The Fourth Commandment

We continue our summer series on the 10 Commandments and with the

4th commandment today. Earlier, as we recited in the

Shorter Catechism, we read the first version from Exodus 20 and

now as we read Moses second giving of the Law in

Deuteronomy. You'll notice a few key

differences now, with the most notable difference being an

additional reason for why the Sabbath should be observed.

Deuteronomy chapter 5, verses 12 through 15.

Deuteronomy 5:12–15

Observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy, as the Lord your God

commanded you. 6 days you shall labor and do all your work, but

the 7th day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God, Anna.

You shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, or

your male servant, or your female servant, or your ox or

your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who

is within your gates, that your male servant and your female

servant may rest as well as you. You shall remember that you were

a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought

you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.

Therefore, the Lord your God has commanded you to keep the

Sabbath day. Let's pray Lord Jesus, as we

come now to your word, as we come now to your gospel, I pray

that we would rest, that we would consider the works of the

Lord Jesus Christ, and that we would enter into that rest

through faith. Lord, help us to understand this

4th commandment and help it to guide our lives today, to give

us blessing and and rest and to grow us to be closer and closer

and to be more like Jesus as we pray in Jesus name, Amen.

Back in the 90s when I was a kid, I was swept up in a

Christian fad, the WWJD movement.

For those of you who are born in a different Millennium, WWJD

stands for What Would Jesus Do? It's an acronym to help you

remember to imitate Jesus. My church's kids program

rewarded Bible memorization with the popular cloth brace

bracelets with WWJD embroidered on them.

That was highly motivating for me.

I memorized so many verses and tried to collect as many

different colored WWGD bracelets as I could and on my left arm I

would wear all of them at the same time, like a sleeve tattoo.

I was oblivious to how prideful and awkward I was.

I was a lot better at memorizing Scripture than imitating Jesus.

The phrase What would Jesus do? Gets at the heart of Christian

ethics, which is that we are to imitate God.

Every command in Scripture aims at us being holy as God is holy.

We are to imitate God as a child imitates a parent.

English Puritan Thomas Brooks said this.

Certainly Christianity is nothing else but an imitation of

the divine nature, a reducing of man's, of a man's self to the

image of God in which he was created in righteousness and

true holiness. A Christian's whole life should

be nothing but a visible representation of Christ.

We're to develop the same character as God's, to grow and

loving what he loves and hating what he hates and doing what he

would do. And so it shouldn't surprise us

that the reason stated in Exodus 20 for obeying the 4th

commandment is that we are to imitate God.

Just as God worked 6 days and then rested on the 7th, so also

we are to work and then rest. God is a working and resting God

and so we are to be a working and resting people.

Our outline today is similar to a couple weeks ago.

Guilt, grace, and then gratitude.

We need to 1st consider our guilt, how we haven't imitated

God with this commandment. And then before we consider what

would Jesus do, we need to consider what did Jesus do?

What did Jesus do in his life, death and resurrection to give

us the abundance of God's grace? And then we will end with

gratitude. How?

How this commandment guides our life of Thanksgiving, How it

guides our life in imitating God in his work and in his rest.

So guilt, grace, and then gratitude.

First, let's consider our guilt, how the 4th commandment shows us

our sin. But before we do that, let's

consider what this commandment is.

As I previously mentioned, Exodus and Deuteronomy have two

versions of the 4th commandment, with the main difference being

the reasons that ground obedience to the commandment.

The Hebrew noun Sabbath is connected to a similar verb

meaning to cease, to stop, or to rest.

Exodus. The Exodus version says remember

the Sabbath, and the Deuteronomy version says observe the

Sabbath. And putting those two together,

it kind of fills out this general idea that the Sabbath

was to be regularly and continually observed without

neglect. The Sabbath is to be remembered

and observed as a holy day, a day set apart from all other

days of the week to worship the Lord and to rest from work.

We also see in the text that it's a day of rest to be

observed by all Israel, including servants and even

livestock was also to be observed by the sojourner, the

foreigner likely to prevent the temptation of foreign trade on

the Sabbath. In Exodus 31, God called the

Sabbath a sign between him and his people and and a covenant

forever the Sabbath. There was therefore a key marker

distinguishing the people of Israel from all the other

nations. And also in Exodus 31 God

declares that the punishment, the punishment for breaking and

profaning the Sabbath was no less than death.

We see in Numbers 15 that this thread of capital punishment was

taken seriously by Moses and the people.

