Gordon Cook

Please turn in your Bibles to Isaiah 58:13-14:

If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the LORD honorable, and shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, then you shall delight yourself in the LORD; and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. The mouth of the LORD has spoken.

I grew up in Canada in several small mining towns. We lived in a province called British Columbia, in a little town about 100 miles from the Yukon border. And it was a beautiful place. It was a vast wilderness of forests, rivers, and lakes. And on more than one occasion, I believe, either me or one of my brothers got lost. It’s not a fun experience, but whatever you do, they say, “Don’t panic. Don’t just go off in any direction. If you do that you’ll end up going in circles.” No, they tell you to stay put or find some high ground. Climb a mountain. Get your bearings and see something of the lay of the land. And Christians can get lost as well, can’t we? Doctrinally, morally, even while we have a Bible in front of us.

And one area where it does appear that more and more Christians appear lost is with their whole matter of worship. There are more and more doubts and questions about how we worship, or even who we worship, and when we worship. And the concern before us this evening has to do with the when of worship. Now, most Christians, at least in the past, have believed that the church or the Christians have a distinctive worship day. But it does appear that today at least in large measure there has been an abandonment and a declension. And we could even ask the question, what has happened to the Lord’s Day? Shall we keep it or do we even need to keep it? Some believe we need to restore that day to its more traditional usage: that which we find back in the history of this country.

For well over 200 years it was clear that Sunday was a different day in the United States of America. But we need to be careful, don’t we? Because tradition isn’t always right. And we need to have a solid rationale, far more solid than tradition. Remember the Pharisees of Jesus’ day and how they used their tradition to negate or undermine the Word of God. Now others seem quite willing to follow the culture of our day, and they have turned the day called Sunday into what Bruce Ray has called “McSabbath.” He’s named that after the fast-food restaurant, McDonald’s. McDonald’s caters to consumers, people who want good food at a cheap price and in a short order of time. Get me in get me out as quick as you can. Isn’t that how some view the Lord’s Day? It’s become a fun day for many. Some would say, “A whole day of rest and worship? Are you kidding? I’ll give you an hour in the morning, but anything more than that is impossible or feasible. We have two careers to juggle. We have our children in sports. Dad has a golf tournament every third Sunday. And besides, what else is there to do?” It’s obvious people are lost. They are confused. They really don’t seem to know what to do about this day that we call the Lord’s Day.

But now in seeking answers, again, we need to be careful how we approach this whole matter. Too many, I fear, start with what I would call a “low ground mentality,” that is, they begin by asking questions about specific behavior or what activities can or can we not engage in on this day called the Lord’s Day. They proceed immediately to the details and never seem to get hold of the principles, and get more confused about God’s worship day. No, we need to get hold of the big picture. And that’s why I go back to that analogy: that place where we lived in Cassiar, B.C. which was pretty close to the Yukon border. It was surrounded by four big sized mountains, and for you to appreciate that mining town you would climb one of those mountains. Well, I am suggesting by way of that analogy that if you are to understand and appreciate God’s worship day, we need to climb a few mountains. And certainly the first mountain peak that we need to climb is Genesis 2, which is the Creational Sabbath. And we gave consideration to that last Sunday evening: a beautiful gift given to man as man. That original Sabbath was designed for man. It was given to man so he could enjoy his God. And I believe that the seventh day of that creation story is the climax, not the sixth day. That’s what we were made for. You and I were made to glorify and enjoy God forever. And Adam loved his Sabbath Day. Why? Because he loved his God with all his heart and with all his mind and soul.

Think about that. If the perfect man, Adam, needed a rest day, or a Sabbath, how much more do we? How much more do we who live in a far more stressed out world or thorn invested environment? If you and I are to survive in this world we need God and we need a whole day to spend with God. It’s been likened to an oasis. We are certainly going through a barren wilderness as Christians, and God gives us an oasis every week by way of a Lord’s Day. But this is what I want us to focus on tonight—and you certainly can appreciate how important this day is, not only from Genesis 2 but as soon as God liberates the people from Egyptian bondage. He liberates the Israelites from the tyranny of Pharoah, and what does He give them? He gives them another Sabbath called the Mosaic Sabbath or the Exodus Sabbath. But that’s another important mountain peak: Exodus 20, the giving of the law which etches this distinctive worship day in stone. The fourth commandment schedules our time around work and rest. And that commandment is anchored in two great events: that of creation (Exodus 20) and later on in Deuteronomy 5 (it is anchored in redemption. But again, for us to keep from getting lost we need to see the lie of the land. We need to climb a few mountains, and here are two mountain peaks: the first one Genesis 2, the second one Exodus 20. But there’s another mountain peak that we need to scale if we are to appreciate this whole matter of a special, corporate worship day, and that is Isaiah 58.

