The first Four Words of the Ten Commandments are calls to worship. 

• The First Word commands the proper object of worship: “You shall have no other gods before me.”
• The Second Word commands the proper manner of worship: “You shall not make for yourself a carved image.”
• The Third Word commands the proper attitude of worship: “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.”
• The Fourth Word commands the proper time of worship: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” 

We must worship God exclusively, correctly, reverently, and regularly. If you are not careful, life will crowd God out. But redeemed people must never forget to make proper time for the God who created us, sustains us, and redeemed us. Ray Pritchard said: We give 1 day in 7 to God because 7 out of 7 belong to him!!! 

A man was approached by a beggar on the street. The man reached into his pocket to see what he had. Finding seven dollars and feeling sorry for the beggar, he held out six bills and said, “Here you go.” Not only did the beggar take the six dollars, but with his other hand he struck his benefactor across the face and grabbed the seventh dollar, too. 

As terrible as that story may seem to you, many of us should hear the prophet Nathan saying to us at this point, “You are the man!” God has graciously given us six days. In arrogant ingratitude, we snatch the seventh day, as well! We must learn to make time for God. If you are too busy to make time for God, you are too busy. Consider the principle, prescription, and practice of the Sabbath. 

The Principle of the Sabbath 

The Fourth Word charges us to be faithful stewards of the gift of time. It teaches three ways to sanctify our time. 

A Call to Worship. Exodus 20:8 commands: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” This command to rememberthe Sabbath indicates Israel already knew about it. After God delivered Israel from Egypt, God provided manna for them to eat. When the Israelites woke up each morning, manna was on the ground. The Israelites collected manna to feed their household for the day. On the sixth day, the Israelites were to collect twice as much, because God provided no manna on the seventh day. Exodus 16:23 says, “This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord.’” Now God commands Israel: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”

The word “holy” means to set apart for the purposes of God. In scripture, certain people, places, and things are called holy. The Fourth Commandment teaches certain times are also holy. The Sabbath was to be remembered so keep it holy. 

• It is a call to worship.
• It is a call to seta side time for God.
• It is a call to schedule time for God’s sake.

Matthew Henry wrote, “The Sabbath was made a day of holy rest so that it might be a day of holy work.”

A Call to Labor. Verse 9 commands, “Six days you shall labor, and do all your work.” Many people view success as getting to the place where you do not have to work anymore. But that view of life reflects our sinful nature, not God’s holy wisdom. God created us to work. God has wired us to work. God made man to work daily and diligently. Work is not the curse. Genesis 2:18 says, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.” Work is good. The dignity of work was established by God in creation. The fall of man in Genesis 3 resulted in work being difficult, exhausting, and frustrating. But work itself is good. Work is a part of what it means for human beings to be made in the image of God. 

God works. The devil is busy. But the devil cannot out-busy God. 

• God never takes a break.
• God never calls in sick.
• God never takes a vacation.
• God is always at work.
• God works the night shift.
• God finishes the work he begins.

God is both a white-collar executive and a blue-collar laborer. God speaks and it comes to pass. God moves and things happen. Our God works. And God commands us to work. To be godly is to work. Arthur W. Pink wrote, “He who never works is unfit for worship. Work is to pave the way for worship, as worship is to fit us for work.”  

A Call to Rest. In The Tender Commandments, Ron Mehl writes of waking up in the ICU to see the face of his friend Jack Hayford, who had flown from Los Angeles to Beaverton to check on him. “Good enough for you?” was Hayford’s strange greeting. “You’re a prideful man, Ron,” he went on to say. “You think people are really impressed that you work seven days a week.” Hayford had told him this many times before. But Mehl always found a way to escape the subject. This time he was trapped in the ICU, recovering from a heart attack. Hayford continued “This is an ego thing for you, isn’t it, Ron? You want affirmation. You want everybody to say, ’Isn’t he amazing? Look at that Ron Mehl. Always in the office. Never misses a service. Works seven days a week!’ Get serious, Mehl. Who are you trying to impress? God? Well, I can tell you something. He’s not impressed. God’s only impressed with one thing, and that’s His Son.” 

