About this sermon
Isaiah 58 promises that those who call the Sabbath a delight, turning from their own pleasure on the Lord’s holy day, will take delight in the Lord. God rested on the seventh day and blessed it after finishing a creation that was very good. The Sabbath is more than a day off; it is a gift in which God’s people lay aside what is theirs and take up what is his, to taste that the Lord is good. In that communion with their Savior, believers grow in assurance of his love and forgiveness.
Sermon transcript
First of all, to Genesis chapter 1. And there’s a series of readings here. They’re short, but they will save us from having to make other than allusions to them. during the message, we don’t have to go and read them again, and also remind us of these things. Our text will be Isaiah 58 verses 13 and 14, but we begin reading in Genesis chapter one, verse one, through chapter two, verse three, But actually, I’m going to shorten that a bit and begin with verse 28 after the creation of man in chapter one and read through two, three. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. And God blessed them.
And God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heaven, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. And God said, behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth. And every tree with seed in its fruit, you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the heavens, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food, and it was so.
And God saw everything that he’d made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning, the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day, God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.
And then Exodus 20, Verses 8 through 11, which of course is the Sabbath command itself, Exodus chapter 20 and verses 8 through 11. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. In 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 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.
For in 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. And then Exodus 31, verses 12 through 17, Exodus 31, verses 12 through 17. And the Lord said to Moses, you are to speak to the people of Israel and say, above all, you shall keep my Sabbaths. For this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you. You shall keep the Sabbath because it is holy for you.
Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of solemn rest. Holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death.
Therefore, the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath. observing the Sabbath throughout their generations as a covenant forever. It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth. And on the seventh day, he rested and was refreshed. And he gave to Moses, when he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone written with the finger of God. And then our text, which is Isaiah 58 verses 13 and 14.
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 way, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly, then you shall take delight in the Lord, 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. I’d like to set before you this morning a hallmark blessing of Presbyterian and Reformed piety. And that is the blessing that accrues to those who keep the Sabbath day holy. It’s described here in our text.
The words before us are verses 13 and 14 of Isaiah chapter 58. And by way of introduction, let us just remember what we read with regards to the importance of the Sabbath day as it is in the Old Testament but really coming from where we are here in the book of Isaiah projecting forward and looking towards the new covenant where for instance in just a chapter previous to this in Isaiah he reminds them that their day is coming a day of restoration beyond judgment And even the eunuchs and others who were excluded from the worship of the temple will be included once again because they keep the Sabbath day holy. In Isaiah 66, it talks of the new covenant and the day of restoration that was to come and speaks of the Sabbath. So that, as Isaiah looks forward and anticipates the new covenant, he sees the Sabbath extending into that day and that day of restoration, even being a hallmark of it.
And in this setting here in Isaiah 58, of course, looking back on the commandment, looking back on the creation ordinance that we have in the Sabbath day, he says that there is going to be an exquisite delight that results from keeping the Sabbath day. an exquisite delight. If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath and 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.
The word is exquisite delight, a beautiful delight, a delicate delight, an intricate, pure, complicated delight. You know there are cuisines that present us with delicacies and this word is sort of like that. It has a connotation, delicacy, a dainty, a delight. The idea of complication is there, well, intricacy.
You know, sometimes if you have a delightful dainty, it has multi-layers of flavor. There are various flavors that it presents to us. You know, not everything is just potatoes, you know, with maybe a little bit of salt on it. There are other things out there. there might be multi layers of flavor. It’s that kind of idea that’s being presented. There’s an exquisite, delicate, composite delight that there is to be had in the Sabbath.
James reminds us that the blessing is not in simply knowing that there is such a thing as a Sabbath command, but he says, you know, we’re to be not just simply hearers of the word, but doers also, and that the blessing is in the doing. And we are reminded, for instance, by an old directory of worship from the Presbyterian Church before the Orthodox Presbyterian Church existed, chapter 15. the directory for secret and family worship that reflects this understanding of Christian experience. It’s a phrase that directly applied only to secret worship in the directory, but I believe it’s true of a number of things in the practice of true religion. And those That phrase is put this way, the many advantages arising from a conscientious discharge of these duties are best known to those who are found in the faithful discharge of them. a helpful idea in Bible reading and in the daily devotions. Those who do it know best what the advantages are as they experience it, is what the phrase is saying. The many advantages arising from a conscientious discharge of these duties. are best known to those who are found in the faithful discharge of them. Well, I believe that applies to the Sabbath as well. The Sabbath has fallen on hard times in our day, not because really people are convinced that theologically we ought not to keep the Sabbath day holy.