And let me say in the outset, Isaiah is not the only prophet who speaks about a special day of rest. There are at least six prophets, three major prophets and three minor prophets, that speak about the Sabbath. The three major prophets are Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Isaiah. The three minor are Amos, Nehemiah, and Hosea. And one will find that they speak a lot about the Sabbath. There are nearly fifty references to the Sabbath by the prophets. Now we could climb each of those prophetic mountains, but tonight I simply want us to climb one mountain peak, Isaiah 58, because I believe that this more than any other of the mountain peaks allows us to see the beauty of the Sabbath Day.

Isaiah is prophetic genre. That means that it’s not the Song of Solomon. It doesn’t have a romance to it. It’s not the devotional language of the Psalms. The mood of the prophets is often very intense and even somber. And we need to understand that when we read the prophets; that more times than not they had a very sharp edge to their ministry, a corrective edge. They were often raised up in a time of spiritual declension and backsliding. Most of the prophets lived in times of apostasy when things were at their worst, when the nation was floundering spiritually. And one clear evidence or outward manifestation that the nation was in bad shape spiritually was their disregard and their neglect of God’s worship day.

In some respects the Old Testament prophets resemble Jesus. When Jesus comes and deals with the Sabbath Day, He deals with it in a very apologetic way, doesn’t He? It has a sharp edge to it as He combats the Pharisees. Jesus enters into controversy and heated argument with the Pharisees at least six times over the Sabbath. They too had abused God’s worship day by their traditions and their man-made impositions. But they were not the only ones. Read the prophets: Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah, Amos, Nehemiah. They all pick up the sword, as it were, to contend for the Sabbath. In many cases they are fighting against pragmatism, materialism, and formalism. That explains why when you read the prophets you hear a lot of negatives. It’s not always easy, when you read the prophets, to see the good and the beauty of the Sabbath Day in the heat of controversy or in this very negative context of reproof and warning. It sort of casts a shadow over the Sabbath. But there is one wonderful exception, and that is the Prophet Isaiah.

Isaiah’s picture here of the Sabbath has very, very little of a dark shadow and is much more of a bright light. And here as we focus on Isaiah 58 I want us to consider this portion of Scripture in light of four simple heads.

1. The “futuristic look” at the Sabbath
2. The great purpose of the Sabbath
3. The glorious promises regarding the Sabbath
4. The special care that we are to give to the Sabbath

The Futuristic Look at the Sabbath

First of all then, we will look at what I have called the “futuristic look” at the Sabbath. The prophets of the Old Testament didn’t have an easy task. They brought a hard-hitting message. Their ministries were characterized, as I said earlier, by strong reproof and clarion calls to repentance. They had to confront people. They had to tell people that they were in a terrible, backslidden condition. But it wasn’t always negative. It wasn’t always sort of dark and gloomy. And the reason for that is that some of the prophets could see beyond the here and now and they give us some beautiful snapshots of the future.

The prophets had what we could call “long-range telescopes.” And they could peer into those telescopes and see not only the near future, but also the far future. And Isaiah probably more than any of the other prophets makes good use of his prophetic telescope. This book, Isaiah, I am sure as you know is full of messianic prophecies. This book called Isaiah has at least fifty prophecies relating to Jesus Christ, His person, and His work. There is no other prophet in the Old Testament, at least to my knowledge, who gives us a clearer sight of Jesus Christ and His cross than Isaiah. Think of Isaiah 53. It’s almost as if you’re standing at the foot of the cross 700 years before the darkness of Calvary. And Isaiah not only lets us see Christ in terms of His wounds and His stripes. He lets us see that this is the man of sorrows. But Isaiah also lets us see Christ, the conquering, the reigning king. He lets us see the suffering servant, but he also lets us see the conquering messiah-king. And this king will conquer the nations with His gospel. Think of Isaiah 55. It starts off with that wonderful, universal gospel call: “Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money…come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” What a beautiful gospel call. Isaiah is a great gospel preacher. How could he not be? He sees the savior, Jesus Christ, and he sees something of how that gospel will be offered to all men.