When Israel was wandering in the wilderness, a man was found

gathering sticks on the Sabbath day.

The Lord then commanded Moses to put him to death by stoning, and

the order was obeyed. To put it bluntly, Israel was to

rest or die. In this commandment we see not

only a command to rest one day in six, but also the command to

work. Work and rest go together.

Work and rest are are like salt. Salt consists of two elements,

sodium and chlorine. 2 elements that when separated become very

dangerous if inhaled or eaten, but when combined they become an

essential nutrient. So also work and rest when

isolated from each other become spiritually dangerous.

The union of the two bring a rich flavor, joy and blessing to

the Christian life. So why are we to keep the

Sabbath? That question is, is actually,

it's actually a little misleading as I'll explain a

little bit. Since as Christians, we, we

don't keep the Sabbath in the original sense.

So why are we to keep the the Christian Sabbath, the Lord's

day? As I mentioned earlier, Exodus

and Deuteronomy give different reasons for keeping the Sabbath

and together they give us a deeper understanding of it.

Exodus grounds Sabbath observance in creation, while

Deuteronomy grounds it in redemption.

Creation and redemption. Because God created the world in

six days and then rested on the on the 7th, 7th, so also mankind

is to imitate that pattern of work and rest.

From this we see that Sabbath rest is not an invention at

Sinai, but something rooted in creation.

We see that it comes out of the nature of God.

God is the ultimate worker who created all things visible and

invisible, and sustains the existence of everything moment

by moment. God is the ultimate worker and

God is the ultimate restor. He is not tired by any of his

work. He's he continually maintains

infinite power. He works as he rests on his

throne, ruling all things by his word.

He never sleeps and He never exhausts himself.

He never ceases to work and He never ceases to rest.

He is God. The Sabbath command is also

rooted in redemption. Deuteronomy 515 says You shall

remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the

Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand

and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God

commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

Israel was was enslaved to the Egyptians, forced to work for

them whenever they demanded it, with with no guarantee of rest.

They could not rest regularly or worship God freely.

They were enslaved, but because God redeemed the Hebrews from

their slavery, they were then free to enjoy the dignity of

consistent rest and the privilege of worship.

Yesterday we celebrated America's 250th birthday. 250

years of the freedom to worship Jesus and to rest as we please.

And that long standing freedom should not be taken for granted.

We must continually remember those in history who did not

have this freedom, and those in the present who long for it.

Freedom is never free. Freedom doesn't just happen.

And so in a similar way, Israel was to remember their freedom

from slavery to Egypt, to never forget what a priceless

privilege it is to worship God in peace and to be no one's

slave. The Sabbath is a sign of the

freedom of God's people. The coming of Jesus Christ

transformed every commandment, but I think the 4th commandment

is transformed more than the others.

So how did Jesus transform the Sabbath?

With Jesus resurrection on Sunday and with the outpouring

of the Spirit on Pentecost Sunday, Christians in the New

Testament gathered together for worship on what they called the

Lord's Day the first day of the week, Sunday.

BB Warfield said this Christ took the Sabbath into the grave

with him and brought the Lord's Day out of the grave with him on

the resurrection morn. So what's the difference between

the Jewish Sabbath and the Christian Lord's Day?

To understand this, it's helpful to distinguish the three main

categories of the Old Testament law, civil, moral, and

ceremonial. With the coming of Christ, all

the civil and ceremonial laws of Moses were fulfilled in Christ

and then abrogated, done away with.

But the moral law remains. It has always, it always has

been and always will be wrong to worship other gods, to murder,

to commit adultery, to steal, and so on.

So with the coming of Christ, the ceremonial and civil aspects

of the 4th Commandment are abrogated, signaling by signaled

by the day of worship being Sunday instead of Saturday.

And so, thankfully, there is no death penalty that the church

enacts on its members for working on Sunday.

All the particular Sabbath rules of the Old Testament are done

away with. So what's left?

What's required for Christians? What is required?

What is required are the remaining moral aspects of the

4th Commandment. That is the creation pattern for

all mankind to work and to rest one day of the week and the

gathering of God's people on the Lord's Day.

To worship, to continue to worship on Saturdays would be to

stay in the shadows of the Old Testament, shadows that gave way

to the reality of Jesus with His coming.

Paul teaches this in Colossians 2.

Therefore, let no one pass judgement on you.

And questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or

a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things

to come. But the substance belongs to

Christ. We have no need for the shadows

of the law anymore now that Christ the substance is here.

