The Ten Commandments are principles for keeping free. In Exodus 20, these people have become free for the first time in 400 years, and God is telling them, "I gave you freedom. I made you free. Now let Me tell you how to keep it."
So these are ten principles for individual, collective, and national freedom.
When they asked Jesus what the greatest of all the commandments was, He said: "The most important one...is this: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."
The first three commands are God telling us how to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. It begins by saying you must remember that He is God, not you. You will not take His name in vain. That means you will not use His name in an easy or light way. Whenever you speak the name of God, you must speak it in reverence. You will not misuse His name by using it to get power or glory for yourself. You will not misuse His name to manipulate power over other people. This is a part of how you love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Now we come to the third commandment which tells us how to love God.
READ 8-11
Patty and I married when we were very young, and I remember how deeply and quickly I fell in love. I recall the story of a young boy asking his father, "Do you believe in love at first sight?" His father wasn't quite prepared for the question so he said, "Well, it does save a lot of time." We waited a whole year after graduation from high school and then we got married, 39 years ago. It was not economically feasible. Of course, it hardly ever is.
Have you heard this?
The bride, leaning on her cane,
Her footsteps needing guiding,
While down the aisle,
With a wan, toothless smile,
The groom in a wheelchair came riding.
Who is this elderly couple just wed?
You'll find if you closely explore it
That this is that rare
And conservative pair
Who waited till they could afford it.
Well, after many years of marriage I made the startling discovery that I liked her more than anybody else. It has long been our practice to strive to save one day a week for each other. I don't play golf, I don't fish, I don't do windows. But, I discovered one way I could express my love for my wife was to give her one day a week. She is my best friend in the whole wide world.
Give God His Day
When God says, "You will love Me with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength,"
in this third commandment, He is saying, "I want you to give Me time. I want you to give Me a day. I want there to be a day when you give Me your undivided attention to renew our relationship and love for each other."
In the Old Testament, the Sabbath, of course, was Saturday. The word Sabbath means "seven." But in the New Testament, Jesus came out of the grave on the first day of the week. He appeared to His disciples on the first day of the week. Pentecost, when the church was born and the Holy Spirit came with great power, was on the first day of the week. We read in the New Testament that the church always met on the first day of the week. When John was getting the revelation while imprisoned on the Isle of Patmos, he said, "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day, and he spoke to me. He revealed Himself to me." It was the first day of the week, and it came to be called the Lord's Day, the day in which we love and honor Him. We set it aside to say, "You are the Lord God, and we are not. We love and honor You, and we recognize how much we need You."
Just as we are mind and body, we are also soul and spirit, and we must feed that if we're to recognize our totality of the person that we are. We need the day. We need to say, "Lord, I love You, and I'm giving You time."
We've heard all the teachers and preachers say it. We are even taught this concerning our families. "How do you spell love? T-I-M-E." How do you love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength? Part of that is to say, "Lord, I give You time. I give You this day."
The Scripture says remember this day. When you get up on this day each week, remember this is the Lord's Day. Don't let it get away from you. Don't forget the fact that God in love wants time from you and me .... time to worship, refresh, cleanse, repent, and restore our relationship; time to be His and praise and honor Him. If you loved God, you will give Him time.
All of us have heard the parable of the frog in the kettle. You can't just put a frog in boiling water if you're going to boil him alive. He'll jump out. You put him in cold water, and build a fire under the kettle. As the water gets warmer, the frog grows accustomed to it and literally boils to death without knowing what happened.
I think our secular society has done something like that to the spirit of the American people. We have let the fire of secularism and the temporary curse of this life being everything ... boil until we have boiled the spiritual life out of many a soul, and there's dryness and death there. We need to remember the day.
Back in the days when a nickel could buy a dollar's worth, a little boy was walking to Sunday School. His parents had given him two nickels on the way to church, and his dad had said, "Now give one nickel to God. You give it to the offering. I want you to keep the other nickel for yourself, and you can have an ice cream cone on the way home." The little boy was walking down the sidewalk,
and he tripped and lost his grip on those nickels. One of them rolled into a grate completely out of reach, and he said, "Well, Lord, there goes Your nickel."
I fear many of us in this secular consumption of what has happened to the Lord's Day (as it's been swallowed up into part of a weekend) have said, "There is so much to do. There are so many places to go and things to see. There are trips to be made, games to be played, and points to be scored. There is fun to be done. Lord, I'm sorry, but there goes Your day." And God's Word to you and me is: Remember the Sabbath. Remember this is the Lord's Day, and this is how we show Him we love Him. We give Him time.
Keep His Day Holy
God says, not only to remember the day, but to keep it holy. This is the Lord's Day. Remember it and keep it holy. What does that mean? The word holy means "to be set aside completely for something." When the Bible tells us God is holy, holy, holy, it is saying He is encompassing, He is all, He is everything. To keep the Sabbath Day holy is to set it aside completely for worship of the holy, holy, holy God. What does it mean to keep it holy, to keep it His? It means total dedication. It means we come to a time when we say, "Lord, I am completely Yours. You are my Lord, not just in title, but in reality. I follow You with all my heart and soul."
Someone has suggested perhaps we ought to change our hymns to match the mood of the people nowadays.
Instead of "Fill My Cup, Lord," it should be "Fill My Spoon, Lord."
Instead of "I Surrender All," it should be "I Surrender Some."
Instead of "There Shall Be Showers Of Blessings," maybe it should be "There Shall Be Sprinkles Of Blessings."
Instead of singing, "Oh, How I Love Jesus," maybe we ought to sing, "Oh, How I Like Jesus."
Instead of singing, "There Is Sunshine In My Soul," we'd honestly have to sing, "Lord, there is scattered cloudiness in my soul because my commitment is not as total as it once was."
