The sermon titled 'The Perpetuity of the Sabbath' by Mike Davenport argues for the continued observance of the Sabbath, even in New Covenant times. The speaker examines various biblical texts, including Isaiah 56, Ezekiel 20, Leviticus 19, Matthew 24, and Hebrews 4, to establish that the Sabbath is an ongoing commandment from God, meant to be observed by His people. Davenport emphasizes that the Sabbath serves as a sign of sanctification, a vibrant relationship with God, and a reminder of God's immutability. He also highlights the distinction between the Old and New Covenant Sabbaths, asserting that the principles of holiness and obedience remain unchanged. Hebrews 4:9 is presented as a key text, indicating a continued Sabbath observance in the New Covenant as a reflection of the eternal rest promised to believers. The sermon concludes with a call for Christians to embrace the Sabbath as a day of spiritual rest and delight in God's presence.

As of the Word of God with me if you would like to Isaiah 56 Isaiah 56 Isaiah 56 follow with me as I read verses 1 through 8. Thus says the Lord, keep justice and do righteousness for my salvation is about to come and my righteousness to be revealed. Blessed is the man who does this and the son of man who lays hold on it who keeps from defiling the Sabbath and keeps his hand from doing any evil. Do not let the son of the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord speak saying the Lord has utterly separated me from His people. Nor let the eunuchs say, here I am a dry tree.

For thus says the Lord to the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths and choose what pleases me and hold fast my covenant even to them I will give in my house and within my walls a place and a name better than that of sons and daughters I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. Also the sons of the foreigner who join themselves to the Lord to serve him and to love the name of the Lord to be his servants. Everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath and holds fast my covenant even them I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations. The Lord God who gathers the outcasts of Israel says, yet I will gather to him others besides those who are gathered to him. Let's look to the Lord in prayer.

Gracious God, we praise you and thank you that you are the shepherd of your people. Lord, we come to you as sheep defenseless unable to meet our own needs we come to you asking you oh God please to feed us today gather with us lead us go with us and prepare for us a table even in the midst of our enemies that we may eat that which you have prepared and that we may drink beside those gentle streams. We thank you for being our God. Help us as we seek to worship you and to understand your word for us today. In Jesus' name, amen.

You may be seated. You may be seated. Well it's summertime. During this season many families choose to take a vacation. When the family pulls out of the driveway, unless there is a designated driver or navigator rather, the driver is the only one who generally knows the directions on which they must take in order for them to get to the destination.

He's generally the only one who has studied how to get where they're going. Now everyone in the car may know exactly what the final destination is, but they may not have a clue whether at the end of the driveway to take a right or to take a left. Well that can be your experience as God's people. You may know as it were the destination of the preacher, but you may not know what stops will be made along the way or what things will be covered. So as we begin today, I want to share with you the map to show you where we have been already in this study and hopefully the stops we will be making along the way as we continue to study the 10 commandments and more specifically now the fourth commandment, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

So first let me remind you of where we have been so far. We started in Mark 2 verses 23 to 28 considering how we can benefit from the Sabbath. There we found Christ declaring the reason for the Sabbath, it's made for the benefit of man, as well as his relation to the Sabbath that He is the Lord of that day. It's His day. Then we opened up Exodus 28 through 11 where we find this commandment among the other nine commandments, the summary of the perfect law of God.

We considered mankind's duty to remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy and to rest on that day. We came away from that passage with this summary. We are never more like God than when we keep the Sabbath day. Being holy like God is our supreme motive for keeping the Sabbath day holy. The third message found us just a couple of chapters over from where we start this morning in Isaiah 58 verses 12 to 14 where we considered man's duty to delight in the Sabbath.