And so a pattern of work and then corporate worship on the

Lord's day is what is required of Christians.

And as we look at the ministry of Jesus, we see that several

times the Gospels. The gospels record Jesus being

accused of breaking the Sabbath for healing someone.

But Jesus taught and demonstrated that the heart of

the Sabbath is all about rest and freedom and showing others

mercy on the Sabbath as a fulfilling of the heart of the

Sabbath. And so on the Lord's Day, as we

rest from our normal work and gather with the church to

worship, let us also keep our eyes open for opportunities to

show mercy to others, to those who need rest, to those who need

freedom, to those who need Christ.

That's required. What is required of us in the

4th Commandment? So what is forbidden?

What does it look like to break a profane the Lord's Day Lord?

The New Testament doesn't have long lists of things people

can't do on the Lord's Day. The New Covenant is not like the

old, and so my goal isn't to create a whole new list of Thou

shalt nots that are binding on the consciences of all

Christians. Instead of lists, let's focus on

general categories and principles of things that are

forbidden. Here's the summary from the

Shorter Catechism, which you read earlier.

The 4th Commandment forbids the omission or careless performance

of the duties required and the profaning the day by idleness or

doing that which is in itself sinful, or by unnecessary

thoughts, words, or works about a worldly employments or or

recreations. I think it's important to

clarify that the idleness spoken of here isn't prohibiting

something like taking a nap on Sunday.

I think sinful idleness is when we're completely aimless in what

we do, when we waste the day away by point doing pointless

things that are neither restful for our minds, bodies, or souls,

or Worshipful in any sense. That kind of living is foolish

on any day of the week, but especially on the Lord's Day

when when God has given us this amazing freedom and opportunity

to rest and we don't take it. It's also important to note that

the 4th Commandment is not forbidding every kind of work or

employment on the Lord's Day. Here in Rochester, we have many

who work for Mayo Clinic and need to work shifts on Sundays

in order to show mercy to those in their care.

There are many other kinds of jobs that require work on Sunday

to sustain and protect the lives of others.

Our perspective needs to change from God is restricting me from

working to God is freeing me to worship.

Where's your heart's attitude about the Lord's Day?

So what are some common ways that we in 2026 break this

commandment? How are we guilty?

Kevin Deyoung, in his excellent short book on the 10

Commandments, said that we often don't trust Christ enough to

rest. We worry about tomorrow and

don't trust in God's faithful provision of daily bread.

And so we anxiously pick up a Sunday shift or we open the

laptop and try to get ahead on work.

This is the kind of thing that God wants you to be free from.

God isn't like like an Egyptian slave master driving us to work

and work and work. He wants you to flourish in the

freedom of meaningful work, regular rest, and corporate

worship. It takes faith to rest on

Sundays, to trust in God's future provisions.

We often break the 4th commandment because we listen to

our fear instead of our faith think.

We also break this commandment when we turn it into a list of

do's and don'ts and we judge others for not following the our

exact list of do's and don'ts. It's wise for families to make

some family rules or guidelines about what the Lord's Day will

generally look like for them. But to take your rules and then

a bind the consciences of others, I think is in violation

of Romans 14 and the freedom of conscience we have in Christ in

the specific ways we worship and rest.

It's also too common that the Lord's Day turns more into a day

about our own personal rest and worship, and we don't consider

the needs of our neighbor. We often neglect acts of mercy

on the Lord's Day to in a sense, heal as Jesus healed to free

others as Jesus freed others. Neglecting mercy is a another

common way that we sin on the Lord's Day.

We also have the tendency to let Sunday just be like any other

day. Husbands, if your wife is a full

time homemaker, are you helping making helping to make sure that

the Lord's Day is different for and restful for her?

There's always mouths to feed and chores to be done.

And so if expectations don't change for Sunday, or if you

don't help, will your wife be able to rest as God intended?

That's just one example of how we all too often treat Sunday as

any other day. I think it's also common for us

to not make corporate worship the normal #1 priority of each

Lord's Day. Our children will notice what's

most important to us. If we worship except for when

there's sports to play or watch, then our children will notice

that sports are #1 If we worship except for when we would rather

work and earn extra money to get ahead, then our children will

notice that money is #1 if we gather for worship except when

we're too tired because of Saturday's late night

activities. Then our children will notice

that having fun is number one. In Romans 12, Paul urges us,

saying, present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and

acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the

renewal of your mind. Our culture tries to conform us

and to shackle us to its values, but God has set us apart.

