Mark Wheat, Organizing Pastor at Good Shepherd OPC
Recently in our Men’s Bible study we considered Sinclair Ferguson’s Fourth Appendix in his book Devoted to God. The Fourth Appendix is about the Fourth Commandment, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy and the question, Does it have a role to play in our sanctification? Writing with a wider audience in view he considers the objections to the Fourth Commandment’s role in our sanctification today. And then he gives seven reasons why it ought to be considered. There is no doubt that Ferguson believes it plays a role in our sanctification. Now I leave it to you to read the book and to read the appendix if you like.
But as we studied the Fourth Commandment in our men’s group, I began to think about the Fourth Commandment and how God has taught me to love it and to delight in it, just as much as I love and seek to imperfectly delight in the other nine commandments. As a young man I grew up in a family that did not teach me the Fourth Commandment. Although I did not run around quoting the Ten Commandments the way I do now, my mom and dad did do something every week by their lives, by their examples, that had a profound impact on me. They took me to church every Sunday morning and every Sunday evening. There was no such thing as Sunday evening off from church, no such thing as family time on Sunday night, it was Sunday morning and Sunday evening at church for Sunday School, Sunday worship, Sunday afternoon I was in choir, Sunday evening I was in a Bible Study, and we ended with Sunday night worship. Wow! But that is not all. My mom and dad made sure I was at church for Wednesday night prayer meetings and for Friday night fellowships and games nights. What my mom and dad taught me was the importance of the church. And they taught me this not so much by Word, but by example. I was always there.
So, a habit was built into my life, by my parents, to use the week as the time to get all my work done, to get all my school work done, because Sunday was coming when we would be wholly devoted to church worship and the word. Again, that teaching never really focused my attention on the Fourth Commandment, we did study, but I do not remember being taught the Fourth Commandment. When I went off to college there were weeks when I did not go to church and that example, that pattern of work and worship, established by my parents would haunt me, it would lead me straight back to church. I was convicted that I needed to be there.
After going through a year of only attending on Sunday mornings during college, out of sheer necessity, I realized that I needed the Lord more than ever. I wrote on a sheet of paper what I knew that I must do. And the first one was go to church on Sunday morning and on Sunday nights. I was still studying on Sunday between services, but I was attending both worship services. And it was during one of the evening worship services that the Holy Spirit took the word being preached and things after that night changed forever. I read my Bible daily, I prayed daily, I would seek the Lord, to do the next right thing, whatever that was, even when it was not comfortable.
Then, as I entered into a Master of Science degree, I began to study the Bible with a minister in my church. I told him one Sunday that I was going to go home after church and study. And I still remember him saying, O no you are not. Now, I really admired and respected this man, so I said, Ok, then, what am I going to do? He said, You are going to read you Bible, you are going to memorize Scripture, you are going to enjoy good Christian fellowship, you are going to serve the Lord in any ways that you can. But you can study all week, get all of that done during the week so that you can give yourself to the Lord on Sunday. Once again, this man did not teach me the Fourth Commandment. Nothing was said about it, but I just did what an older saint told me to do. So, Sunday became more refined. I found myself worshipping, reading the Bible, fellowshipping with Christians, memorizing Scripture, listening to sermons.
And this is just a side note, my grades never suffered.
As the Lord began to move me into Reformed teaching, I found myself studying the Fourth Commandment from the Westminster Confession of Faith. When I read the Confession and the Catechisms, I realized that God had through example of my parents, through the word and example of a godly man, made the Lord’s day a delight to me even before I read that it was to be a delight to me. I couldn’t wait till Sunday, because by Sunday I already had all my stuff done so I could give myself to God. I see that God has established the Work and Worship rhythm into my life. From Genesis 2:1-3 God established this rhythm for us. We are to work and we are to worship on the sabbath day, because the Lord rested, He blessed the day and set it apart for us. God is not the One who needed to rest, He established this for us. Then, after the Fall into sin, the Law of God was written by His finger on the Tablets of stone given to Moses. Due to man’s sin nature, when God gave this commandment as well as the others, man needed to hear the commandments expressed in the negative…i.e. “in it (the Sabbath Day) thou shalt not do any work.” At this time, God’s people were a single people group, in a specific land, and this law as well as the others was to shape their national experience. At the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, once He was raised from the dead on the first day of the week, although we do not have a commandment telling us to do this, we find that the Church began to Worship on the First Day of the Week. Prior to His ascension into the heavens, He would appear to the disciples on the first day of the week and we find the church collecting and offering on the first day of the week and even the Apostle John, while on the Isle of Patmos, speaks of being in the spirit on the Lord’s day. A new rhythm was begun. In the OT at creation the rhythm was work and worship, after the Exodus the rhythm was work and worship, but after the resurrection the rhythm was changed to worship and then work. In the OT the old covenant believers looked for the Rest (Jesus Christ). Now that the Rest has come, in Jesus Christ, our calendar changes from Work and Worship, to Worship and then Work.
Now, when people hear these words, in it thou shalt not do any work, it aggravates them, it speaks of submitting to God, to God’s laws, it pricks us, because we are sinners and we do not want to obey this law or any of the other commandments for that matter. We want to cast these laws aside as shackles that would bind us and keep us from delight. But, if you come to Christ, if you repent of your sins, if the Spirit of God changes your heart, makes of you a new creature in Christ, when you hear the commandment say, In it thou shalt not do any work, what you should also hear God saying this, If you structure your week such that you work for 6 days then you are ready for that Day of Delight. In other words, you are being directed to get your work/labor done on the other six days, and to worship/rest on this day. I came at this having good examples, I came at this with people who may not have taught me the Fourth Commandment, from the Scripture, from the Confession, from the Catechisms, but they taught me that this day was a day to worship, it was a day to delight in the word, it was a day to fellowship, it was not a burden, it was not, O no, look what I cannot do, but it was a day to say, O look what I get to do today.
Now, not one of us would ever say that keeping the other 9 commandments is done without great effort, without great self-denial and by the power of the Spirit. And the same is true of keeping the Fourth Commandment. To worship on the Lord’s Day, publicly and privately, to give yourself to the Lord on this day, is going to take Spirit-filled effort. I find myself, getting up on Monday, and with the Lord’s help I try to remain balanced, because if I could, I would get all my work done on Monday so that I was ready for Sunday worship on Monday. Ha! Now, I know this is not possible, but I say it this way to make the point, I do not let any grass grow under my feet on Monday and through the week, so that I am ready for this Day of Delight. It means discipline, it means getting that work rhythm under control so that all the labor is done, so that loving the Lord is my business on the Lord’s Day.
In God’s kind providence I came at the Fourth Commandment not by explanation of the commandment, but by example, by love, by a wise man who taught we what to do, who just said, Get all your work done during the week so that you can do this on Sunday. Now, I have not only the example, but I have the explanation of the commandment. And what a Day it is!
My hope is that this will encourage you to make the Lord’s Day, a Day of Delight.