(The forty-second in a series of sermons on Exodus, preached October 23, 2011.)
Exodus 20:8
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do
all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it
you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male
servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is
within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea,
and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh Day. Therefore the LORD
blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.[1]
Lynne and I love
to celebrate big events – birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays. As much as
possible, we clear our schedule on those days, and enjoy them together with the
people we love. Don’t you? What kind of man would rather hit the gym than spend
a joyous birthday dinner with his wife? What kind of mother would spend
Thanksgiving, locked away in her room, surfing the Internet rather than
enjoying the company of her family?
And of all the
peoples of the world, Christians should know the most about celebrating. We’ve
got the time, and we’ve got the motivation.
We’ve got the
time because the Lord stamps it on our calendars, one entire day in seven, each
week.
We’ve got the
motivation because on it we celebrate God’s Lordship over creation, and the
redemption that he won for us in Christ. In our worship, prayer, and hearing
his word, we give our loving attention to him who saved us. On that day of celebration,
why would we want to turn our attention anywhere else – to work or sports or
shopping?
Today I’m going to talk with you about
the fourth commandment and Sabbath keeping. If you’re new to our congregation,
it is quite possible that you’ve never heard a sermon on Sabbath keeping or
honoring the Lord’s Day. You may find what I say strange and meddlesome. But
most of what I say is mainstream Protestantism. I don’t have many original
ideas, and nothing this morning is even remotely original. So, if my sermon
seems odd, it’s not because I’m preaching a novelty; it’s because much of
today’s church is out of step with what the Bible teaches about the
distinctiveness of the Lord’s Day.
In previous generations, Protestants may
have disagreed about some of the finer points of how the Old Testament Sabbath
and New Testament Lord’s Day relate to one another, but almost all agreed that
Sunday is special, different from the other days of the week. You’d be hard
pressed to find a serious Protestant who didn’t believe that all unnecessary
work should be avoided on Sundays. Forget about finding one who enrolled their
kids in Sunday sports leagues.
The consensus was broad and deep –
Sunday is special. That consensus is now gone. Christians may fight for the
other nine commandments, but about the fourth commandment the church keeps
silent. I, for one, think we should speak up for the Lord and for his day.
With that said,
let’s think about what it means to keep the Sabbath day holy. After all, that’s
how the fourth commandment begins: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”
A good place to begin our thinking is by
receiving the Sabbath as a gift. God gives many gifts, and few are more
precious than the Sabbath. This morning it makes no difference to me whether
you call today Sunday, the Sabbath, or the Lord’s Day. I am aware that
Christians have debated the significance of these words for generations. I
think the debates are interesting and important, but I will not pursue them
now. What I will do is celebrate this wonderful gift that God has given you.
I’ll use Sabbath, Lord’s Day, and Sunday interchangeably to designate that one
day in seven God gives us as a holy day of rest and worship.
When you think
of the gift of the Lord’s Day, I want five words to come to mind:
First, think rest. The Lord’s Day is a day of
rest. “Remember
the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your
work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God.” (Exodus 20:8-9) This pattern of six days of work and one day of rest
goes all the way back to creation. We are told “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 2:2-3) God
is the model worker, completing his work in six days and resting on the
seventh. You are his renewed image bearer - follow his example. Complete your
work in six days and rest on the Lord’s Day.
But resting on
Sundays won’t happen without forethought. You must plan to rest on Sundays, or
you’ll find yourself spending the day like any other.
Now, before we
proceed too far - I know some work must be done on Sunday. Doctors, nurses,
policemen, and soldiers - please don’t abandon us to disease and criminals and
our nations enemies! Some work is absolutely necessary, 24x7, and it is not a
sin to do it when you’re on the schedule. But Christians who work in fields
that require Sunday work must redouble their efforts to find time to be at one
of the Sunday services if possible, and, when they can’t attend, to make sure
that their families are squared away to worship without them.
Still, even
though we acknowledge that some work is necessary on Sundays, I plead with you
to guard the day. Don’t let this precious gift of God slip from your hands.
Your body and mind needs rest, so God puts the day of rest on your weekly
calendar.
Many Americans
are exhausted, always tired, never rested, and struggle to remember the last
time they were truly relaxed and refreshed. It’s not just work that tires us;
it’s also our play. We seem bent on packing as much activity into our calendars
as we can.
