The Fourth Commandment
opening song:
Psalm 13 song
Call to worship:
pastor micharl champoux
Matthew 12.1-8
song:
Come thou fount
Historical reading:Westminster Shorter Catechism Q&A 58, 59 & 62
pastor bobby owens
song:
In Christ Alone
Confession & Pardon (w/ 10 Commandments):
pastor Andrew loginow
song:
Doxology
song:
Jesus is Better
Sermon:
dr. alex loginow
The 4th Commandment
Exodus 20.8-11
Introduction
We all know that the greatest dynasty in sports history is the New England Patriots from 2001-2019. Robert Kraft, Bill Belichick and Tom Brady won 6 championships and set records that will probably never be broken in the NFL. One of the reasons that the Patriots had sustained success for two decades was their work ethic. Two of the Patriots’ mantras were “do your job,” and “no days off.” “No days off” means that we’re working every day. Football is our life and there is no rest – no days off.
We live in a culture that embraces a “no days off” mentality. Rest is not a high priority for many. We’re working overtime, and we have a side-hustle, and then we also have to get the kids to school, and pick them up from school. And then we need to get them to practice and then when the season’s over the next season starts. We have a 24-hour news cycle, and instant info on the Internet and because we’re on the go, we need instant coffee and fast food; we don’t prioritize rest.
This is not a uniquely American problem, or even a uniquely modern problem, our resistance to rest is a tale as old as time. In the ancient Near East people worked all day every day but it wasn’t to build their 401k or their PTO or their brand. People in the ancient Near East worked all day every day so that they had food to eat so that they didn’t die. It was in that culture, where working meant living, that God gave his people the 4th Commandment – Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. And the 4th Commandment is just as important for us now as it was then. What did the 4th Commandment mean for ancient Israel? How do we understand the 4th Commandment in the wake of the gospel of Jesus Christ? And how do we apply the 4th Commandment to Christ Community Church today?
The 4th Commandment
Let’s start with what the 4th Commandment meant for ancient Israel. In the 4th Commandment YHWH gave Israel a rhythm of work and rest. The word Sabbath is a transliteration of the Hebrew word שַׁבָּת, which means, “rest.” God’s people were to complete all of their work in 6 days so that the 7th day would be a day dedicated to worship and rest. We need to remember that the 5-day workweek with a 2-day weekend is a modern invention. During the time of the exodus Israel, and all ancient people groups, were agrarian; if they didn’t work, they didn’t eat, and they died.
But YHWH calls his people to remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. The word holy is the Hebrew word קָדַשׁ, which means, “set apart” or “consecrated.” So the people were to abstain from work every Saturday, because God was not only instructing his people to rest their bodies, they were also being taught to rest their souls. The Sabbath was holy. It was not merely a day off of work; it was a day of spiritual worship. Rabbi Cassuto, a famous rabbi and Hebrew scholar said of the Sabbath, “Liberate yourself from burden of work of 6 preceding days…dedicate it not to your body but to your soul, not to material things but to things of the Spirit, not to your relationship to nature but to your relationship to the creator of nature.” The Sabbath was not merely a break from physical work but also as a day of spiritual worship.
We can’t miss how the Sabbath made Israel distinct. No other people set aside a day for worship and rest. This was intentional because the Sabbath was the sign of the Mosaic covenant. Just like the sign of Noah’s covenant was the rainbow, and the sign of Abraham’s covenant was circumcision, the sign of the covenant with Moses was the Sabbath. It was the weekly sign pointing God’s people to who God is and how he saved them.
How does the Sabbath point us to the character and salvation of God? In the 4th Commandment we see a humanitarian distinction. God cares about the wellbeing of his people. YHWH rescued Israel from slavery in Egypt through his mediator Moses. In Egypt the Hebrews were slaves and often worked to death, literally. But God will not treat them that way.
