Well, you know, right outside Lancaster, Pennsylvania, is the Good and Plenty restaurant. I've actually eaten there several times. The food is amazing. And this restaurant was started by Chris and Dolly Lapp in 1969. It's now operated by their children on a daily basis. And every day, literally, thousands of people eat here.
Tourist buses stop and unload hundreds of hungry tourists. And it's become an incredibly successful business enterprise. Now, when the Lapps opened the Good and Plenty restaurant in 1969, they made a very controversial decision. They decided that they would only be open for business six days a week. In almost 40 years, the Good and Plenty restaurant has never opened its doors on Sunday. Now, folks told the Lapps when they started that nobody could operate a profitable restaurant like this, that the other restaurants would siphon away all their loyal customers if they were closed on Sunday.
But the Lapps stuck with their commitment. And Mr. Lapps said this, and I quote, he said, We feel there is a special blessing when we honor the Lord's Day. The restaurant should be profitable, operating only six days a week, because Sunday is the Lord's Day. People need church, they need Sunday school, and they need time with their family, end of quote.
Now compare this with the outlook of Bill Gates. When Time magazine asked him about religion and about attending church on Sunday, Mr. Gates said, and I quote, Just in terms of allocation of time resources, religion is not very efficient. So there's a lot more, he said, that I could be doing on a Sunday morning understood than going to church, end of quote. Now, you know, we're involved in an ongoing study of the life of that great man of God, Moses, and we've come to Mount Sinai, where we're going through the Ten Commandments one at a time. And today it's time for us to look at Commandment number four, where we're going to talk about the Sabbath.
We're going to talk about a day for the Lord set aside each week. So if you brought a Bible, let's open it to Exodus chapter 20. And if you did not bring a Bible, you can reach under the armrest right next to you and you'll find a copy. We're going to be on page 54, page 54 in our copy, Exodus 20 in your copy. And here is Commandment number four, Exodus 20, verse eight. Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. God says six days, you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord, your God. Verse 10 on it, you shall not do any work, neither you nor your son or daughter, nor your servants, nor your animals. Verse 11 for in six days, the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them.
But on the seventh day, he rested. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Now, among Christians today, there are two extremes when it comes to the observance of the Sabbath. On one extreme, some Christians believe that these instructions in the Old Testament about the Sabbath are still enforced today for us as followers of Christ in all of their fullness. The only difference is that now the Sabbath has been moved to Sunday, the Lord's day, the Christian Sabbath, as they call it. And these folks, just like the rabbis in Jesus's day lay all kinds of restrictions on Christians on what they about what they can do on Sunday. I know of a church in particular. I've actually been there where it is understood that on Sunday you don't go swimming, you don't cut your grass, you don't do any sewing, you don't play any kind of ball or other sport, you don't wash clothes, and you certainly don't go shopping at the mall or the grocery store. Now, on the other extreme, we have Christians who believe that the Sabbath is totally non-binding for us as Christians and that Sunday is to be treated the very same as every other day in the week, that there's nothing special about Sunday at all.
Do your weekly grocery shopping, go to the mall, volunteer to work overtime, no problem. Friends, our question for today is who's right? Is anybody right?
Is there a right and wrong about all of this? That's what we're going to try to solve today and we're going to do it by asking and answering three questions. So, number one, question number one, we want to first ask the question, what exactly was the Sabbath day all about for the Israelites? Now, the word Sabbath comes from the Hebrew verb which means to rest, to stop, or to cease, and therefore the Sabbath day was simply a day for the Israelites to rest from their normal activities for them to stop what they had been doing all week in terms of work. Now, let's be careful that we say here that there's nothing wrong with work, that God encourages us to work hard, and He encourages us to work responsibly. Second Thessalonians three, verse 11, Paul says, we hear that some among you are idle. They are not busy, they are busy bodies. Such people we command in the Lord Jesus to settle down and earn the bread that they eat.
