Spiritual rest

SABBATH

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MY REST

The Sabbath rest is to remind myself that GOD rested after He ceased the work of creation, and JESUS rested after He ceased the work of redemption. These two facts should be the subjects I attend to on Sundays. But the “rest” the Hebrew’s writer speaks of is a daily rest.

“For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His” (Heb 4:10 NASB).

Since I believe CHRIST JESUS has given what GOD requires from me, I enter into rest (ref#15, [Heb 4:10]). My experience of rest is ceasing from my own works of righteousness, and from the burdensome works of the law (ref#18, [Heb 4:10]).

Since CHRIST impresses the FATHER I don’t have to impress the FATHER. Resting in CHRIST is a state of happiness. My salvation does not depend on my continuing work of being righteous!

“Externally, that meant ceasing from his ordinary tasks in order to meet with God. Internally, it involved ceasing from all self-sufficiency in order to rest in God’s grace” Sinclair Ferguson (ref#193).

Yet, I need to keep myself abreast of situations that threaten my rest. Situations continually rise to steal what GOD freely gives me through CHRIST. Happiness disappears when I lose fellowship with my LORD and default back to trying in my own strength to be righteous.

Impress upon me that if I don’t rehearse the Gospel I will fall back into burdensome works and be void of rest. I know preaching the gospel to myself each day will equip me with more boldness to believe what GOD says. I’ll recognize and benefit more from His grace and be more willing to embrace His commands (ref#60, p52). By reveling in CHRIST I retain my fellowship with GOD and find my rest! As I rehearse the Gospel, “give me that rest without rest, the rest of ceaseless praise” The Valley of Vision (ref#76, p172).

“…we must praise God – in the morning and every night, not only on Sabbath days, but every day; it is that which the duty of every day requires. We must praise God, not only in public assemblies, but in secret, and in our families, showing forth, to ourselves and those about us, his lovingkindness and faithfulness” Matthew Henry (ref#18, [Ps 92:1-6]).

SABBATH

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SATURDAY EVENING WORSHIP: SUNDAY EVENING WORSHIP

Let’s start with the one established in the 1520’s. “Until recent decades, the second service was an essential part of the Lord’s Day observance…” Jon D. Payne (ref#170). More meetings were established on Sunday so Christians would hear more of the Word of GOD.

“Having not one but two (and sometimes three) public services on the Lord’s Day reinforces belief in the power, efficacy, and sufficiency of the ordinary means of grace to save, sanctify, and comfort God’s elect. On the sacred day that God set apart for sacred worship and the building up of his church, why wouldn’t we want more—rather than less—preaching, singing of the psalms and hymns, prayer, participation in the sacraments, and corporate worship and fellowship” Jon D. Payne (ref#170)?

“By attending morning and evening worship…We will hear an additional fifty-two carefully prepared expository sermons,…sing hundreds more psalms and hymns, and pray myriad more prayers” Jon D. Payne (ref#170).

“Faithful attendance to both morning and evening worship bookends this special day with God-centered worship and helps us not to turn the rest of the Lord’s Day into something God never intended. Evening worship guards the Lord’s Day from becoming just like any other day of the week” Jon D. Payne (ref#170).

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So, what about the Saturday evening service? How can we have the audacity to offer a Lord’s-Day service on Saturday? We can because JESUS CHRIST is Lord of the Sabbath.

“If Jesus were here today, he would say something like this: ‘If priests in the temple and pastors in the Christian church are permitted to work 16 hours on the usual day of rest, then the saints are permitted to worship one hour the day before. The Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath. Come, learn what it means, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’

“He would send us to consult the words of his apostle in Romans 14:5, ‘One man judges one day above another, while another man judges all days alike. Let every one be fully convinced in his own mind.’ We can take this to imply that some think that all days qualify for the Sabbath. Some think that only Saturday qualifies. Others only Sunday. Do not condemn one another over these disagreements. Let every one be fully convinced in his own mind” John Piper (ref#169).

If you attend Saturday night services, are you fully convinced in your own mind that this is the service you should attend? Remember, if you think it is a sin, it is a sin (James 4:17). John Piper, the author of the last quote also says, Saturday worship is NOT a replacement for Sunday Sabbath keeping (ref#169).

SABBATH

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SABBATH BECOMES THE LORD’S DAY

“…there is no commandment in the Ten Commandments that says the Israelites were to keep the seventh day of the week….What God really commanded through Moses was: ‘Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God’ “ (Exodus 20:9-10) R. A. Torrey (ref#30, p154).

