Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. 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. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them. and rested the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord bless the Sabbath day and made it holy. Amen. Let's ask God for his blessing upon our time. Let us pray. Gracious God and Father, as we come now to this fourth word, this fourth commandment that you have given us, your people, Lord, we pray that you would fill us with great joy and contentment in your divine design and how you have ordered the world, that we would see, Father, reality as a gift Father, this creation as a gift, as a donation given to us from you, our triune God. And especially, Lord, that we would see this seventh day, now the first day since the resurrection of Christ, the Sabbath day, to be a gift, Father, as you declare through the mouth of your Son, our Savior. The Sabbath was made for man. It was given for man as a gift. And so, Father, may we first see it rightly, and then may we use it rightly, worshiping your holy name and attending the holy convocation, the holy assembly of our great God, the God of our salvation. Help us, Lord, in these introductory comments now to both explain and apply your word to our lives. We pray these things now in Jesus' name, amen. It goes without saying, of course, that whenever we talk about the Fourth Commandment, we have to note all the controversy that swirls around it. Of course, there's controversy from those who do not know Jesus, who would, of course, say there's nothing special about Sunday or the Lord's Day or the first day of the week. There would be many all throughout history who would attempt to level out anything distinctive, anything different, anything special. They would sand out this day so that it looks like other days. If you know a little bit about the French Revolution, you know that there was an attempt to make the seven-day week 10 days in order to get rid of God's stamp, God's imprint upon the seven-day week from creation. And of course, when it comes to the Christian church, we know that there is some level of controversy as well. There are many who would say, first of all, we don't need to keep the commandments. We're in grace, we're in Christ, we don't need to obey, right? Living the Christian life is just a matter of doing what we want. We would of course reject that from God's word. There are perhaps brothers and sisters who are a little bit closer to the biblical position who would say, yes, no, of course we have to keep God's commandments. We have to not murder. We can't have any other gods before God. We can't take the name of the Lord in vain. And yet somehow when the commandments are added up of the ones, you know, the commandments that we are to keep, we come to nine. Not 10. This commandment is always left out by so many within the church. The commandment to remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. And of course, there are some legitimate questions that surround this commandment. How should we view the Sabbath? does it still apply to us, right? It talks about the seventh day. Well, pastor, today is not the seventh day. So how do we go from seven to one? How do we go from the seventh day at the end of the week to the first day at the beginning of the week? Assuming Sunday is the Lord's day or the Sabbath, then what can we do? Another set of questions. What activities are commanded? What activities are permitted? Perhaps not commanded, but permitted. And then what activities are prohibited? And much of our discussion in our day tends to swirl around do's and don'ts regarding this commandment. There's a time for that and we'll look at some of those questions next time. But remember that the fourth commandment of all the commandments is stated positively. It's not the only one that's stated positively. The fifth commandment, honor your father and mother, is also in a positive key. So we need to remember to state this commandment and state its will, God's will for us in this commandment positively. It's the great irony that this commandment is stated positively and yet our discussion of it can be so negative. So what I want to do in the next few minutes is simple, two things. I want to state from God's word what our attitude should be to this day. And then I do want to consider what God requires of us in this day, what our duties are on the Sabbath and state those positively. And next week we'll look at a few more considerations regarding the Sabbath. If you have your Bible open, you have your Psalter hymnal open to question and answer 103, notice what it says there. We are to see this day as a festive day of rest. a festive day of rest. It is to be seen as a festival, as a holiday. That is literally the word used in the original German of the Heidelberg Catechism. Think about other events that we have a joyful appreciation of, that we think positively of. And think about what you would do to prepare for those events. Think about a wedding that you've been invited to. Perhaps think about, if you're married, your own wedding day and how you prepared and anticipated that day with great joy, with a certain kind of seriousness, but also a serious joy. You couldn't wait to get married. or perhaps you've been to a number of