A Sermon by R M M’Cheyne
Mark 2:27. The Sabbath was made for man.
Those who are carnal cannot comprehend the Sabbath Day. They fall into two errors. Some are willing to keep it superstitiously. The Pharisees forbade the disciples to pluck the ears of corn, and they were enraged at Jesus for healing on the Sabbath.
Others run to the opposite extreme and would abolish the Sabbath altogether. Both classes are equally ignorant of this divine truth: that “the Sabbath was made for man”. As the golden sun, which pours a flood of light and heat round the world, was made for man; as the silver moon, the mild lamp of night, was made for man; as all cattle and trees and flowers were made for man; so the Sabbath was made for man. It was made for his good, to lead him to his God. It was made for his happiness, to lead him to the fountain of joy. It was not made for the Jew only, nor for the Gentile only; it was made for man. It was not made for one nation, nor for one country, nor for one generation; it was made for the whole human race. As the sun and the moon were made for man, to light him through the world; so the Sabbath was made for man, to lead him to heaven.
I would now prove that the Sabbath was made for the whole human race. 1. From reason. I do not often speak of what is according to mere reason, because our great work is to interpret Scripture, not to teach philosophy. It is very common to hear infidels talk of the unreasonableness of keeping a holy Sabbath Day strictly, and yet I engage to prove the necessity of a Sabbath for the body, for the mind, for the soul of man, even without the aid of Scripture.
1. The Body. In the evidence taken before the House of Commons on the subject of the Sabbath, it was distinctly stated and proved by some of the most eminent medical men in England, that to retain the body in its full vigour, there must be an entire rest one day in seven: that the bones and muscles, both of men and animals, require a total cessation from labour at least one day in every seven. Those who make use of horses know quite well that, if a horse is to be kept in full strength and vigour, it must be allowed to rest one entire day in seven. This proves that the Sabbath was made for man.
2. The Mind. What is true of the body is equally true of the mind. If the human mind is to work with power, it requires not only occasional rests, but to be lifted away entirely from the subject on which it is working, so that it may be refreshed – to recover its life and tone. A bow that is always kept bent loses its spring, and so does the mind of man without a Sabbath.
1Another sermon taken, with editing, from Revival Truth.
- The soul. If there is a God, and if there is a church of the redeemed, it is surely reasonable that they should worship God with the utmost engagedness of heart and soul. But if our whole heart is to be engaged in this, we must have a certain time set apart for this purpose. Reason cannot discover how long that time should be, or how often it should recur. But reason plainly teaches that there should be such a time. Thus even the dim light of reason shows that the Sabbath was made for man. Sabbath-breakers wish to be reckoned enlightened men, above the prejudices of the common mob. They wish us to believe that they have new light which other eyes do not see. And they look down with pity on the “priest-ridden” multitude who love a well-spent Sabbath Day. But a day is coming when the whole world will see that the light that was in them was darkness, and how great was that darkness!
2. The Example of God. When God created the world, He did it in six days, and “on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made, and God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it”. Now God did not rest on the Sabbath Day for His own sake. “The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary.” It was for our sakes He rested, that He might set an example to man. It was not for the sake of the Jews only. The Jews did not exist for 2000 years afterwards. It was for the sake of man, the whole human race, from the first man to the last. The Sabbath was made for man.
The enemies of the Sabbath generally say that the Sabbath was a Jewish ceremony. But they altogether forget that the first Sabbath dawned on a sinless world. Even in paradise, mankind needed a Sabbath. Our Sabbath-breakers seem to think that man is better now than before he fell. Even in Eden, God gave a Sabbath to man – a day devoted to God from morning to evening. How much more does poor guilty man, with a nature so contrary to God and a heart that cleaves to the dust, now require a Sabbath. How solemnly does God, keeping a Sabbath in the beginning, rebuke the folly of Sabbath-breakers now. Are you wiser than God? Do you know better what is good for man? Do you know better what suits his nature and what is necessary for his needs?
3. From the Command of God. “Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy.” When God took Israel to be a special people to Himself, He revived, in a very clear and terrible manner, the holy law which was written on man’s heart in the day when he was created. He spoke the law with His own voice from the flaming top of Sinai. He wrote it twice with His own finger upon tablets of stone, to show that it was perpetual; and in the midst of this law we find: “Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy”. It was not given as a new
command, but it is an old one revived. All the other nine commandments are binding on all mankind, so there cannot be the shadow of a doubt that the Fourth Commandment also is binding on all.
Christ says expressly, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law . . . I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil”. He therefore did not come to destroy the Fourth Commandment. In the new covenant, God says, “I will put My law in their minds, and write it in their hearts”. In the old covenant, He wrote the law upon stones. The change is in the tablet, not in the law. God says, as it were, I will no more write the law on tablets of stone; I will take a better way of getting it obeyed. I will write it in their hearts.