We considered the fact that no matter where we are in relation to this day, there are things that need repair, things that need rebuilding, things that need restoring. We also saw from the passage that Further delight in God is contingent upon our true delight in His day. So second now, let me share with you where we are going and what I plan as further stops along the way. Today I hope to open up to you the perpetuity of the Sabbath. Then I plan for us to consider the necessary change from the seventh day of the week to the first day of the week as we seek to answer the question, are there distinctions between the Old and New Testament Sabbaths?

Then I plan for us to spend a Sunday looking at what the keeping of the Sabbath looks like in everyday life. The next message after that will most likely deal with passages that are often used as arguments against the idea of a Christian Sabbath in New Covenant times. And then I hope to wrap things up with a message from Hebrews 4, considering together the eternal Sabbath rest that is pictured in our weekly Christian Sabbath together. So I hope that gives you a feel for where we are heading and maybe even providing hope for the handling of specific things that may have popped up in your mind as we have covered this ground thus far. So Here we are in the fourth sermon on the fourth commandment.

The title of the sermon today is The Perpetuity of the Sabbath. The Perpetuity of the Sabbath. Now that title may need a little explaining. What does the word perpetuity mean? Well, it simply means this, continued uninterrupted existence, continued uninterrupted existence, something of which there will be no end.

So what I am seeking to do this morning is to establish the fact by Scripture alone that the Sabbath continues even to this day and will continue as long as the world remains. To accomplish that, I will need to convince you that the ending of the Old Covenant did not bring an end to God's claim on one day out of seven. So as a lawyer seeking to convince a jury concerning his claim, I present to you this morning several exhibits. Each one, if taken alone, may not be enough to convince you, but I ask you to consider the weight of the whole. We will start in the Old Testament.

As you know through your own personal study of the major prophets of the Old Testament, they all prophesied concerning the coming of the new and better covenant. This passage that we are starting with today here in Isaiah 56 is all about the new covenant. And so I submit this text to you as Exhibit A. Here's Exhibit A. Consider the fact that it opens up with the truth that God's salvation is about to come, that His righteousness is about to be revealed.

Well this will happen through the coming of His only Son, Jesus Christ. Consider also that the eunuch here in the passage and the sons of foreigners are not only to join God's people, they were able to do that even in the Old Covenant, but here in this context, God promises things that could never be so while the old covenant stood to bring them to his holy mountain and to his house of prayer, to give them a place in his house and within his walls. Consider as well that God says that their offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on His altar. All these spiritual sacrifices that we read in 1st Peter, these sacrifices that are being brought by the priesthood of the believers And why is it that they will be acceptable? Because his house shall be called a house of prayer.

A house of prayer for whom? For all. All nations. The capstone of the link of the new covenant period is stated in verse 8, the Lord God who will gather the outcasts of Israel will also gather others besides those scattered outcasts. And Jesus clearly stated in John 10-16, and other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also I must bring.

Well, chapters 40 through 66 of Isaiah encompassed a time frame from the return of Israel from captivity in Babylon to the coming of Christ and the church age that follows even the new heavens and the new earth all within chapters 40 to 66. And with that reality in mind I would like to have us first here note the description of the blessed man in the New Covenant. How is this blessed man described? Well, verse 2, blessed is the man who does this and the son of man who lays hold on it, who keeps from defiling the Sabbath and keeps his hand from doing any evil. Blessing is promised to the one who does this one thing, who tenaciously holds on to this one thing, keeping the Sabbath and striving after purity.

You say, well, that's two things. Yes. These two things are in the mind of God, one singular thing. He is to lay hold of this. The one thing God has in mind is His holy law set forth in the two tables of the law.

The first table, summed up here in the keeping of the Sabbath, and the second table, summed up in keeping the hand from doing evil. Now dear ones, this is not an earning of salvation or of righteousness. This is gospel obedience, obedience that flows as a result of the gospel. It does not say, keep justice and do righteousness in order that my salvation might come and my righteousness be revealed. The text makes it clear.

