13.759 And so they could go and gather it and they would have enough food for the day. 00:18:13.920 --> 00:18:17.519 But if they tried to keep it any longer than one day, it rotted. 00:18:17.839 --> 00:18:18.880 It was putrid. 00:18:19.359 --> 00:18:25.279 So every day, every day, God was providing for that day what they need. 00:18:25.519 --> 00:18:29.920 All kinds of incredibly pertinent principles for us. 00:18:30.400 --> 00:18:33.599 One day at a time, God gives us what we need. 00:18:33.839 --> 00:18:38.880 Day one, day two, day three, day four, day five, day six, but not the seventh day. 00:18:39.039 --> 00:18:40.160 Do you remember what it was? 00:18:40.319 --> 00:18:43.759 On the seventh day there was no manna, there was no quail. 00:18:43.920 --> 00:18:53.200 But on the sixth day, God gave a double portion, so they went out and they gathered that because there would be no more on the seventh day. 00:18:53.359 --> 00:18:55.279 Because the seventh day was a Sabbath. 00:18:55.519 --> 00:18:59.920 It was a day of stopping, it was a day of ceasing and desisting. 00:19:00.319 --> 00:19:04.640 So they knew about that, and that's what he is referring to. 00:19:04.960 --> 00:19:10.960 The principle of one day being different from the rest, one day of seven was nothing new. 00:19:11.119 --> 00:19:13.920 They were reminded about it, and they were to keep it holy. 00:19:14.160 --> 00:19:23.519 And we have such a problem with the word holy, it makes us think of stained glass and organs, and I have no problem with stained glass and organs. 00:19:23.759 --> 00:19:29.839 Makes us think with someone with a deep, godly stained glass voice. 00:19:30.559 --> 00:19:34.000 Um we get all we get all messed up with that. 00:19:34.240 --> 00:19:37.039 All holy means is set apart. 00:19:37.680 --> 00:19:38.640 Different. 00:19:39.359 --> 00:19:44.880 One day of the week is to be set apart for God and is to be different from God. 00:19:48.079 --> 00:19:53.359 They were to treat the seventh day differently. 00:19:53.519 --> 00:20:02.559 There is to be a different special day graciously provided by the Lord for his purposes. 00:20:02.880 --> 00:20:04.880 That was what the Sabbath was all about. 00:20:05.039 --> 00:20:13.119 It was not oppressive, it was a gracious provision of rest and refocusing on God. 00:20:14.160 --> 00:20:16.079 Well, let's uh continue here. 00:20:16.240 --> 00:20:20.319 Let's look at Exodus 20, verses 9 and 10. 00:20:25.359 --> 00:20:29.839 Uh six days you shall labor and do your work. 00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:36.240 On the seventh day, the seventh is a Sabbath to the Lord, you shall not do any work, not you or anybody around you. 00:20:37.119 --> 00:20:50.559 This this matter of uh the Sabbath obviously has to do with work and a ceasing and a stopping and a desisting of work. 00:20:50.799 --> 00:20:57.519 The word sabbath is it means sabbath, and all it is is a Hebrew word, sabbat. 00:20:58.160 --> 00:21:02.240 And it meant stop, stop, time out. 00:21:02.480 --> 00:21:04.240 Think of a coach with a whistle. 00:21:05.519 --> 00:21:06.000 Stop! 00:21:07.039 --> 00:21:11.440 Take a time out, and I don't mean the way you say to your kids, take a time out. 00:21:12.559 --> 00:21:18.640 But take time out, stop your frenzied activities. 00:21:20.400 --> 00:21:39.519 Um we will probably only understand correctly uh what this was all about when we understand the biblical teaching about work, not as a burden, not as a curse, but as a blessing, as a stewardship, as an assignment. 00:21:39.680 --> 00:21:42.720 It's part of our calling as human beings. 00:21:42.960 --> 00:21:54.559 And that goes back to uh to Genesis, no, I didn't put those verses there, to Genesis chapter 2, uh, verse 15, for example. 00:21:54.720 --> 00:21:59.759 Uh and we need to understand this because the Sabbath is a ceasing of what we're about to see. 00:22:00.400 --> 00:22:07.680 Here of the assignment of man before sin, work is not the curse. 00:22:08.000 --> 00:22:15.200 It's the thorns and the thistles and the sweat of our brow and the pain of childbirth and all of that, the labor. 00:22:16.079 --> 00:22:17.200 That's the curse. 00:22:17.359 --> 00:22:23.680 But it's not the assignment to be productive and to act and to be a good steward. 