Chapters
0:04 Introduction to the Sabbath
17:50 Understanding Sabbath's Role
20:08 Worship Practices in Early Church
26:24 New Covenant vs. Old Covenant
30:48 Theonomy and Its Implications

Transcript
[0:00]To come in and get a seat, we can get rolling this morning.
[0:04]Introduction to the Sabbath
[0:04]Congratulations for making it in. I know some of us were praying that, Lord, would you direct that storm south, like to Missouri or Iowa or Arkansas or something, but we did okay. Three inches at our place, but quite a bit of ice coming in. So thanks for being here this morning. I'm sure some others will be coming in, and we'll try to catch some of them up as we get along here this morning. We're here to talk about the sabbath this morning i'm cole grace and um uh this was really on the on the ballot for probably about a year ago about construction and everything and that sort of thing so when kevin uh uh johnson uh called and says can you revisit that i said sure it's in the hopper, and so just looked at it again made made some other changes to it and just uh that's what we'll be going through today uh the uh pick up an outline either side has one there and i'll talk for a little bit just a minute about later on about what the importance of having that with you.
[1:05]So uh we'll wrap up about 9 40 9 45 give everyone a chance to to uh regroup uh for the service that follows this this morning we can connect some dots between uh us sitting here and dr Wayne Grudem. Pastor Brent counts Grudem as a mentor and friend, and they've spent time together administrating socially. I asked him just a few minutes ago. You met him 36 years ago, and you've known him for some 20 years, personally and professionally. So, you can connect some dots directly from this book and what we're talking about today to this church, this Sunday morning gathering, and to Dr. Wayne Grudem. So, we're in very good hands. Kevin Johnson's review of Wayne Grudem's Christian Ethics and our earlier Sunday School studies in his systematic theology last week gave us a good background for the upcoming weeks, that includes today and moving forward for a few weeks. It's helpful because Grudem spends a lot of energy on the biblical conclusions for his writings.
[2:13]Case in point, to understand today's topic, we're going through chapter 13, we should at least begin by reading chapter 8. And that's used in the Old Testament for ethical guidance and his appendix D in this book. And we can read chapter 16 as well, and you get the idea. There's a lot that flows into this chapter. We should keep in mind that Grudem's goal is for us to follow him to biblical conclusions. Time doesn't allow us to follow every reason today, so we'll condense things into the next 35 or 40 minutes. And if time allows, we'll look at his strong disagreement as a warning against modern legalism and confusion of those who apply Old Covenant statutes as requirements for today. You're going to hear from me an umbrella over the Sabbath and everything that he's talking about today. And if we grasp that, we've reached our goal for today. We'll get into that a little bit later. In all these things, Grudem shows a fairness and firm grasp of biblical truth, then that's where we should land.
[3:16]Grudem's hope is that we see the fourth commandment, the Sabbath commandment, as more than just a rule to be obeyed or disobeyed. We're to understand that knowing the reasons for whether we can or whether we must meet on a certain day carries a lot more weight than we might realize. Some sources for today I'm using are his book, Christian Ethics and Systematic Theology. They're here if you want to look at them. The ESV Study Bible. Grudem was the general editor for the ESV Study Bible. Some teaching audio from his church, his teaching in his church in 2012, and a first century writing that he references and pulls from. Today's handout has some references and verses and links, an application, thoughts for further studies, and my email if you ever wanted to get in touch. Let's pray before we go any further. Father, as I looked at this over the last year, I am just overwhelmed by two things. One is your providence, and that is that you, Father, have granted and want us to come close to you in a Sabbath, which we'll get into and learn more about your purposes in this in a bit. The second is your power, and that is that we can count tens of thousands of galaxies.
[4:37]And yet you know when a single sparrow falls. And so, Father, how we interact with these two things is incomprehensible. We're thankful for your Word that does make it comprehensible, that makes it understandable. I pray that we join with your Spirit in understanding that today. You just guide everything here, Lord Jesus. When we come away from here, loving you more and deeper, understanding more, and questioning if we have to, because that's all part of your purposes as well. So thank you for this time together and everyone here. We pray for those who may be driving. Would you grant them safety, Father? In your great risen Son's name we pray, Jesus. Amen.