weddings in your lifetime, right? And you think about the day, you make sure nothing has been planned on that day, you don't wanna ever double book, you don't ever want to let other things crowd out that day, because it's a special day. Think about a vacation. that you've been on, if you've gone away, taken a flight to a vacation destination, if you've gone on a cruise. Think about how you look forward to that time away. It's not just a day, it's many days, perhaps a number of weeks. You have to prepare, you have to set out your clothes, you have to think about the first step, the second step, all the things you're going to do. You have to think through that time of vacation. or if you've ever met someone of great dignity and honor, if any one of you has ever met a president. current or former, or governor, or a mayor, right? And that meeting had been planned. It's a time that you think about. Again, you schedule it, you put it on your calendar, and you prepare for it, and you take time to think about what is involved. You think about what you wanna ask that governor, that mayor, the president. You wanna think about the flow of events. You wanna set your clothes out the night before. You wanna get plenty of rest the night before. And in the morning of that meeting, you wanna be in the right frame of mind. And it's a day that you anticipate with serious joy. All of those things you see help us understand the Sabbath day. It's a festive day of rest. And we see that right from God's word. It says, remember the Sabbath day. Before we even get to anything else, remember the Sabbath day. God wants to tell his people, remind his people that you have an appointment with your savior, with your God. Remember this day, God is saying, that I've set apart for you and for me. It's like a wedding day, but greater. It's like a restful one-day vacation, and yet better. It's like a meeting with a dignitary, with a president, but better. You're meeting with the one true living God. And so the first thing we want to do is to have the right attitude, the right posture as we consider this day, as we live today in the Sabbath. We need to hear what God says. Remember, remember this special day that's coming up. It doesn't matter how low your week was. It doesn't matter how great your week was. The Sabbath, the Lord's day is coming. I always think of that as a pastor and as a preacher. It doesn't matter how great the sermon last week was, the Lord's day is coming. It doesn't matter how not so great it was last week, the Lord's day is coming. And so it is with all of us. The Lord's day is perpetually on its way. Remember this day that the Lord has set apart for you and for him. If you turn over to Isaiah 58, look at Isaiah 58, and hear how the Lord wants us to see this day, this festive day of rest. Isaiah 58, verse 13 and 14. If you turn back, Isaiah 58 verse 13, if you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, and the holy day of the Lord honorable, if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly, then you shall delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth. I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob, your father, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. See what God is saying to His people through the mouth of the prophet Isaiah? You are to call this day a delight. You are to see this day, not as a burden, but as a blessing. You are to set apart this day as honorable. You are to honor it, not doing your own thing, your own business, your own way, but you are to set it apart for the Lord, for His rest and for His worship. There is, of course, prohibitions here. And there are prohibitions in Exodus, right? Don't do your pleasure, don't do your business, don't go your own way. But think about the examples mentioned earlier, right? Think about how if you are scheduled to go to a wedding, you don't double book that day for anything else. If you're scheduled to go on a vacation, you don't plan other things during that time, you're gonna be away. If you're going to meet the President of the United States, you make sure that that day has been set apart. It's the same thing with the Lord's Day. If you go your own way, if you do your own pleasure, your own business, then you're gonna miss the joy of this day. You're gonna miss this trip. You're gonna miss this celebratory event. You're going to miss this meeting with God. It's a day of joyful rest and service. It's the brightest day of gladness, of celebration. It's not a day of solemn gloom. It's a day of serious joy. It's like a wedding, not like a funeral. We're coming to meet with God. We have not come to a funeral service. We have come more like to a wedding service. In the New Testament, we see this as well, this emphasis of blessing, this emphasis of salvation. Jesus loves to do a certain kind of work on the Lord's Day, right? The Lord's Day, we know, the Sabbath, we can't do our work, we are now called to do the Lord's work. What does Jesus do on his day? It's a day that Jesus teaches us that is for healing, for reconciliation, for forgiving men their sins. It's a day when Jesus in the gospel accounts is so often making men's bodies and lives whole before God, healing them and forgiving their sins. He heals the man with the withered hand in Mark 3. He heals the woman that