Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. A century ago, British Olympian Eric Little refused to run on Sunday. Made famous in the movie Chariots of Fire, he held to a conviction that the Lord's Day was sacred. These days, people look forward to Sunday football games. Have we gone off track?
Stay with us. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, if Messianic believers observe Saturday as the Sabbath, are they obligated to observe Sunday as well? You know, Dave, I'm going to answer that question by picking up on the word that you used, obligated.
What we find in the New Testament is that the early church met and of course the day itself was not significant except that God has said that there should be a time laid aside for worship. An opportunity for the saints to gather together to strengthen themselves And as to what day it is, That may not be as important.
Now, in the Old Testament, of course, that was very different because that was based on a Sabbath-day structure. And the transition to the New Testament, of course, has oftentimes been discussed and even debated. but it is really what we do on that day and where our hearts are that is most important. At the end of this message, I'm going to be giving you some contact info. Because I've written a book entitled Why Holiness Matters, I want you to have a copy, but for now, I want you to listen.
Um Those of you who saw the film Chariots of fire. Know that the focal point of the story is a young man by the name of Eric Liddell. And what made Chariots of Fire so appealing was that this young man, a great athlete from the University of Edinburgh, Was going to join the Olympics, and everyone knew that if he did, with his tremendous running speed, he would win and probably break all records. But the problem is that the trial runs, the trial heat to get into the Olympics was on a Sunday. And he would not run on Sunday.
No way. The Prince of Wales actually tried to convince him to run on Sunday and told him, why don't you just simply set aside this particular little conviction you have and just run a race that will take only a few minutes? And Eric Wouldn't. He stuck to his convictions.
Now, interestingly, I think if I remember the story, someone else ran in his place and then eventually he was able to get into the Olympics and he won. But the question is: Should Eric have run on Sunday? Would that have been all right? Would you have run on Sunday? Let me ask that question.
Today, we have baseball players who play on Sunday, who are Christians, and football players play on Sunday, and many of them evidently are born again Christians. And so what should our response be? We find in the Bible, God said very clearly in that famous controversial fourth commandment: remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. And then God goes on to give the details: Do not do any work, don't let your oxen do any work, don't let your servants do any work, and if anyone does any work, let him be put to death. What a commandment.
What a controversy. That it has generated. People don't know quite what to do about Sunday. You know, the Puritans believed that Sunday should really inherit all the regulations of the Old Testament Sabbath. And so they had certain restrictions.
You could, for example, comb your hair on Sunday, but you couldn't shave on Sunday. In fact, I remember my own father would shave on Saturday night when we were growing up, and he would not shave on Sunday. I don't know how many of you have that kind of an upbringing, but those kinds of ideas are very prevalent. Back in the eastern United States, when these issues were discussed with the emphasis of Puritanism, there was a young pastor who lived in an area where there was a lot of ice and snow, and one day he skated to church on Sunday. And the elders didn't know what to do.
I mean, is it right that a pastor should skate to church on Sunday? And so they met together to discuss this big, huge problem, and the final conclusion was: yes. They told him, you can skate to church on Sunday just as long as you don't enjoy it. That's the conclusion that they came to.
So the question is, what do we do? about Sunday.
Now, in order for us to understand this, let's first of all recognize that in the Old Testament, the Sabbath day was a very holy day. We're talking about Saturday. The Sabbath was a very holy day. And I'd like to suggest that that day had certain characteristics, and the first characteristic was rest, was a day of rest.
Now, take your Bibles and turn to Genesis chapter 2, where we can see this clearly spelled out. It says in Genesis chapter 2, where the Lord had created the heavens and the earth. It says, Thus the heavens and the earth, I'm reading verse 1 of the second chapter, the heavens and the earth were completed and all their hosts, and by the seventh day God completed his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work which he had done, and he blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because in it he rested from all of the work which he had created and which he had made. That's a startling statement. Here God is creating and He rests.
Now, have you ever created one single thing? No scientist has ever created anything out of nothing. And here, God is creating billions of tons of material by just simply speaking the word. Obviously, we would think anybody would be tired. by the time he got to the seventh day, wouldn't he?