Sports is one
example: As someone who has played competitive sports for much of my life and
who still enjoys time in the gym, I have a deep appreciation for the benefits
sports and exercise brings - health, discipline, leadership training for the
young, and together time for families. But like any beneficial thing, we can
get too much. For some families, sports programs for kids and adults are on the
schedule every late afternoon and evening on weekdays and much of the day
Saturday. It’s detrimental to family life: hectic meals on the run replace family
meals; little if any time is made for children to have meaningful conversations
with adults around the dinner table; homework is done hastily; tired and cranky
children make life difficult for teachers; and opportunities for families to do
housework together become non-existent, leaving many young people without an
indispensable habit of working together as a family. The week concludes, Sunday
comes, and it’s no different from any other day. Big surprise - we’re tired,
stressed, and burned-out.
Often we think
that the remedy for our weariness is weekends away. We need a vacation! But
often we return to work exhausted on Monday.
Are you tired?
God has an answer for you. It’s simple and cost-effective: he has built into
your calendar a weekly day of rest. Fight to guard it. Don’t let the world
steal it from you.
Sundays have a
wonderful way of exposing our idols. If you can’t put your ordinary recreations
and employment aside, then they mean too much to you; they’ve come to take a
place in your life they shouldn’t.
As I have
struggled to keep the Sabbath holy, I have had good examples to follow: honor
students who never opened a text book on Sundays (even when tests came Monday),
and businessmen who ran profitable businesses, closing their stores on Sunday
while their competitors remained open. I conclude that Sabbath keeping is a
fundamental issue of trust: “Can I trust
God to provide for me if I rest as he commands?”
Keeping the
Sabbath is similar to tithing. Tithing, too, demands trust. “If I start
tithing, I’ll be ruined financially,” says a skeptical Christian. However, he
chooses to trust the Lord, and, sure enough, he finds the 90% that remains goes
farther than the 100% did without tithing.
Sabbath keeping
involves planning. Plan to complete your work in six days. Clear your Sunday
schedule of work and formal recreations. One of the side benefits will be a
more efficient six days of work. Dads, plan to help your wives with the
children. Strive to make her Sunday restful too.
Sometimes you
must work Sundays. But before you do, ask, Is it necessary? If not, don’t.
When you think
of the fourth commandment and Sunday, think rest. Also . . .
Think worship.
The Ten
Commandments appear a second time in the Old Testament. In Deuteronomy 5 Israel
is on the verge of entering the Promised Land. Moses restates the fourth
commandment, and an adds an additional motivation for keeping it holy: “Observe the
Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you. Six days you
shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD
your God. On it you shall not do any work . . . You shall remember that you
were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from
there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God
commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.” (Deuteronomy 5:12-15). In
Exodus 20, the motivation for keeping the Sabbath holy is God’s pattern of work
and rest at creation. In Deuteronomy 5 the motivation for keeping the Sabbath
is God’s work of redemption. On the Sabbath we celebrate God’s saving work for
us.
In Moses’ day,
the mighty act of redemption that stands front and center was Israel’s
deliverance from cruel bondage in Egypt. In the New Testament, the crowning
redemptive event is Christ’s death and resurrection for our sins. Christ secures
our freedom from sin’s tyranny. So momentous is his resurrection that the
church begins to gather on the first day of the week - Sunday - to worship.
Sunday is the Lord’s Day, the day of resurrection.
Every service of
Christian worship is a covenant renewal service. God calls us to worship, meets
with us, and assures us that we are his people. We call upon him for his
gracious help, give him thanks for our redemption, and place ourselves under
the teaching of his word, the very tool God uses to purify and shape our
character. A good Father, our Lord feeds us from his table. God’s reaffirms his
omnipotent promises, and in Christ we reaffirm our weak and fragile promises of
devotion to him.
Let me say a
word about Sunday evening worship: Westminster’s elders and deacons don’t
believe that there is a commandment obligating believers to worship twice on
Sundays. However, we do believe it is commendable. Here’s why:
First, morning
and evening worship are like two sentinels placed at the beginning and end of
each Lord’s Day. The services stand watch, guarding the character of the day.
