Old Testament Reading: Genesis 2:1-3

“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.” (Genesis 2:1–3, ESV)

New Testament Reading: Hebrews 3:7-4:11

“Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’’ Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. As it is said, ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.’ For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief. Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, ‘As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest,’’ although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: ‘And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.’ And again in this passage he said, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’ Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, again he appoints a certain day, ‘Today,’ saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted, ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.’ For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.’” (Hebrews 3:7–4:11, ESV)

Introduction

One of the arguments that you will hear from those who are opposed to the idea that there is still one day out of seven that is to be kept holy unto the Lord is that the New Testament never explicitly says so. In other words, one of the arguments of the anti-Sabbatarians is that the New Testament does not directly say, thou shalt keep the Sabbath day holy, the practice of Sabbath keeping, therefore, does not remain from the people of God under the New Covenant. They will admit, of course, that Old Testament did require the Old Covenant people of God to keep the Sabbath day, but they reason that if the New Covenant people of God were to keep a Sabbath day, the New Testament must say so directly, and they claim that it does not. This is one of the arguments that the anti-Sabbatarians (as I am calling them) will make to defend their position. 

And hope that you do understand that many, many Christians today are anti-Sabbatarian. It is difficult to find pastors and churches who will confess that Sunday is the Christian Sabbath.  Most churches do still meet for worship on Sunday. They will even call Sunday “the Lord’s Day”, but if you press them for an answer as to why they meet on Sunday, they will say “tradition” or “preference”. Indeed, they will probably say something about Christ raising from the dead on that day, but few will make the connection between Sunday, the Lord’s Day, and the Sabbath command instituted at creation and reiterated at Sinai. 

One way to find out if a pastor or church is anti-Sabbatarian is to ask the question, does a Christian sin when he or she violates the Lord’s Day Sabbath by working (unnecessarily) or by neglecting to gather for worship (not being providentially hindered)?  Those who believe that the Lord’s Day is the Christian Sabbath would have to say yes to this question! To go on working (unnecessarily) or to neglect to gather for worship (unless providentially hindered) is a violation of God’s moral law given at creation, reiterated on Sinai in the fourth of the ten commandments, and written on the heart of the Christian through regeneration. To refuse to cease from ordinary work or to neglect the worship of God is to commit a sin of omission. It is a failure to do that which God has commanded. An anti-Sabbatarian would probably not be willing to admit this. They will say that a Christian should go to church for his or her own good (and I agree). They might even say that skipping church is bad idea (I also agree). But they will not call treating Sunday as if it were a common day a “sin” because they refuse to recognize the connection between the Lord’s Day and God’s moral law given at creation, on Sinai, and written on the heart of the Christ follower by the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit. 

Another way to tell if a Christian is an anti-Sabbatarian is to ask, would it be right for the church to gather for corporate worship on another day besides Sunday? Now please here me, I am not referring to, let’s say, a Wednesday night prayer meeting or worship service in addition to the Sunday service (the church may gather as often as she pleases), but to the church being called to gather for worship – that is, for prayer, the singing of songs, the preaching of the word, and the breaking of the bread – on another day of the week besides Sunday. I would imagine that a lot of Christians today would say, this would be just fine. We may gather for worship on any day we choose. Whatever works! Whatever is practical. After all, we are free in Christ! 

No, we are saying that the church is to worship according to the command of Christ. God has prescribed in his word that he is to be worshiped and how he is to be worshipped. Is there freedom in Christ? Of course there is great freedom in Christ!  But it is not freedom to disobey God’s word. 

Brothers and sisters, it is our view that the New Covenant people of God do actually sin a sin of omission when they fail to keep the Lord’s Day Sabbath. It is our view that there is a particular day that is to be viewed as holy unto the Lord having been set apart by God and blessed by him. The people of God are to cease from their ordinary work and are to worship together on this day according to the command of Christ.

As I have said, many are opposed to the idea that a day for Sabbath keeping remains for the people of God today. And one of the arguments that you will hear from them is that the New Testament never explicitly commands us to keep the Sabbath, and therefore the Christian is not obligated to keep it.

Three questions should be asked of those who reason this way. 

First of all, who decided that a truth or commandant must be explicitly stated in the New Testament in order for it to be believed or obeyed by the New Covenant people of God? Where did this idea come from? Who invented this principle? Who decided that that Old Testament and New Testament are to be divided up in such an extreme way so that truths communicated in the Old Testament cannot be carried over into the New Covenant era, but must be stated anew and afresh in the New Testament in order to be believed? 