In fact, God will require them to rest. And the command to rest applied to the entire community. Verse 10 shows us that it is not just the men of the community, but also their children, and servants, and animals, and even sojourners. All living creatures were all required to rest and worship on Sabbath.
But the Sabbath not only carried a humanitarian distinction, it also carried a theological distinction. And we see the theological distinction in both creation and redemption. Genesis 1-2 reveals that God followed a pattern of work and rest when he created the world. The first 6 days of creation follow a day and night pattern – there was evening and there was morning on [each] day. And on the 7th day Scripture tells us that God rested. And there is no morning and evening refrain for the 7th day because God’s Sabbath points us to the eternal rest that he will give his people.
God created his people for a pattern of work and rest because he followed a pattern of work and rest. Part of being created in the image of God is that we are made to work and rest. Work is good and glorifies God. God is a God who works and so we accurately represent him when we work well. Adam was commanded to work before the fall and Genesis 3 reveals to us that our fall into sin will make our work tumultuous. Rest is even more welcomed post fall because work became more difficult because of sin, but don’t mistake this, the pattern of work and rest existed before the fall and is grounded in the very character of God.
The command to rest reminds us that we are to be like God, but we are not God. We are created beings; we are not omniscient, omnipotent, or omnipresent. Rest is necessary for us because we’re finite. We need sleep; we need to recover; we need rest.
God also requires a day of rest for his people because they needed to trust God to provide for them. Because we’re used to a 2-day weekend, this can be difficult for us to understand, but in the ancient Near East the pagan peoples viewed the Sabbath as foolish and lazy. The nations viewed the Sabbath as wasted time because they could be working but they weren't. Time is money and resting means no money.
In 65 AD Seneca attacked the Jewish Sabbath. He denied the usefulness of the institution and even considered it harmful. Seneca said of the Jews, “by taking [one] out every seventh day, [the Jews] lose almost a seventh part of their own life in inactivity, and many matters which are urgent at the same time suffer from not being attended to.” Hmm, maybe some of you kind of agree with Seneca. But what Seneca, and others, and maybe even you have failed to understand is that God is the author and owner of our time. Our time is not our own but belongs to God so we must trust God that worship and rest are not a waste of time but a valuable use of time.
We know that YHWH took the Sabbath seriously because the penalty for breaking the Sabbath under the old covenant was severe. The Law required that those who broke the Sabbath were to be executed by stoning. The author of 2nd Chronicles tells us that part of the reason why Israel was sent into exile was because they did not keep the Sabbath. God takes the Sabbath seriously.
And because people are sinners we fall into one of two ditches on either side of God’s command. Israel fell in the ditch of lawlessness when they perpetually broke the Sabbath and they were exiled from the land. In the centuries following the exile, the Jewish people started fencing the Sabbath to try to keep God’s people from breaking the Sabbath. But in doing so they fell into the ditch on the other side of the road, which is legalism.
Like we saw last week with the 3rd Commandment, the Jewish leaders added to the 4th Commandment putting an extra biblical legalistic bind on the people’s conscience. By the 1st century the Sabbath had become a burden instead of a blessing. The Pharisees created arbitrary rules to protect the Sabbath that had nothing to do with following the 4th Commandment. The Pharisees told the people that they were not allowed to pick grain on the Sabbath, women were told they are not allowed to look in a mirror lest they pick a grey hair and it be considered work. The people were told they could not walk more than 2/3 of a mile on the Sabbath lest they sweat and it be considered work. Tending to the sick or injured was forbidden on the Sabbath, unless it was life threatening.
But none of these things were explicitly commanded. What was commanded in the 4th Commandment? Remember the Sabbath day and you shall not do any work. That is what God explicitly commanded but the Pharisees created extra biblical legalistic fences to God’s Word that put a sinful unnecessary burden on God’s people.