“first day of the week. A Jewish expression for Sunday, and similar to the phrase used in the Gospels to describe the day of the week on which Jesus rose from the dead (Matt 28:1; Mark 16:2; Luke 24:1; John 20:1). This shows that Christians gathered for worship on Sunday, not Saturday (cf Acts 20:7; Rev 1:10), in order to acknowledge the crucial importance of Christ’s resurrection” ESV Study Bible (ref#125, p2216, [1 Cor 16:2]).

“…the Jewish holy day was abolished; and as a thing necessary to retain decency, order, and peace in the church, another day was appointed for that purpose” John Calvin (ref#187).

“Christ having risen from the dead always met his disciples on this day. And afterwards, the apostles and the churches were accustomed to come together on this day, “to break bread,” that is to celebrate the Lord’s supper. And when the apostle wrote his first epistle to the Corinthians, it was already established as a custom, not only in the church of Corinth, but in the churches of Macedonia and Galatia, that their contributions for the poor, should be collected on this day. From the apostolical practice, we rightly infer the divine authority for this change. So generally was the first day of the week observed, in commemoration of Christ’s resurrection, and for the celebration of religious worship, that in the times of the apostles, it had obtained the significant denomination of the Lord’s Day” Archibald Alexander (ref#175).

So, to Christians the first day of the week, Sunday, is the official Lord’s Day.

SABBATH

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THE SABBATH – A UNIVERSAL OBLIGATION

“The law of the Sabbath was constituted a memorial of creation: and hence, the reason…must be considered as demonstrating its universal obligation. It is not a reason applicable to any one age, or to one class of men more than to another” JFB Commentary (ref#17, [Exod 20:8-11]).

Keeping the Sabbath is not just a Jewish law; Exod 20:10 mentions that even sojourners who are staying with a Jewish family are expected to participate in Sabbath activities. Therefore it is a “universal institution…given to Adam, the father of all mankind” JFB Commentary (ref#17, [Exod 20:8-11]).

As time moved on and GOD unfolded more and more of His redemption plans we find the Apostle Paul defining a new seventh-day Sabbath experience:

“The apostle Paul explicitly taught that a Christian should not allow himself to be judged in regard to the Jewish Sabbath, and that the Jewish Sabbath belongs with other Jewish observances concerning meat, and drink, holy days, new moons, and so forth (Colossians 2:16). These were the “shadow of things to come,” but the substance is in Christ (v. 17)” (ref#30, p155).

“…the Jewish Sabbath was not changed to the Lord’s Day. While both the Jewish Sabbath and the Lord’s Day are a literal keeping of the fourth commandment, they are not the same day, and they do not stand for the same idea. One belongs to the old creation, the other to the new. (See 2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15; Hebrews 9:11.)” (ref#30, pa55).

“…the observance of the Sabbath is…the hem and hedge of the whole law” Matthew Henry (ref#18, [Exod 31:12-18]).

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WHAT EXACTLY IS SABBATH REST?

In the beginning GOD… “In…six…days He revealed His power as the Almighty Creator…” R. A. Finlayson (ref#188), but on the seventh day He rested.

Does “rest” mean a nap in the afternoon? It could, but the “rest” GOD speaks of after He created the world does not mean “the cessation of all activities” Arthur W. Pink (ref#177). GOD’s “Sabbath rest consists of resting from the labors of the working week” Arthur W. Pink (ref#177).

“God did work on the seventh day, though His activities on the seventh day were of a different nature from the ones in which He had been engaged during the preceding days” Arthur W. Pink (ref#177). “God’s providential working could not cease, or no provision would be made for the supply of His creatures’ wants. ‘All things’ needed to be ‘upheld’ (Heb 1:3), or they would have passed back into nonentity” Arthur W. Pink (ref#177). “He rested from the work of creation and restoration, but He then began (and has never ceased) the work of Providence—the providing of supplies for His myriad creatures” Arthur W. Pink (ref#177).

“…setting an example to his creature man;…He not only rested on the seventh day, but sanctified it; that is, set it apart to a holy use—to be employed, not in bodily labour…but in the contemplation of the works and attributes of God, and in holding delightful communion with his Maker” Archibald Alexander (ref#175).

Our “rest” then, is not bodily labor unless we call getting ourselves into His presence labor. Communing with GOD by contemplating His works and attributes should constitute a great part of our “rest.”