Indeed, our view is that both the Old Testament and the New are God’s word. The New Covenant people of God are to give heed to both Testaments. The New Testament scriptures do not start fresh, but are a continuation of the Old Testament scriptures, showing that Jesus the Christ is the fulfillment of the law, the prophets and the Psalms (Luke 24). If all that we must believe and do has to be stated explicitly in the New Testament then I ask, why would we need an Old Testament at all! Brothers and sisters, we do need the Old Testament because the New Testament is a continuation of it and can only be rightly understood with it as our foundation. 

Secondly, wouldn’t it be more appropriate to say that the New Testament must provide either an explicit statement or a theological rationale for doing away with some truth or commandant in the Old Testament before we are free to dismiss it as belonging only to the Old Covenant era? In other words, our impulse should be to assume that things will only change when God says they have changed, or when their is some undeniable reason for the change. 

Indeed, the New Testament does explicitly say that some things (even many things) changed with the passing of the Old Covenant to the inauguration of the New. There are many things that were required of the people of God under the Old Covenant that are no longer required of the people of God under the New. Under the Old Mosaic Covenant the people of God were to worship at the temple – not so under the New. Under the Old Mosaic Covenant the people of God were to abstain from certain foods – not so under the New. Under the Old Mosaic Covenant the people of God were to observe a whole complex of holy days, festivals and Sabbaths – not so under the New. Under the Old Mosaic Covenant the people of God were to worship by sacrificing animals through the mediation of the priesthood – not so under the New. Did things change for the people of God with the passing away of the Old Covenant and the inauguration in of the New? Yes! Many things changed. But the New Testament either explicitly states the change or provides us with the theological rational for such changes. 

For example, Peter the Jew was commanded by God in a vision to “raise, kill and eat” foods that under the Old Covenant were unclean to him (Acts 10). Paul the Apostle plainly declares that circumcision and uncircumcision are nothing under the New Covenant (1 Corinthians 7). Jesus assured the Samaritan woman that particular mountains and temples would have no importance at all in the New Covenant era (John 4).  And Paul explicitly says that the holy days of the Jewish church are not binding on the New Covenant people of God, when he says, “So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths” (Colossians 2:16, NKJV). Paul is here referring to the festival days added to the weekly Sabbath under Moses as recorded in Leviticus 23. The New Covenant people of God are no longer bound to observe the Passover, the Feast of Firstfruits, the Feast of Weeks, the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, the Feast of Booths, or any other festival day. These were given only to Israel under Moses. These pointed forward to the Christ, were fulfilled by him, and were thus taken away. 

The point that I am making here is that this cannot be said about the weekly Sabbath. Never does the New Testament explicitly say that it has been taken away. And neither does the New Testament imply that it has been taken away by providing a theological rational for it’s removal. The festival days, the a new moons and the sabbaths (notice the plural in Colossians 2:16 – the “sabbaths” or “sabbath days”, referring to the  Passover, the Feast of Firstfruits, etc.) have been taken away because they were given specifically to Moses and to the people who lived under the covenant which he mediated. They pointed to Christ and were fulfilled by him, but the weekly Sabbath was given, not to Moses, but Adam. It points, not only to Christ, but to the rest that he has earned, entered into, and has promised to bring to us. That rest is not here in full, but is yet future. Therefore, the practice of Sabbath keeping must remain for God’s people. This is the conclusion that one must come to when reasoning theological concerning the Sabbath day. What I am saying is that there is neither an explicit statement nor a theological reason provided by the New Testament that would suggest that the obligation to honor the Sabbath day has been removed for the New Covenant people of God.

The third question that must be asked of the anti-Sabbatarian is the one that we will elaborate on the most today, and it is this: doesn’t the New Testament in fact say that the practice of Sabbath keeping remains for the people of God today? In other words, the New Testament does clearly, directly, and unambiguously say that the New Covenant people of God are to keep the Sabbath day. It is wrong, therefore, to even claim that the New Testament does not explicitly teach the doctrine of the Sabbath, for it certainly does! 

The text is Hebrews 4:9. It says very clearly, “So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.” (Hebrews 4:9, ESV).