00:22:24.000 --> 00:22:29.039 We see that it goes to the very core of who we are. 00:22:29.759 --> 00:22:35.440 Genesis 2.15, the Lord took the man and put him in the garden to work and keep the garden. 00:22:35.759 --> 00:22:40.960 God gave Adam and Eve a little piece of paradise here on earth. 00:22:41.200 --> 00:22:44.319 And it has to do with what we shall experience. 00:22:44.400 --> 00:22:54.079 And in heaven, when the new heaven and the new earth, we will have productive, meaningful activities that are challenging and that are godlike. 00:22:54.319 --> 00:22:55.920 What do I mean by that? 00:22:56.160 --> 00:23:06.319 Well, they were to, for example, tend and superintend and develop the garden, this whole matter of developing the world around us. 00:23:06.559 --> 00:23:08.960 They were to give names to the different animals. 00:23:09.039 --> 00:23:11.920 And we saw last week, names are not just labels. 00:23:12.079 --> 00:23:17.119 He didn't just look at something and say, well, that's a hippopotamus and that's a toad or whatever it was. 00:23:17.359 --> 00:23:22.559 This whole thing, and it's just, there's hints of it here, but it's clearly there. 00:23:22.880 --> 00:23:30.079 When Adam was to name the animals, that was the very beginning of intellectual activities. 00:23:30.480 --> 00:23:37.200 Understanding the nature, because names and nature went together in the biblical mindset. 00:23:37.599 --> 00:23:50.000 So it's really in seed form, it's all intellectual activities, all creative work, all efforts to unlock the hidden secrets of God in the creation. 00:23:50.480 --> 00:23:52.640 That was part of man's assignment. 00:23:52.799 --> 00:23:53.519 That was good. 00:23:53.599 --> 00:24:00.160 That goes to the heart of who we are as creatures, created in the image of God. 00:24:00.400 --> 00:24:04.079 Now, sin really screwed things up, no question about that. 00:24:04.240 --> 00:24:06.559 But it's not work that is the curse. 00:24:06.720 --> 00:24:11.599 Work was given as a gift, a stewardship, and a blessing. 00:24:11.839 --> 00:24:14.559 And it reflects what God did. 00:24:14.720 --> 00:24:18.480 For in six days, God created. 00:24:19.519 --> 00:24:28.400 So our work, and I know this is hard to believe on Monday morning, but our work was intended to reflect something of our being. 00:24:28.640 --> 00:24:36.480 We're made for that, that creative, productive activity, and that reflects something in the being of God. 00:24:37.279 --> 00:24:42.960 Our doing is a reflection of the fact that God did many things. 00:24:45.759 --> 00:24:49.119 Work is not a curse, it is a calling. 00:24:49.279 --> 00:24:52.160 And I know that's real easy to say. 00:24:53.200 --> 00:25:00.079 And it's not real easy because we live in a broken world and we have broken hearts, and it doesn't always function that way. 00:25:00.319 --> 00:25:07.680 But we've got to understand that the six days of working was a blessing, not a cursing. 00:25:10.160 --> 00:25:12.160 Now, here is the point. 00:25:13.039 --> 00:25:17.039 There is much more to us than work. 00:25:18.799 --> 00:25:23.519 There's much more to a human being than what he does. 00:25:24.720 --> 00:25:35.440 We are called to stop at least one day out of seven and not be identified by what we do. 00:25:37.119 --> 00:25:41.200 Let's go on and look at verse 11 of chapter 20. 00:25:41.440 --> 00:25:46.480 Much more we can say in Genesis about a biblical understanding of the calling and privilege of work. 00:25:47.440 --> 00:25:52.319 But there's a reason why we are to do this that's contained in verse 11. 00:25:52.480 --> 00:25:54.079 Stop, cease, desist. 00:25:55.279 --> 00:26:01.839 For in six days the Lord made the heaven and the earth, the sea and is all that in them. 00:26:02.480 --> 00:26:06.160 And in the seventh day, God stopped. 00:26:06.480 --> 00:26:08.079 He didn't cease to exist. 00:26:08.319 --> 00:26:09.359 He stopped. 00:26:09.680 --> 00:26:11.200 He took a timeout. 00:26:11.599 --> 00:26:21.680 God did nothing for, except hold the universe together, but he did nothing of his creative work for a whole one day out of seven. 00:26:22.960 --> 00:26:25.440 God took a Sabbath. 00:26:26.079 --> 00:26:27.839 God stopped. 