INTRODUCTION
• How many of us have wished for more hours in the day? We think if we have more time we could get more done! More hours in the day would just make for a more hectic day for most of us.
• How many of us feel like our batteries are about to run down? Our lives seem to be more hectic than ever. With the advent of technology for many people even the commute to work is no longer a time to relax. You see people all the time on their cell phones many are conducting business. Laptop computers running in the front seat of the car so a person can do more work on the way to work. You think maybe you can go out for a relaxing evening at the restaurant. Next thing you know the cell phones are ringing everywhere!
• We live a fast paced life today. Many people are too busy to even commit to coming to church. Maybe we need a day of rest.
• When we run this fast pace we lose sight of how precious time really is. A watch company once ran an ad that said, “THERE’S NO PRESENT LIKE THE TIME.”
• It usually takes a death, fear of some terminal disease, or some other tragedy for us to recognize how precious time is.
• Today we are going to look at the Fourth Commandment. It is going to deal with the issue of the Sabbath.
• Kay White, Auburn, CA in an article in Today’s Christian Woman called "Heart to Heart." Said, “One morning, my four young children and I were reviewing what God did on each of the seven days of creation. When we got to the seventh day, my youngest raised his hand frantically and yelled, "I know, Mom. I know. On the seventh day, God got arrested!"
• There is a lot of misunderstanding concerning the Fourth Commandment. Today we are going to look at what it meant to keep the Sabbath holy. We will see how man perverted the command and finally, what it means today.
• Let’s turn to Exodus 20:8-11
SERMON
I. GOD’S COMMAND
1. What is the Sabbath?
• The word “Sabbath” in the original Hebrew means, “to desist”, “cease” or “to rest”.
• God is telling the Jews they are to remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. We will cover this more in a couple of minutes.
• Literally God is commanding a day of rest in which man was cease his secular labor and keep the day holy to God.
• The Sabbath was celebrated from sundown Friday night to sundown Saturday night. Literally the seventh day.
• In verses 9-10 we are told how we are to carry out God’s command. READ
• God told the Israelites they were to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy by taking a day off the normal routine. We keep it holy by focusing our day on God. It was a time in which God wanted us to take time out and remember Him.
• Even during the wandering in the wilderness when God provided manna from heaven for the people, they were only to take what they needed for the day except on Friday when they were to collect enough for two days so they would not have to collect on the Sabbath. (Exodus 16:1-30)
2. The “Genesis” of the Sabbath Concept.
• In verse 11 God explains why the seventh day is to be special. He said He created everything in six days and rested on the seventh.
• We see this in Genesis 2:2-3. By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.
• There is no distinct mention of the Sabbath in Gen, though a 7-day period is referred to several times (Gen 7:4, 10; 8:10, 12; 29:27 f). From Adam to Joseph there is no mention of the Sabbath. The first express mention of the Sabbath is found in Ex 16:21-30, in connection with the giving of the manna.
• In the Deuteronomy 5 account of the Ten Commandments, God gives us another reason for the Sabbath observance. Deuteronomy 5:15 says, ’You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to observe the sabbath day.
3. The scope of the Sabbath.
• Who was to observe the Sabbath? Verse ten gives us the scope of the command. You, your sons or your daughters, your male or female servants your animals or people who are visiting with you (sojourners).
• This command was meant for everyone. Even those who were not believers who were within the nation were called to take the day off to rest and reflect on God.
• The focus of the day was to be put on God.
II. MAN’S PERVERSION OF THE COMMAND
• God gives what seems to be a simple command. Over time though the Jewish leaders with good intentions in an effort to try to clarify what God meant, made a mess of God’s command.
• Later in the Old Testament, the nation followed the law with varying degrees of success. The prophets found fault with the worship on the Sabbath, because it was not spiritual nor prompted by love and gratitude.
