4. Scripturally Balanced Worship Exodus 20:8-11

Text: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.  Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, or thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor they stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord made Heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested on the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.”

Exodus 20:8-11.

Good morning, Scripturally balanced Christian!  If God’s inspired Word makes sense, you and I do not seek to make it a nonsense.  You do well, dear Bible-believing friend, you do very well – for the Lord has a continual blessing stored up for such Scripturally balanced believers.

“Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth.”  (2 Timothy 2:15)

Scripturally balanced Christians seek to ‘rightly divide the Word of truth...’, according to God’s Word given to us through the apostle Paul quoted above.  We desire at all times, and to the best of our abilities in Christ, to get a sound balance on what we are learning from God’s Word contained in our KJV Bibles, as we earnestly try to apply God’s rightly balanced truths to every aspect of our daily lives for Christ in daily practice and in His service.  (James 1:22)

Therefore, when we read God’s fourth Commandment concerning the keeping of ‘...the Sabbath day...’, we need to have a correct balance on what we know of both ‘the Ceremonial Law of God’ and ‘The Moral Law of God’ contained in the Ten Commandments of God which we are currently studying.

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.  Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, or thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor they stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord made Heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested on the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.”  (Exodus 20:8-11)

Following God’s great Creation of the world and our progenitors – Adam and Eve – He ‘rested on the seventh day...’; ‘blessed the Sabbath day (one day in seven)’; ‘...and hallowed (or sanctified, set apart) it.’

The Lord God did this for a purpose – to set us, His Created beings, an example of how we should henceforth live our lives in obedience to His ordained Moral Law and Commandments.  However, He did not constitute this great principle in order to set up a ritualistic religious practice, but to show His pattern for us, His creatures, to willingly follow.

Apart from works of ‘necessity and mercy’: i.e. nursing the sick; taking care of the elderly; tending the injured; taking care of other vulnerable, disabled, challenged, people; and caring for the needs of domestic animals in ones care – no manual labour was to be carried out for paid wages on that special day; no commercial trading and marketing was to be carried out.  The day was to be set apart exclusively for the balanced, faithful, worship of the Lord God.

C.H. Spurgeon’s Catechism on this subject: 

“41 Q What is the sum of the ten commandments?

A The sum of the ten commandments is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and with all our mind; and our neighbour as ourselves. (Mathew 22:37-40). 

49 Q Which is the fourth commandment?

A The fourth commandment is, Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor they cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

50 Q What is required in the fourth commandment?

A The fourth commandment requires the keeping holy to God such set times as he has appointed in his Word, expressly one whole day in seven, to be a holy Sabbath to himself. (Leviticus 19:30) ( Deuteronomy 5:12)

51 Q How is the Sabbath to be sanctified?

A The Sabbath is to be sanctified by a holy resting all that day, even from such worldly employments and recreations as are lawful on other days (Leviticus 23:3), and spending the whole time in the public and private exercises of God's worship (Psalm 92:1-2) (Isaiah 58:13-14), except so much as is taken up in the works of necessity and mercy. (Mathew 12:11-12)” (1 Corinthians 6:12) (Romans 6:14-15)  (Spurgeon’s Catechism)

 Faithfully observing ‘The Lord’s Day’, or ‘the Sabbath’, one in seven days, seeks to put the Lord God first in all things; to worship Him; to study His Word; to seek close fellowship with Him in prayer and, if possible, in church fellowship.  We put the Lord God first, for He is our First Love; our Saviour; and our Holy Friend.  Praise His altogether lovely Name! The problem for many appears when the Scriptural balance on God’s Commandments are lost.

I personally believe, that once we have indeed put the Lord first in the earnest motivations of our hearts, on ‘the Lord’s Day’ – we are NOT then trammelled by legalistic rules as to whether or not we can go out and enjoy a good walk; relax with our families at home; or engage in activities that are healthy, wholesome, and relaxing for our bodies and minds.  We seek to get the correct balance on our activities each Lord’s Day, yet always putting the Lord first in all we do and say, and enjoying the wonders of His Sovereign grace in Christ Jesus.

Thought: Christ Jesus fulfilled all the Law for ‘His people’ – let us be free to enjoy His Day.  “All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.”