In his sermon 'Keeping the Christian Sabbath Holy,' Mike Davenport explores the biblical and spiritual principles of observing the Sabbath in a way that aligns with God's intentions. He begins by referencing Jesus's actions in the grain fields and healing on the Sabbath, highlighting the importance of mercy over rigid rule-keeping as exemplified by the Pharisees. Davenport draws a parallel between a train that thrives on tracks and Christians who find true freedom in following God's commandments. The sermon outlines three types of work permissible on the Sabbath: works of piety, necessity, and mercy. Davenport emphasizes the need for heart-driven obedience rather than mere formalism, underscoring the Sabbath as a day of delight and joy created for humanity's benefit. He cautions against legalism and encourages a thoughtful, faith-filled approach to Sabbath observance, urging believers to consider their actions as a testimony to the watching world. Ultimately, the sermon underscores the Sabbath as a time for spiritual renewal and a testament to God's love and mercy.

At that time, Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath, And his disciples were hungry and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath. But he said to them, Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him, how he entered the house of God and ate the showbread which was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him but only for the priests. Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are blameless? Yet I say to you that in this place there is one greater than the temple.

But if you had known what this means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the guiltless, for the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath." Now when he had departed from there, he went into their synagogue, and behold, there was a man who had a withered hand. And they asked him, saying, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath that they might accuse him? Then he said to them, what man is there among you who has one sheep and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath will not lay hold of it and lift it out or how much more value then of how much more value then is a man than a sheep therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath. Then he said to the man, stretch out your hand. And he stretched it out, and it was restored as whole as the other.

Then the Pharisees went out and plotted against him how they might destroy him. Let's pray. Oh gracious God, we have your Word open before us and yet we still are in need of your spirit to come and open our eyes to draw back the veil that we might see Christ clearly in this scripture. Give us eyes to see, give us ears to hear, and most of all, O Lord, give us hearts to obey whatever you would show us. We pray in Christ's holy name.

Amen. You may be seated. Children, consider with me a moment a well-known story about a train. It was a train who felt that he was missing out on all of these things that he kept passing by on the right hand and on the left. He wanted to be free.

He wanted to be set at liberty. There were many things that he just wanted to go and visit and participate in. So one day he jumped the tracks and headed for some of these attractions that he had seen and passed by many times. But what do you think happened after the train left the tracks? When he started out across the pastures and into the open fields, How do you think he progressed?

He was only a few minutes into his supposed new freedom and liberty. Do you think he was enjoying it? Well, I hope you see that the answer is quite clear. He was not enjoying himself at all. Why?

What happened? Well, having left the tracks, his movement slowed until he came to a grinding halt. He was no longer able to go on. He was no longer able to, what he thought, pursue these enjoyments he desired so greatly. In fact, he discovered that he was at the greatest liberty of movement and the most enjoyment when he was confined to the very tracks upon which he was created to run.

You see, we are like the train, and the commandments of God are like the track. Just as the train was engineered to run along those railroad tracks, even so, as we considered together last week, God saves us in order that we may run at liberty on the tracks of the good works God has prepared for us. Never, never, never is a Christian more at liberty than when he is running the course of God's commandments with an enlarged heart. Psalmist tells us that. Brothers and sisters, the commands of God are not burdensome.

They're not. If they are or they seem to be to us, then either We don't have the saving grace of God that sticks around to teach those whom it saves Titus to, or we are not trafficking in the commands of God, but rather the imposed or maybe elevated commands of the Pharisees that would bind heavy burdens hard to bear and lay them on men's shoulders. What we are seeking to grapple with this morning is how to keep the Lord's Day Sabbath holy. And so the title of the message is Keeping the Christian Sabbath Holy. Keeping the Christian Sabbath holy.

