We have a couple of scripture passages this morning to read. So first, please turn to Exodus 20. This will be really our main passage this morning. Exodus 20, verses 8 through 11. And then we’ll read Isaiah 58, verses 1 through 14.
Scripture Reading: Exodus 20:8–11
Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work. You, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger, who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
Scripture Reading: Isaiah 58:1–14
Cry aloud, spare not. Lift up your voice like a trumpet. Tell my people their transgression and the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways as a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God. They ask of me the ordinances of justice. They take delight in approaching God. Why have we fasted, they say, and you have not seen? Why have we afflicted our souls and you have no notice? In fact, in the day of your fast you find pleasure and exploit all your laborers. Indeed, you fast for strife and debate and to strike with the fist of wickedness. You will not fast as you do this day to make your voice heard on high.
Is it a fast that I have chosen, a day for man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush, and to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Would you call this a fast and an acceptable day to the Lord? Is this not the fast that I have chosen? To loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out? When you see the naked, that you cover him, and not hide yourself from your own flesh. Then your light shall break forth like the morning, your healing shall spring forth speedily, and your righteousness shall go before you. The glory of the Lord shall be your rearguard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer. You shall cry, and He will say, Here I am! If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness, if you extend your soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light shall dawn in the darkness, and your darkness shall be as the noonday. The Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your soul in drought and strengthen your bones. You shall be like a watered garden and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. Those from among you shall build the old waste places, you shall raise up the foundations of many generations, and you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in.
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.
Opening Prayer
O gracious God in heaven, we do rejoice and give thanks for the great truth of your holy word, and we just I pray that as we come to these passages and just the subject of the Sabbath, the Lord’s Day, that you would open our hearts to hear your word, that we would be challenged by its truth, and that we would be conformed to it, all to the praise of your glorious name. We pray, Father, now for your blessing upon your word. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.
Introduction: The Fourth Commandment Rejected
Since the Lord God is the creator of all things, we know that His moral law is binding upon all humanity. And as we’ve noted before, that the moral law of God will be the standard that He will use at the judgment on the last great day.
And though there may be people who’d prefer that there weren’t any laws about respect, about lust and sexual morality, about hate, murder, stealing, lying, envy, greed, let alone that we’re limited to worshiping just one God and we can’t swear and speak foul language, most people even among unbelievers would agree that at least some of these laws are good and necessary for the functioning of society, even if they may disagree with some of the details.
But the one commandment of God’s moral law that’s most often rejected and despised, not just by unbelievers, but sadly even by many believers in Christ, is the fourth commandment — that we must remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.
And the fourth commandment is rejected in principle and in practice as not binding on anyone, not even upon the Christian who is charged in the scriptures to show our love to Jesus by keeping his commandments.
But in rejecting the continuing validity of the fourth commandment, people not only bring offense against God and His holiness, which certainly is the chief issue at stake here, but they also miss out on a rich blessing that God has given that intends to point us forward to a great hope to come, even the eternal rest from the toils and struggles of this life brought about by sin.
And so as we consider the fourth commandment this morning, we’re gonna look at:
- Its origin
- Its purpose
- Its blessing through Jesus Christ
I. The Origin of the Fourth Commandment
We begin with the origin of the fourth commandment.
Many will simply just say that God gave this commandment as one of the 10 commandments given to his people Israel through Moses when he was there on Mount Sinai. Therefore, we can just discard it. Because now we know that we’re in the new covenant of grace and that we are no longer under the law.
And furthermore, they might argue, well, even though there are several of the Ten Commandments repeated in the New Testament, we can still disregard the Fourth Commandment because somehow, it alone, of the other ten, it alone is part of the ceremonial law. And we’re no longer under the ceremonial law because of the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, how they can separate the fourth commandment as ceremonial, but not the first three commandments, which all have to do with how we are to worship God, they never explain. Nor do they define just how the fourth commandment is ceremonial in nature. It is certainly a great mystery.
Of course, we know that the ceremonial and civil laws that were given to Israel in the Old Testament surely are not binding today.
The ceremonial laws — think about the different sacrifices and the laws regarding the temple, the tabernacle, the ritual cleansings, all that — were fulfilled in Christ.
And the civil laws were also given to Old Testament Israel as a particular nation, and don’t apply to us except for what the Confession notes as the general equity thereof.
However, we distinguish those ceremonial and civil laws from the moral law of God, which we know does remain binding, not just upon God’s people, but on all humanity.