But the danger here is, and you understand this, you live in Washington, the danger is that work has a tendency to take over our lives if we're not careful. Work has a tendency to take our focus off of God, and so knowing this, God decided to reserve one day out of the week for Himself, a day for the Israelites to cease their earthly work, a day for them to elevate their thoughts onto something higher than plowing the fields or washing the clothes for them to elevate their thoughts onto spiritual things. I love what the Puritan preacher Thomas Watson said. He said, and I quote, the business of the weekdays can make man forgetful of God, so the Sabbath was intended to bring God back to man's memory.
End of quote. Now, beyond that, though, there were two other reasons, two very practical reasons why God gave the Israelites the Sabbath. Number one, He gave it to them also so that they would get a much needed break from the daily grind of life, and He gave it to them second of all so that their families would have a chance to be together one day a week. Notice what God said in commandment number four. He said, not only don't you work, but your son and your daughter don't work either. See, God knew my people. He knew that we would say, okay, I'll stay home. I'll send my kids to work. And God said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Everybody stays home on the Sabbath because the family needs one day a week to just be together.
And so let's summarize. Commandment number four tells us that God wanted the Israelites to set aside one day a week. Number one, so they could go back out and live for God better in the week to come. Number two, so that they could rest their bodies and keep them strong for God's service.
And number three, so that they could invest in their families on that day and keep their families healthy. And this explains why Jesus said, Mark 2 27, the Sabbath, He said, was made for man's benefit. That's why God made the Sabbath. Now that leads us to our second question, which is, is the Sabbath binding, legally binding on us as followers of Jesus Christ today? As Christians, is it wrong if you and I go to work on Sunday? As Christians, is it wrong for us to stop by the store and pick up milk and eggs on the way home from church? Well, the answer biblically is no. There is nothing wrong with this because we are not legally bound to observe the laws of the Sabbath.
And let me tell you why. There are two reasons. Number one, the reason number one is because Israel and the church are not identical and everything God gave Israel does not automatically apply to the church. Friends, Corinthians 10 32, the Apostle Paul says, Give no offense to the Jews, the Gentiles, or the Church of God. It's interesting in this verse that God tells us in the present age, the church age, that every human being in our world God classifies as being in one of three groups. They're either Jews that is unbelieving Jewish people, they're Gentiles that is unbelieving non-Jewish people, or God sees them as part of the Church of God, meaning Jews and Gentiles both who believe in Jesus make up this third group called the church. The point here is that this verse and many other verses like it make it clear that in God's mind Israel and the church are not the same entity.
They are distinct. Moreover, the church has not replaced Israel in terms of God's plan for the ages. That's why the nation of Israel exists today. God still has plans for His chosen people. And as I said, what this means is that everything God gave Israel in the Old Testament is not automatically binding on us as the church.
We're not Israel. And the Sabbath was something God specifically made as a covenant between Himself and the nation of Israel. Exodus 31 17, the Sabbath, God says, is a sign between me and the Israelites forever. The bottom line is that the Sabbath has nothing to do specifically, my friends, with the church.
The second reason why we are not legally bound to the Sabbath is because the Sabbath is part of the Old Testament ceremonial law which has been done away with in Jesus Christ. Now let me explain this. I want you to... Hello, y'all with me? Okay. I know I'm throwing a lot of hay on you, but I want you to put your thinking caps on right now as I explain what we mean by this.
So everybody got your thinking cap on? All right, here we go. There are the Old Testament laws, all the laws in the Old Testament, particularly the first five books, can be broken down into one of three categories, the civil law, the moral law, and the ceremonial law.
Let me tell you what they are. The civil law were laws that were given to Israel that govern national policy. Israel was a nation. They needed civil jurisprudence to cover things like criminal behavior, property disputes, business issues, and much of the Old Testament law deals with this kind of civil jurisprudence. Folks, the church is not a nation. We don't need nor should we have any civil jurisprudence, and therefore the civil law, if you kill a man's cow by accident, you owe him three sheep, that has nothing to do with the church.
We're not a nation with civil jurisprudence, okay? Number two, the Old Testament had moral laws, the law of the Old Testament. Part of it were God's moral law.