Jesus Followed & Fulfilled the 4th Commandment
Sometimes Israel fell in the ditch of lawlessness by neglecting the Sabbath, sometimes they fell into the ditch of legalism by adding to the Sabbath, either way the truth is that Israel could not keep the 4th Commandment and neither have we. Here’s the bad news – we have broken the 4th Commandment. Pastor Andrew led us in the confession and pardon where he read the 10 Commandments and called us to confess that we have broken God’s Law. And we have; we have broken the 4th Commandment in thought, word, and deed. We have broken the 4th Commandment by what we have done and by what we have left undone. That’s the bad news but the good news is that Jesus never broken the 4th Commandment; Jesus followed the 4th Commandment and Jesus is the fulfillment of the 4th Commandment.
Jesus of Nazareth is the only human who ever lived who kept and did not break the 4th Commandment. Jesus did not keep all of the extra biblical legalistic rules that the Pharisees added to the 4th Commandment but Jesus followed the actual 4th Commandment. Jesus followed the pattern of work and rest given by God to men. Jesus never broke the 4th Commandment in thought, word or deed. Jesus never broke the 4th Commandment but what he did or by what he had left undone.
Because Jesus never broke God’s Law he is the only righteous man who ever lived. And because Jesus was righteous he could offer his life on the cross to God to atone for the sins of his people. As Jesus Christ bore God’s wrath on the cross for the elect, Jesus cried out, “It is finished.” Through his life and death Jesus accomplished the work of redemption for all of his people. The Gospels tell us that when Jesus died the curtain in the temple was torn in two because the barrier of un-atoned-for sin had been removed through the sinless life and substitutionary death of the Son of God.
Because his work is done, Jesus resurrected from the dead and is now a seated priest at the right hand of God the Father almighty (Heb 10.11-14). Through his life, death, and resurrection Jesus earned eternal rest for all who believe. And while that eternal rest has been inaugurated in the hearts and souls of God’s people, we are still waiting for the day when the shalom and Sabbath rest of Eden is restored. Hebrews 4.9 says there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. When Jesus Christ returns he will raise the dead, judge the world, and make all things new. On that day sin and death will be no more and everything sad will be untrue.
In this way Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the Sabbath. The reason that the Sabbath was given was to point us forward to the rest that we experience in Christ alone. Pastor Mike led us in the call to worship from Matthew 12 where Jesus called himself the Lord of the Sabbath. The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Indeed there is a sense in which the Sabbath was made for the man – Jesus Christ. The Sabbath reveals to us our need for rest and we only find true and final rest in Christ.
The 4th Commandment & the Church
And so now as we think through how to apply the 4th Commandment in 2023, the first thing we must note is that it is impossible to obey the 4th Commandment apart from faith in Jesus. You must repent and believe the gospel. To repent means to turn from your sin and to turn toward Jesus Christ. To believe means to know who Jesus is and what Jesus did, to assent that the facts about Jesus are true, and to trust in Jesus alone.
After we believe the Holy Spirit shows us that the 4th Commandment reveals our idols of time and work. God is the creator of all things and so our time belongs to him. Our salvation, our identity, our value is not found in our own work but in resting in the finished work of Jesus. But like Israel we fall into the ditches of lawlessness and legalism.
We live out legalism when we don’t rest. We neglect our families, we neglect gathering with the church, and we neglect rest because we feel like we need to work nonstop. There’s money to be made, there are corporate ladders to climb, there are brands to build, there are side hustles to pursue. “I’ll work less when my kids are older; I’ll rest when I’m dead.” Some of you can never sit still because you feel like you always need to be doing something. This is lived out legalism when we view our time like if we’re not doing something “productive” then it is lazy and we’re wasting our time.
Others fall into the ditch of lawlessness, which also misunderstands God’s pattern of work and rest. People who wont work, people who wont serve the church, people who are lazy in parenting and wont discipline their children. Some break the 4th Commandment by working when they ought not to but others break the 4th Commandment by not working when they ought to work. God created us to follow a pattern of work and rest for his glory and for our good.