And indeed we see this truth even in the fourth commandment itself showing us that this wasn’t some new law that God solely gave to Old Testament Israel. But it was given to all mankind as a creation ordinance.
And so in Exodus 20 verse 11:
For in six days, the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
This here is right in the commandment itself. It refers back to Genesis chapter two, verses one through three.
The Sabbath day is rooted in God’s own work and was instituted that we might follow his holy and perfect example.
God created all things in the space of six days and then He rested. That is, His work was completed. And so God was the one who set that day apart and hallowed it. He made it a holy day.
And so it’s important to also point out that God set this day apart before the fall of man into sin. So it’s given before the fall. This emphasizes for us, as we’ll see later, that this Sabbath ordinance was actually to be a blessing for God’s creation. It wasn’t meant to be a burden. It wasn’t meant to be an empty duty. It wasn’t meant to be something that was harsh. It’s a blessing.
And so long before Moses received the Ten Commandments, even a couple thousand years before Moses received the Ten Commandments, God had given this ordinance regarding a day of rest and worship. And it was in force.
And even though we find no reference to it until just before the giving of the law at Mount Sinai (the first time we see the Sabbath reference is Exodus 16), just because it doesn’t appear doesn’t mean that God’s people were unaware of it.
Indeed, when they were slaves in Egypt, they longed for a day of rest, but they couldn’t enjoy it because of their bondage and slavery to the Egyptians.
And so the Lord commands them in verse 8, remember the Sabbath day.
Now, if God is just introducing it here in the commandment, how are they going to remember it? It’s as if He’s speaking to them as if they already know what it is. And so he’s calling them back to remember what I established at the time of creation.
And he’s saying that they’re now free to follow God’s example given at creation. They now can enjoy the rest because of the deliverance and salvation that the Lord has just secured for them, bringing them out of bondage and slavery in Egypt.
And so we see that the fourth commandment then isn’t ceremonial law. It’s a creation ordinance given before the fall to all mankind as a perpetual blessing and remembrance of the great work the Lord has done.
And indeed, the day is blessed and sanctified by God to be a blessing to us, even as we would be diligent to set it apart as he has commanded us.
Common Objections Answered
Another reason some Christians reject the fourth commandment is they say that the fourth commandment isn’t mentioned explicitly or even positively in the New Testament as a commandment.
And so in the list of the commandments that we find throughout the New Testament, they say that the Sabbath isn’t mentioned. It’s not even mentioned in Jesus’ teaching on the law in the Sermon on the Mount.
Some take the silence to mean that Jesus then didn’t believe that the Sabbath was to be binding on New Testament Christians.
And they add to this all the negative publicity that the New Testament does seem to give to the Sabbath — that is, it’s often when the Sabbath is mentioned, it’s in relation to Jesus criticizing the Pharisees and their practices.
For example, Jesus is condemned by the Pharisees for eating from the fields and healing on the Sabbath day. And Jesus responds to them in Mark chapter 2 saying:
The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore, the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.
And so if the only time that the New Testament speaks of the Sabbath, it’s in a negative light, well then many take that to mean that it’s therefore no longer required to be observed.
But we must remember, here, God’s nature. God doesn’t change. And if the moral law is an expression of God’s holy character, and we’ve seen before that it is, then God’s moral law can’t change. Because God’s holy character doesn’t change.
God Himself has separated this day and sanctified it. That is, He is the one who made it holy, and He’s calling us to do the same.
But not only is the fourth commandment an unchangeable expression of God’s holy character, nowhere in the scriptures do we find the explicit command that we can just remove this one commandment from the rest of the ten.
Jesus makes clear that he came to fulfill the law, not to abolish it. And so the moral law of God remains. All of it. All ten commands.
And even as we just read in Mark 2, Jesus declares that the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath. That is, He is the Lord of the Sabbath. It’s His day. And so, if the day belongs to the Lord, well, we are not at liberty to just disregard it on our own whims.
Besides, when we look at the practice of Jesus regarding the fourth commandment, we see that he clearly observed the Sabbath. He didn’t reject it.
And when he spoke against the Pharisees regarding the Sabbath, we know that he was speaking against their abuses, even as he does with all the other commandments. He was addressing their abuses of those commands.
He wasn’t rejecting the command itself.
You see, the Jews had established many traditions of men to act as a hedge around God’s law to keep people from violating it. And this had the effect of really obscuring the law, and in some cases, even completely contradicting it.