• With the development of the synagogue the Sabbath became a day of worship and of study of the Law, as well as a day of cessation from all secular employment. That the pious in Israel carefully observed the Sabbath is clear from the conduct of the Maccabees and their followers, who at first declined to resist the onslaught made by their enemies on the Sabbath (1 Macc 2:29-38); but necessity drove the faithful to defend themselves against hostile attack on the Sabbath (1 Macc 2:39-41). It was during the period between Ezra and the Christian era that the spirit of Jewish legalism flourished. (ISBE)
• It was during the period between Ezra and the Christian era (intertestamental period) that the spirit of Jewish legalism flourished. Innumerable restrictions and rules were formulated for the conduct of life under the Law. Great principles were lost to sight in the mass of petty details.
• Things like spitting on the ground were forbidden because the leaders called that irrigating.
• In the Mishna (the Jewish commentary on the Law) there were over 39 classes of prohibited actions with regard to the Sabbath and there was much hairsplitting details that made the simple law cumbersome for the average person to keep.
• What about today? Is the Sabbath still commanded for the Christian?
III. THE CHRISTIAN RESPONSE TO THE COMMAND TODAY
• There has been many people who have acted on convictions about the Sabbath. In the movie, “Chariots of Fire”, Eric Liddell gave up a life long dream to run for the gold metal in the 1924 Olympics in Paris because the race was on Sunday. He refused to run on the Sabbath. The problem was the “Sabbath” was never on Sunday.
• In 1995 BYU senior offensive tackle Eli Herring who was projected as a number one draft pick in he NFL (he was 6’7’’ and 330 pounds) turned down millions of dollars because he refused to play football on the “Sabbath”. He is still a $20,000-$30,000 per year school teacher. He is a Mormon. The sad thing is he played his whole college career on the Sabbath. SATURDAY!
• I would never run a person down who has a conviction about the Sabbath, but are we bound to it today? Let’s look at this. It is my contention that we are not bound to keep the Sabbath today as was the case in the Old Testament. Here are some reasons.
1. No Sabbath commanded in the New Testament.
• Nine of the Ten Commandments are restated in the New Testament. This is the only one that is not.
• COL 2:13-17 says, When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him. Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day --things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.
• Galatians 3:24 tells us the Law was a tutor to lead us to Jesus.
2. There are no examples of Jesus or the apostles keeping the Sabbath.
• Throughout the gospels we find Jesus in trouble with the religious leaders over the issue of the Sabbath. Jesus would heal people (John 5), He would pick grain (Matthew 12) among other things. Jesus did not violate the Sabbath, He just did not observe the traditions of the Elders which were an addition by man to the law.
• We have no records in the scriptures of the apostles teaching us to observe the Sabbath.
3. There was no penalty specified for not keeping the Sabbath
4. Is there still value in the concept today?
• Is the principle of setting aside a day to rest and focus on God a valid concept? Yes it is! With the advent of the New Testament, the first day of the week was the day set aside for God. (Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:2) Jesus rose on the first day of the week, so the church started meeting on that day.
• Is it mandatory for us to do nothing on Sunday? No, but would it hurt us to slow down a bit for a day and focus on God?
• We have the example in the Bible of the church meeting on the first day of the week (Acts 20). We are also commanded not to forsake the assembling together. In other words we are told to go to church. (Hebrews 10:25)
• Jesus should be the center of our lives EVERYDAY! Part of putting Jesus first is coming to church so we can encourage each other in our walk with Jesus.
• If we are too busy to commit to coming to church, then we are too busy. IF we say God is a priority or is number one in our lives and then EVERYTHING else gets put ahead of simply spending a couple of hours together one time a week with other believers, then we need to look at what or who is really our lord.
• The essence of our faith in not just to have an emotional and mystical feeling about heaven and God but to understand that there are expectations and obligations from God to direct our lives toward Him.
CONCLUSION
• Do we need a day of rest? Is it a waste of time to relax one day?
• One man challenged another to an all-day wood chopping contest. The challenger worked very hard, stopping only for a brief lunch break. The other man had a leisurely lunch and took several breaks during the day. At the end of the day, the challenger was surprised and annoyed to find that the other fellow had chopped substantially more wood than he had. "I don’t get it," he said. "Every time I checked, you were taking a rest, yet you chopped more wood than I did." "But you didn’t notice," said the winning woodsman, "that I was sharpening my ax when I sat down to rest."
• L. S. Chafer, Grace.
• Are you chopping wood with a dull ax? Today commit to putting Jesus first in your life!