[5:16]Grudem uses a lot of verses, maybe because he really wants to make sure that he can't be considered a proof texter. I'm pulling that from my reading of him, but he does use a lot of verses. We don't have time today to go into every verse. One of his, I think, second page in, one of his topics has 10 or 11 verses. If you want to know those, I can get those to you later. Send, email me. It's on the handout. I've got all those written out already. Oh, uh-oh. And we can get those to you. And the problem with 1,000-page books is just that. So anyway, if you did want to look at his books, they're here. Systematic theology, Christian ethics. Here's the book he pulls from, which is from my library. And here is his ESV study Bible. So I didn't think that was going to last. Anyway, those are here just if you wanted to look at them. We're not going to look at those today.
[6:14]Grudem lays the foundation of Christian ethics as a study which acts, attitudes, our acts and attitudes and personal character traits receive God's approval. He wants this book to be an invitation to experience the great blessing of God that comes from walking daily in paths of obedience, knowing more of the joy of God's presence and experiencing His favor on our lives. It is an invitation to delight in the goodness and beauty of God's moral standards, because we understand that delight in those standards is really delight in the infinitely good and moral character of God Himself. For to remember, we are not studying a set of rules or commands. We call it a commandment, but we are studying the character of the holy and infinite God as Grudem builds on systematic theology and some of his other writings, and that these things should be lived and prayed and sung, so that biblical theology leads to doxology. Another umbrella covering most everything that he writes.
[7:16]Grudem's Sabbath chapter shows his disagreement with the idea that the Sabbath commandment is a creation ordinance. I'm quoting him now. A creation ordinance, that is, a moral requirement established by God at creation, meaning that God requires all people in all ages to obey it, not just those living under the Mosaic Covenant. And he spends part of the chapter presenting but not defending what's called the Sabbatarian view, That is, that Sunday in the New Testament must correspond with the Sabbath day of the Old Testament. We'll get into this later. The fourth commandment reads, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shall you labor and do all your work, 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, your male servant or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.
[8:12]For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, and he rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. It's Exodus 20, verses 8 to 11. With the wording in Deuteronomy adding, 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. That comes from Deuteronomy 5. We don't know whether God gave the additional Deuteronomy wording to Moses at the time he first spoke to them, or sometimes later, but certainly it was added in Deuteronomy. Some reminders for the commandment. First, it's a result of the fall. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, Genesis 3.19. Second, to set aside a time to draw near in God and worship, a day that God blessed in Exodus 2011.
[9:13]Blessed here is related to the word for knee, as if you were to kneel or bow down, and it suggests the granting of a favor from the one we're kneeling in front of. In Exodus 20, it means to endure with power or success, or to declare a thing or day as beneficial and holy. God consecrated the Sabbath by gifting it with a special divine character. Along with this, the Sabbath commandment was not intended to give us a spiritual reward for being inactive for a day, or to be used to accuse or judge others if it was not followed. Jesus understood this. When he was confronted by the Pharisees in the grain fields, he said the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. The idea of Sabbath should not be considered a burden. Grudem quotes Isaiah 58, where God's design for the Sabbath is to be a delight. If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, and the holy day of the Lord honorable, if you honor it not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly, then you shall take delight in the Lord. That word's here twice, isn't it? And I will make you ride on the heights of the earth, I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
[10:40]Here in Isaiah 58, it also includes instructions for true fasting, warnings against false fasting, and against oppressing workers, also God's desire to bring the homeless poor into our houses, and for covering the naked, all actions.
[10:57]Degrudem rest is not idleness, but a deliberate time to stop to acknowledge God's sovereignty.
[11:05]He emphasizes that the designs of God were not to be overruled by Jewish traditions that created legalistic Sabbath rules. Here are some of them. If a kettle that's holding hot water was taken off a stove, cold water may not be put in it to be made hot, but enough may be put in to make the water lukewarm.
[11:29]Or, if a stone, I'm quoting these, by the way, this isn't paraphrase. Or, if a stone lay on the mouth of a jar, the jar may be turned on its side so that the stone falls off. If the jar was among other jars, it may be lifted up and then turned on its side so that the stone falls off. Quote, Another one. If a sponge has a leather handpiece, they may use it to wipe on the Sabbath, but if it has not, they may not use it to wipe with. These rules are from the Mishnah. Those are rabbinic teachers on the tales of life. And the Talmud, those are rabbinic discussions on the teachings of the Mishnah. They were understood and well-developed at the time of Christ. We know the Talmud translations can cover over 20 pages long, and translations of the Mishnah can run well over 800 pages. Like the earlier verse we read in Mark 2, it's these teachings that the Pharisees said to Christ when he was, quote, doing things not lawful on the Sabbath, in Matthew 12, 2.