VALLEYS TO MOUNTAINTOPS

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THE SABBATH

1/3/2016

Screen Shot 2016-01-13 at 2.52.07 PM“There is never a moment, even the holiest, when we are not exposed to the fiery darts of the adversary. The onset is often at a moment when we least suspect its approach; seasons of peculiar nearness to God…” Octavius Winslow (ref#135, Sept 7th).

I started tearing up—surprising myself. “What’s that about?” I’m walking through this day with GOD beside me. I have made a mental note of that since I sat down at the computer to operate the slides to the worship songs.

True, the slides are not correct and I’m trying to make them right with no success, but that’s not disturbing me. What’s disturbing me is how I can sit beside GOD and feel awful. It appears no one else is struggling as I look out over the room—the dark cloud hangs over my head. Yet, GOD sits beside me and gives me the day He has ordained for me—a day I should be rejoicing in because He has given it to me in love. What’s happening seems like an oxymoron.

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After the drive home and lunch consumed, I settled into reading. Again, like a previous Sabbath, I re-read a portion where I left off in a devotional:

“…just as the night of woe sets in, filling you with trembling, anxiety, and fear, a scene of overpowering glory suddenly burst before the astonished eye of faith. The glory of God as your Father has appeared; the character of Jesus as a loving, tender Brother has unfolded; the Spirit as a Comforter has whispered; your interest in the great redemption has been revealed; and a new earth scented with a thousand sweet smells, and a new heaven resplendent with countless suns, has floated before your view” Octavius Winslow (ref#135, Sept 4th).

NOT! Excuse me but I’m still in the “night of woe.” But wait…

I’m smiling now. Bonnie, stop trying to find a way to feel better. GOD is GOD; He does as He pleases. Today and always He walks beside me even though He chooses to move me into frustrating circumstances where the enemy has his way with me. What He did this morning and what He is doing now is providing me the strong faith to not be shaken by circumstances. So, I’m having a bad day, so what? I am standing on a foundation that does not move. Nothing is able to separate me from the love of GOD (Rom 8:39).

NOTE: I have reread this entry and looking over the Octavius Winslow quote again makes me inclined now to say, YES!

“Let us trust this love. Trust it when veiled, trust it when it threatens to slay, trust it when it seems to frown, trust it even when we cannot trace it” Octavius Winslow (ref#135, Sept 6th).

SABBATH

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REASONS THE SABBATH IS DESECRATED

“The Christian attitude is, ‘The Lord’s will is my pleasure’” C. E. Hunter (ref#171). But, there are many ways to keep us from joy. “…the devil is in real earnest to accomplish the damnation of souls. To this end he must not let people think quietly on one day of the week” C. E. Hunter (ref#171).

We all agree we have too much on our plate weekdays. Does our “to do” list spill over into Sundays? Do we make some effort to not work on our weekday work on Sunday? And, if so, have we come to fill the day with things that we like to do that recharge us—gardening, golf, reading secular books, attending concerts, theaters, sports games, etc.? “These ways of spending Sunday are none of them of a holy tendency, or calculated to help us heavenward” Bishop J. C. Ryle (ref#167).

“The measure of your love for God is the measure of the joy you get in focusing on him on the day of rest” John Piper (ref#169). “…contend earnestly for the whole day against all enemies, both without and within. It is worth a struggle” Bishop J. C. Ryle (ref#167).

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THE IMPORTANCE OF KEEPING THE SABBATH

“There is no other Sabbath rest besides Jesus. He alone satisfies the requirements of the Law, and He alone provides the sacrifice that atones for sin. He is God’s plan for us to cease from the labor of our own works. We dare not reject this one-and-only Way of salvation (John 14:6). God’s reaction to those who choose to reject His plan is seen in Numbers 15. A man was found gathering sticks on the Sabbath day, in spite of God’s plain commandment to cease from all labor on the Sabbath. This transgression was a known and willful sin, done with unblushing boldness in broad daylight, in open defiance of the divine authority. ‘Then the LORD said to Moses, “The man must die. The whole assembly must stone him outside the camp”’ (verse 35). So it will be to all who reject God’s provision for our Sabbath rest in Christ” (ref#172).

“…whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all” (James 2:10 NASB). The 10 Commandments are a “summary of fundamental duty; and…is binding on us all, in all its precepts alike, because they all alike are from God and publish His holy will” Benjamin B. Warfield (ref#180).

“For most people the Sabbath command is really a demand to repent. It invites us to enjoy what we don’t enjoy and therefore shows us the evil of hearts, and our need to repent and be changed” John Piper (ref#169).