We've considered the fourth commandment, remember the Sabbath to keep it holy, and we have also considered that what was the seventh day Sabbath has become the first day Sabbath or Lord's Day for the new covenant Christian, and it's referred to in Scripture as the Lord's Day. What we have not considered together is the expectations of how we in our day and time might keep that day holy. Now, when you hear me say that, the first thing that may pop into your mind is a list, maybe even a detailed list of do's and don'ts. And if that's what you're hoping for, I'm going to let you know up front you're going to be disappointed. In his book, Celebrating the Sabbath, Finding Rest in a Restless World, Author Bruce Ray writes, quote, the good news if you are a Christian is that you have everything you need to figure out what God wants you to do on the Sabbath.

God has given you His Word and His Spirit. The bad news is you have to think. Be exercised in spirit and experience inner wrestlings. Listen, there are no shortcuts to holiness." End quote. There are no shortcuts to holiness.

I can't give you a detailed list. To do So, I'd be returning to the very thing Christ was trying to rescue the people of that day from what the Pharisees were trying to do. In fact, if you were here early enough and you saw the verse that our brother Ash had put on the screen earlier. If you look back at the end of chapter 11, we have that famous thing, he that, come to me all you that are labor and are heavy laden, I will give you rest. And then what does he do?

In this very chapter, he seeks to free his people from the burdensome, made-up lists that the Pharisees had given them so that man could once again delight in the Sabbath and benefit from it. So what I hope to do today is to give you principles from God's Word that you need to apply. Biblical principles through which to sift every fault in every activity that comes across your path when it comes to determining how God wants you to keep his day. Now, we're going to come back to this text, I promise. But first, we need to lay some groundwork.

The first thing we need to do is review a few things we have already learned about this fourth commandment. So before we get down to the details about the inclusion of any particular activity on the Christian Sabbath, we need to make sure it falls under this canopy, these principles that we've already considered. First, is this something that will benefit me as a created man? Is this something that will benefit me as a created man? Remember, God made the Sabbath for man, not man for the Sabbath.

Everything that God did in that first week was all very Good. Creating such a day for man, a day set apart from the other six, was a good thing. However, we must consider the level of benefit in proper order. The benefit of the soul comes first, then the benefit of the body. Because if we gain the whole world and lose our own souls, what profit is it?

Our souls come first. And I believe we will be able to argue from our text here shortly that we should not only be focused on our own benefit, we should also be focused on the benefit of others as well. Second, does this activity reflect a heart that is delighting in the day? Does this activity reflect a heart that is delighting in the day? And does it lead to God causing me to delight more in Him?

We saw this as the focus of Isaiah 58, 13, and 14. On this day we are to turn away from doing our own ways, thinking our own faults, finding our own pleasure, speaking our own words. Rather, the day should be a day of honoring God by delighting in His day. Does the activity we are considering aid us in that cause. Third, does this activity reflect the fact that the day is holy, that it has been set apart?

Does this activity reflect the fact that the day is holy, that it has been set apart? If God has set aside one day out of seven, then that day is to be treated differently. To treat it as every other day of the week is to profane the day. To be faithful to the Word of God, we have to ask ourselves if what we are about to engage in is a legitimate attempt to keep the day holy as God intended. Now these are the overarching principles we have already established.

Now we shall consider a few more guiding principles this morning from this text, but before we do, I want to issue a warning that has been well sounded by Dr. Robert Martin. It's a warning to any who would seek to keep the fourth commandment without obedience from the heart. Just an outward, an outward formality without obedience from the heart. It's a long quote but it's easy to follow.

Quote, right Sabbath observance however must begin in our hearts. If our hearts are not overflowing with the right attitude, we will not keep holy Sabbaths. Our observance of the principles of holy Sabbath keeping will rise no higher than the level of these principles, not in our heads, but in our hearts. Our Sabbath practices, therefore, will flow from our hearts. It cannot be otherwise.

And if we are not vigilant in keeping our hearts in the right spirit, if we are not diligent in cultivating a love of God's holy will, we will not be holy in our Sabbath observance. We will not observe the difference which God has made between His holy day and the six common days of the week. Should we not regard the Sabbath first and foremost as a token of God's love for us and an expression of his desire that we enjoy great blessing. And if we regard the day in this way, if this thought is uppermost in our minds that I am coming to a special day which my loving Father has made to bless me, then will not the dominant disposition of our hearts be that it is a privilege to have a Sabbath day and a joy to keep it in the way which the Lord has appointed for our great blessing. That attitude alone will produce holy Sabbath keeping.