[12:42]Grudem describes the Sabbatarian position, that is, the tradition within the church now, that associates Sunday as the New Testament as being bound to the Sabbath day in the Old Testament. And then he argues against it. He provides the case for Sabbatarianism, that is, the forceful binding of Sabbath to Sunday in the church in New Covenant days, by its advocates by saying, first, it was the position of the English Puritans and found its way into the Westminster Confession of Faith, where it says, God hath particularly appointed one day in seven for a Sabbath to be kept holy unto him, which from the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, was changed into the first day of the week, which in Scripture is called the Lord's Day, and is to be continued to the end of the world as the Christian Sabbath. Again, that's Westminster Christian of Faith. Second, that God rested on the Sabbath day. We all know that, Genesis 2. Third, the belief that the Fourth Commandment as part of the Ten represented moral requirements underline that word, that apply to all life on earth for all periods of history. This is the creation ordinance I mentioned earlier.
[14:02]And fourth, there's nothing in the New Testament to convincingly indicate the termination of the Old Testament commandment. That's one view of the Sabbatarian view of the Sabbath. Gruden admits he held this view for many years and even today respects this view and his friends who hold to it.
[14:21]I listened to two hours of him teaching on just a Sabbath from 2012. And in there, he said, when he held that view, he would not even study for a sermon. When he went home, no football, no nothing. He would spend time reading the Bible or something like that, meditating on God's Word, you know, those sorts of things. But he wouldn't lift, he would read a newspaper in those days when he, uh.
[14:47]When he held that view. So he's not taking this lightly at all. However, he now makes a strong case that it is not morally binding for today. That's his current view, and here's the reasons that he gives. First, the Mosaic Covenant has been terminated and is no longer binding since we live in the age of the New Covenant. Here's one of those points that has about 10 verses after Luke 22.12, Romans 7.4-6, 8.1-2, and so on and so forth. Second, unlike the other nine commandments, this one is never reaffirmed for Christians in the New Covenant, is not indicated by the apostles or by the teaching of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. The Sabbath commandment did not express God's moral standards for all humanity, but established specific requirements for the people of Israel as a whole, while under the Mosaic Covenant. Confer John 14.26 and John 16.13, where both verses indicate the Holy Spirit will teach and declare, quote-unquote, all things.
[15:56]Third, the Sabbath commandment looked forward to the coming of Christ and was fulfilled in Him. It promised physical rest, but more importantly, a deeper spiritual rest and as a guardrail from believing that our efforts are a work's righteousness before God. That's his main point. He quotes Matthew 11, 28, 30. Come to me, Jesus speaking, come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. And the Sabbath rest in Hebrews 4.9, where, without reading it, it means, ESV Study Bible declares this, the promise of entering into this rest means ceasing from the spiritual strivings that reflect the uncertainty about one's final destiny. This isn't an easy thing. This isn't a lightweight thing. It has a weight to it, a very, in fact, one of the most weighty things we can do because at its core, it really does address justification. Tom, which one's that? Oh, the Sabbath commandment looking forward? Yeah, sure. The Sabbath commandment looked forward to the coming of Christ and was fulfilled by him, by Christ. Is that it?
[17:13]I'll just continue. It's one sentence more. It promised physical rest, but more importantly, a deeper spiritual rest and as a guardrail from believing that our works can justify us before God. Just look at the Mishnah, and you'll find that. You can see that as well. And again, the Sabbath rest in Hebrews 4.9 I just mentioned about. Fourth, Paul writes that the Sabbath was a shadow fulfilled in Christ. Therefore, let no one pass judgment but on you in questions of food or drink, or with regard to a festival, or a new moon, or a Sabbath.
[17:50]Understanding Sabbath's Role
[17:50]These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.
[18:00]Fifth, the Sabbath commandment is not meant only for the Sabbath, because like many other commandments, it acts as a summary of more detailed laws described in the chapters immediately following Exodus 20. 21-23 expands on what Exodus 20 says. Here's an example of that. For example, you shall not murder, Grudem says, is a summary of other laws protecting life in 21-23. You shall not commit adultery is a summary of other laws relating to sexual purity.
