Sermon preached on Sunday, October 20, 2013 at Garden Valley Chapel during our morning worship service based on Selected Scriptures.

In the relatively short time the Lord has given me in full time ministry (this coming February Lord-willing will mark the 8th year since I entered into the ministry full-time), I have endeavored to study the Scriptures in detail.

At times, as many of you know, it is one verse that captivates my attention. At times it is one phrase or even one word that compels my study of the riches and depth of God’s Holy Word.

As alluring as that may be to study God’s Word one word at a time, it is helpful to look at the bigger picture - how that one detail fits in place within the larger body of God’s truth.

That is the beauty of biblical theology or systematic theology that endeavors to connect the dots of all the myriads of God’s Truth within God’s Revealed Word.

That is where were we find ourselves this morning. Last week we examined the day after creation, the seventh day, and we took some time to look at that special seventh day in detail.

It is upon that study/examination that we will launch into an expansive look at the doctrine/teaching on the Sabbath.

We know that this is a major topic to this day as it relates to the Jewish Sabbath and as it relates to Seventh Day Adventists with Sabbath School instead Sunday School and would you believe you even have Seventh Day Baptists (or Sabbatarian Baptist, as it was often called in England) who form the larger General Conference.

They all adhere to a Saturday observance of worship.

Then there are those who make the shift from Saturday (i.e. the seventh day) to Sunday (i.e. the first day) who treat Sundays with the same devotion and with all of the prescriptions of the Old Testament seventh day Sabbath.

So it is no small matter and all of this comes from this look into the seventh day, the day after creation.
That day if you recall was a special day because...

By the seventh day God ended, finished, completed the work of creation. Everything in the heavens and everything on the earth was complete. God ended His work which He had done.

What results on day seven is His rest. The text tells us that God “rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done” (2x - once in v. 2 and once in v. 3). Not that God was somehow weary, but that God stopped/ceased from creative work. His rest was one of deep pleasure and satisfaction at the fruit of His labor. He was “refreshed” by delight and satisfaction in what He had done (cf. Ex 31:17). He paused to delight in His works.

But most importantly to note about the seventh day is that God blessed it. He made the day holy - declared it to be a holy day. This day would be imprinted in the minds of all men, whether they acknowledge God as Creator or not. This day would forever serve as a memorial and reminder that God created the universe in six days.

As holy and set apart as this day is, what we noted last time is that it does not mention man. It does not prescribe Adam to rest on that day. God does not command Adam to observe it. There is no Sabbath rule given in Genesis.

The Sabbath is not given to Adam to observe nor is it given to the father, not only of the Hebrew people, but the “father of all who believe” (Rom 4:11), Abraham.

The Sabbath is not found in the Abrahamic Covenant which details all that the Lord has declared and bound Himself to do for Abraham and his seed. There is simply no discussion of any Sabbath in God’s first great covenant with Israel.

So when does this Sabbath rule first appear in the pages of Scripture? When do we see it in Scripture? Who was it made for and for what purpose?

How do we, who are on this side of the cross, as NT believers, as “servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit” (cf. 2 Cor 3:6), how do we relate to the Sabbath rule?

To that end, I want to take the opportunity to discuss this important matter so that we are clear as to what our responsibility is before the Lord as we consider the Sabbath.

With that I want to trace the Sabbath to the very first time it appears in the OT and provide a foundation / a backdrop for upcoming discussions that we will have regarding the Sabbath, the Old and New Covenant, and the Lord’s Day.

To establish a foundation I want to begin by looking at the...

The Witness of the First Testament (OT)
The Witness of the Second Testament (NT)