Those who are anticipating the revelation of their salvation and the righteousness that is to be imputed to them. Those who like faith-filled Abraham rejoiced in the prospect of the day of Christ. Those like Job who declared with faith that they would see their Redeemer face to face, those anticipating the revelation of God's salvation and His righteousness are the ones that God exhorts to keep justice and do righteousness. This language is not foreign in the New Covenant time period. Consider what Peter says of the first recorded conversion of a Gentile after Pentecost.

In Acts 10 34 to 35, Peter reporting to the church in Jerusalem what God had done in the household of Cornelius, opened his mouth and said this, In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality, but in every nation, whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him." Now, what does this keeping justice and doing righteousness entail? Well, one thing that it entails is the keeping of the Sabbath. Is that not what the text says? The New King James translate this phrase in such a way as to understand it as one idea, to not defile. But other translations, I believe, more accurately portray a double emphasis that seems to appear in the Hebrew wording.

The net Bible translates it like this, the people who do this will be blessed who observe the Sabbath and do not defile it. Here's the ESV, the English standard. Blessed is the man who does this, who keeps the Sabbath not profaning it. Even the old King James version seems to reflect a dual nature in the phrase, that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it. Well, to both keep as well as to not defile would necessitate that there be some form or fashion of the Sabbath still in place.

Does it not? Otherwise, the blessing of God stated clearly here is obsolete. The blessing on that man, it rests then on nothing. Well, having considered the description of the blessed man, look with me now at the descriptions of two particular people mentioned, the eunuch and the son of the foreigner, men who are indeed blessed men in the new covenant era. Note in the text how these men are described.

Verse 4, For thus says the Lord to the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths and chooses what pleases me and hold fast my covenant." Verse 6, also the sons of the foreigner who joined themselves to the Lord to serve him and to love the name of the Lord to be his servants. Everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath and holds fast My covenant." These men are described as ones who have chosen to follow the Lord. They desire to serve Him. They love His name. They want to be His servants.

They choose what pleases God, and they hold fast the covenant of God. But that's not all. These ones reflective of new covenant Gentile converts are also described as those who both keep the Sabbath and do not defile it. Now, I want to ask you, which of those things are not part of the New Covenant? Which expired with the old?

Serving God. Does that have any place in the New Covenant? Loving His name, has that expired? What about becoming a servant or choosing what pleases Him? Certainly we in the New Covenant are to hold fast to that covenant, to hold fast the confession of our faith.

And I submit to you that if these descriptions of the old covenant believer have not expired when the new covenant was established, then neither has the description of being a Sabbath keeper expired, which here is tied to those very things. The following quote comes from Jonathan Edwards. It's so helpful. Quote, it is foretold that this Sabbath command should be observed in gospel times, as in Isaiah 56 at the beginning where the due observance of the Sabbath is spoken of as a great part of holiness of life and is placed among moral duties. It is also mentioned as a duty that should be most acceptable to God from His people, even where the prophet is speaking of gospel times, as in the foregoing chapter, Isaiah 55, And in the first verse of this chapter, and in the third and fourth verses, the prophet is speaking of the abolition of the ceremonial law in gospel times.

What he's speaking of there is the fact that the eunuch and the son of the foreigners are welcome. There's an abolition of ceremonial law in gospel times and particularly of that law which forbids eunuchs to come into the congregation of the Lord. Yet, he says, here the man is pronounced blessed who keeps the Sabbath from polluting it. Verse 2, and even in the very sentence where the eunuchs are spoken of as being free from the ceremonial law. They are spoken of as being yet under obligation to keep the Sabbath and actually keeping it as that which God lays great weight upon." Very sentence where he says, the eunuch who has been kept out because of the ceremonial law is now welcome as a Sabbath keeper in my presence.

So Exhibit A, Isaiah 56, 1 to 8. Now consider with me Exhibit B. I invite you to turn with me to Ezekiel 20, Ezekiel chapter 20. Another major prophet speaking to us of the times of refreshing that were to come from the Lord. And he looks back in verses 12 and then 19 and 20 and he says this, he's looking back at this covenant people.