As we read the 4th Commandment in light of the good news of Jesus, what are some of the ways we’re prone to wander from the 4th Commandment? The most egregious way we break the 4th Commandment is by trying to earn God’s favor. This is why people are attracted to legalism because it makes them feel like God is pleased with them based on what they’re doing. We treat God like he is our angry old boss who’s out to get us. But that is not the gospel. The gospel tells us that God is pleased with us because we are in Christ.
You cannot earn God’s favor by being a good person or by going to church. You cannot earn God’s favor by reading your Bible or praying. You cannot earn God’s favor by tithing. You cannot earn God’s favor by avoiding cussing, or alcohol, or tobacco, or by voting Republican, or by only listening to Christian music. If you are a Christian you cannot earn God’s favor because in Christ you already have it!
Another way that we break the 4th Commandment is by sinful worry. When we spend our time worrying we are not resting in Christ. We worry about our money, we worry about our families, we worry about illness, we worry about our jobs and our stuff; we worry about everything. Do you know what worrying does to help any of these things? Nothing. We must rest in the fact that God is sovereign and that if we are in Christ God loves us like he loves Jesus. We must repent of our worrying and we must rest in Jesus.
A third and most tangible way that we break the 4th commandment is by neglecting to gather with the church for worship on Sunday. The Sabbath was given for worship and rest but we break the Sabbath when we rest instead of worship. Of course we do not practice the Sabbath on Saturday as believers did under the old covenant. Jesus resurrected on the first day of the week and so Sunday is now the new covenant Sabbath. The New Testament calls Sunday the Lord’s Day and from the resurrection of Christ foreword the church has always gathered around the Word and the sacrament every Sunday to honor and celebrate the resurrection of Jesus.
This is an important distinction because many Christians believe and function as if the Sabbath was abolished with the New Testament but that is not the case. The Sabbath may have been the sign of the old covenant but is predates the old covenant. We mentioned earlier that the Sabbath is ingrained in the creation order – God rested on the 7th day. So the Sabbath is not done away with, the Sabbath is now Sunday.
Gathering for worship on Sunday is not an option but is explicitly commanded by God. Hebrews 10.25 requires that we not neglect to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encourage one another. When you neglect the church, you neglect that which Jesus loves and died for. And so while there are occasions where we are providentially hindered from coming to church, God’s expectation for us is that our schedules are anchored in Sunday worship. That means that church is not an option if you have nothing else going on. If coming to church every Sunday is not the pattern of your life and the expectation of your home then you are breaking the 4th Commandment.
Why is this so important? It’s important because God’s ordained means of grace for your sanctification are found in the church – the preaching of the Word, the sacraments (which are the signs and seals of the new covenant), the fellowship of the body – these means of grace are not found in your quiet time or in nature; they are found in the church gathered. Making church a priority is important because if you make church negotiable in your home, it will become dispensable for your kids when they grow up. Let this be a warning to those of you with young kids. Because there is no doubt that we have people here this morning with grown kids who have walked away from the church and part of the reason is that church was not important in the home when they were growing up.
In a week-to-week way there is nothing you have to do that is more important than church. God owns your time and he requires you to gather for worship. When you neglect church you’re breaking the 4th Commandment. When you center your week and your calendar around coming to church on Sunday you are keeping the 4th Commandment.
Conclusion
Man, aren’t you tired? Doesn’t this physical and spiritual rat race just exhaust your soul? Quit trying to earn God’s favor. Quite worrying. Quit depriving your soul of the means of grace found only in the local church.
Rest in Jesus because Jesus is alive and seated at the right hand of God. Rest in Jesus because he is God’s prophet who speaks through the preaching of the Word. Rest in Jesus because he is God’s priest interceding for you every moment. Rest in Jesus because he is God’s king rightly ruling the world and the church. You can rest in Jesus because he takes no days off.