After all, it’s one of the Ten Commandments. It would be a little asymmetrical if we had to have nine commandments. Ten Commandments works out quite nicely just the way they are. And which ones would we lose anyway? I mean, so the fourth commandment is often one that said, well, you know, that was the old covenant and so on and so forth.
But our fathers in the faith understood that the Sabbath day was something that was not replaced or done away with but that the moral law still stands and by a positive command we have established one day in seven for the worship of the Lord and that in the Old Testament it was from creation until Christ the seventh day and from the resurrection of Christ onward it’s Then, the first day of the week, the day that Christ is risen from the dead, he appears to the apostles, and when the apostles gathered for worship in the early church, and by their example, we realize that the day has been changed, and that there is a Sabbath practice that’s the continue in the church of Jesus Christ, and by it, we remember creation, that God is our creator, and we owe him everything.
Do you believe that God created the heavens and the earth? So what is it that would cause us to worship him and acknowledge him as the almighty and that he is the one alone who deserves worship, honor, and praise, but that he is the original, he is the first, he is the God who made heaven. and earth and we owe him everything and that is not just in theory or it’s not just as we go whistling on our way but God who said let there be light also said that this was the day that belonged to him and that it was holy and we were to always commemorate the fact that he is the creator of God and we are to worship him as such Christ is risen from the dead. Do you believe it? Do you believe that Jesus is alive from the dead?
That we, united to him, are thereby saved. His righteousness is our righteousness. And by faith, when we’re joined to him, his life is our life. And we are in communion with Jesus Christ. How might we express that communion with Jesus Christ? How might we enjoy that communion with Jesus Christ?
Well, there is a time and a place for these things. The modern family has fallen on hard times. And when will we have family worship? When will we gather together for meals? And so on and so forth. These things have fallen apart. How do we change them? Where do we begin? Well, I would suggest we begin where the Bible begins. We begin with the Sabbath day. If you want to fix your week and you want to fix your days, you begin by finding out how it is that God has given us to find him, to enjoy him, to commune with him, and he’s given us a day for that.
You know, if your boss gave you a day off, wouldn’t you take it? You mean I get tomorrow off? Oh yeah, that’s fine. You can take tomorrow off, the boss says. Oh, that’s good. Do I get paid for it? Sure. You’d take it, wouldn’t you? If the union gave you a day off, you’d take it. God says, here’s a day off. When we look at our text, it’s more than just a day off. You see, and that’s part of the problem.
People look at the Sabbath day and they say, well, I can’t work, I can’t do this, I can’t do that. And then we look in catechism questions, and we see the kind of things that’s said in the catechism, and we go, whoa, that’s a little, that’s a little pressed hard. I mean, are they pressing logic beyond where we ought to go? You can take, for instance, the catechism question that deals with the Sabbath day. It says we’re to not have our own thoughts and actions and words. We’re not to go out and play sports and these kinds of things. And then we go, whoa, where’d they get that from? Well, they got it from our text, actually. They got it from our text.
If you turn your back, 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, and if you honor it, not doing your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly, the charge of keeping the Sabbath day is more specially directed to governors of families, it says in question 118. of the larger catechism, and other superiors, because they are bound not only to keep it themselves, but to see that it’s observed by all those that are under their charge, and because they are prone, oftentimes, to hinder. Well, we’re not to do any work, and the fathers are supposed to see to it.
That would begin to reconstruct an entire approach to the family, wouldn’t it? Say, when can we have time for family worship? When do we have time for catechism? When do we have time for memorizing scripture? Well, if you all get up in the morning, on Monday morning, and have to go your different ways, and you say hello to each other before you go to bed Monday night, and that’s the way the week goes, there is no time for that, is there?
There’s work, there’s school, there’s sports. There’s TV, there’s texting. But what does our text say? Call the Sabbath a delight, 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.
If you can begin there and put everything aside, you see, then you’ve begun somewhere, haven’t you? The first step needs to be taken. If you’re going on a long journey, there’s always that first step, right? How do you begin a long journey? One step. How do you begin?
