Ten Commandments 4 – 4th Commandment
Bible passage: Exodus 20:8-11 8
“Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who [a]stays with you. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the 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.”
Dear brothers and sisters, Today looks at the 4th Commandment of the Ten Commandments.
The main bible passage, Exodus 20:8 writes, “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.’ The two most basic principles we must keep after accepting Jesus Christ and starting our religious lives are: keep the Sabbath day and offer whole tithes.
If whole tithes and other offerings are ‘acts of faith that acknowledge God’s material sovereignty,’ then keeping the sabbath day is ‘an act of faith that acknowledges God’s spiritual sovereignty.’ As a child of God who acknowledges God’s material and spiritual sovereignty, abiding by these two principles would mean protection throughout the week with no trials or tribulations. Completely keeping the Sabbath and offering whole tithes is the evidence of being ‘a child of God,’ so God can protect you. It’s imperative that you clearly understand the importance of the commandment of keeping the sabbath day.
Of course, many here now know the importance of keeping the Sabbath and keep it holy. I hope that through today’s message you will once again engrave the meaning of the Sabbath on your hearts and more complete rest in the Lord even if you think you’ve kept it well. To those who do not keep the Sabbath well, I pray in the name of the Lord that you will be able to keep it well from now on and always receive protection and blessings from God.
Dear brothers and sisters, the ‘Sabbath’ means ‘a day of rest in the Lord.’ The origin of the Sabbath is found in Genesis 2:1-3 when God the Creator created the heavens and the earth and all things including men for six days and rested on the seventh day. Genesis 2:1-3 tells us, “Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts.2 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.3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created [a]and made.” God created everything in six days and rested on the seventh day, blessing and sanctifying that day. As children of God, we can enjoy rest when we keep this day holy.
But, keeping the Sabbath does not simply mean rest with no work. It is an act of acknowledging the sovereignty of God the Creator by completely devoting our hearts to God instead of focusing on worldly things. Ezekiel 20:11-12 notes, “I gave them My statutes and informed them of My ordinances, by which, if a man [a]observes them, he will live. 12 Also I gave them My sabbaths to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them.” Keeping the Sabbath is the proof that we are God's people who fear God. So, God's children who keep the Sabbath are protected from accidents and disasters. God can protect us even if the enemy devil and Satan bring accusations to throw trials and tribulations our way.
This is because abiding by God’s commandment of keeping the Sabbath is a proof that we are His people. But sometimes, it seems as though people don’t receive protection despite keeping the Sabbath.These people physically go to church and keep the Sabbath, but in the sight of God who looks at their heart, they are violating the Sabbath. For example, there are people who come to church for worship but fall asleep and get distracted by idle thoughts. They do not offer the kind of worship God deserves. There are also those who try to worship well but get distracted or fall asleep due to their weak faith. God knows each person’s measure of faith and gives mercy accordingly. But, those with faith who habitually daydream and fall asleep are being rude before God.
It builds a wall of sin, making it difficult for them to receive protection. (Prayer) Those who truly keep the Sabbath day with faith, keeping even their attitudes and hearts in worship holy will abide by God’s other commandments as well. If someone who’s supposed to be in the third level of faith commit deeds of the flesh a person in the first level would commit, then, he is keeping the Sabbath only in terms of deed, no matter how well he attends worship. Romans 12:1 tells us, “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, [a]acceptable to God, which is your [b]spiritual service of worship.”Thu, God will look away and cannot protect him from Satan’s accusations. Except in exceptional cases, God’s children who essentially keep the Sabbath and give tithes will receive God’s weekly protection. Most of you are living witnesses who’ve always experienced these blessings in your lives. Dear brothers and sisters, originally, in Old Testament time, the Sabbath was Saturday. The Jewish still observe Saturday as the Sabbath.
But, we, Christians, who believe in Jesus Christ and received salvation observe Sunday as the Sabbath, the Lord’s Day. Then, why did the Sabbath change from Saturday to Sunday? The reason is, Sunday is the day we received the present of true rest in Jesus Christ. Then, what does enjoying true rest by Jesus Christ mean? Since the fall of Adam, mankind was unable to have true rest as sinners. People became slaves to the enemy devil, the master of sin, living a miserable life with theirs souls burdened by sin. God sent His only begotten Son, Jesus, to atone for the sins of all mankind and allow us to enjoy eternal rest. Jesus died on the cross, bearing mankind’s sins. In three days after His burial, Jesus shattered the power of death and resurrected. Everyone who believes in this fact can receive the forgiveness of sins and share in the hope of resurrection by reuniting with the resurrected Lord. We have been freed from sin, received true rest in our heart, and gained hope for eternal rest in heaven.
Sunday is the day when God gave hope, true rest and joy to mankind who was sinful. Jesus was crucified on Friday and rose again three days later, at dawn on Sunday, the first day after the Sabbath. Sunday was the day the Lord completed the work of salvation, giving mankind true and eternal rest. So, those saved by Jesus Christ now observe Sunday as the Sabbath. Dear brothers and sisters, God made the Sabbath day holy and instructed His people to observe it so that they can remember spiritual, divine things even as they’re being cultivated and living strenuous lives in the world. God wants them to remember Him, the Master of all things and all men, and hope for eternal rest instead of hoping for only vain wishes in the perishable, fleshly world. As the era of the Old Testament which is like the shadow passed, Jesus Christ, the Word Itself, came and gave us true rest. In Matthew 12:8, Jesus said, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” What does it mean to be the Lord of the Sabbath? It means that Jesus is fundamentally one with God who decreed the Sabbath and governs that day and that He is the Lord who gives true rest to all souls.