00:26:28.880 --> 00:26:31.039 Who do we think we are? 00:26:31.839 --> 00:26:33.599 Who do we think we are? 00:26:33.839 --> 00:26:37.359 If God, now God was not tired. 00:26:37.519 --> 00:26:41.359 He didn't stop and take a break because his muscles were sore. 00:26:42.079 --> 00:26:46.799 He wasn't tired for having thrown the universe into place. 00:26:46.960 --> 00:26:58.480 He wasn't exhausted from having finally woven together those amino acids in that beautiful, amazing dual helix of the DNA molecule. 00:26:58.720 --> 00:27:00.240 He wasn't tired of that. 00:27:00.480 --> 00:27:03.599 But God is more than just making things. 00:27:04.000 --> 00:27:07.440 And we are to be more than just what we do. 00:27:08.000 --> 00:27:11.519 God is not defined by being the creator. 00:27:12.160 --> 00:27:13.279 He is the creator. 00:27:13.440 --> 00:27:14.480 That's a part of who he is. 00:27:14.640 --> 00:27:18.960 But there's much more to God than just doing. 00:27:20.880 --> 00:27:22.880 God took a break. 00:27:25.119 --> 00:27:27.599 And so is my clicker. 00:27:27.839 --> 00:27:28.480 There we go. 00:27:28.640 --> 00:27:31.519 There is much more to God than what he does. 00:27:31.839 --> 00:27:35.359 He is not defined by doing. 00:27:35.759 --> 00:27:40.400 And we must not be defined by doing. 00:27:42.000 --> 00:27:44.480 God is not a divine doer. 00:27:44.559 --> 00:27:47.359 He is a divine beer, a being. 00:27:47.759 --> 00:27:50.319 There is more to God than work alone. 00:27:50.480 --> 00:27:52.559 There is more to us than work alone. 00:27:52.799 --> 00:28:07.759 And just as when we work and are productive, and then we are reflecting something in the image of God, when we stop, time out, do nothing, recreate, refocus, we are being godly. 00:28:07.920 --> 00:28:10.160 We are being godlike in a meaningful way. 00:28:10.319 --> 00:28:13.839 It's corresponding the being of God. 00:28:19.759 --> 00:28:26.720 Jane and I were out walking a week or so ago, and we we ran into Bill and Bev Schoen. 00:28:26.880 --> 00:28:28.720 I don't know if they're there here today. 00:28:29.200 --> 00:28:30.400 We stood and talked. 00:28:30.480 --> 00:28:32.160 We had seen each other but hadn't really talked. 00:28:32.240 --> 00:28:34.400 And you know what I immediately asked Bill? 00:28:35.279 --> 00:28:37.039 So, Bill, what do you do? 00:28:37.680 --> 00:28:40.319 Isn't that our instinctive reaction? 00:28:40.799 --> 00:28:46.799 Now, maybe, maybe I can't really say, Bill, what do you be? 00:28:48.240 --> 00:28:49.920 You can't begin that way. 00:28:50.079 --> 00:29:01.920 But what I care about Bill is not just that he's this wonderful, winsome guy, or that he apparently is or was an extraordinary architect. 00:29:02.079 --> 00:29:06.640 Those are great things, but there is more to Bill than just what he does. 00:29:06.960 --> 00:29:14.319 And somehow or another we've got to get to the point of knowing people for who they are, not just for what they do. 00:29:14.480 --> 00:29:20.000 I spent a wonderful evening, uh, Jane and I were with uh Debbie and Paul Todd Hunter. 00:29:20.160 --> 00:29:24.000 And we didn't just find out something about what one another does. 00:29:24.160 --> 00:29:28.640 There was a meaningful sense of who one another is. 00:29:29.119 --> 00:29:37.599 Because life is more than doing, and we must not be defined by doing. 00:29:38.160 --> 00:29:46.960 When we stop, refocus, recreate, we reflect part of the image of God, of what he intends us to be. 00:29:47.200 --> 00:29:51.279 This is something that is very, very important. 00:29:52.240 --> 00:29:59.279 So the reason given in the Exodus passage, in effect, is that you are more than doing. 00:29:59.519 --> 00:30:01.200 God is more than a doer. 00:30:01.440 --> 00:30:07.519 And when we stop, we reflect at something deeply, deeply within us. 00:30:08.240 --> 00:30:12.720 Now, there's another clue to what the inner true meaning of the Sabbath is. 00:30:12.880 --> 00:30:19.440 The second time this is given in Exodus in Deuteronomy chapter 5. 00:30:20.720 --> 00:30:33.200 Um, we're not going to take the time to really turn there and look at it, but basically, he when the reason for Sabbath keeping in Deuteronomy 5, verse 15, I believe it is, if you want to make note of that. 00:30:33.440 --> 00:30:34.319 Oh, but yeah. 00:30:34.480 --> 00:30:35.680 You do want to make note of it. 00:30:35.759 --> 00:30:37.519 I put it on the screen, of course. 