A heart full of an appreciation for the blessing which God made His day to be will overflow in a proper ordering of the day. Then our thoughts will not be so much, what can I not do on the Lord's day? But what can I do on the day to derive the greatest blessing from it for my soul, for the souls of those whom I love, and for the glory of my loving Father who graciously gave me such a wonderful gift? With the attitude firmly fixed in our hearts that it is a privilege to keep the day, even denying ourselves in order to keep the day separate becomes not a burden to be born but a blessed subtraction in the prospect of greater blessing." End quote. Well may God give us hearts that want to obey.

Well in order to help frame our thoughts around these governing principles of how we should approach the day, I think it will be beneficial to consider the words of our confession. In paragraph 8 of chapter 22 of religious worship in the Sabbath day in our second London Baptist confession, we read this, the Sabbath is then kept holy unto the Lord when men after a due preparing of their hearts and ordering their common affairs a forehand, do not only observe and wholly rest all day from their own works, words, and thoughts about their worldly employment and recreations, but are also taking up the whole time in the public and private exercises of His worship and in the duties of necessity and mercy. And so when we boil it all down to guiding principles, we see three things that should guide our keeping of the day. Here they are, Works of piety, works of necessity, and works of mercy. Piety, necessity, and mercy.

And here it is that we return to our text because we see these three principles at work in our text. In fact, our text is listed as a proof text in the confession. So first, consider with me works of piety, works of piety. What do we mean by the word piety? It's not a word we use often.

Well, the 1828 edition of Webster's Dictionary defines our word in the following way. Piety in principle is a compound of veneration or reverence of the supreme being and love of his character or veneration accompanied with love. And piety in practice is the exercise of these affections in obedience to his will and devotion to his service. Now this would certainly not be our seminal text for establishing this principle of works of piety. In fact, the entire Bible establishes the fact that the public worship of God on His day is right and proper and necessary.

Your presence here this morning attests to the fact that this is good and right that we gather as God's people. In fact, on this point of the works of piety, the Pharisees agreed with Jesus. In John 7, Christ states that they recognized, he recognized that it was an acceptable thing to carry out circumcisions on the Sabbath. He says, you circumcise your own children on the Sabbath. All those male children that you brought, if the day of their circumcision falls on the Sabbath, you do that.

It was a work of piety, of sanctification, of them being called out, And they agreed on that. So what do we see in our text concerning these works of piety? Well verse 9, now when he had departed from there, he went into their synagogue. Now that phrase may seem insignificant to you, but I promise you it's not insignificant at all. It shouts the reality of the pattern of Christ to be present in the public worship of the gathered church.

Even his enemies knew where they might find him. Mark 1, 21 and 39 reads, then they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and taught, and he was preaching in their synagogues throughout all Galilee. Luke 4.16. So Jesus came to Nazareth where he had been brought up and as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. It was the pattern of our Lord.

But if we restrict the works of piety to only the public worship of God and not include the additional worship in the privacy of our homes. We have missed the point entirely as our confession states, the Sabbath is then kept holy unto the Lord when men are taken up in the public and private exercises of God's worship. Remember, God's claim lies upon the entirety of the day. Well, we're not here all day. We're not here all day.

God claims the whole day as His. And if you remember as well the context of the fourth commandment on the Sabbath, you shall do no work. You, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates." What is being described here? The home. The home.

The responsibility of the keeping of the Sabbath lies directly upon families. In fact, it lies directly upon you men, you heads of households. It lies upon you. And if the scripture requires, as I think it does, and I could argue, If it requires the daily worship of God in our families, it's a subject I hope to take up sometime soon because it flows even from this fourth commandment, If it requires the daily worship of God in our families, then how much more on His holy day? A day filled with what Mr.

Webster described as the exercise of the affections for God and his character in obedience to his will and devotion to his service. Works of piety. But not only that, second we have works of necessity, works of necessity. Now at this point the Pharisees part ways with our Lord, and they do so ignorantly, ignorantly. Jesus twice asks them, have you not read?