And as you move to the back end of Isaiah 56-66, the last ten or so chapters, Isaiah captures glimpses of the future gospel messianic age, or what we sometimes call the period of the “gospel age,” the “church age,” where there will be Gentile inclusion. For example, look at Isaiah 56:8: “The Lord God, who gathers the outcast of Israel, says, ‘Yet I will gather to him others besides those who are gathered to him.’” There’s a little peek here at the future where God is going to gather to Himself the outcast. He will bring them (those who were outside) into His fold. It’s said by Jesus later on in John’s gospel, “Other sheep I have” (John 10:16). And He also mentions Isaiah 60:3. Notice what He says, “The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.” Again, how can we not think of Jesus Christ who is the light of the world? “The true light,” says John, “that lightens every man” (John 1:9)? Clearly Isaiah anticipates the messianic, or the gospel, age; that great age of fulfillment. They were anticipating a time when Christ the Messiah King would come—blessing upon blessing. And notice this too when you read those latter chapters of Isaiah, not only does he gives us a sight of the gospel age, but do you know what else he mentions? The Sabbath Day. Isaiah 56, 58, and 66.

Look at what Isaiah says in chapter 66, verse 23. Here he uses all-encompassing language that carries us across the annals of time, from new moon to new moon and from Sabbath to Sabbath. But here’s the point: Isaiah is peering through his prophetic telescope. He sees far into the future, and notice he says here, “All flesh shall come and worship me.” But as he looks to the future, as he looks to the gospel age, he sees again nations coming to Christ, coming to the Messiah, being brought into the kingdom. He also sees a Sabbath Day that will be part and parcel of this gospel, messianic, church age; a day that will meet all the needs of those who come to the waters and drink without money, without price. What kind of day will it be? Well, I believe Isaiah 58 helps give definition to this day, this Sabbath Day, that will be part and parcel of the gospel age.

The Great Purpose of the Sabbath

So that brings us to a second consideration. We’ve looked at the Sabbath through the prophetic telescope of Isaiah: the futuristic look at the Sabbath. But secondly, the great purpose of the Sabbath.

Isaiah 58 gives us a wonderful close-up of the Sabbath. Let me say here that one will be hard-pressed to find any negatives. And it seems to me that what the prophet is emphasizing here is pleasure, delight, blessing, and promise—Isaiah 58:13-14. That’s all positive, isn’t it? Blessing, promise, pleasure, and delight. And when you move in for a close-up notice verse 13: “If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight…” He sets us a contrast here. Do you notice what the contrast is? He is comparing or contrasting two different kinds of delights or pleasures. What exactly does he mean here by “your pleasure”? Well, that’s debate by the commentaries. Some think it’s things that you enjoy. Others have argued that “doing your own pleasure” had to do with business pursuits, a kind of workaholic mentality. But the problem here—I think—is selfishness. Right? Doing your own thing, your own pleasure—the focus is upon self. But whatever is in view here obviously is in competition or at odds with the clear purpose or rationale for the day called the Sabbath. To understand why God has given us this day you have to understand the contrasting emotive word, which is what? Delight. He uses it twice, in verse 13 and 14. And that word “delight” is a very strong word. It means exquisite delight. There are some things in life that are very pleasurable and there are some things in life that are exquisitely pleasurable. One can sit down at a good home-cooked meal and enjoy maybe a hamburger or a great potato salad. It was pleasurable. But now when you taste one of those ice cream cones from Dairy Queen, one of those high-end chocolate candies, you say that’s far more exquisite.

I remember reading years ago about a man who actually made chocolate over in Switzerland in a chocolate factory, and he would roll up each individual chocolate candy. I’ve never tasted them. My wife buys chocolate from time to time. I forget even the name of it. But once she puts it on the table it’s almost gone in a matter of days. I just love it. It’s exquisite. It’s pleasurable. I’m sure there are things in your life where you think, “Yea that’s something I really, really enjoy.”