[18:40]6. Therefore, if we are to observe the strict Sabbath day, why are we not obligated to observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, the Day of Blowing Trumpets, or booths, which is an eight-day festival? None of these are primarily done in the evangelical church. Yet still, Grudem bases the use of the Ten Commandments for this chapter on the view that the Mosaic Covenant is canceled and that the commandments are now a guide. He doesn't throw them out. He says they have a purpose, but that purpose has changed. They are a guide that protects the essential value of God's honor, human authority life marriage property truth and purity of heart rather than being binding statutes within themselves well where does this leave us.
[19:33]First, it is wise to observe regular times of prayer, worship, learning, and fellowship with other believers. Of course it is. We all know that. You shall not forego meeting together, as some have done. The early Christians were continually in the temple blessing God, Luke 24, 53. After Pentecost, they were, quote, day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, praising God, and having favor with the people . They were day by day doing it.
[20:08]Worship Practices in Early Church
[20:09]We are to consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together , as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near .
[20:31]To make sure that we're not missing who is saying this, says that you have the full assurance of faith with our hearts sprinkled clean. Second, which day should Christians worship together? In one sense, any day is acceptable, he says. Every day, like the early church did. Or, like the example in Acts 20, meeting on Sunday as the first day of the week, when we gathered together to bake bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart the next day. That's Acts 20, verse 7. Grudem quotes chapter 67 in Justin Martyr's first apology. This to me was like a, really? Because I've got it. I bought this for whatever it's worth. I bought this 30 years before becoming a Christian. It's Justin Martyr. Marcus Aurelius, Justin Martyr's, the works of that. I bought this, I was a drug using screwball. For some reason, I bought this book and I've used it for 53 years. And he quotes chapter 67. seven out of here. I thought, what in the world? But he did. I mean, it's a great book. I'm the one that screwed up.
[21:37]But he did it because he wants us to understand what the First Church did. He didn't want this just to be something that we read and then we just forget about. We can all memorize Hebrews 10.25. We should. But he wants us to know that this has an application to it. It's got a ballast underneath it. So he quotes here, and I'm going to draw from that, from this book here, because it has to do on which day should the church worship together. And more importantly, to me, I'll just be subjective for a second. For me, what it did, and I read this about once a year. First off, it's got a phenomenal piece where it says the martyrs, when they were killed, they glorified God with their lives. But it also gives a beautiful picture of what a first century church was.
[22:26]This was written about mid-2nd century, around the year 152, 155, right in that range. So anyway, in there, the day of the sun refers to Sunday. All right, we get that, but it's S-U-N, not S-O-N. Justin uses this terminology to explain Christian practices to a Roman audience that included the emperor and the Senate using Roman solar calendar names they would recognize instead of Jewish or Christian terms. You know why Saturday is called Saturday? Does anyone know? It has to do with Saturn. It has to do with the planet Saturn. In those days, there were seven known celestial beings. There were seven days in a week. Every one of them originally was named after a Roman, actually pre-Roman, just before pre-Roman days, every day of the week was named after a celestial being or eventually turn into a Roman god. Saturday was the god of fun, the Roman god of fun.
[23:34]Tuesday, well, I won't go into them because I don't have them all memorized, but you get the idea. That's where our days come from that we currently use. Justin used that. The first century church used those Roman days. They didn't use the Hebrew days or a conversion of those to a Christian context. They continued to use them in the Roman terminology because they were talking to a Roman audience primarily. They didn't want this to be a separate thing in which we would be isolated and separate because we changed the name of the day of the week. I think what Grudem's grabbing at here is that there's a parallel to not having an individual day that we would take that day and make it a day of the week. You see what I'm saying? He's reinforcing his point in there, if I can go that far, but I think that's what he's doing.
[24:22]Anyway, there are two primary readings in Justin, and this is coming again in chapter 67 in Christian Ethics. The first day, of course, we all can agree with this, is the first day that God made the world. We have to have a first day. We would call it that. By connecting the first Sunday to the first day in Genesis, Christian's worship is framed as a celebration of the beginning of existence. I don't think we have a problem with that. I don't, anyway. And second is the day of resurrection, The day Jesus Christ rose from the dead, yes. The early church agreed that Jesus was crucified on the day before Saturn. That's the term they would use and did use. And appeared to his apostles on the day of the sun, S-U-N, because that was one of the seven celestial beings. Finally, Grudem points out that meeting on Sunday was something Christians did rather than it was something commanded for every Christian to do on that day. He writes, Regular meeting unrest is wise, but no particular day is required. That's a quote from him. And the decision of any particular day should be made by seeking a wise evaluation of what will bring about the best results for society. We have to have a day to meet. We choose this. It's all good.