A.W. Pink comments on this verse saying, “Here then is a plain, positive, unequivocal declaration by the Spirit of God. ‘There remaineth therefore a Sabbath keeping.’ Nothing could be simpler, nothing less ambiguous. The striking thing is that this statement occurs in the very epistle who’s theme is the superiority of Christianity over Judaism; written to those addressed, as holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling.’ Therefore it cannot be [denied] that Hebrews 4:9 refers directly to the Christian Sabbath. Hence we solemnly and emphatically declare that any man who says there is no Christian Sabbath takes direct issue with the New Testament Scriptures” (Pink, An Exposition of Hebrews). 

I agree with Pink that this statement in Hebrews 4:9 is clear, plain and unambiguous. It teaches that the New Covenant people of God are have a Sabbath day to keep.

I also agree with Pink when he says that it is remarkable that this statement is found in the letter to the Hebrews. The book of Hebrews is the book of the Bible that most clearly explains how Christ is the fulfillment of the Old Covenant. Christ is greater than Moses, the writer to the Hebrews says. Christ is greater than the Old Covenant priesthood. Christ is the fulfillment of the Old Covenant sacrificial system. Because the Christ has come these things have passed away. The letter to the Hebrews was written to Jewish Christians who were tempted, for one reason or another, to go back to the Old Covenant forms of worship, and the writer to the Hebrews says, no, Christ is superior! Christ is better! Christ advances Moses and the Old Covenant. Do not go back to the Old Covenant ways! To go back would be to choose the shadows over the thing of substance. If any book of the Bible were to teach that the Sabbath has been removed it would be Hebrews. But instead we find that the writer to the Hebrews is insistent that “there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God” living now under the New Covenant.

I agree also with Pink that those who say “there is no Christian Sabbath [take] direct issue with the New Testament Scriptures”, for here in Hebrews 4:9 the matter is put most plainly. 

Let us now take a moment to consider Hebrews 4:9 in detail. 

“Sabbath rest…”

First of all, notice that the writer to the Hebrews is referring to the practice of Sabbath keeping when he says, “So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God” (Hebrews 4:9, ESV).

The word translated in the ESV as “Sabbath rest” is in the Greek “sabbatismos”. 

This noun is a very rare word appearing only in this one place in the Bible. 

In the Greek literature is the word is found only in Plutarch’s writings where he uses it to refer to the practice of religious rest. 

Although the noun, “sabbatismos”, is found nowhere else in the Bible, the verbal form of the word, which is “sabbatizo”, is used a number of times in the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament. The word “sabbatizo” is always used to describe the idea of Sabbath keeping. For example, Exodus 16:30 says “So the people rested (sabbatized) on the seventh day.”

The Greek dictionary, Louw Nida, says that this word (sabbatismos) refers to “a special religiously significant period for rest and worship—‘a Sabbath rest, a period of rest.’” 

The point is that this noun used by the writer to the Hebrews in 4:9 refers to the religious practice of Sabbath keeping. The practice of sabbath keeping, or the of keeping a sabbath day remains for the people of God living under the New Covenant. 

If the writer to the Hebrews meant to communicate that the people of God still have a hope in or expectation of future rest he would have used the word “rest” that is used throughout this passage (katapauō) . But it not the hope or expectation of future rest the writer to the Hebrews is here referring to, but to the present practice of Sabbath keeping. That is what remains for the people of God – the practice of keeping a sabbath day holy unto the Lord.

“Remains for the people of God…”

Secondly, notice that the writer to the Hebrews is insistent that the practice of Sabbath keeping remains for the people of God in the New Covenant era. 

Much has changed. Much has been taken away with the passing of the Old Covenant and the inauguration of the New. But this thing remains. 

I am also reminded of what the writer to the Hebrews will say later in his epistle regarding the assembling together of God people. Remember that in Old Testament times the Sabbath day was a day for holy convocation (or gathering). And Hebrews 10:24 the writer exhorts the New Covenant people of God to continue this practice:  “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near” (Hebrews 10:24–25, ESV). “The Day” – the Day of the Lord’s return, and the Day of consummate and eternal rest is still in our future. The people are of God are to assemble together on the Lord’s Day Sabbath as that day draws near and until it comes. 

“So then…”

Thirdly, notice that this instance concerning ongoing Sabbath keeping is the conclusion of a line of theological reasoning that began in Hebrews 3:7. Here I am honing in upon the words “so then” found at the beginning of Hebrews 4:9. “So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.” The words “so then” indicate that the writer is now coming to some conclusion based upon his prior reasoning. It is for this reason that a Sabbath keeping remains for the people of God.