But that’s not the focus here. It’s not upon temporal delights. There’s something more to this whole matter of this pleasure, and here’s where most people lose out. Isaiah takes us to a whole other realm we could say, a whole other realm of experience, to the highest of highest pleasures. He’s not talking here about sexual pleasure or anything we could enjoy with our physical taste buds. No, the pleasure that Isaiah has in view here excites, pleases, delights we could say the nerve endings of our souls: the sweetest and the purest of pleasures. You see, God wants you and I to enjoy the most intense pleasure and delight. And where do we find that? Well it’s not in God’s gifts, isn’t it? It’s not in chocolate candies. It’s not in a sports activity, a good novel, or a good movie. It’s not in romantic love. It’s not going fishing or kayaking. All of those are wholesome pleasures and God certainly wants us to enjoy those kinds of pleasures. But Isaiah is thinking about something else here. He is not thinking here of earthly pleasures and delights. You know what he has in mind? God Himself.

Have you ever thought of God that way, as a delight? And God goes out of His way, we could say, to give us exquisite delight. That’s why He sent His son. That’s why He sent the Holy Spirit. That’s why He’s given us a day called the Sabbath. God has given us a whole day to delight in Him. That’s the great purpose of the day, to spend time with God and enjoy Him. And that emphasis pulsates through our whole Bible, doesn’t it? When it comes to worship, Sabbath Day worship, Isaiah back in chapter 56, verse 7 says, “These I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer.” You have Psalm 92 which is interesting because the very title over that psalm is the “Song for the Sabbath.” And again there’s this emphasis upon gladness and joy. “It is good to give thanks to the Lord” (v. 1). Verse 4: “You, Lord, have made me glad.” Dr. Packer says, “Nobody in all the world should be happier than the Christian, no one more joyful.” And again, we’re not finding our happiness in the transient thrills of the present world or on some low-level trivial pleasure. But the greatest pleasure—that hymn we sing—the greatest, purest pleasure is God Himself.

The climax of our happiness should be felt and experienced when we spend time with God along with other Christians (special people of God) in the special presence of God on this special day of God taking delight in our God. That’s why God gave us this day. That’s why the Lord’s Day should thrill us and excite us, because we get quality time and quantity time to spend with God. We get to fellowship with God every day of the week, don’t get me wrong. But, it’s easy to argue from our Bibles that on this day it’s all intensified, isn’t it? Christ promises to be here in a special way—nowhere else on planet earth when we gather in His name. The level of experience intensifies, doesn’t it? We experience more of God on His day. We taste more of God. We see more of Christ. We have more of His Spirit in those times of corporate gathering. God is here in a way that He is nowhere else when He comes to us in those gospel ordinances of the preaching, the corporate praying, and the Lord’s Supper. It should be exquisitely delightful.

True religion delights the soul. And that’s what the puritans believed by the way. Richard Baxter said, “Delighting in God and His Word and His ways is the flower and the life of true religion.” You want to understand the puritans: they loved the Lord’s Day. They did. They would have three hour services. They loved to spend time with God. They delighted in God. They didn’t have a McSabbath. They loved God and found exquisite delight in spending time with Him.

The Glorious Promises of the Sabbath

Well we’ve considered the futuristic look at Isaiah’s rest or worship day, the great purpose of Isaiah’s rest and worship day, but thirdly, consider with me from our text the glorious promises of Isaiah’s rest-worship day. Look at Isaiah’s masterpiece. It’s a masterpiece painting. He gives more color here, and it has no dark shadows or ugly shapes like the pharisaical Sabbath. This is all-positive. The positive blessings, what are they? There are at least three promises: the promise of joy/contentment, the promise of victory and triumph, and a promise of food and feast. Let’s look at each one separately from Isaiah 58:14.