[25:42]He continues, there is certainly room for people, even Christians, to disagree about this question. And he follows that up with Romans 14.5. One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be convinced in his own mind. And he summarizes with, because the Mosaic Covenant has been terminated and is no longer binding on us today, and because there is no command in the New Testament for Christians or people in general to rest one day in seven, We'll get into that in a minute. This seems to be a question of wisdom that especially focuses on the results of the law, rather than a question of obedience or disobedience to any specific passage of Scripture.
[26:24]New Covenant vs. Old Covenant
[26:25]It is hard to overemphasize, if you remember nothing else today from him, it is hard to overemphasize the importance of the new covenant and what that means. That's the undergirding premise and thesis underneath this chapter, And frankly, most of his book is that if you read chapter 16 on how we should approach— I think someone's talking on civil authority, I think, I believe, here.
[26:55]That undergirds that. Chapter 8, I mentioned, which I read, that 16 and this, prior to going to 13, is that lays the foundation of exactly that one sentence. He's laying that as social. Remember nothing else. Remember, the new covenant is a very big deal.
[27:14]And to make an association that is bound to the old covenant, he would say, and he does, and I'll give you an example in just a minute, is something we really need to kind of have our radar up on and to be careful with and to use sound, thank God for this church that has sound elders, a sound pastor, that spends time looking into these things, That's the underlying theme of what he's doing. To address this, Grudem, in writing this book, you can look at it in Appendix D. He really wondered, and I heard some of this in his 2012 talking as well, when he did two hours of the Sabbath to his church. He really kind of wondered whether or not, if there was something that would apply today that would be an example that we could understand, that the church could understand, of the importance of not binding an Old Testament covenant to the New Testament. It has its value. Nobody's throwing out the Old Covenant with the bathwater, okay? We're not doing that. He says, but that separation is misunderstood by many, and we must, as a church, which really spend time really spending.
[28:33]Trying to determine what that all means, what the new covenant means. So he, but he said, I am going to write something on it. Here's what he did. He decided to, because, quote, it is genuinely harmful. This is binding the old covenant as a requirement for a new covenant, particularly in justification. Okay. That's where this applies. If you say something that you have to do something to become saved before God, you've just turned it into works righteousness. Okay? That's what he's guarding against here. And all that I'm saying, that's the big deal in all that he's talking about. So, but here's what he writes. It is harmful, genuinely harmful to the cause of Christ in the work of proclaiming the gospel and bringing Christian influence to governments in this new covenant age. Okay? Reutem comments on this with some strong language and contradicting the view of followers of something called theonomy, or what's been called Christian Reconstructionism. That is, those who believe that portions of the Mosaic law still apply. This view believes the ceremonial portions of the Mosaic or other Old Testament covenants, not just the Mosaic, no act you can look at, lots of others, as being fulfilled. This is what the believers of theonomy believe.
[29:52]That's been fulfilled while the moral and civil laws, they would say, remain in force today. Okay, we clear about this before we go forward? This view believes that the ceremonial portions of the mosaic, I just read that, while the moral and civil laws are in force today, they defend this by saying God's law is never wrong of what it demands, and by promising that unless God reveals otherwise, Otherwise, all civil authorities must be guided and regulated by these laws.
[30:23]Supporters of theonomy believe that the civil laws of the Mosaic Covenant should be enforced by governments today, and in some cases the penalties for these laws, including adultery, cursing one's father or mother, being a stubborn and rebellious son, Sabbath-breaking, that's the connection to today.
[30:40]Blasphemy, apostrophe, and that a wide range of actions in the Mosaic Covenant could be penalized up to and including the death penalty.
[30:48]Theonomy and Its Implications
[30:48]That's a belief. And Appendix D, Grudem correctly rejects that view. Finally, he leaves us with this encouragement from Mark 6, 30 to 32, that, quote, the apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. And he said to them, come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while. For many were coming and going and they had no leisure even to eat. I'm still in the verse, okay? And they went away to a boat, to a desolate place by themselves. Let's pray. Father, we just thank you that you have set aside your desire for us. This is set aside time and a day that we would rest before you. That we, Father, would be those who rest in you, listen to you, are governed by you. And that we, Lord, are renewed by you to do the work that you have before all of us and everything that we do. Thank you for a church that, Lord, loves you so much, loves your word so much, and draw close to us, Christ. It's in your great name we pray, Jesus. Amen.