He has freed us to be holy worshippers.

There are many other ways we are guilty of breaking this

commandment. Law shows us our guilt, but

praise God that we're not left stranded in our guilt.

The Law also points us to the grace that we need in Jesus

Christ. Jesus kept the whole law

perfectly. He worked, He rested, He

worshipped, He showed mercy through healing and deliverance.

He was the perfect Sabbath keeper, not just externally but

also internally, always trusting His Father for His daily bread.

By faith and repentance, Jesus Law keeping becomes our

righteousness, our guilt is forgiven and God sees us in

Christ washed clean and shining with the holiness of Christ.

We could never be obedient enough to cover our sins, and so

God graciously forgives us of all our sins when we trust in

Christ as our Lord and Savior and turn our back on our sin and

our old slave master, Satan. The Sabbath commandment also

points us to Jesus as Lord of the Sabbath.

In the Gospels, Jesus revealed Himself as Lord of the Sabbath.

As Lord of the Sabbath, Jesus had the authority to transform

the Sabbath to the Lord's Day with his just as much authority

as the Lord God had to establish it at the beginning of creation.

As Lord of the Sabbath, Jesus declared that the Sabbath was

made for man, not man for the Sabbath, that the purpose of the

Sabbath was not for man to maintain it, but for man to be

blessed by it, or, to be more specific, to be blessed through

the Sabbath by him, the Lord of the Sabbath.

Furthermore, we see that the Bible teaches that in Jesus we

have the sure hope of an everlasting Sabbath.

The Lord of the Sabbath shows us that the earthly Sabbath was a

foreshadow of Him, and the everlasting rest in Him in the

new heavens and new earth. Let me read again from Hebrews 4

on this future Sabbath rest. For if Joshua had given them the

rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on.

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 brothers and sisters.

There is another day of rest coming, the day when Christ

returns and establishes his Kingdom of forever peace.

That day of rest is coming, but you can enter into God's rest

today. We enter into God's rest by

coming to Jesus and receiving all that he has promised to be

for us. We enter into God's rest by

accepting this invitation from Jesus.

In Matthew Chapter 11 he says, come to me, all who are we who

Matthew 11 · chapter mention

are labor and a heavy 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.

If God's law is heavy upon your soul, you need to come to Jesus

and receive His grace and be freed from your guilt.

His burden is light. His commandments will become

your freedom and joy, not your condemnation.

Worshipping Jesus with the church on Sundays will become a

deep rest for your soul. But as Hebrews says, to enter

into God's rest, you must also rest from your works.

You cannot present any of your good works before God is your

ticket into His heavenly rest. You must put no trust in your

goodness. You must acknowledge your wicked

rebellion, and you must rest in Jesus Christ and His works

alone. The law convicts us of our

guilt. It shows us that our only hope

is in the grace of Jesus. And then the law becomes for us

a guide for our Christian lives, an expression for our gratitude

for what Jesus has done for us. The 4th Commandment guides and

encourages our rest in Christ, our faithful work.

It encourages the rest, encourages our rest in Christ,

our faithful work and the other six days and in our in our

corporate worship. So what are some practical ways

we can remember the Lord's Day and keep it holy?

Pastor Chris gave me a few questions to ask ourselves.

How can you make the Lord's Day holy and set apart a day

different than all the other days of the week?

So what are some things that you should do because it's the

Lord's Day? What are some things you

shouldn't do because it's the Lord's Day?

I think these questions help us to consider what our normal

weekdays look like and how we can make Sunday a uniquely

restful and Worshipful day that will look different for

different people. For the person with a sedentary

job at that, a computer resting on the Lord's Day might look

like getting physical exercise. On the other hand, for the

farmers who labor with their bodies day in and day out,

resting on the Lord's Day might look more like bodily rest.

For those who, because of busy schedules, are more isolated

from fellowship with other believers, the Lord's Day might

be an excellent opportunity to have extended fellowship with

other believers, perhaps in a small group or or by having

people over for a meal. For homemakers, it it might look

like doing errands and chores on Saturday or Monday so that

Sunday isn't just another day. Spouses consider mixing it up,

mixing up the the usual rules on Sunday to give the other person

rest from their usual duties. Remember, the Sabbath was meant

to be a blessing to you, a rest for you physically, spiritually

and emotionally. The To Do List will never

always. It'll never all get done.