Still it is the same law which He wrote upon stone. Likewise the new creature says, “I delight in the law of God after the inward man”. It is the same law that the new heart loves as God gave on Sinai; and this shows that the Sabbath was made for man.
4. All God’s children love the Sabbath-day. “Verily My Sabbaths ye shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you, throughout your generations” (Ex 31:13; cf Ezk 20:12). As long as Israel kept their holy Sabbaths, they were known to be the Lord’s people. It was a mark on their forehead, pointing them out as a special people. It is still a sign between God and believers. Believers have many marks, but this is one of the simplest. David says, “This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it;” and John says, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day”.
Did you ever meet with a holy minister who did not hold that the entire Sabbath Day is to be sanctified? Or did you ever meet with a child of God, one who bore the image of Christ, who did not love to keep the holy Sabbath Day? Noah in the ark, Moses in the wilderness, David on the throne, Isaiah among a people of unclean lips, and John an exile in Patmos – they all called the Sabbath a delight, and all God’s children now have the same taste and relish for a well-spent Sabbath. It is the day when they get nearest to Christ, when they get most of His Spirit and enter deepest into His joy.
Does this not show that the Sabbath was made for man? I do not mean to say that God’s children are infallible, or that their tastes and feelings are to be the rule of life. But is it to be believed that God would put this particular taste and relish into the hearts of all His children, in accordance with His own Word, if He did not desire that we should love the Sabbath Day? God’s children are the reflections of Himself; they are made after His image. His law is written in their hearts, so this special love for the Sabbath is truly divine; the Sabbath was made for man.
Have you this special taste for the Sabbath Day? Do you love a well-spent Sabbath? If so, you have one mark that you have passed from death to
life. How plainly most of you may know that you are not God’s children, and that you are not travelling to the Sabbath above!
5. All God’s enemies hate the Sabbath Day. The unbelieving Israelites in the desert could not comprehend it. They went out on the seventh day to gather manna, and they found none (Ex 16:27). Ezekiel charges it against Israel, as one of their chiefest sins, “My Sabbaths they greatly polluted” (Ezk 20:13). Amos describes the ungodly of his day as saying, “When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? And the Sabbath, that we may set forth wheat?” (Amos 8:5). Because of Sabbath-breaking, Israel was carried away captive to Babylon, and the land rested and enjoyed its Sabbaths. Jeremiah complains that the adversaries of Jerusalem “did mock at her Sabbaths” (Lam 1:7).
So it is with ungodly men still. A whole day spent with God they cannot bear. They hate secret prayer because it brings them near to God. An hour with God would be a kind of hell to a carnal mind. For the same reason they cannot bear a holy Sabbath Day. They would not mind devoting a whole day every week to pleasure or to the worship of an idol, but to spend a day with God is a kind of hell to a natural man. It reminds him of God, of Christ, of the law and of eternity, and this is what a natural man cannot bear. Does this not show that the Sabbath was made for man, as truly as the gospel was made for man? Man does not like the gospel; it is foolishness to him, and yet it is the only way of saving him.
He does not like the Sabbath, and yet it is the market day of grace to mankind. If the Sabbath was from the world, the world would love its own. But it is not from the world but the gift of a holy God; therefore the world hates it. And all the more they hate it and rage against it, the plainer it is that the Sabbath was made for man.
Application. (1.) We ought not to wonder at the opposition to the Sabbath Day. It is an old quarrel between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman. They hated Christ Himself, and it is little wonder if they hate His holy day. Do not be surprised at the torrent of Sabbath-breakers that seems about to burst out on Britain.2 They hated the Sabbath all along, because they hate Him whose day it is. “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.” They may triumph now, but it will be for a short time.
(2.) Try whether you are a child of God by this: do you love a holy Sabbath Day? I do not ask if you love the externals of the Sabbath: the exciting sermon, the meeting with friends, the singing of praises. But do you
2There is no indication as to when this sermon was preached, but it was obviously before M’Cheyne’s death in 1843.
love the internals of a holy Sabbath: communion with God; delighting in Him; loving, adoring, admiring Him. Do you love a Sabbath like a Sabbath above, and do you remember a time when it was not so? Do you now love the Sabbath better than you ever loved the pleasures of vanity? Then I trust you have passed from death to life.
(3.) You who do not love a Sabbath here will never enjoy a Sabbath in eternity. You who spend the Sabbath in the ale-house over a newspaper, or in idle company, will never be in heaven. Hell is your portion. There are no Sabbaths there.