was bent over and had a stoop in Luke 13 on the Lord's Day, on the Sabbath. In Luke 14, he heals a man's dropsy, which is a kind of inflammation of body. In John 5, he heals a lame man who's paralyzed by the waters of the pool of Bethesda. This is the day of healing. This is the day of reconciliation. This is the day of blessing. when we begin to enter and we get to taste a little bit of what that eternal Sabbath, that eternal Lord's Day will be like when we are made complete, when we are made whole and perfected body and soul before God. And Jesus gives a picture of that in his earthly ministry on the Sabbath. And you can understand how wicked the Sanhedrin, the Pharisees were, who were all up in arms. How dare you heal people on this day? How dare you command people to get up and take their bed and go with them? No, it's the day precisely for that. It's the day of blessing, the day of salvation, the day of healing. And so the first thing that we want to do is to set the baseline posture of God's people towards this day. If you turn this day into a day of doom and gloom, a day of do's and don'ts, a day of rules and regulations, if you turn this day into a day of your business, of your work, If you turn this day into a kind of junk drawer, right, you couldn't fit anything else in during the rest of the week, you're gonna do it on the Lord's Day. Then you're gonna miss the joyful celebratory nature of the Lord's Day, of the Sabbath. We are called by God to see this day, as Heidelberg calls it, as a festive day of rest, as Isaiah 58 calls it, a day of delight. So, first thing we do is have a right attitude to the Lord's day. But then particularly, we need to ask the question, what are we called to do on this day? And notice what Heidelberg says, it's all very positive, right? That on this day, And we're going to look at these in more detail in a moment. The gospel ministry and the schools for it be maintained, that I diligently attend the assembly of God's people, that I learn what God's word teaches, to participate in the sacraments, to pray to the Lord publicly, to bring Christian offerings for the poor. You are not only to remember the Sabbath day, God says, remember, be reminded that I've set apart this entire day for you and for me, God says. But remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. You are to keep it holy. And holy here means that we are to set it apart. In God's Word, when God makes something holy, when He sanctifies it, He is oftentimes setting it apart. He's making it different. It's not the same as the other days. We are called by God to remember this appointment we have with our Savior in order to keep the day holy, not because we worship the day as holy, but rather because in this day, we worship God as holy with his people in his holy assembly. If we wanted to sum up what the Lord's Day is, what the Sabbath is, we would say from God's Word that it's a day for bodily rest from normal work in order to worship God and commune with God and his people. So we are called to bodily rest from our normal labors in order to worship God and commune with him and his people, which is our spiritual rest. If you think about the logic of the first three commandments, it's driving us to the Lord's day, right? The first, the second, the third commandments that we looked at. The first commandment, we're told that God is to be worshipped. In the second commandment, we're told that He is to be worshipped in His revealed way, according to His Word. In the third commandment, we're told that we are to worship God with words that preserve His holy character. But then the question is, when? When do we get to worship God, not just privately, right, as we're walking in our personal walks with the Lord throughout the week, not just familially in family worship, right, in our homes, gathered around in the living room, perhaps, or around the dining room table, opening up God's Word, praying to God. But how do we worship God as his people in the holy assembly? Well, on the Lord's Day, on the Sabbath, in this day that God has set apart as an appointment, a standing weekly holiday for you and for him. Ashbel Green, a American Presbyterian who taught at Princeton Seminary in the 19th century, in the 1800s, says, it's given to us, the Lord's Day is given to us for good reason. He says, a duty which we think we may perform at any time is apt to be performed at no time. If the Lord simply left it up to us and said, well, you know, gather together as my people whenever you can, whenever you want, whenever you feel like it, we would never do that. We would never do it. God has set apart a day. He's created and carved out an entire day for him and his people, for you, so that your work and the world would not squeeze out your rest and your worship of him, but so that his worship would be maintained forever. That's the end goal of the fourth commandment. The end goal is not to stop from work. It's not the cessation of labors. The goal of the Lord's day, there are many in the church who would say, the best way to honor the Lord's day is to sit still in your living room. That's it, that's how you honor the Lord's day in your Sunday clothes. No. It's not idleness, that's not the glory of this day. It's not a day full of nothing. It's not a day of boredom. It's not simply a