And so Jesus, when he taught about this Sabbath, even as he taught about the other commands, he was seeking to reestablish the proper understanding and the proper observance.
Again, in Mark 2 verse 27, Jesus is actually reaffirming the Sabbath when he says that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.
So the Sabbath is to be a delight for man. It was created and given by God to be for man’s benefit. Man was not created to serve the Sabbath.
And Jesus rebukes the Pharisees because they reversed this truth. They were having man serve the Sabbath day instead of having the day be a day that serves man and refreshes man.
And so observing the Sabbath day as a creation ordinance, restated in the Ten Commandments, is still valid for us and all people today.
Taking a rest from our usual labors and recreations, one day out of seven, is what God still commands.
II. The Purpose of the Sabbath Day
This leads us to consider the purpose of the Sabbath day.
It’s a holy day, which God calls us to set apart and keep according to His own command and example.
And this really takes us back to the second commandment and the regulative principle of worship, where we must only worship God in the way that He commands us.
And so we’re not to make any innovations and we’re not to take away or remove or pass over something that God has commanded.
God has commanded us to keep holy such set times as he’s appointed in his word. And in his word, he’s called us to keep holy the Sabbath day.
Now in the Old Testament, we know that there were other holy days. These feast days were to be observed in similar ways to the weekly Sabbath, so that people wouldn’t work, and they were to gather together at times for worship, to offer up particular sacrifices.
Yet all these holy feasts, we know, were part of the ceremonial law and they were fulfilled. They all pointed to the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah.
And so when Christ came, he fulfilled those. And so there’s no longer a need to celebrate the Day of Atonement or to have the Feast of Tabernacles or to celebrate the Passover.
But the coming of Jesus, when this work now finished, we no longer have these other holy feast days save for the one that God gave at creation — the weekly Sabbath, which remains as part of his moral law.
God didn’t put in one of the Ten Commandments, you shall remember the Day of Atonement. That was a law that was given, but it’s not part of the moral law.
But remembering the Sabbath day to keep it holy is part of God’s moral law.
And so the Sabbath day, then, is the only holy day that we are to observe.
And here we’re reminded that days like Christmas and Easter have no command for us to celebrate in the Scriptures. And if they are celebrated, well, they aren’t to be celebrated as holy days. But they’re more like civic holidays, like Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July. They’re not holy days because God has not appointed us and called us to observe those days as holy.
And so we must only regard as holy what God Himself has called holy.
After creating all things by the word of His power, in the space of six days,
Then God blessed the seventh day, and He sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. (Genesis 2:3)
And so the fourth commandment calls us to remember the Sabbath day and to keep it holy. Because the Most Holy God Himself has set it apart, sanctified it, and declared it as holy. And so we must regard God’s holiness.
Secondly, the Sabbath is a Day of Rest
We note that this Sabbath day is not just a holy day, it is a day of rest.
And we see this in the very word Sabbath itself, which simply means cease or rest.
And again, this was the example God gave:
And on the seventh day, God ended his work, which he had done. And he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. (Genesis 2:2)
Over the previous six days, God created the heavens and the earth and everything in them. And then there was nothing left for him to create. It was done. And so he rested from his work of creation on the seventh day.
Now, this is not that God got tired and needed to rest, but it simply means that he ceased from his creative work. He was done. Everything that he had made was perfect and very good. There was nothing needed. He didn’t need to add anything to it. It was just done.
And so the fourth commandment, looking back on this divine example, sets it forth for our imitation.
Note how God’s example is given here in the command itself for man to follow:
For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. (Exodus 20:11)
And so this is the reason for the command that’s given in verses 9 and 10:
Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work.
And so the purpose of this command then has this very practical blessing.
Six days are given to us for work. In fact, this is actually another positive implication of this commandment. Because not only does it command us to rest, but it also commands us to work.
We’re to work for six days to provide for ourselves and for our families. That is our duty.
But God knows that we are finite creatures. He knows that we need a break. We need a day off, as it were. We need time to rest and recover from the previous six days so that we might then be ready to press forward in the next six days.
And so this cycle of working and resting is a great blessing that God has built right into the fourth commandment. And again, it’s a very practical blessing for us.
And how wonderful it is to be able to have a day where you can rest, where you don’t have to work, where you ought not to work, but we can truly rest.
And so we ought to be diligent then to see to it that we honor the day God has appointed and given to us as a day of rest.