00:30:37.759 --> 00:30:50.559 Um, the reason given, uh the reason given is, he says, remember the Sabbath, for I brought you out of slavery. 00:30:51.680 --> 00:30:54.240 You were not meant to be slaves. 00:30:54.400 --> 00:30:58.960 I redeemed you from the slavery in which you were in. 00:30:59.920 --> 00:31:07.119 Not just to be productive, because I'm productive, but you are more than just a machine. 00:31:07.359 --> 00:31:12.799 One of the horrible things about slavery, and there's many of them, and what do most of us know about slavery? 00:31:13.039 --> 00:31:23.920 But it's so demeaning, it reduces a person to just a machine, just a thing, only valued for its productivity, and when it can no longer do that, it's tossed aside. 00:31:24.400 --> 00:31:38.240 And if we get our identity in what we can produce, then what happens when we get into the stage of life that I'm rapidly moving towards when we're no longer able to be productive in the same way? 00:31:38.480 --> 00:31:44.240 Men, women, those of you who share the same hair color that I do, that's an issue for us. 00:31:44.559 --> 00:31:53.599 Our whole life found meaning if we're if we're normal, and in an unhealthy way, it found meaning probably in our work. 00:31:53.759 --> 00:31:57.519 And when we no longer can work, are we just tossed aside, frankly? 00:31:57.759 --> 00:32:00.480 For a lot of senior citizens, it feels that way. 00:32:00.720 --> 00:32:03.519 Just kind of, our useful days are over. 00:32:04.400 --> 00:32:20.559 And this this commandment reaches down and says, you weren't just created to do, you're created to be, like I am, but you're not created just for a utilitarian purpose. 00:32:20.799 --> 00:32:23.920 I saved you out of that. 00:32:24.720 --> 00:32:29.279 God has not designed us to be slaves or robots. 00:32:30.079 --> 00:32:39.920 Uh God has not designed us to run 24 out of 24, 7 out of 7, 365 out of 365. 00:32:40.319 --> 00:32:47.039 And the problem is in our circles, call it the Protestant work ethic, I might call it the Protestant curse. 00:32:48.160 --> 00:32:50.960 We find our identity in being busy. 00:32:51.119 --> 00:33:02.400 And just think as we talk with each other, how much of our talk is spent talking about how busy we are, as though that's a badge of courage somehow, to be busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy. 00:33:02.480 --> 00:33:03.680 I'm just so busy. 00:33:03.839 --> 00:33:05.359 And we take pride in that. 00:33:05.440 --> 00:33:08.400 We moan about it, but that's part of our identity. 00:33:08.559 --> 00:33:12.960 And that and God is saying, folks, stop, stop. 00:33:14.000 --> 00:33:18.000 There's more to you than being busy. 00:33:19.279 --> 00:33:22.160 God took a break. 00:33:23.279 --> 00:33:26.000 Who do you think you are? 00:33:28.720 --> 00:33:36.400 Oh, there's a lot more that I could say, but what I'd like to do is try to suggest a few things as I reflect upon this. 00:33:36.960 --> 00:33:44.799 Uh a few things of what I'd like to suggest in terms of application and reflection, the Sabbath. 00:33:45.039 --> 00:33:53.119 Because all we can think about is you can't go as early to Kohl's as you want to, or you know, whatever. 00:33:53.680 --> 00:33:56.480 Um but they always have a deal and a sale at Kohl's. 00:33:56.559 --> 00:33:58.480 Don't get me started on Kohl's. 00:33:58.720 --> 00:34:01.519 That, by the way, is a discussion we have at home a great deal. 00:34:01.599 --> 00:34:02.400 But all right. 00:34:02.559 --> 00:34:08.960 But what do we do then with this deeper sense of what the Sabbath is? 00:34:09.199 --> 00:34:12.559 Well, uh several questions and observations, just briefly. 00:34:12.719 --> 00:34:19.039 I wonder if we really have a big biblical understanding of work and recreation. 00:34:19.199 --> 00:34:21.119 I'm not talking about recreation. 00:34:21.360 --> 00:34:26.000 There's a difference between recreation and recreation. 00:34:26.719 --> 00:34:32.239 In terms of work, uh there's two extremes. 00:34:32.400 --> 00:34:34.880 There's the TGIF view of work. 00:34:35.039 --> 00:34:36.800 Thank God it's Friday. 