Thus, it’s only natural that Sunday, the day when the Lord of the Sabbath resurrected and gave us true rest, become the true Sabbath for us. John 1:17 says, “For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth [a]were realized through Jesus Christ.” Matthew 5:17 also tells us, “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.” We’re observing Sunday as the Sabbath as the Lord has fulfilled the Law with love. In doing so, we can fully enjoy the blessing of the rest. The Lord’s disciples, knowing this spiritual meaning, called the day of the Lord’s resurrection the Lord’s Day and observed it as the day of true rest. Revelation 1:10 records, “I was [a]in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet.” Here, Apostle Paul called Sunday, the day of the Lord’s resurrection, the Lord’s Day. Acts 20:7 also says, “On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread.” The bread refers to the Word of God. This is a scene where the disciples gathered on Sunday to listen to the sermon of Apostle Paul, share grace, and enjoy the rest of the soul.
1 Corinthians 16:2 writes, “On the first day of every week each one of you is to [a]put aside and save, as he may prosper, so that no collections be made when I come.” We can see that they gave offerings on Sunday as well. Those who do not understand the true meaning of the Sabbath continue to insist that Saturday is the Sabbath. But the Old Testament already hinted that the first day of the week, Sunday, would be observed as the Sabbath. Leviticus 23:10-12 says, “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When you enter the land which I am going to give to you and reap its harvest, then you shall bring in the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. 11 He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord for you to be accepted; on the day after the sabbath the priest shall wave it. 12 Now on the day when you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb one year old without defect for a burnt offering to the Lord.” In other words, when the Israelites had entered the God-given land of Canaan, the day of offering sacrifice of the first harvested fruits was the day after the Sabbath, namely, Sunday.
The first harvested fruits here symbolizes the Lord, the first fruit of resurrection. The one-year old male lamb without defect also spiritually symbolizes Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. The passage shows that the Lord who is offered as a peace offering on the first day after the Sabbath will come out as the first fruit of the resurrection, giving resurrection and rest to all who believe in Him. Dear brothers and sisters, then, how do we wholly keep the Sabbath Day? Today's passage, Exodus 20:9-10, teaches us, "Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who [a]stays with you." On the day, no one including their servants, animals or even strangers in their houses was allowed to do any work. God told them not to even kindle a fire. So the Jewish people consider cooking, carrying heavy objects, and traveling long distances as work that violates the Sabbath. (The Elder’s Tradition) Certainly, buying and selling on the Sabbath is not permitted.
But the kind of Sabbath that God commands does not simply mean no work. For example, when worldly people go on a trip or rest and watch movies at home without working, we don’t call it spiritual rest. These are nothing more than physical rest, which cannot give us true life. Isaiah 58:13-14 tells us, “If because of the sabbath, you turn your foot from doing your own pleasure on My holy day, And call the sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, And honor it, desisting from your own ways, From seeking your own pleasure and speaking your own word, 14 Then you will take delight in the Lord, And I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; And I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” Like the Bible says, enjoying “spiritual rest” means considering the day as God’s holy day and finding joy in God.
This happens when you do not engage in worldly affairs on the Sabbath day but go to church to worship in spirit and in truth and have fellowship with believers. It’s important to work hard and be faithful in all your house from Monday to Saturday. But the Lord’s Day must be surrendered to God. When you do so, you’ll be able to receive true joy and peace from God and grow in spiritual faith. Through the Word, you come to know God’s heart and will, and become filled with the Holy Spirit as you praise God with one voice. Some people who are faithful and volunteer on Sundays work more than they do in the workplace during the week. Particularly, Sunday school teachers and church volunteers work extremely hard from early morning to late evening. They work all day for the kingdom of God and stay late for Daniel Prayer, unable to indulge in physical rest. No matter their physical fatigue, they can receive God-given peace and true rest through by worshipping in spirit and truth and doing volunteer work from their hearts. As we live our lives in faith, sometimes it’s not easy to discern how to keep the Sabbath. Some people ask questions like, “Should soldiers or police officers who protect our country not work on Sundays?” “Is it right to attend the wedding of a non-believing relative or a novice believer with weak faith on Sunday? or “Is it okay for those in the choir or others who volunteer at the church to buy food from outside on Sunday? We will look into these details in the next session.
Dear brothers and sisters, the ancestor of mankind, Adam, disobeyed God and committed the sin of eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This led to people facing death as wages of sin and their spirits died. Adam’s descendants also went down the same path as their spirits died. But, Jesus carried the cross to save us from death, broke the power of death, and resurrected. So, those who accept the Lord and receive the Holy Spirit as a gift can have their dead spirits revive. This is spiritual resurrection. When the Lord descends into the air, believers who are asleep in the grave rise again. God’s children who meet the Lord alive transform into imperishable, spiritual bodies to be taken up into the air. This is physical resurrection. When the resurrection is fulfilled both spiritually and physically, then eternal life in heaven begins. We will live only with joy and happiness instead of any sorrow and pain, delightfully sharing love with our beloved Lord. This is God-give true rest. It is a great and eternal blessing promised to those who keep the Sabbath Day holy and abide by the Word of God in this world.
Hopefully, as you come before God every week to worship and rest, your God’s given hope of resurrection becomes more complete and you overflow with gratitude and joy day in, day out. I pray in the name of the Lord that all of you will be able to share in the eternal rest promised by God when the Lord returns.