Having family worship, eating together, having the father be the head of the household. It started on the Sabbath day. You get together and you gather together around the word of God. You pray for the service. This is the way the directories of worship that accompanied the Westminster Confession of Faith, Larger and Shorter Catechisms read. They said the father’s to get the family together in the morning on the Sabbath day. They’re to pray for the service. They’re to pray for the pastor and for the ordinances. They’re to get together and to read the word of God and have personal and private worship.
And then the father is to see that they all get out to public worship. And the family was the key. The father was the key to the family. And the Sabbath worship was something that the family was there to support. And then, you see, you go to the ordinance, you’re all together there in the public worship, and you’re praying, and you’re singing the Psalms, and you’re hearing the word of God preached, and you come home, and you have a hearty meal or whatever else may be prepared. And then you have time in the afternoon because everything else has been set aside. Father’s not going to work. Mother’s not going to work. The kids aren’t going out with the friends. They’re not texting. They’re not, well, they didn’t have texting in the 1600s. But when did that come? In the 1700s, wasn’t it?
And so then they would get together, maybe the pastor would come over to catechize, but maybe just the dad would gather everybody around. They would have a review of the sermon. What did the pastor say? And what was the message? What were the points? And they could go over those. They could pray about those. How would that work out here in the family? Then they would have holy conference. They talked about holy conference. And that holy conference, you see, was a beginning of discipline.
Why do we do this? Why do we not do that? Why are these rules? And that begins the kind of discussion that has to carry through the week that results in understanding discipline that happens in the home. And then there’s evening worship. Well, before you know it, the day’s over. And we pray and we go to bed. Precious time. Heaven on earth, exquisite delight.
What is the result of these things? You see, when they wrote question 119, what are the sins forbidden in the fourth commandment? The sins forbidden in the fourth commandment are all omissions of the duties required, all careless, negligent, and unprofitable performing of them and being weary of them, all profaning the day by idleness, and doing that which is in itself sinful, and by all needless works, words, and thoughts about our worldly employments and recreations, they weren’t taking something to its logical conclusion and saying, how can we make this the most miserable experience that a teenager could possibly imagine? They were merely saying, what Isaiah 58 says.
How can we enter into the exquisite delight of the Lord? And that’s why we read from the creation account. And in Exodus 31, God refreshed himself. God rested. Now we know that the Lord doesn’t grow weary. The Bible says that explicitly. The Lord does not grow weary. He doesn’t grow tired. He refreshes us. He doesn’t need us to refresh Him. On that day, it says, God rested from all the making which He made.
He looked at what He made and He pronounced it good. And He blessed the Sabbath day and He hallowed it. That’s God. pronouncing a blessing and making something that it wasn’t before. God saying, when God says, let there be light, there was light, you see. When God said to Adam and Eve, be fruitful and multiply, he blessed them and said, be fruitful and multiply. That’s something that conveys the blessing that’s described. And God blessed the Sabbath day. Something happened that was a special note.
I’ve often thought, for one thing, it’s the first recording of history. God makes a commemorative event, and we are to commemorate every week something that happened and acknowledge that it happened. God made the heavens and the earth, and then that making ended, and he sustains all things by his care. And who is he to us? Who is God to us? Well, the Sabbath day tells us who he is. He’s the one who loves us, who made us, who cares for us, from whom all things come. He’s the father of light from above, from whom flows every good and perfect.
So, you see, we have this whole sense of things that is entirely different. We don’t seek our own pleasure. We don’t talk idly. We don’t seek our own ways. We have stuff to do. We have the duty of praise. God created the heavens and the earth. He rested. He set the Sabbath day apart. And now it’s to be observed as a holy convocation, it says in the Old Testament, as a day of rest and worship. Now, we won’t get into the worship today so much as what we’ve already mentioned. But it’s a day of holy rest in the sense that we lay aside everything that’s ours to take up everything that’s His, so that we can know and taste that the Lord is good. Now what is that delight that He takes in that day?
That joy. You see, He made it. It was good. And God said it was good. It was very good. And now He wants us to appreciate it. That he’s good. What he does is good. And it’s good for us. It’s good to praise the Lord. And so he invites us into that special day. All the other stuff aside. Something of the lesson of the manna, you see. It’s not just that you have a day of worship. That’s very important. The Holy Convocation when we’re all together. the private worship on that day, the family worship on that day, the catechizing, the praying, the meditating. I mean, when will you discover yourself? When will you examine yourself? When will you have time alone with the Lord and know who you are?