And the text says that God rested. You'll notice in the passage we read from Exodus, it says that God was refreshed. on the seventh day. You know, we read that, and the theologians tell us, well, of course, God wasn't weary. And I guess we'd agree with that.
I mean, it's heresy to think that God needed a break because he had been working so hard all those days. And yet, I might just, in the interest of promoting a little heresy, ask, how do we know that God wasn't tired? And maybe he was. But very probably the real reason why he rested is not because he was tired, but rather because God was emphasizing right from creation that there is a principle of one day in seven that ought to be observed. And God was so anxious to build this principle into the very fabric of the universe that He Himself laid His own reputation on the line and His own example on the line and said, I myself rested on the seventh day after working six.
Now, what we learn from this passage is not just that God rested, but also that God worked. You know, there is another side to that fourth commandment. It says, of course, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. But the rest of the commandment says, six days thou shalt labor. Work is a gift of God.
You say well? You don't like all the gifts that God may have in mind for you. But work is a gift of God. I feel sorry for people who can't work. You say, well, it came about because of the fall of man.
No, you read in Genesis chapter 2, verse 15.
Well, since your Bible is open there, look at verse 15. Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and to keep it, and that was prior to the fall of chapter 3.
So God expects people to work. Blessed is the person. Who can work? Work keeps us out of a lot of trouble. You know, I feel sorry for people who are so wealthy that their children inherit millions of dollars or even thousands of dollars and the children don't have to work.
That is one of the greatest curses you could possibly put upon children, is to make sure that they are well taken care of and they never have to work. Work is built into the fabric of life. God says, I worked, you work. But the other side of the coin is, God says, I rested, you rest. You know, the fourth commandment is a tremendous blessing.
Because God is being generous with His people. He's saying, I am taking into account your human needs. Rest is a blessing of God. We always think that people are lazy and they try to get out of work. That's often true.
But the other side is that there are so many people who will work themselves to death if given a chance.
So God says, six days you work and you rest one day. Did you know that that is best for our bodies? During the French Revolution, the idea arose that they wanted to take France and to cut out of its social life every single vestige of religious influence. And so the social planners of the day realized that this idea of one day in seven is a Judeo-Christian idea. Don't tell the ACLU.
But anyway These folks recognized that it was.
So do you know what France did in those days? they decided to go on a different schedule of one day of rest in ten. But it did not work. People became weary, they found out that they became unproductive on the job, their body was not able to handle it, and one of the French social scientists finally said these words. He said, Let us observe Sunday in the name of hygiene, if not in the name of religion.
So, you see, your body was built in such a way that it needs one day of rest in seven. That is the very best way that you can take care of your body. It is one of the most interesting pieces of social legislation for God to say: six days thou shalt labor, and one shall be a rest.
So you have Marxist countries that talk about the good of the working man and the need to take a day off one and seven, and those Marxists don't tell them, but they don't know it. The idea of one day in seven, not one day in ten, but one day in seven, is a biblical Judeo-Christian. idea. That is woven right into the fabric of all civilizations. Whether you are in China or Thailand or wherever, there is one day a week that is set aside and is special.
God says, number one, it should be a day of rest. And if you're working seven days a week, you are violating what God has laid down. You are rebelling against God's intention for man. There's a second characteristic. It should be a day of reflection.
A day of reflection. Turn to Deuteronomy, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy chapter five. Notice what the Lord says here in verse 12. He's reiterating the Ten Commandments, and he gets to the fourth again. Deuteronomy chapter 5, verse 12, where the text says, Observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy as the Lord your God commanded you.
Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it, you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant or your ox or your donkey or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you, so that your male and your female servant may rest as well as you. By the way, don't you get the impression that God didn't want them to do anything on that day? At least that's what seems to be coming through to me as I read that verse. And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you up out of there by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.
Therefore the LORD your God commanded you to observe the Sabbath day. Rooted in creation, yes, but also rooted in redemption of the people of Israel out of Egypt. What God is saying is that you ought to keep that day. It is a day to reflect upon your life in Egypt and the redemption that God has brought about. What a beautiful day in which to recite Psalm 103.