The Promise of Joy

I’ve already touched on the promise of joy, but it bears repeating because we all are on a search for joy and happiness. That’s a common life experience. Every one of us sitting here wants to be happy. All of the world, you have this sense of a restless search for happiness, a deep longing in the human heart. But in spite of the frantic pursuit it’s one of the most elusive things in all the world, isn’t it? What’s the problem? Well, most people look for happiness and joy in all the wrong places, in all the wrong things. You won’t find it on the golf course because sometimes your game is lousy. You won’t find it in sports (not if you cheer for my team). I’m a Toronto Maple Leaf fan. That’s the team up in Canada. They haven’t been in the playoffs for seven years. It’s pretty depressing. You won’t find it even in a Christian marriage. You find joy, but let’s be honest, our marriages are marked with tension and conflict, even the best of them. The older I get—I’m sure that people view me this way as well and I don’t know if you find this—I get more disappointed with people (35:18). Don’t you? They disappoint you. And then I say, “Gord, you disappoint people too. You’re a sinner and so are they.” You won’t find your ultimate joy or satisfaction in a person, a human relationship. The best of children, the best of homes can be marred with grief and misery. It’s not found in an experience, a roller coaster ride, Mediterranean cruise; no chemical can give you any real, long, lasting satisfaction. All the wealth of corporate America can’t buy real joy, solid joy. The answer is not a better job, a bigger home. It’s not found in winning the lottery, not found in fame or fortune. All of those things can give you a little temporary fix.

I think it was Francis Schaeffer, or perhaps Dr. Packer who talked about the things of this life are like flavored sawdust. They often leave the soul emptier, more scarred. Is that all there is? There has got to be something more. I’m still hungry. I’m still thirsty. It has a sense of futility and vanity, doesn’t it? You understand Solomon when he says, “All is vanity.” What’s the answer? Well, Isaiah gives us the answer to finding real joy, and it has to do with the use of this day called the Sabbath. Someone might say, “Are you serious?” Well yes! Make time for God. Spend time with God. Take advantage of the spiritual disciplines—private and corporate. You can do that on this day. Delight yourself in Him on this day. Use it for higher ends and higher purposes. Develop your relationship with God and you will be the happiest person on planet earth!

Does that sound legalistic? Not one stench of legalism here, is there? You see, the Pharisees didn’t delight in their Sabbath Day. Do you know why? They got focused on rules. They forgot Jesus. They forgot God Himself. They didn’t enjoy their Sabbaths because they didn’t enjoy God. But the religion of the Bible, pure and simple, says you were made to glorify God and enjoy God. That is pure, simple Christianity. The great hymns of our faith, we sang one of them tonight. Think of the hymns in your hymnal. I don’t know if you have all of these, but you find them in the Trinity Hymnal—for example Jesus, Joy of Loving Hearts:

O How sweet the Name of Jesus sounds

In a believers ear!

It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds

And drives away his fear. (How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds)

Jesus, the very thought of thee

With sweetness fills my breast; (Jesus, the very thought of thee)

Jesus, priceless treasure, purest pleasure, truest friend to me (Jesus, Priceless Treasure)

Yes, delight in Him. There is no one greater, no one more enjoyable than God and Jesus Christ. Why keep a holy day? Well here’s one reason: it provides emotional health and well-being. Joy is the strength of the Lord.

The Promise of Victory

Now we move to the second reason, purpose, or blessing that Isaiah mentions here. Notice, again, as he paints for us here something of a rainbow with beautiful colors. Another great personal benefit or reward is that of victory and triumph. Look at the picturesque language of verse 14: “I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth.” It’s an expression of victory and conquest. It’s a conqueror riding his chariot or his white stallion. It’s a picture of victory over one’s enemies, difficulties, obstacles, and temptations. And that too is consistent, isn’t it? It’s consistent with normal, healthy, Christian experience. As Christians we know from painful experience what it means to lose battles and suffer wounds, don’t we? Sort of like Christian in Pilgrim’s Progress.

But the overall picture of a Christian isn’t one of defeat, is it? It’s one of victory. We’re called conquerors/overcomers in the Bible (Rom. 8; 1 John 5). But listen, that doesn’t happen automatically. It’s not like you press a button and you’re riding your chariot and conquering your enemies. It’s not a victory in a conquest by accident. It’s not just something that happens, or we hope for the best. No, there is a connection, brethren, between victory and the discipline and the setting aside, honoring and delighting in this day of worship. Listen to what Walter Chantry in his book Call the Sabbath a Delight, commenting on this very passage found in Isaiah 58, says:

Real conquering in the Lord demands time, discipline, effort. Sometimes young believers stand in awe of wise and gracious Christians. What is their secret of knowing so much of the Bible and the Lord? Why? They study Scripture and pray 52 days per year. They hear at least 52 Bible lessons and 104 sermons per year. They enjoy 52 days of public and private prayer every year. They have walked with the Lord, if 20 years, they have enjoyed 1,040 days or nearly 3 full years of their lives devoted to the study of Scripture and in prayer. The Lord’s Day is the Christian’s training ground sharpening him for conflict, preparing him for triumphant living in Jesus Christ.