Have you not read? In other words, God's Word has already spoken in regard to the principle of acceptable works of necessity on the Sabbath, that such deeds do not in and of themselves constitute a breaking of the keeping of this day. Christ is responding to the Pharisees' accusations that were leveled at his disciples, an accusation that was actually built upon additional laws that they had instituted in an effort to keep the day holy or a twisting of what God had said. But Christ points out that they have created such laws while ignoring what God has already said on the matter. Have you not read what David did when he was hungry?

He and those who were with him, how he entered the house of God and ate the showbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests. Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priest and the temple profane the Sabbath and are blameless? In the first question that Christ sets before them, he takes them back to their beloved King David. He reminds them of the time before David was king that he was on the run from King Saul who was seeking to take his life. David came to the house of God and asked for bread for himself and for his men.

But since there was no common bread there on hand, they didn't have any extra common bread, a himalayan priest gave David the showbread, showbread that most likely had been recently removed from the presence of the Lord and replaced with fresh hot bread. Christ here points out the fact that it was not lawful for David to eat it. You see, Christ understood the law. He's the one who gave it. He's not ignoring it.

He said It wasn't lawful for them to eat it. In the second question, Christ points to the fact that the priests are called to work on the Sabbath, that their duties do not reflect the rest that the fourth command calls for. Obviously, Christ's view, he states it, his view is that they're blameless. And I would argue that because these two questions are put back to back, That when he argues for the blamelessness of the priests in the second question, he's also arguing the blamelessness of David and his men in the first question. Well, in using these examples, Christ argues from the greater to the lesser.

And what I mean by that is what he uses in his questions is the greater compared to the fact of these men plucking grains of wheat as they walk through the field. Consider with me. In his questions, Christ has set before them the ordinances of God and the priesthood of God. That's what he's talking about in these two things, the ordinance of God concerning the showbread and the priesthood, what they're supposed to do. These both were established in the law given at Mount Sinai, And here's the lesson to be taught.

If necessity warranted the setting aside of the ordinance of God in the first instance, And if necessity warranted the duties of the tabernacle and temple at the expense of rest from all labors in the second instance, then certainly the present necessity of the disciples' hungry bellies warranted their breaking of the law that the Pharisees had established and required." So he's arguing from the greater to the lesser. What was at the heart of what Christ was saying? What's at the heart? It's this. The Sabbath views of the Pharisees had no room for mercy.

The Sabbath views of the Pharisees had no room for mercy. It was a narrow-hearted, cold, rigid keeping of what they thought God's Word required. Brothers and sisters, we are so susceptible to those views. We, not somebody out there, We are so susceptible to those views. May God keep us from such narrow heartedness.

May we heed the words of Christ here that He desires mercy. That's what he wants. He desires mercy. In fact, mercy is at the very heart of his establishment of the day itself. His giving Mankind this day is an act of mercy toward us, a token, as we saw, of God's love for us and an expression of His desire that we enjoy great blessing.

Now, necessities exist for several reasons. First, there are creaturely necessities that require our attention. There are creaturely necessities that require our attention, our cleanliness and our presentableness. I'm glad nobody's here in their pajamas with hair everywhere. Our nourishment, our nourishment, it's a necessity.

Our travel to church or maybe to someone's house for hospitality later in the day. You got to get there, you got to get here. Traveling is a necessity. Sometimes a brief nap to name just a few. Second, there are certain responses necessitated by God's providence.

There are necessities that come upon us by God's providence like a sudden mess that is made. Loss of power or electricity or even as we experienced a month or so ago of the cooling, like a flat tire on the way to church. At times, being away from the normal means of grace when called away from home. These are providential necessities. And third, there are professions whose work or careers whose work on the Sabbath is necessitated by the fact that we live in a fallen world.