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget none of His benefits. It's a time of remembrance, it's a time of reflection, it's a time of evaluation, it's a time when we think about God and our relationship to Him.
So, first of all, it was, of course, a time of rest, but also a time of reflection. When you were resting, you were thinking about your relationship with God.
Now have you ever been in love? I have and still am. But you know, when you love somebody, you like to be with them every day. You know, couples like to call each other on the telephone every night as if such great, momentous events took place during the day that they can't wait until the weekend. You know how that is.
Well, no, some of you apparently don't. But anyway. When you're in love, you like to speak to that person as often as possible, but then you like to have extended times of fellowship when you say, I'd like to be able to spend the whole day with you and get caught up. That's what God says the Sabbath is all about. You're in fellowship with me every single day, but then there is one day that is set aside.
It is sanctified and it is holy. It is set apart for God, and it's a time of rest and reflection. A physical necessity, it is rest. A spiritual necessity, it is a time of reflection. That's what the Lord is asking us to observe, or asking Israel to observe.
Now We come to the sixty-four dollar question. What about Jesus Christ's relationship to the Sabbath? Jesus, six times in the New Testament, is specifically accused of having broken the Sabbath. The Pharisees were constantly getting on him. For example, one day he and his disciples were walking through the fields of grain, and they took some of the heads of wheat and they rubbed them in their hands and they ate that grain.
And everybody said, The Old Testament said, You're not supposed to thrash on the Sabbath day, and they are thrashing. They're harvesting. And Jesus said to them, Now wait a moment. The Sabbath was made for man's benefit. And if we have to eat on the Sabbath day, we eat.
If your ox falls into a pit on the Sabbath day, you pull him out. There are these necessities of servanthood that you have to do on a Sunday, or rather on Saturday, that are perfectly legitimate. If you're a nurse and you have to work on Sunday and you have to help people, what better way to commemorate God's rest and God's interest in the human race than to have deeds of kindness on the Sabbath day? And then Jesus healed people. And you remember, they said, wait a moment, there's nothing in the Old Testament that says that you can heal a person on the Sabbath day.
And Jesus once looked around, glaring in anger, because of all of the flack that he was getting for healing people on the Sabbath. And Jesus said, Well, what is it better to do? Shall I do evil on the Sabbath day? Is it wrong for me to do good on the Sabbath day? They called him a Sabbath breaker.
In fact, they called him a continuous Sabbath breaker. We don't have time here to look into all the passages, but I just want to say that I don't think Jesus broke the Old Testament Sabbath because he came to fulfill the law, and Jesus Christ being under the law of the Old Testament, it is unlikely that Jesus broke the Old Testament Sabbath, even though he said he was Lord of the Sabbath. What's more likely is that all kinds of little laws and traditions grew up to protect that day, and Jesus was someone who loathed tradition. He constantly was speaking against it. He was saying to the people, You nullify the word of God through your traditions.
You are always adding all kinds of little regulations to what God has said, and you are making it more stringent and more inexplainable than God's word. And so that's what happened. In 1954, Time magazine reported that in Tel Aviv there are some elevators. In hotels that go constantly all day. They are set to go all day and they stop at every single floor because the Orthodox Jews do not want to press a button on the Sabbath day.
So, you see, what really happens is there are laws that grow up regarding the Sabbath, and people begin to so emphasize those meticulous laws when God says, You're missing the point. I had intended that you'd have a day of rest and worship and reflection, and here it has been reduced to a time when you are nitpicking regarding all kinds of small little regulations.
Well, that's one question. We come to another question. And that is why. Does the Christian church not observe the Sabbath? And this, of course, is a tremendous controversy, as you well know.
Some of our Seventh-day Adventist friends will tell us that we are breaking the law of God. And in response, of course, all that we can do is show them the New Testament, how that the early church began to meet on the first day of the week. And they took this time of rest and reflection, and they changed it into a time of rejoicing.
Now, just to give you an idea, for example, if you're taking notes, John chapter 20, verse 19, it says that they gather together on the first day of the week. And then maybe we should take time to look at the book of Acts chapter 20. Acts chapter 20. Where you have the early church again meeting. On the first day of the week, Acts chapter 20 verse 7 It says, and on the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul began talking to them, intending to depart the next day.