So slow down and take a break. We got to hear that as

Americans, one essential way that we are to obey this command

is that we are to rest spiritually each and every

Sunday in the Gospel. Rest in the finished work of

Jesus on the cross. Rest in the promise that your

sins are forgiven. Rest in the truth that you've

been justified in God's sight and you've been adopted into his

family, and you are an heir of all things.

Rest your soul knowing that you have God's Holy Spirit dwelling

in you and each and every Lord's Day.

Rest in God's promise to you that He will preserve your faith

in this life through all the trials and tribulations and

sufferings and temptations, and He will guide you and grant you

everlasting life in the Kingdom to come.

Rest spiritually every Sunday. But resting doesn't just happen,

does it? It takes intentionally

remembering these gospel promises.

It sometimes. Sometimes it takes memorizing

scriptures so that you can remember those promises.

It takes focusing on each element of the worship service.

Spiritual rest doesn't just happen.

It takes remembering, listening, focusing, sometimes slowing down

And ultimately it takes believing.

Next, living the God-given balance of work and rest.

Living that balance. Rochester is a it's a very

professional city, so the temptation to be a workaholic is

very real. Resist the culture that posts

work and career goals first. Don't bow down to the idols of

achievement, professional recognition, and selfish

ambition for others of you. You face more of the temptation

to rest too much. Whether you're retired,

unemployed, working part time, or you just got a lot of free

time on your hands, it can be tempting to be unproductive and

just to indulge in endless entertainment.

If that's you find good and honorable work or study to do,

whether it's a paid job or unpaid volunteering in the

church or local ministry, or consider how you can help others

in less formal ways. Or maybe it's time to grow in

more regular seasons of prayer on the Lord's Day.

Prayer is restful work. Prayer is restful work because

we're asking God to do the work that only He can do.

And so prayers often often neglected because we it just

feels so unproductive. But prayer is good for your

spiritual rest. As we train our souls to wait on

God during the school year, we have a prayer gathering on the

1st Sunday of every month in the evening.

And so I just, I'd encourage you that that could be a really

wonderful way that you could rest in prayer.

Another important application is to consider how you can show

mercy to others on the Lord's Day.

How can you bring rest to those with heavy burdens?

How can you bring freedom to those who are perhaps enslaved

or trapped? How can you bring healing to

those who are sick and hurt and dying?

Yes, that might mean that the Lord's Day might just not be as

restful for you, But God wants his Sabbath rest to extend to

more and more people. Are there lonely people in our

church who would be so encouraged with a visit on

Sunday? Are there lonely people in a in

a local nursing home that you could go to and and sing hymns

to? Are there people in our church

body in need of a of a meal or with a project that they're

unable to do themselves? Show mercy on the Lord's Day.

Give God's rest to others. Or maybe instead of giving

mercy, you need to receive mercy.

Maybe your life is so hectic with things that are just out of

your control. Maybe with your health, or with

the constant high needs of those that you care for, or with your

financial situation. Maybe things have just been so

hectic that you have not been able to have a restful Lord's

Day in a long, long time. I think then it's perhaps it's

time for you to ask for someone to help so that you can rest.

If you don't have family who can help, you do have church family.

The church is here to give God's rest to you.

Maybe it's time to ask. Finally, we give God's rest in

Christ to others through evangelism, discipleship, and

missions. The mission of the church is to

share the good news of Christ so that people here and so the

people near and far may enter into His rest.

That mission is the work that we all share as the Church.

Let us therefore labor in the harvest field so that others may

be freed from their bondage to sin and Satan and gathered into

the everlasting rest of God. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you so much that you have given us

rest, that in Christ we have all the rest that we could ever hope

for. We thank you, Lord Jesus, that

you have freed us from our sin. You have freed us from our

slavery, and so we can worship you freely.

Thank you for the freedom that we have in this country to

worship you freely and regularly.

We pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ around the

world who do not have that freedom.

Lord, I pray that you'd open up countries to be open to

religious liberties, Lord, so that your freedom to worship

would extend all around the world.

Lord, I pray that you'd help each one of us to consider

giving rest to others. Help us to show mercy as you

have shown mercy. Thank you so much for giving us

a day to rest and to worship. Lord, I pray that you'd change

your attitudes about the Lord's Day.

Help us to see it as a as a freedom, as an opportunity,

instead of as a as a burden. So where we ask for a change of

heart, this we pray in Jesus name, Amen.