Medical staff, pharmacists, policemen, firemen, military, they reflect the fact of necessities that our fallen sinful world has brought us into. And the fact that the Lord of the Sabbath establishes afresh a place for deeds of necessity on his day reveals to us the heart of God and It reinforces his purpose that the day be of benefit for mankind We must of course be careful as we seek to identify correctly acts of necessity. Necessity should be defined by what God in His Word or by His providence dictates as necessity, not by man's demands or expectations, not by our own procrastinations, not by our own negligence. It can become an easy non-thinking habit to label anything and everything as a necessity in order to silence our own conscience or to answer someone's question about what we're doing. And I'll just say, you young people who are considering careers, consider carefully the cost that necessities may require in regard to work on that day.

They are works of necessity, but you're choosing careers. Just think about it. It will cost you being present. So works of piety, works of necessity, now thirdly, works of mercy. Works of mercy.

This is the third category mentioned by our confession, and It's also pointed to by Christ here in our text. Note verse 9 and following. Now when he departed from there, he went into their synagogue, and behold, there was a man who had a withered hand. And they asked him, saying, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? That they might accuse him.

Then he said to them, what man is there among you who has one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out. Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep. Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.' Then he said to the man, stretch out your hand.' and he stretched it out and it was restored as whole as the other. It could be stated like this, another's Sabbath, someone else's Sabbath necessity gives opportunity for us to demonstrate mercy. Someone else's necessity on the Sabbath gives us the opportunity to demonstrate mercy.

Christ has already weaved mercy throughout our text when he mentioned the necessity of David. David and his men were hungry. They were hungry. It was a hemilex merciful response that met his need. Christ also stated that he desires mercy, that he wants a sacrifice by a heart that reflects love to Him and love to our neighbor, a heart that gives due attention to both tables of the law.

This is a prominent theme of the Apostle John throughout all of his epistles. Now the Pharisees knew where they could find Christ. They knew where they could find Him. They also knew not only His power, but also Christ's readiness to relieve those suffering from the effects of the fall by reason of Adam's sin. And so, they're there in the synagogue and they proactively ask a question.

They proactively ask. Now, they have evidently ignored his previous call for mercy. If you understood this, that I desire mercy, they've ignored that. They have rejected his instruction that the Sabbath was made for the benefit of mankind. The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

They rejected it. And they have refused the claim of his lordship over this day. So in response, Jesus puts his finger on the hypocrisy of their own hearts as well as their selfishness. They cared less for the condition of this man than for the condition of one of their own sheep if it had found itself in a helpless condition." And I cannot help but exercise some holy imagination and wonder if God's own providence had caused, maybe within days leading up to this encounter, such a circumstance of a sheep falling into a pit, and not a few of those men's experiences, in order that Christ's words might have the more powerful witness in terms of what answer they would give in light of what they may have already done for their own sheep. Well, having argued from the greater to the lesser in the earlier portion of the text, here Christ argues from the lesser to the greater.

He argues that if it would be considered a justified act of mercy to rescue a sheep on God's holy day, that such relief would be required. You would just do it. If that's the case, then certainly the relief of a man made in the image of God for whose benefit the Sabbath was established, such relief would certainly be a justified act of mercy. Remember, Jesus is speaking to men who refuse to help their own parents in their parents' need, choosing rather to support more vigorously the service of God than to obey the fifth commandment. These are men who had no mercy, but man they were rigorous about what God required.

When Jesus lays down the law perfectly at this point, it is lawful. It is lawful. It's fulfilling law to do good on the Sabbath. Think of it in light of what we have studied in the previous message that we worship Christ on the first day of the week. Why?

Because it was on this day that Christ rose from the dead. It was this day that opened the vast ocean of God's love and mercy so that we might be the recipients of that love, that mercy, that goodness. Is it not in keeping with the works of mercy of our great Savior to seek to do good and to be merciful on this glorious day that God has made? How can we refuse to do good and be merciful when this is the crowning day of God's mercy and God's goodness, Raising Christ from the dead, giving us new life. Well, dear brothers and sisters, these are the principles that God has given us in His Word.