He says, moreover, I also gave them my Sabbaths to be a sign between them and me that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them. I am, verse 19, I am the Lord your God. Walk in my statutes, keep my judgments, and do them. Hallow my Sabbaths, and they will be a sign between me and you that you may know what? That I am the Lord your God." Now we established in earlier messages that the Sabbath was a creation ordinance created for all mankind for all times therefore pre-existing the giving of the moral law there on Mount Sinai in Exodus 20.

Not only was the keeping of one day in seven confirmed, confirmed there at Sinai as part of the moral law of God, God also as is clear from this passage and others, attached to that day an added significance of being a sign between Himself and His people. And I propose to you that what it signifies, based on this passage, is not something that belongs solely to the Old Covenant. Consider from this text what this day signifies for God's people. Number one, the Sabbath signifies the sanctifying work of God. The sanctifying work of God.

Is that an ongoing work of God in the New Covenant? You bet it is. Romans 8. The Sabbath was a reminder that the sanctifying, the setting apart of a day reflected the fact that they, God's people, worked also to be being sanctified, set apart. The Sabbath is a sign of sanctification.

Number two, The Sabbath signifies a living and vibrant relationship with the Lord. It signifies a vibrant and a living relationship with the Lord of that Sabbath. Is such a relationship with God only a feature of the Old Covenant? Let those truths of God's giving of the Sabbath to His people sound in your ears, I am the Lord your God. Hallow my Sabbaths that you may know that I am the Lord your God." And can I say it like this?

The Sabbath God gave his people. It was not so much about them as His people. His giving of the Sabbath is more about Him, who He is. It's not about us, it's about Him. And my friend, God has not changed.

He is immutable. This differentiates, this sign for God's people, this differentiates between both the demands and the significance of the day upon those who are God's people as opposed to those who don't know Christ. As a creation ordinance, as a moral law, the fourth commandment applies to all men of all times. But the blessings of it further belong to those Christ calls His own, all those he has committed to sanctifying and making like himself. And so the argument that I would seek to draw out from Exhibit B is that the purposes of the day specifically for God's people are purposes that apply to his people even in the New Covenant.

God has not stopped being the Lord of his people. Neither has he stopped sanctifying his people." Dr. Robert Martin asks a series of penetrating questions that we would do well to consider. He says the Sabbath is no longer a covenant sign, that function ended with the Mosaic covenant. But because of these purposes, has the Lord's Day or the Christian Sabbath no value as a reminder that God has separated us to be his own?

And does not our Sabbath practice witness how we regard this privilege? If the Sabbath is nothing to us, it is because we do not regard God's remarkable grace as we should. Is profaning the Lord's Day a minor matter, a relatively unimportant deviation from God's will? Is it not still a rejecting of God's authority as it was in the Old Covenant and a trampling of His law? Does not profaning the Lord's day still say, oh how I hate your law and regard it as a burden." End quote.

But we move next to exhibit C. Exhibit C. Turn with me to Leviticus 9. Me to Leviticus 9. Leviticus 9.

I think I may have a wrong text here. Nineteen. Turn a few more pages over. Leviticus 19. Look with me at the first four verses, Leviticus 19.

And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel and say to them, you shall be holy for I the Lord your God am holy. Every one of you shall revere his mother and his father, and keep my Sabbaths. I am the Lord your God. Do not turn to idols, nor make for yourselves molded gods. I am the Lord your God." You may be scratching your heads wondering how this has anything to do with the new covenant.

Well I would draw your attention to a familiar phrase in this text. Does it stand out to you? Do you see it? You shall be holy For I the Lord your God am holy Why is that familiar? Well, we find that phrase in the first epistle of the Apostle Peter.