These are God's eternal principles of right and wrong, and they are as binding on us as followers of Christ as they were on the Israelites at Mount Sinai when Moses gave the moral law. How can we tell what part of the laws in the Old Testament are part of the moral law? Folks, every one of God's moral laws in the Old Testament is repeated for us in the New Testament as binding for us as followers of Christ. Lying, stealing, adultery, all repeated in the New Testament. Now in fact, you should know that nine of the Ten Commandments are repeated in the New Testament as binding on us as followers of Christ, clearly telling us that these nine commandments are part of the moral law of God. Conversely, you should know that the only one of the Ten Commandments that is not repeated in the New Testament as binding on us is commandment number four. In fact, the New Testament to the contrary tells us specifically we are not to keep the Sabbath. Colossians chapter 2 verse 16, Paul says, Therefore, let no one judge you because you do not observe Jewish new moon festivals or Jewish feasts or Sabbaths.
Watch this, for those things are mere shadows of what was to come, but the reality is found in Christ. Why does the New Testament tell us not to observe the Sabbath today as followers of Christ? Well, the answer, friends, is because the Sabbath was part of number three, the ceremonial law of God. The ceremonial law of God were the laws involving Jewish feasts, Jewish festivals, animal sacrifices, the kosher food laws, the priesthood, all the rituals at the temple.
And the key to understanding them correctly is to understand that every piece of the ceremonial law was meant to be a teaching tool. It was meant to be symbolic of the work, the person and the nature of the coming Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, to teach the Israelites something about what Jesus was going to do and who He was going to be. For example, the Passover was meant to teach the Israelites about the blood covering the Messiah was going to provide for us on the cross.
The sacrifices at the temple were meant to teach the Israelites the principle of substitutionary atonement, that is, that God would accept the death of a substitute to pay for our sin, which is what Christ was going to do on the cross. And the Sabbath, meaning a day of rest, was meant to teach the Israelites that God in the Messiah was going to give them rest, spiritual rest. Jesus even said this, Matthew 11 29. He said, Come to me, all you who are wearier and heavy laden, and I will give you peace. Watch, you shall find rest for your souls. The Sabbath was meant by God to be a picture, number one, of sinners resting from our own works to save ourselves because of the finished work of Christ and of us as followers of Christ resting in God's sovereign care and provision for every part of our life, because we're now children of God. So my point.
Hello, you still with me? OK. My point is that in Jesus Christ, the Old Testament ceremonial law has been fulfilled and therefore it's been done away with. It's like Paul said in Colossians two earlier. He said the ceremonial law was merely a shadow of what was to come, but the reality is found in Christ. So Paul says, Why waste time celebrating a shadow when his followers are Christ?
We got the real deal. See, friends, I don't need to celebrate Passover because Jesus Christ is my living Passover. I don't need to sacrifice a lamb to God because I have a relationship with the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. I don't need to eat kosher food to be clean in God's sight because Jesus made me kosher for all eternity in the sight of God. And I don't need to keep the Sabbath because Jesus Christ is my living Sabbath rest.
You understand what I'm saying? This is why the apostle Paul said Romans ten for Christ is the end of the law, the ceremonial law for righteousness to everyone who believes as followers of Christ because of the finished work of Jesus on the cross. We are free from the ceremonial law and the New Testament says stay free.
Don't go back and put yourself under it. Stay free. Galatians 4 and 9. Now that you know God, Paul says, why would you want to turn back to those weak and elementary things and be enslaved to them again, to things like celebrating days and months and seasons? Stand fast, Paul says, in the liberty with which Christ has made you free. Now you know I'm Jewish, but I'll tell you one of the things I really enjoy is going to Red Hot and Blue and ordering myself the biggest pulled pork barbecue sandwich.
I can order myself with coleslaw on it. And as I'm sitting there eating that sandwich, I am thinking and sometimes saying out loud, thank you, Jesus, for making me free from the law. Amen and amen. Listen, are Christians legally bound to keep the Sabbath?
