Embracing the Lord's Day: Renewal and Worship

If it's grounded in creation, we should not be surprised that it would continue into the new covenant. If it's simply given to Moses, it may well have passed away with lots of the religious activity of the Mosaic economy. So, that's one of the issues I try to talk about, and as a good Reformed person I argue that it's grounded in creation, and so there is continuity. [00:02:10]

The Christian celebrates a creation day that was given a particular shape in the Mosaic ordinances, now in the consciousness that the Mosaic ordinances have been fulfilled in Christ. So, there is a sense of the fullness of what this day is about on the one hand, and on the other hand there is a recognition of the element that continues from creation into the Mosaic ordinances which were given, in a sense, to teach the people what the creation ordinance was originally for. [00:03:00]

The phrase, "The Lord's Day" is itself a biblical phrase and itself and by itself should challenge those who insist in the new covenant all days are alike. If all days are absolutely alike in the new covenant, how can there be a Lord's Day which is different from other days? So, the very language of the Lord's Day is very important to this whole question of, "Does the new covenant itself have a special day within it in which we're still to rest and to worship?" [00:06:49]

If the Sabbath day is a creation ordinance, then re-creation in Christ restores that. And it's a good thing. I also sometimes think, I mean I need to write things out in order to be clear in my head about them. But it's sometimes recently, I don't know why it struck me, isn't it interesting that the Sabbath was in a sense, Adam's first full day? That wasn't the last day of the week for him. [00:09:05]

The Sabbath commandment is not just about one day, and I think that's a huge key in people's lives. It's about seven days. "Six days you should labor and do all your work and the seventh is a Sabbath to the Lord your God." So it's not a regulation about one day without being a regulation about every day. [00:10:01]

We increasingly live in a religious world in America where people are relatively ignorant of the Bible, relatively ignorant of theology, don't have time to worship twice on the Lord's Day. Very often when they come to worship, it's not a very profound and serious experience. And, I think we have allowed our religion to be trivialized, and I think a real beginning of that was a departure from keeping the Sabbath day as a whole holy. [00:14:26]

And the way I sometimes think about it is that the way the Mosaic ordinances worked out the creation principles enshrined in the Ten Commandments was, to use Paul's language, God teaching people under age what people who had reached fullness of age would experience in Jesus Christ. So, I do remember, I don't suppose this happens any longer, but I remember when I was a little boy I did not get the big book all word versions of the great classics of English literature. [00:04:32]

And, I think, purely from a historical point of view, you could say if you look at what serious-minded Protestant churches became in the seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth, twentieth century, it can be closely linked to the observance of the Sabbath day as a day of worship and of rest and of fellowship with God's people and of learning and of holy reading and watching good Ligonier videos. [00:16:48]

And we think we are living the normal Christian life on a ministry of the Word diet of about maybe 20% of what past generations lived the Christian life on, and that we don't see that that would make a difference is perhaps the most serious symptom of all. So, we really, badly need the church to help us to use the Lord’s Day well. [00:20:14]

And I think the real heart of the issue is, "Do we hunger for the Word of God? Do we believe the Word of God? Do we believe that we meet God and hear God in His Word?" And I think to the extent we help people see the necessity of the Word and the beauty of the Word and the value of the Word, then maybe we will restore some of the desire to be able to participate more, rather than less in the serious life of the church. [00:22:09]

The fact is the morning service cleans you up a little, so that you can taste the delights of the evening service. And when the church has functioned in a better condition than I think it is probably functioning today, that has always actually been the case that the evening service has been the real highlight. The evening service often has been what has really brought the youngsters into the liveliness of church life, because there ain't no chicken in the oven; you know, mother wondering if it's burnt and there has not been the hassle to get to church, and so on. [00:28:40]

I think all of our churches ought to ask, "Do we work as hard to ensure that the preaching Sunday evening is as good as the preaching Sunday morning?" Because if we don't, then we are really responsible for the weakening of the Sabbath and the life of the church. So, yeah, the evening service in a lot of ways is the test of our commitment to worship and to Sabbath. [00:27:03]