This is the day that God has made. Our rejoicing in this day and what God did on this day are nothing short of the recognition of the crown rights of our King Jesus. When we keep His day holy, we are declaring to anyone paying attention that He is indeed our cornerstone. And what God did is marvelous in our eyes. And as we wrestle through these principles and our duty to God, consider the power of the witness as faithfully described by W.O.

Carver. This is what he said, quote, the extent and strength of the Christian witness in the world will always be proportionate to the faithful and intelligent hallowing of the Lord's Day by Christians, both individually and corporately. The sincere and faithful observance of the Lord's Day Sabbath is vitally central to the success of all efforts to give to Christianity its rightful voice and power in our world." This dear ones is why we must gather In spite of what the world this very day may label as careless, foolish, or unloving to others, But the demands go way beyond simply meaning here publicly. The extent and strength of the Christian witness, Mr. Carver says, in the world will always be proportionate to the faithful and intelligent hallowing of the Lord's Day by Christians both individually and corporately.

You see, what you choose to do when you leave this place today and return to your home speaks volumes to the watching world. In Christian parents, what you choose to do, what you choose to allow when you leave this place and return to your homes, That also speaks volumes to your children, both converted and unconverted, who are front seat witnesses to how you treat Christ's claim as the Lord of this day. I close with a few applications unashamedly lifted off the pages of Dr. Martin's helpful treatise on the subject of the Christian Sabbath. I've reworded them a little bit in my word, but this is where I got them from.

Here they are. First, consider that our decisions about how to truly make the day a holy day, they shouldn't be complicated or perplexing. Our decisions about how to make this day holy need not be complicated, need not be perplexing. By a thoughtful recognition of this day is God's day and not our day. By doing that most questions that we or our families might raise, it simply goes away.

It's that simple. This is God's day. This is God's day. Second, beware of the spirit of formalism creeping into what you do. Beware of the spirit of formalism Creeping in to what you do.

Yes, there needs to be form and there needs to be structure if we're truly to observe the day in a manner of holiness, but we must avoid at all costs a merely formal or ceremonial keeping of the day. And if we fail at this point to keep formalism at bay, then our observance of the day will become no different than the observance of the Pharisees, cold, heartless, merciless, and joyless. Third, beware as well of a spirit of legalism. Beware as well of a spirit of legalism. We can so easily become ones who legislate every little detail of Sabbath observance, whether of ourselves or of our family members, and to seek to account for every single minute of the day.

The Pharisees, they weighed out their spices in order to give a tithe, But Christ turned around and condemned them for neglecting the weightier matters of the law. Fourth, remember what God ordained the day to be, a joy and a delight. Remember that. As you seek to work through these things, yes, work, but as you do, remember the day was created to be a joy and a delight. George Swinock rightly noted that joy suits no person so much as a saint and it becomes no season so well as a Sabbath.

Of all the joyful people in the world, the saints should be the most joyous, and they should be the most joyous on Sundays. Sundays. If there is no joy, Either our hearts are not right or else we're not doing what God wants. Fifth, remember that observing the Sabbath requires faith. It requires faith especially in light of our personal needs.

You know, six days you shall labor, not on the Lord's day. What about my needs and my family's needs? It requires faith. It requires faith. Do we truly trust our lives and families and churches to God?

Can we do it? Can we do it? Will we seek first His kingdom and His righteousness? And then sixth and final, consider carefully how you choose for both you and your family to spend God's holy day. Consider carefully how you choose to do it, how you keep that day holy.

The Sabbath ordinance, Dr. Martin says, is about time. That's what it is. It's about time and your use of it. Do you have time for the Father who chose you from eternity for fellowship with Himself?

Do you have time for the Son who gave Himself at Calvary for your sins? Do you have time for the Holy Spirit who regenerated you and indwells you as the pledge of your heavenly inheritance? Do you in fact have time for the triune God on the very day which he claims as his own. If not, why not? And if so, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

Amen. Gracious God, we cry out like the psalmist, write your law on our hearts. Your law is holy, it is just, and it is good, as the new covenant apostle reminds us. Oh, may we delight not only in your law, but may we delight in your day and may we delight in you, O King of our hearts and our salvation. Make it to be so today.

In Christ's name, Amen.