day off. It's a day of rest in order to worship God. Note the quotation I've included at the very bottom of the inside of the bulletin there. Alexander White, who was a Scottish Presbyterian. said these words. He said, but it did not follow, he's reflecting on the logic of the fourth commandment of this holy rest, rest unto worship of the fourth commandment. But it did not follow that this weekly vacation from ordinary labor was to be left void of all occupation. The law of holy rest did not leave the day open to be wasted in sloth and idleness. Indolence of body and vacancy of mind are not the divine rest designed for the physical, intellectual, and spiritual natures of man. And hence it was that in Israel, the Sabbath, without ceasing to be a day of real repose or rest, it was that, at the same time became a day of special occupation with divine things. On the Sabbath day, daily sacrifices were doubled in the tabernacle and temple. And throughout the whole nation, the same special religious aspect was given to the Sabbath day. The seventh day was a day of holy convocation. On that day, the pious people resorted to their prophets to hear their new revelations and their expositions and applications of the divine law. In later times when the prophetical office had come to a standstill, the people gathered into the synagogues on the Sabbath day for reading the scriptures and for mutual exhortation and prayer. At home also, in the more devout households, all light and foolish as well as all anxious and worldly thoughts were banished from the mind and quiet meditation and communion with the highest subjects was devoutly cultivated. And so you see, beloved, that the goal of the Sabbath day is not merely rest, right? Don't do your normal labors. Okay, that's fine, but why? For what purpose? So that now you can do a different kind of work. So that now you can worship God. And that's what we find in the Heidelberg, right? As we look at these different elements that are to take up our Lord's day. They're all active verbs, right? Maintain, attend, learn, participate, pray, bring, right? It's not a day of indolence. It's not a day of passivity. It's not a day where we say, my great goal is to do nothing. No, you're also missing the point of the Sabbath. Your great goal is to not do your regular work in order to do a different kind of work, the work that God requires on this day, a day that is to be filled with holy assembly and the holy convocation of God's people. So in the Old and New Testament, what do we find? We find the pattern here given to us in the Heidelberg. We find, first of all, that the gospel ministry on this day is to be maintained, and not just the gospel ministry, but also schools for the word. Schools for the word is a interesting phrase. It's been interpreted in different ways, right? Does that mean that on this day, we are to help financially support seminaries, right? Is that what it's talking about? No, it means that the Word is to be taught, it's to be promulgated, and that way it's to be preserved. When the lampstand of the Word of God goes and grows dim, you don't have a church. The lampstand of the Word must burn bright. It is preserved, the Word is preserved by being proclaimed. The church is a heavenly society that grows out of the word. It's a day not only for gospel ministry, but for the schools of the word. And here, I think there's a better interpretation than simply thinking about seminaries. It's a day for the training of little ones. It's a day for the training of our youth and of our children. If you wanna think of Sunday school, amen for that. More traditionally, we would say catechism. But the training of the little ones is a kind of nursery of the Holy Spirit. And you see this concern not only for the Word, but for the teaching of the Word across all generations, all across God's Word. In Deuteronomy, we were told that it's the Levite who is supposed to teach God's Word. And thus, Israel is not to neglect the Levite. In Titus, in the New Testament, we're told that Titus is to appoint faithful elders who can teach these things. 1 Timothy 3, 14 and 15, we are to keep good order in the house of God by appointing faithful elders. 2 Timothy 2, verse 2, we are to entrust this ministry, Paul says to Timothy, entrust this to faithful men who can teach others, who can teach others. It's a day for the ministry of the word, but it's a day where we are called to attend the assembly of God's people. Hebrews 10.25 tells us, don't forsake the assembling together of God's people. God calls you to worship him on this day. And so think of it as you would any other important event, right? A wedding, a vacation, a meeting with the president. Don't crowd out this day with other affairs. Early on in the Apostolic Church, and we'll look at this more in detail next week, but in John chapter 20, after the resurrection of Jesus, the apostles are gathered in a room on the first day of the week, and Thomas missed the worship service. We're told that Thomas wasn't there as Jesus appears to his people, to his apostles. And yet he's there the next week. John chapter 20, verse 19 and verse 26. The revelation of the apostle John, the book of Revelation, is given to him on the Lord's day. He says, I was in the Lord's day on the island of Patmos. This was a central