In 1st Peter 1, 15 to 16, Peter exhorts us in this way, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct because it is written, be holy for I am holy. Peter's looking back to Leviticus 19. You see, the old covenant required holiness. The new covenant requires holiness. Our chief duty, like those who came before Christ, is to imitate the righteous character of God.

Now obviously we can't do that in a way that makes us right before God. The only thing that will make us right before God is the keeping of the law by Jesus Christ and Christ alone. But as those who are... Peter's writing to those whom he considers Christians, brothers, and he's telling them as brothers, as those who have been made right by the blood of Jesus Christ, You weren't redeemed with corruptible things like silver and gold. You were redeemed by the blood of Christ.

He's telling them as redeemed, as justified people to be holy. But my question to you is this, Has the path of holiness changed because of the change of the covenants? Is what was holy then no longer holy now? What is holiness tied to in Leviticus 19? Well, four things are mentioned.

Honoring your parents, fifth commandment. Keeping the Sabbath, fourth commandment. Not having another god or making carved images, first and second commandments. I quote Dr. Martin again, quote, shall we as new covenant believers fulfill this duty of being holy on lesser terms than exist in the context from which Peter's text is taken.

In Leviticus 19, being holy as God is holy, among other things, meant keeping the Sabbath holy. Does it mean less in 1 Peter 1? Would we dare disregard our duty to keep the first, the second, or fifth commandments as unnecessary to do what Peter says, how then can we regard keeping the fourth commandment as unnecessary? The fact is that the fourth commandment has the same use under the new covenant as the other nine commandments. And if we would be holy as God is holy, we still need to keep the Sabbath of the Lord holy." End quote.

I now call your attention to exhibit D. Exhibit D. Look with me at Matthew We obviously are making our way to the New Testament, Matthew 24. Look with me at verses 15 through 20. 15 through 20.

Therefore, Christ speaking here, therefore when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place whoever reads let him understand then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house, and let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days, and pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath." Now Jesus here has departed to the Mount of Olives where he is asked two questions by his disciples in private. Verse 3 is one important hermeneutical key to this whole chapter. You have to understand verse 3. The other important hermeneutical key, I believe, is verse 34.

These two keys help us to understand this chapter and how Christ answers the two questions the disciples ask. Tell us when will these things be and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age. Now let me remind you of the context wherein we find these verses. Jesus has left the temple and He has told the disciples that the temple would be destroyed. Not one stone shall be left upon another, that shall not be thrown down." Not only that, but in the previous chapter, Jesus had declared the following in regard to the hardness of heart he found among the religious leaders of Jerusalem.

Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes, some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barakiah whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Assuredly I say to you all these things will come upon this generation." So the first question that the disciples ask has to do with this coming judgment and with the destruction of the temple. When will these things happen? The second question they ask has to do with something totally different. The second coming of Christ, a question asked in response to the many things that he has said to them throughout the times of his ministry, such as in John 14 where he said, I go to prepare a place for you and doubtless if I go, I'm coming again that I may take you with me to be where I am." So in the first half of chapter 24 verses 4 through 35, Jesus deals with the first question.

He tells them of what is to come in AD 70, less than 40 years from that very moment in which he spoke. The rest of the chapter, verses 36 and following, are Jesus' response to the second question having to do with His second coming at the end of the age. And unlike the second coming, which Jesus says no man knows the day or the hour. When it comes to the destruction Rome will indeed bring in AD 70, Jesus tells them that there will be signs that they will be able to identify. There will be time enough for them to note what is happening and respond to that judgment he is bringing.

That's the context wherein we find our verses here in 15 to 20. Jesus is saying to these disciples and to the early church that they need understanding in regard to the prophecy that will come to pass before almost all of them, their very eyes. And when they see these things happening, they need to flee. They need to escape the judgment that he is going to be bringing on Jerusalem. When the time comes, don't go through the house and sort through the things that you want to take with you.

