Hebrews 4:1-10 – the Sabbath Day

This was a difficult sermon to preach. Afterward, I tendered my resignation as pastor, giving them a six-week notice. My wife and I love this church dearly, and we will miss them dearly. But Lord willing, by faith, we are transitioning into a new chapter in our life; with new opportunities – Deo volente!

In this sermon, the Lord speaks of the prolific power of His saving Gospel. I then confess the sins of my former dispensationalism, and as a Covenant theologian how I’ve learned that keeping the Fourth Commandment, the Lord’s Sabbath Day, is still a commandment today; and is as important as the other nine commandments.

As I’ve said before.

I am a former Dispensationalist, and today I still have to fight against that former teaching. Dispensationalism is not just one error. Dispensationalism is the mothership that leads to many other errs. When an oncologist removes cancer, they don’t just remove cancer seen only on the surface of the skin. They surgically remove the root of cancer. And so that is how Dispensationalism must be treated, including “Leaky Dispensationalism.” Because a little leaven leavens the whole lump.

And, when Calvinists and Reformers accept, tolerate, and/or acquiesce to Leaky-Dispensationalism, they are enabling Dispensationalism. When they tolerate Arminianism (aka Semi-Pelagianism), they are negotiating with Pelagianism. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. Semper Reformanda!

Nonetheless, eschatology does not change with the political climate, nor with the trends of crime. Our eschatology is full of err, but God’s providence is perfect, and He does not change. Therefore, I will not wear eschatology like an accessory. I will trust in Him, for He is never wrong.

I share the bloody story of how the Lord used me to thwart active shooters at a church, killing the primary shooter, and all on the Lord’s Sabbath Day. 

I then charge the church with the need to be strict Sabbatarians, but without being hypocrites or ecclesial tyrants.  

To say that it’s not wrong to skip church on the Lord’s Day for work or pleasure is tantamount to saying it’s not wrong to break the other nine Commandments.

To speak against keeping the Fourth Commandment is not only sinful antinomianism. It is allegorical to the craftiness of Satan when he told the woman in the garden, “Yea, hath God said (Gen 3:1),? Our occupations or recreations do not change God, nor His Word. Only by the grace of God, so go I.

I also included our Holy Communion service, doxology, and benediction. Soli Deo Gloria!