The answer is no. Number one, because the Sabbath was a covenant between God and Israel, not the church. And number two, because as followers of Christ, the Sabbath was part of the Old Testament ceremonial law, which the Lord Jesus fulfilled with his life and his ministry and from which he has set us free. Thank God, as followers of Christ. You say, wow, Lon, this is great. Let's sing our closing song and leave so we can all go to Red Hot and Blue. Now wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. I said there were three questions we need to ask, right?
We've only asked two and you all know our third question, don't you? So are you ready? All right, here we go. Nice and loud.
One, two, three. Yeah. You say, Lon, okay. So I hear all this and I'm still awake even.
I'm surprised, but I am. Listen, so as a follower of Christ, I'm not legally bound, right, to keep the Sabbath. But my question is, does commandment number four, does everything that God said about the Sabbath, does that have anything valuable or applicable to me as a follower of Christ, even though I'm not legally bound to keep the Sabbath?
Well, the answer is yes, friends. There is a spiritual principle in commandment number four that is extremely valuable for us as followers of Christ. And the principle is this, that God wants us to set aside one day a week in our schedule, not because we have to, not as a matter of legality or law, but as a matter of choice and privilege. God wants us to set aside a day to turn away from our normal earthly pursuits and to focus our attention in a special way on eternal things. You say, all right, so this should be the Lord's day, right? It should be Sunday. Friends, if you're a follower of Christ, understand me when I say this, every day is the Lord's day for you and me. Every day is the Lord's day. It could be a Tuesday we set aside to do this. It could be a Friday we set aside to do this.
It doesn't matter. One day is not more important or more holy for us as followers of Christ. Every day is holy to Christ in our life. However, in American culture today, certainly Sunday is the most logical day to do this. Now, if you lived in Israel, you would do it on Saturday because in Israel Sunday is a work day. It's like Monday for us.
It's the first day of the work week. And even believing Israeli congregations, there are over 50 of them, full of Israeli believers in Jesus, they meet and celebrate Christ on Saturday because that works for their culture. It doesn't matter though, every day is the Lord's day. But for us, Sunday is the most logical day. And why does God want us to do this?
Well, for the same three reasons that He wanted the Israelites to do it. Number one, because just like the Israelites, we need a day to recalibrate our lives to God. Just like the Israelites, this world system can dull our spiritual senses. We can lose an eternal perspective struggling with the work a day world every day. Friends, you know this, the world system is strong.
The world system is pernicious. And it's tough for us to resist it without a day a week for us to spiritually refuel. A day when we focus on God in a special way where we meet with God's people and we fellowship with God's people and we worship God and we study the Word of God. If we're going to walk with God in power and if we're going to really see Him use our lives, we need this day a week because otherwise we won't be able to fend off the world system from having an effect on our life. Number two, just like the Israelites, we need a day to let our bodies take a break and our minds take a break from what we do all week long. Friends, God designed our bodies to need a break. God designed us to sleep every night and take a break. And God designed us to take a break from work every week. Friends, if we don't take these breaks, our body will break.
And some of us have been close to that or maybe actually been there and we know you can't defy the laws of the human body forever. We need a break. And finally, number three, just like the Israelites, our families also need dedicated time each week together.
In a recent poll taken by the Dayton Daily News, over 75% of the teenager surveyed, listen to this now, said that if they were given the choice between watching television and spending time with their families, 75% said they'd rather spend time with their families. Very interesting. And yet we understand, don't we, that if we don't have a deliberate time set aside to do this, if we don't have a disciplined time set aside to do this, friends, it simply won't happen. Many of you know I do trips to Israel and other biblical places and the man that I've worked with who organizes all these trips for 15 years or more now is a fellow named Mahdi. Some of you know him.
You've been on our trips. Here's a picture of me and Mahdi together. Now Mahdi lives in Jerusalem and we've become really good friends over the years. And so a few years ago, Mahdi started inviting me over to his house every Friday night. His whole family, his children, his grandchildren, everybody comes to dinner.