The breaking of bread refers to communion. And you'll notice that it was on the first day of the week. Another passage, 1 Corinthians 16 verse 2. Just write that one down. You don't have to turn to it.
1 Corinthians 16, verse 2. Paul says, on the first day of the week, you ought to keep in store a certain amount of money that you might be able to give it when you gather together in worship. 1 Corinthians 16, verse 2. It seems impossible to me that God would have intended that people keep the Sabbath when all of Paul's epistles and all of his writings say nothing about any Sabbath day violations that are going on in the church. Yeah.
Well my friend, this is Pastor Lutzer, and of course as we like to emphasize, the really important issue is not the day. It is how it is observed. And even though I don't want to get specific, the fact is today we have cluttered Sunday with all kinds of commitments. all kinds of events, and we forget that one day a week certainly. should be a day of rest.
A day when we focus on worship, and a day in which in many ways we prove to God that He has our hearts. I've written a book entitled Why Holiness Matters. I hope that you have a pen or pencil handy. For a gift of any amount it can be yours. Here's what you do.
Go to rtwoffer dot com. That's rtwoffer dot com or pick up the phone and call us at one eight eight eight two one eight ninety three thirty seven. That's one eight eight eight two one eight ninety three thirty seven. Or right now go to RTW Offer Dot com. It's time again for another opportunity for you to ask Pastor Lutzer a question you may have had about the Bible or the Christian life.
Today's question, Dr. Lutzer, comes to us from John. He lives in Michigan. I professed a belief in Christ as my Savior when I was ten years old. Shortly after that, I attended a meeting at my church, and during the invitation, I felt that I should go forward.
but not knowing why I should, I didn't, because I thought I had already accepted Christ. Immediately after that I felt a cold rush over my heart. Ever since that day I've been plagued with doubts concerning my salvation, even though I've attended Bible school and seminary. Later I was involved in an adulterous affair, and have brought trouble into the lives of my grown children. My heart tells me there is still hope for forgiveness.
Other people tell me I have wilfully sinned, and against such there is no forgiveness. Do I keep hope? Or might I be one of the tares, namely, one of those of whom God will say, Depart from me, I never knew you. I guess what I'm asking is Is there any hope?
Well, John, thank you so much for your question, and the answer to your question is yes, there is hope. But let me explain. There is hope for forgiveness for you. No matter how dark the past, no matter how many regrets. Even if your marriage has broken up, and from what you have said it appears as if it might have, The fact is that God is able to cleanse and to forgive you.
For that there is hope.
Now, is there hope that your family is going to be restored? Is there hope that all of the effects of your sin are going to be wiped out? No, there is no hope for that. God in His mercy may continue to work in the life of your family and your life. But at the end of the day some of the mistakes that we make and the consequences of them just keep going on and on.
But think of David. David committed adultery. There was no way that he could restore the purity of Bathsheba. There was no way that he could bring the dead man Uriah back to life, whom he had murdered. But still, read Psalm fifty one.
There he is, rejoicing. in his salvation.
So my friend, today, yes, there is hope. I hope that you will flee to God, that you will receive his forgiveness. Your life will be changed. and even in the midst of your brokenness and sin. God.
will still be honoured. Our hearts go out to all those who doubt their salvation, like John. Thank you, Doctor Lutzer, for those encouraging words. If you'd like to hear your question answered, you can go to our website at rtwoffer dot com and click on Ask Pastor Lutzer, or you can call at one eight eight eight two one eight nine three three seven. That's one eight eight eight two one eight nine three three seven.
You can write to us at Running2Win 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. God made it clear that all of us need a day of rest. The concept is so important that He made it into one of the Ten Commandments.
Nowadays, Sunday is just another day to shop, work, or be on the move, not a day for reflection, meditation, and prayer.
Next time on Running to Win, tune in to learn more about God's commandment that we observe a Sabbath day and why Sunday is that day for believers in Christ. Running to win is all about helping you understand God's roadmap for your race of life. Thanks for listening. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.