Keep it holy. Set it aside to discover that spiritual giant in you.
Then the next verses say on this day, you will not do any work. Those you are responsible for will not work ... not your children, not your servants, or those who work for you, not even people who don't believe in the Lord's Day. He said, "You shall make this day holy by making it a day of rest."
What does rest mean? Well, there's a sacred cleansing involved in rest. That's what Jesus meant when He said, "Come to me all you that are weary and heavy laden, I will give your rest. I will make you clean, and that will be restful."
When I was growing up, my brother and I threw newspapers....or should I say we delivered them. That was back in the day when you could tell those young boys you wanted the newspapers put on the doorstep, or on the mail box, or even, come inside the house and leave it on the couch in the living room. One thing about newspapers, you end up getting the ink all over you. Once you get it on your hands, it goes on your face and clothes and anything else you touched. That was back when Dallas had two newspapers and we through the morning paper. By the time we got through, we would come home and immediately have to take a shower to get all the ink off.
God intends the Sabbath to be a day when we come and are clean, when we have rest of the cleansing God gives to us. Christ says, "Come to Me, and I will give you rest. I will clean you up."
Celebrate On His Day
Then there's this interesting statement. It tells about God resting. In verse 11, it says, READ VS. 11
God rested on the seventh day. God doesn't get tired or worn out. He keep's going and going and going. And He never gets tired.
What does it mean that God rested? He stopped and celebrated the things He had made. He looked at all He had made and said, "That's very good."
The Lord's Day is a day in which we come and celebrate what God has done. We look at our creation and our lives. We're thankful for our nation. We celebrate the things God has done for us. We look at ourselves and even celebrate our own being. Do you understand your heart will probably beat 104,000 times today and push your blood 171,000 miles? You will breathe around 24,000 times on a normal day. You will use eight million brain cells in operating through one single day.
The Psalmist says, we're fearfully and wonderfully made, and we need to celebrate the life God has given us, to praise Him for what He has done. But mostly, we need to celebrate how God has made us over and saved us. We need to celebrate because of what Christ has done for us.
All of us have seen the war movies where one soldier dives takes a bullet intended for one of his buddies. This is what Jesus Christ has done for us.
He stepped in front of the thing aimed at us. He took the full force of our sins and died on the cross for our sins to give us life.
We come and celebrate on the Lord's Day what the Lord has done for us, how He took the full brunt of sin on Him and died for us that we might have eternal life. We celebrate our salvation on the Lord's Day.
Let me ask you, you who are in the kingdom of God because you've received Christ as Savior, how did that happen? Was it because somebody thought Sunday was a very special day? Was it because people kept meeting on the Lord's Day and exposed you to the things of God? Was it because some godly Sunday School teacher thought taking weekends for himself was not near so important as being there on the Lord's Day to share the Word of God with you? Was it because you heard the music that shared Christ? Was it because you heard messages that told about Jesus Christ? Is that why you're in the kingdom of God? Is it because somebody took this day seriously and said, "This is worth it. Souls and lives are at stake. Lord, I love You, and I show my love to You by serving You on this day and honoring You."? I want you to know how important it is that we keep observing the Lord's Day.
I read recently about Hans of Austria. Hans went to the Olympic games in the 80's. There, Hans, with his right hand, aimed his pistol and shot 99 out of 100 slugs into the bull's-eye and won a gold medal. He brought that gold medal back to Austria, and he was a celebrity, the only winner of a gold medal in the country. He traveled for several months around the country being celebrated.
Then he went back to his job a the factory. One day at the factory, an accident happened. His hand was caught in a machine, and Hans had to have his right arm amputated just below his elbow. That was his pistol hand. Hans was in great depression during his recovery, and his wife worried about how he would ever get over this great despair that settled upon him.
Many months later, Hans was at home. He was not doing any better. One day, the children had gone to school, and Hans looked at his wife and said, "I can't take anymore of this." As he got up, she noticed his pistol was stuck in his belt. She feared for him and wanted to say, "Don't do that. Don't go. Don't leave the house." But she sat there stunned.
He walked across the road and into the woods. After awhile, she heard the report of a pistol going off, a shell exploding. She ran across the road, and then before she had gone too far into the woods, she heard another shell exploding.
She thought, "Maybe it's not what I'm thinking." Then four more shells exploded.
She said, "No, I know he's alive." She came into a clearing and saw him. He had put the gun under his arm, and with the one hand he had, he was loading the gun.
Then he took his left hand again and began to squeeze off shots at a target.
Within two years, Hans had gone to another Olympics and won another gold medal by putting 98 out of 100 slugs into the bull's-eye using his left hand.
God does something like that for us. No matter how we mess up, no matter what happens, no matter how much despair or agony or depression comes into our lives,
you can come in close contact with God, honoring Him on His day and serving Him and loving Him. He can love you back and make your life over again. That's what Sunday is about. It's loving God, letting Him love you, and letting Him make your life a real and wonderful thing.
You've heard the Doxology on many occasions:
Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heav'nly host;
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
A little girl sang that one time. She didn't have the words exactly right.
She ended by singing, "Praise Father, Son, and hold me close." And that's really what the Holy Spirit does. As we honor Christ, He holds us close to the love and grace and power and cleansing of the Lord God. And I pray we will understand that God wants us to remember the Lord's Day.
When you get up each Sunday, remember this is the Lord's Day. Keep it holy.
Make your commitment to the Lord real and holy. Know the resting of the total cleansing with God. Celebrate the magnificence of what He has done for you.
Celebrate the Lord God.
Praise Father, Son and hold me close.
Praise God It's His Day!