How many Christians do you know who are strong? How many do you know who are weak and seem to live very defeated lives? Maybe the ones you are thinking of you never really know from one Sunday to the next whether they are going to be there, do you? How do you help them? Well it seems one way that you can help them is to encourage them, exhort them to keep a holy day. You have to tell them: “You won’t be a very ‘successful Christian’. You won’t have a lot of experiences of overcoming your sin my friend. You won’t be winning your battles, at least not the way you should be winning your battles if you’re spending your Lord’s Day glued in front of your television, playing computer games into the wee hours of the morning. Those are not spiritual disciplines or means of grace. If you want to be an overcomer my friend, then you need to spend time with God. You need to be reading your Bible and meditating upon your Bible. You need to be on your knees. You need to be delighting in the triune God. You need to use this day to wean yourself from this present world.”

The Promise of Feasting

A promise of joy, a promise of victory, but notice thirdly here, there is another promise, another reward that Isaiah wants us to see and appreciate when we make good use of this Sabbath Day. And it’s the promise of feasting upon good things. Isaiah 58:14: “…and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father.” To feed upon a heritage is to enjoy its benefits, and there is a rich inheritance that God has promised for the believer. This is a day of feasting. This is the day where the Good Shepherd leads the sheep into green pastures, beside the still waters, and He feeds them. This is where you can drink of that wine, the gospel wine, and the privilege and the blessing that are ours in Jesus Christ. You see, there is so much to gain and there is so much to lose with respect to the keeping of the Lord’s Day.

Let me just do a quick replay: joy, victory/triumph, feasting. Again, is there anything negative here? Is there anything that I have said or Isaiah the prophet has said that should produce a long face? A sour taste? Is there anything here about the Sabbath that would make us think that it’s a day to kill our joy? Should we be warning people about the dangers of keeping the Sabbath? Will they suffer spiritual regression? Will they become legalists? Is there anything here that would make you think that this day has more in common with fasting than feasting, with losing rather than winning? Is there anything that the Prophet Isaiah says that would make you think that you will be all the poorer because of a keeping of a distinctive worship day? Pray tell. Where did you or me or anyone get that from? Not from the Bible. Not from Genesis 2. It was given as a precious gift to our first parents. Do you remember that? You can’t even get that from Exodus 20 because the Sabbath was given to people who had been liberated from tyranny. It wasn’t to put them back into bondage.

And you can’t see any negativity here in Isaiah 58. The key concepts or words dazzle with brightness, joy, triumph, privilege, blessing. You know what I think? I think that the devil has done a great sell-job. He loves to advertise. He’s got his own evangelists. He has a slick campaign. He’s used the Pharisees and I think he’s even used Christians at times to present or advertise a dour kind of Sabbath keeping. He’s used their long faces or their endless rules and their extremely judgmental attitude. You see again, the problem with the Pharisees is that they had taken something very beautiful and twisted it and perverted it. They did to the Sabbath Day what people today do in large measure to the gift of sex, or the gift of submission, or the gift of marriage. What do sinners do with God’s gifts? They distort them. They abuse them. They trample over them.

And brethren that’s why we need passages like Isaiah 58. We need to stand on the high ground, as it were, and look at this day through the lens of this evangelical prophet. It’s a beautiful day. What could be better than a day to spend with God?

The Special Care We Are to Give to the Sabbath

The futuristic look, the great purpose, the glorious promises, and finally, brethren, again using Isaiah 58 as our text of Scripture this evening, the special care we are to give to the Sabbath. As I said earlier, a lot of what the prophets have to say about the Sabbath Day is put into a negative context. It’s not because the Sabbath itself was negative, but because it was being neglected and abused on a large scale. And even Isaiah here has a warning, does he not? Isaiah 58:13: “If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your own pleasure on My holy day…” What’s the problem? What is he addressing here specifically? Well, again, I’m not really sure. If you read various commentators, some think the problem here was that of hedonism, putting their pleasure above the greatest of pleasures. Some think the problem here was formalism. They were doing things without heart engagement; it was dead, empty religion. There may also have been a problem of materialism, people finding more pleasure in work than rest. Maybe all three of those great evils were pervasive in the days of the prophets. But here even Isaiah might be addressing all three of those problems. I’m not sure. Again, there’s a divergence of opinion. I believe an argument can be made for all three.