Exodus 20:9-10 says: “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.” This commandment is not restrictive. In sovereign authority, infinite wisdom, and unchanging goodness, our heavenly Father commands us to rest. It is a personal call to rest. God knows you cannot make it without rest, refreshment, and rejuvenation. So he gave us this human maintenance schedule. 

• God calls those who will not work lazy. 
• God calls those who will not rest disobedient. 

It is a communal call to rest. Verse 10 says: “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.” There are seven categories listed here. This all-inclusive call to rest affirms equality and justice for all, the precious nature of creation, and the dignity of people from foreign lands. Our family, coworkers, and possessions belong to God. Every person is a person of value created in the image of God. The Lord affirmed this by calling the entire community – including cattle – to rest on the Sabbath. 

It is a spiritual call to rest. Exodus 20:11 explains: “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 and made it holy.” God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh day. God did not rest because he was tired. Isaiah 40:28 says, “He does not fair or grow weary.” God rested to set a pattern for us to follow. The Lord blessed and sanctified the seventh day to remind us that he is our Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer. Our lives do not depend on our work. It depends on God’s work. 

The Prescription of the Sabbath 

This fourth Word is the longest of the Ten Commandments. It is the only commandment not taught, repeated, or affirmed in the New Testament. And it is the most controversial commandment. The principle is clear. The prescription is controversial because it not only commands us to make time for God; it also tells us when that time should be. 

• It is named in verse 8: the Sabbath day. 
• It is specified in verse 10: the seventh day. 

For the record, Sunday is not Sunday, the seventh day, the Sabbath. Sunday is what ancient Israel would have called the first or eighth day. It is what the early church called the Lord’s Day. It is what we call Sunday. This Saturday-Sabbath/Sunday-Lord’s Day distinction makes this commandment complicated. Do Christians violate the Fourth Commandment by worshiping on Sunday? No. There is no place in the New Testament where Christians are taught to keep the Sabbath. It is not even suggested. 

The Sabbath was a key point of tension between Jesus and the Jewish religious establishment. By the time of Jesus, Sabbath-keeping had been entangled with many restrictive rules that made the fulfillment of the Fourth Commandment hopeless for most Jews. In a sincere attempt to keep this commandment, the religious establishment built “fence laws” around the Sabbath. These applications were eventually given the same authority as the commandment itself. If a person broke the rules of the establishment he was condemned as a Sabbath breaker. That was the religious leaders’ indictment against Jesus. The Gospels record six incidents in which Jesus’ actions resulted in controversy over the Sabbath. Mark 2:27 records how he responded on one of those occasions. Jesus said, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”

Matthew 19:16-20; Mark 10:17-20, Luke 18:18-21; and Romans 13:8-10 record summaries of the law. None of them mention Sabbath-keeping. The impeccable life, bloody cross, and empty tomb of Jesus changed everything. This is why the early church intentionally, willingly, and naturally changed their day of worship to Sunday. It was to celebrate the resurrection of Christ. The church did not celebrate the resurrection in an annual Easter observance. They celebrated the Lord’s Day worship every Sunday!

Colossians 2:16-17 says: “Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.”  This is God’s word to every person who defines his relationship to God in terms of strict diets or special days. 

• Stop chasing shadows. 
• Embrace the reality. 
• Trust in Jesus.

Christ is our Sabbath rest. Hebrews 4:9-10 says: “So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.” True rest comes through saving-faith in and personal devotion to Jesus Christ. In Mathew 11:28-30, Jesus says: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Jesus is our rest. B.B. Warfield said, “Christ took the Sabbath into the grave with him and brought the Lord’s Day out of the grave with him on the resurrection morning.”

The Practice of the Sabbath 

 What are the practical applications of this commandment for us today?

