Intro
Open your Bibles to Exodus chapter 20 today as we continue our Summer Series entitled “Love God , Love your Neighbor” We are examining the 10 Commandments—God’s moral law—while focusing on Jesus is summary of the commandments found in the New Testament Gospels. The commandments teach us about God identity. They also serve guide us, to correct us, to protect us and most importantly, point us to our need for a Savior. God sent Jesus to fulfill the law by keeping it perfectly for us. And His life and words help us bring more clarity to God’s commands. It is through the biblical record of Jesus’ life we see the truest meaning and depth of God’s commands.
Jesus summarized the commandments when He was asked this question.
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. (Matthew 22:36-39)
Jesus teaches us here that the 10 commandments are easily understood as “Love God” and “Love Your Neighbor” So we have taken the first four commands and focus them on our worship to God
and then we take commandments 5-10 and focus them on our mission. Jesus serves as our perfect example of what it means to love God with all our heart, mind and soul. He worshiped God with His whole heart, His mind was set on His Father’s mission and soul was surrendered to the Father’s plan of redemption for His people. He also serves as our perfect example of what it means to love our neighbor. His love for his neighbor goes so deep that He willing gave His life for us.
Today we come to the 4th commandment.
In a sermon is entitled: Worship: God’s Rest is Holy
If you're able we stand as we open up God's word today? I pray that you will hear the word of the Lord.
READ FROM THE BIBLE
“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. 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 on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. (Exodus 20:8-11)
PRAY
The big truth is: Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Christ. The rest we find in Jesus is unlike any other rest. It is a holy rest.
We come to the fourth commandment and it is important to keep in mind the context which it is written.
The book of Exodus begins with several generations of God’s people in enslaved in Egypt. They were under the iron-fist of Pharaoh and his guards.God remembers His covenant with Israel and they are delivered out of Egypt by Moses. Moses leads them through the impassable sea toward the promised land in Canaan. This was a place given to the people of God where they could be free to worship the One true God. It was along this journey that God give Moses the moral law—the ten commandments.
The commandments begin to combat the polytheistic nature—of worshipping multiple gods—that His people adopted from the Egyptians.So He began with the first commandment saying there is the One true God and they are not to have any gods before him. The second was they were not to create or fashion an image of God to worship as God. Rather God desires a true and personal relationship with His people. The third command was that they were to keep the name of the Lord their God Holy. God’s people who were used to serving many gods with many names. How easy was it for them to bring the make of the LORD common or powerless like their Egyptian gods. So God’s gives us His name. It is a holy and powerful name that is above every other name. Therefore we are to not take it in vain.
Now we come to the 4th commandment. Where God speaks and says;
“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 20:8-10)
God commanded in Exodus 16 that they where to work for 6 days
And on the sixth day God commanded the Israelites to rest. He promised that He would provide a double portion of food on the sixth day so they would have enough food on the Sabbath day. And here God says to remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy. The word holy here means to set apart, to consecrate. The word consecrate means to make something sacred. So this day God was commanding His people to make this day more sacred than the others. Set it apart for God and keep it holy.
To Sabbath means to rest. What does it mean to rest? The Sabbath Day was given for several reasons.
PHYSICAL
The first and most obvious reason was for physical rest and refreshment. God’s people were created to work but not to work 24/7. God said on it you shall not do any work. What a relief it must have been for the Israelites to know that their God was not like the slave masters in Egypt who would work them 7 days a week. And for God to command the Sabbath Day is to say to His people I love and care about you. God also loves and cares for our family members, servants and travelers, 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. He even wants your animals to rest. This speaks to how He cares for your future. The Egyptians would work the Israelites to death not caring about your future.
FELLOWSHIP
The Sabbath Day was given for fellowship.
He says; the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God and...
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. (Exodus 20:8-11)
In creation God worked 6 days and rested. But His rest was unlike our need for physical rest. God was not tired or exhausted. Rather God rested in the most perfect way. He rested in a way that showed His complete satisfaction in His creation. God rested to take pleasure in what He created. It is in this rest that He shows us the goodness of His creation. He loved His creation, especially the crown of His creation—who was created in His image and likeness. Part of the image we share with God is a working and resting image.
We are not to work hard for our selves. We are to understand God has created and given us everything. And He wants us to rest and delight in His purposes and design. Because they are good in the perfect sense. The famous opening words of the Westminster Confession reads:
“As image-bearers of God, our ultimate goal is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in God alone.”
God loves His people, He loves His creation and He desires to fellowship with us. And it is in His presence we find rest. In order to be in the presence of God. His people first need to be rescued.
REDEMPTION
His presence in the Sabbath Day points to our rest in redemption. For them to even have a day to set aside for the Lord was a constant reminder of the deliverance from slavery in Egypt and the future hope of promised land. The Israelites had a moral law, a civil law, and a ceremonial law. The Old Testament teaching on the Sabbath included aspects of all three. As a nation Israel executed strict civil penalties for breaking the Sabbath. There was also a ceremonial aspect of the Sabbath. The rest it provided was a sign pointing to salvation, and it's observance on the seventh day was a part of the whole Old Testament system that would eventually find its fulfillment in Christ.
But even though the fourth commandment has found its fulfillment in Christ, there remains an moral obligation.
So Israel civil law has expired, the ceremonial aspect of the law has been for filled in Christ, but the moral aspect still remains. This is why the 10 Commandments were written in stone. Because they were made to remain.
THE LORD OF THE SABBATH
So what is the difference between Israel and us. And what does the 4th commandment mean for Christians today? Just like the Israelites, we are made in the image of a working and resting God. We are called to work, we all need rest, and we still need to set apart a day to delight in, worship and serve the Creator God who gives us breath and life. The main difference is that Christians today have received a new and greater deliverance then Israel. We no longer look to Israel’s Exodus for the hope of our salvation; Rather we look to Christ, who accomplished salvation by dying for our sins and raising from the dead. Jesus is the fulfillment of the fourth commandment. The Old Testament sabbath pointed to the full and final rest that can be only found in Him.
Jesus gives a whole new meaning to work, and a whole new meaning to rest. In John’s gospel, Jesus disciples we're trying to get him to stop working and eat and Jesus said;
“My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.” (John 4:34)
It was on the basis of that work that Jesus said;
“…you will find rest for your souls.” (Matthew 11:29)
The Israelites looked and strived for the day of salvation. Whereas today we need to look no further than the finished work of Jesus Christ.
David wrote;
For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation.
(Psalm 62:1)
The way for us to find rest today is by trusting in Christ alone for our salvation. We must depend on His work rather than our own. Just as God rested on the 7th day enjoying and delighting in the goodness of His work.
We too are to set aside a holy day to rest, to worship, to enjoy, to delight in, and proclaim God’s perfect work of redemption and reconciliation through the life, death and resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ. We will close in Hebrews chapter 10
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. (Hebrews 10:23-25 ESV)
?BENEDICTION
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:17-21 ESV)