And again, Jesus charged that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. This day is for us to enjoy. God has given us a most gracious gift when he calls us to rest on the Lord’s day.
But the Sabbath isn’t just about our need for physical rest. It’s also very much intended to be a day of spiritual rest and refreshment as it’s a day we’re called to dedicate to the Lord.
We sanctify the Lord’s day when we rest from our usual labors and recreations and gather together with his people for worship.
And we see this spiritual connection in an elaboration on the fourth commandment that we find in Leviticus 23 verse 3:
Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work on it. It is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings.
A convocation simply means a calling together. It’s a calling together of the people to assemble for a time of corporate and public worship.
And so this convocation is holy because God is holy and he’s called his people to be holy and there to give due honor and praise to his holiness when they worship him.
And so after six days of work, the people were to rest from their work and gather together for holy worship.
And indeed, Hebrews 10 gives us that important admonition to not forsake the assembling of ourselves together as is the manner of some.
God calls us to gather together as a holy convocation on the day that he’s appointed — a day for our physical rest, indeed a day for our spiritual rest.
The Change of Day: From Seventh to First
Well in this connection we do want to note though one change that has occurred regarding the fourth commandment.
Now earlier we acknowledged that the commandment can’t be removed because God doesn’t change. It points to His holiness. And so the commandment remains in effect though there has been a change in the day that the Lord has appointed for his people to be a Sabbath rest.
The change was from the seventh day of the week to the first day of the week. And this change was instituted by God himself.
In fact, a hint of the possibility of this change was given in the fourth commandment itself.
God created the heavens and the earth in six days and rested the seventh day. Literally, he kept Sabbath on the seventh day.
From the time of creation, God’s people observed the seventh day of the week, which is our Saturday, as the Sabbath.
But I want you to note carefully the wording of the fourth commandment:
Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God.
The commandment doesn’t say, remember the last day of the week, or even remember the seventh day. But it’s remember the Sabbath day, whichever day that may be.
You see, there are seven days in a week. And six of those days are given for work. And one day out of the seven, so the seventh day, is given for rest.
And so we see here, even in the commandment itself, the order of days is not fixed. But what is fixed is what we call the one day in seven principle.
Now, for the Jews, the Sabbath was the last day of the week following the six days of the creation week and then the seventh day.
But when we come to the New Testament, what do we see the apostles and the early church doing? When are they gathering together for worship? When are they resting?
Not on the seventh day of the week, but on the first day of the week.
Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread… (Acts 20:7)
And we see this practice continued throughout the New Testament and even up to the current day.
And so the holy day for Christians, our Sabbath day, or sometimes called the Christian Sabbath, is on the first day of the week.
The one day in seven principle set forth in the commandment remains. And so we work Monday through Saturday, but we rest from our work and gather for worship on Sunday, which is the first day of the week.
Now, why? What brought about the change?
Well, it was that pivotal event of Christ’s resurrection from the dead on the first day of the week that God used to shift the day to be regarded as holy from the seventh day to the first day of the week.
III. The Blessing of the Lord’s Day through Jesus Christ
And so the Sabbath day set apart at creation and enshrined in the moral law of God is given to us as a picture of God’s work and his promise to rest.
That’s what it was in Genesis 2. The Sabbath was set apart to recognize that God had completed His work of creation and that He ceased or He rested from that work.
And then for the Old Testament church in the fourth commandment, not only were they to remember God’s work of creation, but also they were to remember His work of redemption that He had just completed by delivering His people out of bondage and slavery in Egypt.
And He promised to them that now that he has delivered them, he has done this work, that he would give them rest when they entered into the promised land.
But as we well know, the exodus from bondage in Egypt and the whole idea of the Passover and the exodus and the entering into the promised land pointed to something even greater to come.
And that is the once for all redemption from sin and the curse of death and the entering into the eternal promised land of God’s heavenly kingdom through the person and the work of Jesus Christ.
And when did Jesus secure that redemption? When did He finish His work that the Father had given Him to accomplish?
It’s when He rose again from the dead on the third day, which was the first day of the week.
And so in Christ, because of His sacrificial death for us on the cross, we have the promised rest from the sin and the condemnation of death.
And to remember this greatest work of God we rest from our usual labors and activities, and we gather together for worship on the first day of the week, Sunday, the Lord’s Day.
But there’s more, because the Lord’s Day itself is for us a picture and a reminder of still greater things to come — indeed, a greater and more complete rest to come.