day, a special day set apart because of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The beginning of new creation, not the end of the week, but the beginning of the week. We are called to attend the assembly of God's people on this day. We are called to attend in order to learn what God's word teaches. This is the central element in worship. We are to attend to God's Word as it's read, as it's prayed, as it's sung, as it's explained and applied. And of course, the texts here in Scripture are various. Again, Leviticus 10 tells us that God commands the Levites to teach the people of Israel all the statutes that the Lord has spoken to them by Moses. Leviticus 10, verse 11. Isaiah 62, verse six. On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen all the day and all the night. They shall never be silenced. God indicts. the teachers and the shepherds of Israel. In Ezekiel 34, he says, son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel and say to them, ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves, should not shepherds feed the sheep? Right, this is what God calls teachers and pastors and shepherds to do. Romans 10, verse 14 and following. Paul here has a concern for missions, but notice how he frames it. He says, how then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? And then at the end, verse 17, he says, so faith comes from hearing, and hearing what? The word of Christ. God is at work in the preaching, in the teaching, in the instruction of his word to his people to create faith, to nurture that faith, to draw men and women and teenagers and children to himself. It's that word that has power. It's that word that we must be devoted to. That's why Paul says to his spiritual son, Timothy, at the end of his life, until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Preach the word, be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with complete patience and teaching. The Word must be diligently taught that it must be diligently attended to by you, by God's people. We are, of course, told other things that we are called to do on this day. We are to participate in the sacraments. that illustration, that portrayal of the gospel given to us in the baptism of both adults and of children, and also the breaking of bread, the sacrament of communion of bread and wine. And we see that from the earliest days in the apostolic church in Acts chapter two, Acts chapter 20, where we're told that Paul and the apostles broke bread together. Day by day, they broke bread. We are to pray to the Lord publicly. We are to be gathered, not only to hear what God says, but to speak to God. And how do we speak to God? We speak to God in prayer. As Paul says, first of all, then I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people. And we speak to God, not only through prayer, but through singing as well. There's a reference in the Heidelberg in your Trinity Psalter hymnals to Colossians 316, which is a reference to singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Our prayers include singing psalms and hymns, which are themselves prayers to God. And then of course, we are to bring Christian offerings for the poor. 1 Corinthians 16 tells us, verses 1 and 2, that in Galatia and in Corinth, Paul had directed the churches on the first day of every week to put something aside and to store it up so that they would be able to send it to those in Jerusalem, the poor saints in Jerusalem. We rest from our daily work of six days to worship God with his people on this Sabbath day. We cannot rest and we cannot worship if we have to work. So that's why in Exodus, turning back to our text, God tells us, you have six days to do all your work, to do all of your normal labors. Part of the Sabbath day, part of the fourth commandment is to work heartily and to work diligently six days. Oftentimes, busyness, and I don't know if you've ever seen this in your life, but in my life, busyness is oftentimes a function, it's a symptom of having delayed my duties. I get all busy all of a sudden because I haven't been working all throughout the week. No, we are to work, we are to work heartily, we are to work diligently. for the Lord all throughout the six days of our labor. And then on the Sabbath day, we are to set that day apart for bodily rest and for the worship of God. And there's a rationale for doing this from God himself. God worked six days. God rested on the Sabbath day, God blessed the Sabbath day, and God hallowed, He sanctified this day. Not that we worship the day as holy, but in this day we worship God as holy. We're going to pick up our discussion next week, but for now, let's give God thanks. Gracious God and Father, we thank you for this gift that you have given to us. Father, how wise and how good you are to us, that Father, you not only call us to rest, but you call us to rest so that we would worship you. Father, be pleased today to turn our heart to you, that we would, Father, not see the Sabbath day as a burden, but as a blessing, a day, Father, for a different kind of work, a day for the work of worship. worshiping you, the God of our salvation. Help us, Father, to have not only a right biblical attitude to this day, but to be filled with that kind of work that you call us to. We pray all of these things now in Jesus' name. Amen.