You’re not gonna do it while you’re texting. All right? You lay all that aside, but you see, it’s not just the memorizing of scripture it’s not just the praying it’s not just the getting together for worship of course when else would you have time for it when would you have any other season and those things are so important and there’s so little time for them else when else would you have time for them but on the Sabbath day but it’s not just that it’s also that you deny yourself you lay aside these things to simply delight in the Lord, to know Him and to know His benefits, to enter in communion with Him so that it’s not your thoughts, it’s not your concerns, it’s not your worries, it’s the lesson of the manna, you see.
Man doesn’t live by bread alone. Deuteronomy 8, we’re reminded. What was it that Moses was teaching? And what was it God was teaching through Moses? It’s not by bread that man lives. It’s not alone. It’s not the only thing by which man lives, is bread.
But by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. The Lord provides. And there were two things there. Here, I feed you where the life, the word of God is life. I feed you myself, I tell you the truth. But the other is, and I care for you in everything.
Six days they were to go out and gather the manna. Of course that was their thing, and it was what the Lord provided, but their thing was hunger and food. We need to eat, that’s our stuff, you know. What about the mortgage, what about the roof, what about the job every day.
How are we going to get, you know, I need clothes, I need shoes, I need, you know, who’s going to take care of my health care? Oh, well, maybe that’s taken care of now. But, who’s going to take care of me? You see, that’s the first question. Who’s going to take care of me?
And you need to know that so deeply in your soul that there’s no question about it. And you can’t do that when you do your own stuff. That question isn’t answered for you in paying the bills and working hard and going to the restaurant or eating a big meal at home. What am I going to eat? What am I going to drink? Who’s going to take care of me?
The world’s worried about these things, Jesus said. Don’t take thought for tomorrow. Tomorrow will take care of itself. It has enough trouble of its own. How do we get there from here, you see? Well, six days you go out and collect the manna. But the seventh day, there won’t be any manna. Don’t go out.
On the sixth day, you collect twice as much. Now, if they collected twice as much on Tuesday, it rotted and it stank and it was full of filth on Wednesday. But if they collect twice as much on Friday night or Friday in the morning, And they prepare what they need for the next day. It was perfectly good on the next day, but those who went out to collect on the Sabbath day, the seventh day, there was no manner. What’s the lesson in the manner?
Man doesn’t live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from it. They were to learn by the word of God that it was God who was providing. It was God who sustained them. It was God that took care of them. What they needed was God and they needed God himself. They needed to know the Lord, to trust in the Lord. They needed to give themselves entirely to Him. And there was a day when they had to trust that if the provision wasn’t there, that God had still made provision. He was still caring for them. It was the Lord who took care of them. It wasn’t how much they gathered or didn’t gather. It wasn’t by their own labor. It wasn’t by their own effort. They didn’t make their own way out of Egypt.
God saved them. God delivered. And He would keep them. We need to learn that lesson, that our soul is in the hand of God. God to give, God to receive. Our life is in His hands. And of course, the Sabbath day that we celebrate, the Christian Sabbath, the Lord’s day, is the day that the Lord is risen from the dead. It’s the day that we recognize Jesus is alive. And he holds us and he keeps us and nothing can remove us from his hand. It’s not about who provides our health care. It’s not about what the economy is. It’s not about our work. It’s not about what the doctor can do for us. It’s about our Lord Jesus Christ and faith in him. And we gather together and we say, here is my rest. Here is my trust. Here is my life.
And I’m secure in him. you see these are part of the benefits that we derive then you will take delight in the Lord 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 is spoken here’s a promise that God makes he signs the bottom line and he says I’m going to give you everything that’s promised in the covenant you’re going to have it in full you’re going to enjoy it here you’re going to taste of it if you Put your stuff aside. If you deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me, and in particular on the Sabbath day, commune with me, then you’re going to take delight in the Lord, that exquisite delight you’re going to taste.
Now you think of the benefits of the covenant that are ours. And among them, besides justification, adoption, and sanctification, are a number of other benefits. And those benefits are things that we really experience and taste and enjoy. They’re benefits that we don’t want to forget. The benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification Our assurance of God’s love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, increase of grace and perseverance there into the end. Do I know that I’m saved? Do I know that the Lord loves me? Do I know that my life is in his hands? Are my sins forgiven?