Private devotions. Psalm 118:24 says: “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” This verse affirms a fundamental fact you can count on every day: God is in charge. God is in control. God is sovereign over every moment, event, and situation you will face today, tomorrow, and every day. The Lord makes every day. And he reigns over all that he creates. Because God is in charge, you ought to rejoice and be glad every day. If you believe God the Father is good, faithful, and sovereign, you ought not to be miserable, frustrated, and hard to get along with. You ought to be grateful, joyful, and content. I am not saying you have to like everything going on in your life. But you should live with the confidence of Hebrews 13:8: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forevermore.” 

It is one thing to know the truth of the Lord’s unchanging goodness. It is another thing to live it out. How do you practice the presence of God on a daily basis? Make it a priority to spend quality time with God in private devotions every day. 

• Make time to offer thanksgiving to God every day. 
• Make time to read a portion of his holy word every day. 
• Make time to bring your personal needs to God in prayer every day. 
• Make time to pray for the needs of others every day. 
• Make time to bless God every day. 

I was a teenager preaching out of town. I was bored, lonely, and homesick. It was miserable. I turned on a football game on the TV. After watching for a few minutes, I saw something I had never paid attention to before. The quarterback threw an interception. When they showed him on the sideline, he had a phone to his ear. The commentators speculated about the instructions he might be getting from the press box. The head coach is on the sidelines. But the other coaches are in the press box, where they can have a better vantage point on the field. When the series is over; players call up the press box to get instructions about what they are doing wrong and what they are doing right. Every day God blesses you to go out on the field of life; call up your press box through scripture and prayer. 

Corporate Worship. Hebrews 10:24-25 says: “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.” The mutual care that builds one another up requires that we regularly meet together for worship, prayer, service, fellowship, and instruction. We should disregard the profession of faith of any person who habitually neglects the corporate meetings of their local church. Our failure to submit to the wisdom of this text dishonors the Lord, stunts our growth, and hinders the mission of the church.

Do not use family as an excuse to neglect corporate worship. You say, “Sunday is the only time I have to spend quality with my family.” But if you want to spend quality time with your family, the best thing for you to do is worship with your family. Shame on you if you think staying in or hanging out with your family on Sunday is of more quality than worshiping God together. Likewise, if Sunday is the only time you have to spend with your family, check your priorities. Shame of you if the Lord gives you six days every week, and you cannot find any time to spend with your family. This also applies to extended family and friends. You say, “I can’t come to church because I had guests at my house.” But don’t forget God gave you what you have! 

Do not use work as an excuse to miss corporate worship. You are busy. You have a lot to do. You have bills to pay. You have places to go, things to do, and people to meet. But if you are too busy to worship God, you are too busy. J.C. Penny said: “If a man’s business requires so much of his time that he cannot attend the Sunday morning and evening services, and Wednesday night prayer meeting, then that man has more business than God intended him to have.”

Do not use church as an excuse to miss corporate worship. Some pastors extend the invitation to church membership by asking, “If you aren’t growing; why are you going?” I struggle with this statement because I am convinced that church-hopping weakens Christians and sheep-stealing weakens churches. Yet that statement makes a good point. Do not force yourself to go to a church where you are not being taught, edified, and challenged. It grieves me to hear that some person or family has left our church. But I recognize the best thing some people can do for their spiritual growth is to find another church.  

• If you do not receive sound teaching, you should find another church. 
• If you do not respect the spiritual leaders, you should find another church.
• If you live so far away that the distance is an excuse to miss church, you should find another church. 
• If your heart is hardening so you cannot worship freely, serve willingly, or fellowship sincerely, you should find another church.

Before you find another church, examine yourself. The danger of the notion that you should not be going where you are not growing is it assumes if you are not growing it is because of where you are going. The problem may be your unwillingness to submit, reach out, forgive, get involved, or consider others. Indeed, there is a right time, a right reason, and a right way to leave a church. Find a new household of faith before you use the church as an excuse to miss corporate worship. God is too good, time is too short, and life is too hard for you to keep going to a place where you are not growing. Do not let the church keep you from coming to corporate worship. And do not let the church keep you from worshiping when you come.