The day begins and ends in worship, and morning and evening services shape the time
in between. We need to remember that it is the Lord’s Day, not the Lord’s hour.
Morning and evening worship set the tone for the entire day.
Second, morning
and evening worship permit us to gather for praise, prayer, and the reading and
preaching of the word twice on the Lord’s Day. Twice we enjoy together the
inestimable benefits of public worship.
Too often
contemporary Christians look to special programs, concerts and seminars to
jump-start their Christian lives. I don’t deny these may have some benefit, but
historic Presbyterians have offered a biblical pathway to Christian maturity
that includes the disciplined use of the Christian Sabbath and the public
worship of God. We do well to follow in the footsteps of the faithful
Presbyterians who have gone before us. They knew of no substitute for the
discipline of Sabbath keeping. Anytime we believe ourselves spiritually
unfruitful, a good place to take personal inventory is our diligence in Sabbath
keeping.
On Sundays -
think rest, think worship and next . . .
Think sanctification.
The Heidelberg
Catechism summarizes scripture well when it requires that “all the days of my life I cease from my evil works, and yield myself
to the Lord, to work by his Holy Spirit in me” (answer 103).
One of the
motivations for keeping the fourth commandment is to celebrate God’s mighty
work of redemption. In Moses’ day, the children of Israel were pinned against
the Red Sea, helpless to turn back the approaching army of Pharaoh. But God did
for them what they could not do for themselves: he opened a pathway of
salvation through the sea, and destroyed Pharaoh’s army. All Israel needed to
do was rest in the Lord alone for salvation.
And that is how
we are saved. Not by our works, but resting in the Lord alone for salvation, by
transferring our hope of salvation from what we do to what Christ has done. As
we rest on the Sabbath Day we have a visible reminder that salvation is not won
by our efforts, but by God’s victorious work for us in Christ. Salvation means
renouncing trust in our own sinful works, and resting completely in the Lord
Jesus Christ.
On Sundays -
think rest, think, worship, think sanctification and next . . .
Think witness.
Sabbath keeping
is a visible and public demonstration of our Christian faith. We choose to
spend the Lord’s Day differently from unbelievers.
Much of our
Christian witness is communicated without words. We glorify the Lord as we work
six days a week, laboring hard and cheerfully, desiring first of all to please
the Lord.
And we glorify
the Lord, too, as we make the Sabbath day unlike the other days of the week,
cheerfully delighting in our gift of rest and worship. Not a word spoken, but
our actions speak volumes about the Lord we claim to love, and his day.
Sabbath keeping is
a powerful witness.
On Sundays -
think rest, think worship, think sanctification, think witness and, finally . .
.
Think heaven.
The writer of
Hebrews tells us that there “remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God” (Hebrews 4:9).
Our weekly Sabbath points to an eternal Sabbath rest.
Life now is a
struggle. Amid its joys are many disappointments, heartaches, and frustrations.
The weekly Sabbath reminds us that the life we currently experience will not go
on forever. In the new heaven and new earth, all things will be made new and “neither
shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things
have passed away” (Revelation 21:4).
Sabbath keeping
makes us look forward to the eternal rest God will give us.
I’ll wrap things
up by coming full circle. Sabbath keeping may seem a strange notion to you. If
so, I am delighted to be the pastor to introduce it to you. What a gift God has
given you!
So, “remember
the Sabbath Day.” Linger on that word “remember.”
How easily we
forget the Sabbath. It comes only once a week, and if we haven’t prepared for
it, it will likely pass forgotten.
Remember the
Sabbath day. All God’s laws are bound up in the keeping of this one
commandment. If we neglect the worship of the Lord’s Day, with its reading of
God’s law, we’re likely to forget the entire law.
Remember the
Sabbath day. A people who forget the Sabbath will one day forget the Sabbath’s
God. Today Madison County is full of churches, but don’t count on it tomorrow.
The future of Christianity in our region is dark if Christians treat Sunday
like any another day. When the Lord’s Day is forgotten, it won’t be long when
the Lord is forgotten, too.
The Sabbath is
God’s gracious gift and our priceless treasure. Remember the Sabbath day.
Celebrate the Sabbath’s Lord and strive to keep his day holy.
[1] Unless otherwise noted, all scripture quotations are from The Holy
Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a
division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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