And what is the reasoning? The writer to the Hebrews simply argues that because the rest that is symbolized by the Sabbath day has not yet come in full there must, therefore, remain the practice of Sabbath keeping. The argument of Hebrews 3:7-4:8 is that the people of God have not yet entered into the fulness of the rest of God to which the Sabbath day points.  

Did the people of Israel experience a kind of rest after Joshua led them into the land of promise to take possession of it? Yes! Those who had faith in God experienced a kind of rest, but it was not the fulfillment of the Sabbath day. It was a type of rest, but it was not full and eternal rest. If it were the rest to which the Sabbath day pointed then why, the writer to the Hebrews reasons, did David write so many years after Joshua and the conquest of Canaan these words in Psalm 95: “For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. For forty years I loathed that generation and said, ‘They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.’ Therefore I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’” (Psalm 95:7–11, ESV) David, in writing these words so long after Joshua, was clearly declaring that the people of Israel did not enter into God’s rest when they took possession of the promised land. The rest of God was still future for them, and so the practice of Sabbath keeping remained for them. And the fulness of God’s rest is still future for us, and so the practice of Sabbath keeping remains for the people of God today. 

Listen to the reasoning of Hebrews 4:8-9: “For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God” (Hebrews 4:8–9, ESV). 

So long as the answer to the question, have we entered into the fulness of God’s rest? is no, then the answer to the question, is there still a Sabbath day to be kept? will be yes.   

“For whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.”

Fourthly, notice that Sabbath keeping under the New Covenant is to take place on Sunday, the first day of the week, which is the Lord’s Day because on that day Christ rose from the dead and entered into God’s rest. 

This principle is communicated in verse 10 where we read, “for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his” (Hebrews 4:10, ESV). Please understand that the “whoever” of verses 10 is a reference to Christ. I believe that the KJV and the NKJV translate this verse a little more clearly when they use the word “he” instead of the word “whoever”. The NKJV says, “For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His” (Hebrews 4:10, NKJV). 

I do not have the time to argue for this interpretation. You can read John Owen in his Hebrews commentary if you’d like a thorough argument for the “he” or “whoever” of 4:10 referring to Christ. For the sake of time I will simply say that the meaning of the verse is this: Jesus Christ has entered into the rest of God and has ceased from his work in the same way that God himself entered into rest when he ceased from his work of creation.

A sabbath keeping remains for the people of God because the fullness of God’s rest is still a future reality for us. But there is one who has entered into the fulness of God’s rest and has ceased from his works – Christ Jesus our Lord. 

On which day are we to keep the Sabbath under the New Covenant? It is on Sunday because on this day our Redeemer was finished with his work and did enter into the rest.  

“Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.”

Fifthly, see that it is in Sabbath keeping that New Covenant people of are to persevere in the faith until they enter into the fulness of rest which is typified by the Sabbath day. 

Listen to the way in which the writer to the Hebrews exhorts the Christian in verse 10: “Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.” (Hebrews 4:11, ESV)

What disobedience is the writer referring to? He is referring to the disobedience and unbelief of the people of Israel. He is warning the Christian, do not fall into the same sort of disobedience. Persevere, in other words. Strive to enter the fullness of God’s rest by preserving in the faith. And how are we to do this? In part, by keeping the Sabbath day which remains for the people of God.  

Application

I want to conclude by stressing this connection between honoring the Sabbath day and our perseverance in Christ. 

Keeping the Sabbath day helps us to persevere. The activities associated with public and private worship on the Sabbath day are good for the soul. They help to keep the heart centered upon Christ 

Keeping the Sabbath day indicates that we are persevering. It is a sign that we are abiding in Christ, trusting in his sacrificial death, his victorious resurrection and hopefully that we will one day enter into the rest that he himself has entered into through faith in him. 

There is a reason why pastors and elders grow concerned when people are absent from the fellowship. It might be that they have been providentially hindered. But it also might be an indicator that something has gone wrong with their faith. When Christ is at the center, when our love for him is strong and true, we keep his commandments. But when we begin to drift, when our faith falters and our hearts grow heard, it is evidenced by disobedience. And one of the first signs of a drifting heart, in my experience, is the neglect of the assembly on the Sabbath day. 

“Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” (Hebrews 10:19–25, ESV)