These are things that when one knows these things there is a depth and a richness and an intricacy and a complication that is beautiful. And those who keep the Sabbath day and lay everything else aside and just commune with their Savior begin to know and understand these things. That’s why our Puritan forefathers who wrote our standards, wrote the way they did, emphasized the Sabbath the way they did, because they experienced it. They experienced that Sabbath.
You know, you learn the will of God by doing the will of God. You read it in his word, you say, yes, this is what it says I ought to do. But then you put it into practice. And you learn what it means, what the benefits are, and how those things work in your life. And the Sabbath is especially like that. And your life then becomes a going from Sabbath to Sabbath, from joy to joy, from blessing to blessing, from rest to rest. A little taste of heaven here, you see.
Self-denial is a fundamental element of true Christian piety. How do we learn it? It’s essential to an expression of faith. It’s essential to our sanctification. It’s essential to our assurance. It’s essential to real worship. It’s essential to fundamental humility and therefore dealing with others in love. It’s essential to being able to benefit others and to count others more highly than we count ourselves and to treat people that way. How do we learn that?
Well, we might say, I could work really hard at it. I could Well, I could give up stuff. Or if somebody needs my help, but I have a dentist appointment, I won’t go to the dentist appointment. I’ll help them instead. Now that may prolong your toothache. And then you can pat yourself on the back and say, look, I practice self-denial. Maybe, maybe not, you see.
But sanctification is indirect. Very often the things in which we struggle the most find themselves losing their power over us. The sins that so easily beset us and tangle us and cause us to trip up. Lose their power by things that are done that aren’t addressed to them. It’s an indirect sort of thing. And the Sabbath is just that way. those pleasures, those benefits, those delights that you’ll be able to enjoy.
You’ll learn self-denial by laying everything else that is you and yours and your concerns aside and just giving yourself to the Lord. And in so doing, you’ll learn to love others. You’ll learn to love the Savior better. You’ll commune with your Savior. You’ll know the forgiveness of your sins, the assurance of grace and pardon. You’ll have a sense of perseverance. You’ll realize that the Lord is sustaining you. And this is where my care comes from. And you’ll become the long-distance runner that you need to be in the Christian faith.
It’s the Sabbath day and the practice of the Sabbath day that inculcates these things. It was the heart. of the piety that is set before us in our system of doctrine that’s contained in the scriptures and set out in the Westminster Confession of Faith and larger, shorter catechism. And the rich experience of the grace of God supplying us in all its intricacy and beauty and delight, having God and knowing him and experiencing him was a hallmark, a hallmark blessing of Presbyterian and Reformed piety in keeping the Sabbath day holy.
Let us pray. Our gracious Heavenly Father, we pray that we would learn to set aside our own things and realize the blessing, that exquisite delight in the Lord that you supply as you supply yourself in salvation. We ask that you would forgive us for our sins and that you would enable us to turn away from our own things, the things that mean so much to us in our daily work, things that in and of themselves aren’t sin, and that we may then just rest entirely in you this day. we might have time for the duties of praise, yes, but that we may also leave so much of ourself and so much of our thinking about ourself and things that are unimportant to the side, that we might be with you and that we may know the exquisite delight of your fellowship and communion. We ask these things in Jesus’ name, amen. Hymn number 321. Let’s stand to sing.
♪ Our God is almost right ♪ ♪ On thee the high and lowly ♪ ♪ Of angels join him too ♪ ♪ Sing holy, holy, holy to the God of Israel ♪ On thee and thy creation, on earth as it were, on thee for our salvation. And God shall make most glorious the dreadful rite of death, the final work of heaven. ♪ Intersect them with streams of paradise ♪ ♪ A garden cooling from head ♪ ♪ In life’s draught, here we stand ♪ ♪ From the unripe meadows round them ♪ ♪ We view our promised land ♪ ♪ To day of myriad nations ♪ ♪ The heavenly banner falls ♪ ♪ To holy convocations ♪ ♪ The silver trumpet calls ♪ ♪ Where God’s full light is glowing ♪ ♪ With your array of dreams ♪ ♪ And living water flowing ♪ ♪ With so refreshing streams ♪ ♪ New ways it’s ever leading ♪ ♪ From this our new beginning ♪ to the spirits of the blessed, to Holy Ghost be praises, to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Hail to the U.S.A. and God. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen.
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