But what’s the point? Care has to be taken with regard to this day. It’s vulnerable. We live in a similar day, don’t we? We live in a day of widespread abuse and neglect. Sunday, for the most part, has lost its special place in our busy world. The question is will we lose it? Will the next generation keep it? Tsunami-like pressures are coming from all sides. It can come from our children. It can come from the world. It can come from our own hearts. Pressures galore to turn this one special day into a very ordinary day, a fun day, a sports day, a work day. And again, it’s all part of the devil’s strategy to remove distinction. God’s a God of distinction. He made a distinct man and a distinct woman, a distinct femininity and a distinct masculinity. He made us distinct from the animals. We were made in His image. And the devil is out to blur those distinctions or flatten those distinctions in any which way that he can. He tries to flatten the distinction that we were made in God’s image by his lie of evolution. He tries to flatten the distinction of a distinct masculinity or femininity with homosexuality and lesbianism. He tries to flatten this day and say that it’s just like any other day.

We need to pray, don’t we? Lord, help us to stand, to remain steadfast. Again, remember, there’s so much to lose and so much to gain. This day is essential for survival. It was the French philosopher, Voltaire, who said, “If you want to kill Christianity kill their Sunday.” Keep it holy. Keep it distinct. And certainly, one practical way we can do that, brethren, is to keep climbing those great mountain peaks of Genesis 2, Exodus 20, and Isaiah 58. Climb them and stay on top of those mountains and gain perspective with regard to this beautiful day called “the Sabbath” or “the Lord’s Day.” And then, secondly, brethren, a way in which we can keep and maintain a distinctive worship day, in terms of what Isaiah tells us here, is to delight in God. Maintain your relationship with God. That’s the key: love God. That’s the greatest of all commandments. Make God your chief delight. Make God your supreme delight. When we lose our delight in God or when our delight in God wanes, the Lord’s Day will lose its significance, its hold upon our conscience. The two stand and fall together. Isaiah puts it together: delighting in the day and delighting in God.

And isn’t that the problem? It’s a problem of delight. What do you delight in? I don’t know their hearts, but it seems that many professing Christians ignore this day because they enjoy something else more than God. (((Is this a legitimate modification?))(55:30) Sports? Books? Magazines? A hobby? Games? They’d rather have those pleasures than have direct interaction with God and His Word and His people on that day. We need to delight more in God. Think of all of those verses in the Bible. We need to pray them in. Psalm 37: “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” Psalm 42: “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for Thee, O God…for the living God.” Psalm 63: “My soul thirsts for thee, my soul yearns for Thee.” Psalm 119: “How sweet are Your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” Psalm 34: “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” You need to pray in those texts brethren, and pray that our relationship with God will become more enjoyable and more delightful. Beware of dead orthodoxy and formalism. Beware of a religion that has no emotions, no feelings. Beware of a religion that approaches the Bible like it were a science textbook as opposed to a love letter. Pray more. Pray more. Pray more that you’d love God more.

Think of this: God delights in you. He does. He delights in you. If you are a Christian He delights in you. He delights in your prayers. And He wants us to delight in Him. And we have a whole day to delight in God. You see, when you get passed all the smoke and the mirrors with respect to why people have such a difficult time with this day, you know what it boils down to? It’s a heart problem. It’s a love problem. Maybe you’ve lost your first love. Or maybe your love for Christ has been eclipsed. We’re warned, aren’t we? In the days when iniquity abounds the love of many shall wax cold (Mat. 24:12). Is that what’s happening? If Christians loved God more, wouldn’t they love His day more? Wouldn’t they? And maybe this is what we have to cry for more brethren: more love to thee. “More love thee! Hear thou my prayer on bended knee…More love for thee.” And if you have a problem loving Jesus my friend, here’s what you have to do: run to the cross. Herein is love: see how much He loved you. He first loved you. It’s His love that we need to get into focus and meditate upon, and roll ourselves up in it, as it were. And if we understand and appreciate His love, then we’re going to love Him back.

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