If you're out in the field, don't go back and wash up or get fresh clothes for the journey. The travel and the speed with which they must move will be difficult for pregnant women and any with nursing babies. And then Jesus declares, and pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. I want to share with you insight of Scottish Presbyterian pastor and theologian James Durham. His name may be new to you, So allow me to let a familiar friend introduce him.

This is what Spurgeon had to say of Durham, quote, whatever Durham has written is very precious. He has the pen of a ready writer and indicts good matter, end quote. The great Puritan John Owen, among others, commends Durham's A Practical Exposition of the Ten Commandments. And it's from that work that I share the following, quote, the Lord insinuates that as traveling is troublesome to the body in winter so would it be to the minds of the godly, for he is now speaking to his disciples alone, It would be a burden and troublesome to the minds of the godly to travel on that day specially and solemnly set apart for God's worship. Now if there were no Sabbath to continue after Christ's ascension, or if it were not to be sanctified, there would be no occasion of this grief or trouble.

Our Lord's exhortation seems to infer that the Sabbath was to be as certain in its time as the winter. It seems from our Lord's words that a Sabbath among Christians was to be sanctified forty years or there about after his death, which proves that the scripture mentions a Sabbath to be sanctified under the New Testament." So In this very text, we have Christ's own expectation of his people to still be desiring to keep the day holy almost 40 years later. We see his tenderness toward that day and exhorting his people to pray that the coming judgment will not interfere with their Sabbath. The last exhibit I lay before you is in my estimation the most revealing and carries the strongest argument. Consider with me exhibit E, Hebrews 4.9.

Turn with me there if you would please. Hebrews 4.9. It simply says this, Hebrews 4.9, there remains therefore a rest for the people of God. There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. Well, as stated in the introduction, I intend to come back to Hebrews 4 and deal with it in its entirety, how the Lord's Day Sabbaths that we enjoy here in the new covenant are a picture of our eternal Sabbath rest.

But for the purpose of this message, I would like for us just to deal with this one verse. And in order to do so faithfully, I want to set before you in quick fashion how this verse fits into the overall context. So here's the Cliff Notes version. There has always been a promise of rest that's been held out to any and all who will place their faith in Jesus Christ. That promise was held out to the Jews in the wilderness, and that promise still remains today to any and all who will come.

The Jews who wandered in the wilderness refused to enter the physical rest held out to them in the days of the spies who were sent in to survey the promised land. They would not listen to the voice of God there at the edge of Canaan. You see, it was a heart problem. It was a heart problem. Their refusal to enter that promised rest revealed that they had refused the God who had offered it to them.

Therefore, God cut that generation off in the wilderness and a new generation arose and 40 years later the text tells us here Joshua brought them in to that physical rest. End of story? No. The physical rest was only a picture of a greater rest, a rest that doesn't go back to Canaan, it goes back to creation. It goes back to that creation ordinance, and it was still promised many years later after Joshua in the writings of King David, today if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts." You see, the rest promised really pointed to the second Jeshua who was to come, Jesus.

He it is who would bring his people into true rest. Those who have trusted in the finished work of Christ, verse 10, have obtained that promise and do experience some of its realities in the here and now. But as verse 11 points out, they must be diligent in their pursuit of Christ, lest they fall short of that final rest." In light of all of those realities, we have here in verse 9 an exhortation that concludes the argument of everything the writer is saying in this passage. We see it clearly in the use of the word therefore. Therefore.

He says, there remains therefore, based on everything I'm telling you, there remains a rest for the people of God. Now the word rest by itself, that word, is a poor translation. Dr. Robert Martin notes that the word rest appears 10 other times in Hebrews 3 and 4. Just in Hebrews 3 and 4, the word rest appears 10 other times.

In each case, the word is either katapausis, the noun form of our word rest, or the word, the verb equivalent katapao, to rest, except for this word rest here in verse 9, which is not only a different word, it's the only place it's used in the whole New Testament. Do you want to guess what that word rest is in the Greek? Sabatismos. Sabatismos. There remains therefore a sabatismos for the people of God.