00:34:37.119 --> 00:34:43.280 We get up Monday morning and we're, yeah, we got us all ahead, and then you pull yourself through the week. 00:34:43.360 --> 00:34:44.239 And I do some of that. 00:34:44.320 --> 00:34:46.239 Only my Monday is Tuesday morning. 00:34:46.320 --> 00:34:57.119 But, you know, you you go and then you get to Friday, and you may not go down to TGIFs, but there is a sense of, ah, I'm so glad that's behind me. 00:34:57.199 --> 00:35:01.760 And now I can just veg, now I can relax, now I can just have a little bit of fun. 00:35:03.039 --> 00:35:12.079 We may not really view it quite that way, but we do tend to see work as something we need to get behind us. 00:35:13.440 --> 00:35:20.159 And the problem with that is we then view the rest of the time as I have a need for recreation. 00:35:20.320 --> 00:35:21.360 I need to just veg. 00:35:21.679 --> 00:35:24.320 I need to just, you know, whatever. 00:35:24.639 --> 00:35:30.719 The other danger besides the TGIF approach to work is the ever-runny bunny. 00:35:30.960 --> 00:35:34.000 You know, just keeps going and going and going and going and going and going. 00:35:34.159 --> 00:35:41.039 I don't know, maybe that is no longer an advertisement, but some of you remember the ever-ready bunny sold billions of batteries. 00:35:41.199 --> 00:35:42.000 You just never stopped. 00:35:42.079 --> 00:35:43.760 You got ever ready, little blah blah blah. 00:35:44.639 --> 00:35:49.599 Those two understandings of work are absolutely sub-Christian. 00:35:53.920 --> 00:35:56.880 Work is not the curse, thorns and thistles are. 00:35:57.039 --> 00:36:04.559 The TGIF mindset is sub-Christian, but the workaholic mindset, my friend, is sub-Christian as well. 00:36:06.559 --> 00:36:08.639 God took a break. 00:36:08.960 --> 00:36:11.119 God was unproductive. 00:36:11.519 --> 00:36:15.760 Now that's for some of you, if I say God was unproductive, you get nervous. 00:36:16.960 --> 00:36:22.800 If I say God did nothing for 24 hours, you begin to say, well, no, but Walt, wait a minute. 00:36:24.000 --> 00:36:24.960 I hear you. 00:36:25.360 --> 00:36:27.280 Try to think about it. 00:36:27.599 --> 00:36:29.840 What was the Sabbath all about? 00:36:31.199 --> 00:36:39.840 Is it possible that doing nothing for one day out of seven, or at least doing other things, is godly? 00:36:40.239 --> 00:36:43.280 And if so, what are those other things? 00:36:44.960 --> 00:36:54.079 God designed and sanctified one day of seven, and he says, stop, take a time out. 00:36:55.360 --> 00:37:00.639 Now, it's really tied to our understanding of work and recreation. 00:37:00.960 --> 00:37:03.280 I'll come back to recreation in a minute. 00:37:03.599 --> 00:37:09.360 You need a break today, and I know Ronald McDonald will be really happy with me for uh having said that. 00:37:09.440 --> 00:37:11.360 You know, you deserve a break today. 00:37:11.519 --> 00:37:15.519 You know, like McDonald's, you deserve all the cholesterol and the calories and so forth. 00:37:15.679 --> 00:37:16.320 You deserve that. 00:37:16.400 --> 00:37:18.559 You've got a right to take a break. 00:37:20.000 --> 00:37:26.239 Um, I don't think that sense of you have a right to this is a biblical understanding at all. 00:37:26.400 --> 00:37:33.519 In fact, you look in the media, you look at the uh political world, there's so much talking about rights. 00:37:33.599 --> 00:37:37.440 It's a right, this is a right, and that is a right, and that is a right. 00:37:37.760 --> 00:37:44.400 We have no rights other than what God chooses to give us by grace. 00:37:45.280 --> 00:37:52.800 We don't deserve the things that our nation and our hearts run after and say that's a right. 00:37:53.119 --> 00:37:54.639 That's a wrong. 00:37:54.880 --> 00:38:00.320 And it comes from a faulty understanding that God is sovereign and good. 00:38:00.480 --> 00:38:14.159 He does what he pleases and only what he pleases and is always and ever good, and all we can count on is the good things of God, and nothing that we have is anything other than something God in his grace gives to us. 00:38:14.559 --> 00:38:22.079 I'm tired of hearing about rights, but we do have needs, and there's a big difference. 00:38:22.960 --> 00:38:26.880