If you're in the country, you're expected to be there. And I have the wonderful privilege of going over and having Shabbat dinner with Mahdi and his family. And the first time I did this years ago, I was blown away by the power of having that whole family together, by the beauty of having that whole family together for the evening like that.
And I came home and said to Brenda, you know what? From now on, following Mahdi's example, we are going to get our family together every Sunday for lunch. I don't care if they're in the area and they're not tied up doing something. They're expected to be at lunch. And if they don't come, they're out of the will.
I'm serious. I will throw them out of the will. That's just the way it's going to be. And so, not that I have that much to leave them anyway, but they think I do. See, that's how you do this. They think I do.
No. Where are we? Okay, so we started doing this. We started doing this and we did it when our children were young. Now that our boys are all grown, we still do it. We do it with our grandchildren now. Every Sunday, it is religious in our family.
We go to lunch together. Why? Because if we don't do that and we don't plan it and we don't insist upon it, folks, it won't happen. And it can't happen on a Tuesday. It can't happen on a Thursday. Everybody's too busy. Everybody's got tests or homework or job related.
Sunday's the day. And it has been one of the greatest blessings for our family. We sit, we talk, we discuss things. If we've got problems, we work them out.
We laugh together. It's wonderful. It's one of the greatest things we ever did for our family. And thank God Sunday gets set aside in this culture so you can do something like that.
Take advantage of it. Friends, this is an eternal thing investing in our family like this and it belongs on a day when we turn our thoughts to eternal things. So let me conclude and say that 35 years ago, 36, when I first heard the words of the hymn we sang earlier by William Longstaff, Take time to be holy. Speak oft with thy Lord. Take time to be holy. The world rushes on. When I first heard those lyrics 35 years ago, they irritated me because I was a Christian, but I was part of the world that was hurrying on in my own lifestyle.
You know, I got to tell you, 35 years, four children, many miles, and a lot of mistakes later, I really appreciate the wisdom of what that man said in that song. Friends, we need a disciplined time to stop and focus on Christ. We need a disciplined time to set aside, to be re-attuned to the Word of God, a disciplined time to restore a biblical worldview to our life, a disciplined time to slow down and rest, a disciplined time to be with our families.
We need that. So let me conclude by asking you a question, my Christian friend. How are your Sundays different from the rest of your week? I mean, are your Sundays deliberately set aside to be with the Lord and to rest and to do things with your family? I mean, do you spend part of your Sunday serving the Lord in some capacity in your life? Do you specifically dedicate part of your Sunday to doing things that draw you closer to God so that when Sunday is over, you're more built up, more fortified and more prepared to go back out and face another week living in a way that honors Christ? Is that how you use your Sunday? Well, if not, then I'd like to suggest to you that you might want to consider a lifestyle change.
You might want to consider a priority change. This is why Sunday, this is why God made the Sabbath, this is why our culture copied it on Sunday. We need to use that day the way the Lord designed it to be used. And I hope that if you're not doing that, you'll talk to your husband, talk to your wife, talk to your family and say, you know what?
You either show up Sunday at lunch or you're out the will, friend, whatever, but that you make some changes so that your Sunday becomes a day for God, a day for rest and a day for your family. Again, we're not legally obligated to do this. It's not a law for us. It's just a great idea. And it's a blessing from God.
Let's use it. Let's pray together. Lord Jesus, thanks for reminding us that as human beings, even as followers of Christ, we need to deliberately take time to pursue holiness and Christ-likeness in our life.
The world rushes on. And Lord, we need to have the wisdom and the spiritual discernment to not let the world just pick us up and carry us along with it. But we need to take our weekend, particularly Sunday, and we need to dedicate it to the purposes for which you created the Sabbath, which you said was a blessing and a benefit for human beings. So Lord, help us to really examine our schedules and help us to make changes if we need to in order to allow the principle of the Sabbath to have a beneficial effect on our lives as followers of Jesus Christ. Help us take time to be holy. And we pray these things and ask for your help in making those schedule chains that we may need to make. We pray these things in Jesus' name. And what did God's people say? Amen. Amen.