Interestingly, most translations outside the King James Version and the New King James Version, they actually translate this as Sabbath rest, not just rest but Sabbath rest. All right, preacher, you may be saying, what difference does the use of a different Greek word mean to me? Well, hang with me as we dig a little deeper. There are four known, studied out, there are four known post-canonical uses of the word sabbatismos. Scholars have been able to dig up and find four other places after God's Word had been finished, four other places where this Greek word, sabbatismos, is used.

Now, alongside these known four uses, the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament so that you have everything in Greek. The Septuagint also inserts this Greek word a handful of times in its translation of certain Old Testament Hebrew words. And Dr. Martin points out the fact that in all of these instances, both post-canonical and in the Septuagint's use in translating the Old Testament, in these instances, all of them, the term denotes the observance or celebration of the Sabbath. That is, not a Sabbath rest as a state to be entered into, but a Sabbath keeping as a practice to be observed.

Quoting another scholar in a footnote, he writes, the word is rare, but not obscure. So where it's found, we know what it means. It's a normal construction making a noun out of a verb to refer to the activity described by that verb. The verb sabbatizo means to observe or celebrate the Sabbath. So, the noun sabbatismos refers to the observation or celebration of the Sabbath.

So the suffix provided here, mos, sabbathiz, mos, indicates an action as opposed to a state, end quote. So what's the author of Hebrews saying? He is saying that because there is a final rest that Jesus has purchased for his people, there remains a Sabbath keeping, the need for a Sabbath observance and celebration right here where we are in the middle of the new covenant. Brothers and sisters, how fitting that the clearest declaration concerning the perpetuity of the Sabbath comes to us in the very book that describes the passing away of the Old Covenant in such vivid pictures. This same book of Hebrews declares the following in regard to the Old Covenant in that God says, a new covenant, He has made the first obsolete.

Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. And yet in contrast to all the things that are now declared obsolete, the Word of God, yea this very same book of Hebrews declares that there remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God. Well I have sought to lay out my case before you. I have provided exhibits for my claims. I am seeking in all of this to represent the claims of the Lord of the Sabbath.

So here's the question, what are you going to do with the Lord's Sabbath? I close with a final exhortation from Dr. Martin, quote, from Dr. Martin, quote, keeping a holy Sabbath is one of the most flesh withering things that God calls us to do. The Christian who tries to keep God's day holy will experience a warfare within between the flesh and the spirit.

Settle once and for all the question of your duty on the Sabbath. As long as your judgment is in doubt, you provide the flesh and the devil too much opportunity to draw you into the path of disobedience. Do not recoil at self-denial when the duties of the day call for it. Self-denial is of the essence of the day, even as it is of the essence of the Christian life. The more victory that you have over self, the more delight you will have in God's day.

The more that your conscience does not condemn you in the things that you approve and do, the more joy you will experience in knowing that you are using the day as God wills. Delight yourself in the Lord and you will find ample reason to delight in His day. Set aside the business and trials and pursuits of the other six days and let your heart be filled with thoughts of God and the day will be a delightful haven of sacred rest. It will be the best day of the week and you will greet its weekly return with joy and thankfulness for the blessing that it is. Let's look to the Lord in prayer.

Oh God, thank you for giving us such a blessing as this. Lord, you have made the day to be a blessing and a benefit for all men but oh what a blessing and benefit especially for your people as it is a day for our sanctification and it is a day to remind us that you are the Lord our God so father we thank you we thank you that there remains, even in the new covenant, a Sabbath rest for your people. Oh God, what a beautiful picture of that day when we will gather, as we have this morning, but we will gather with all the saints, the entire body of Jesus Christ, to worship Him together for an eternal Sabbath. Lord hasten that day, and Lord give us grace that we not fall short of that day. Lord help us to love your day but most of all to love you in Christ's name we pray Amen.