There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered his rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest… (Hebrews 4:9–11)
And so our weekly gathering together for worship on the Lord’s Day is really a weekly reminder to us of the rest that we have in Christ.
So that not only are we resting physically on this day from our usual work and labors, but we are especially resting in Christ and the salvation that He secured for us as we look forward to that perfect promised day of eternal rest in His glorious presence.
Our Present Duty Regarding the Fourth Commandment
And so in anticipation of this eternal rest, what then is our present duty as Christians in relation to the fourth commandment?
- We are to work — God wants us to work. He calls us to work. He’s given us six days in which we ought to do work in order to support ourselves, our families, and to be able to serve and minister to those who have need. And when we do our work in those six days, we should do it diligently to the glory of God.
- We are to rest — from our work, labor, and our usual recreations, remembering God’s mercy toward us, that He’s so mindful of our creatureliness that He gives us this one day in seven to rest.
- We must gather together with the people of God in a holy convocation to worship the Lord, to take advantage of the means of grace to nourish our weakened souls, and to fellowship with one another, to spur one another on to love and good works. The Lord’s Day is designed to encourage us in our faith as we give all glory, praise, and honor to the Lord.
- We are to delight in this precious gift that the Lord has given to us in order to bless and refresh us. And this is what the passage we read earlier in Isaiah 58 challenges us — to call the Sabbath a delight. It’s not to be a day that we carry on business as usual and do our own thing, but we’re really challenged in that passage to call the Sabbath a delight, to serve the Lord in that day, to acknowledge the Lord in that day. Because if we acknowledge the day for what it truly is — a day that is wholly set apart to God — then we will be blessed in Him, richly and abundantly blessed. If we would delight in His day, then we’ll delight ourselves in the Lord Himself. And He’ll cause us to ride on the high hills of the earth and feed us with the heritage of Jacob our father.
- We are to remember on this day the great work of salvation that Jesus Christ has accomplished for us. Again, on this day especially, when we gather together as the people of God, on this day that God has separated and called holy, we’re to remember that He came in the flesh to dwell among us. And that He was tempted and tried in all ways that we are, yet without sin. We’re to remember His suffering and His death on the cross for our sins. That He endured the wrath and curse of God that only we deserved. And we’re to remember His glorious victory from the curse of death, when He finished His work of redemption by rising again in power and glory on the first day of the week, so that He might ascend to the right hand of God the Father in heaven, where even now He reigns and rules over all things as our mediatorial King for the blessing and the benefit of His people, the Church.
Friends, this same Jesus who reigns now in heaven, he rests from his great work of salvation and redemption that he accomplished for us.
And he calls you even now through the gospel to come to him and to receive that rest.
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. (Matthew 11:28–30)
And finding rest in Christ alone is what the Lord’s Day is all about.
And so yes, beloved of God, the observance of the fourth commandment still very much applies to us today.
And so we should then strive in the grace of God to keep the Lord’s Day holy as you await the fullness of your redemption and the eternal Sabbath rest to come at the end of the age when Christ returns all to the glory and praise of God alone.
Closing Prayer
O gracious God in heaven, we do rejoice and give thanks for this important reminder and challenge and what a blessing the Lord’s day is for us. And we see your perfect design, your care for us — even just a general care for your creation and for the creature that you created in your own image, that you call for a day of rest to follow your example.
But for those who believe in your name, for whom you have called before the foundation of the earth to follow after you and to seek after you, it is even richer blessing still because it reminds us of the great work which the Lord Jesus Christ has done for us. And that he rested from his work of redemption when he rose again from the dead on the third day.
And so we gather together on this first day of the week to remember what he has done for us, even as we’re looking forward to a greater rest to come.
Because even now we know that we are still working in this life. We’re still toiling. We’re still in the midst of those six days. And we are looking forward to that great eternal seventh day to come. The holy day of the Lord. That once it begins, it will never end.
All to the praise of Your glorious name. And that there is rest. Rest from our toils. Rest from our pain and suffering. All the afflictions of this life that we endure. Rest from our struggles with sin. As we glory in You. And we give praise to Your name. That holy convocation which to which there will be no end.
And so we look forward to that and we yearn for that. But we praise you and thank you that you have given us this day, this one day in seven, the Lord’s Day, to remind us of what you’ve done and what you will do, and to point us toward that sure and certain hope to come.
To the praise of your glorious name, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ we pray, amen.