Please turn with me in God's Word to Exodus 20. Our text this afternoon is Exodus 20, verses 8 through 11, where you can find the words of the fourth commandment as we continue to work our way through the ten commandments and what we believe, why we believe it based on God's Word. Today we'll consider the fourth commandment. And so let's hear God's Word. Exodus 20. Verses 8 to 11 is our text, but I'll start back in verse 1. God spoke all these words, saying, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. 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, you or your son or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who's within your gates. 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 day and made it holy. It's further reading of God's holy word, and may He bless it to our hearts. This afternoon, I invite you to turn with me in your forms and prayers books to page 246. Page 246. We'll confess together responsibly Lord's Day 38 about the fourth commandment. What is God's will for you in the fourth commandment? First, that the gospel ministry and schools for it be maintained, and that especially on the festive day of rest, I diligently attend the assembly of God's people to learn what God's word teaches, to participate in the sacraments, to pray to the Lord publicly, and to bring Christian offerings for the poor. Second, that every day of my life I rest from my evil ways. Let the Lord work in me through His Spirit, and so begin in this life the eternal Sabbath. Well, brothers and sisters in Christ, we live in a fast-paced and burnout culture. We live in a fast-paced and burnout culture. So many today are exhausted from working all the time, being connected all the time through our technology, which no doubt has some good purposes to it, but it's worn us out in how we can just be so easily accessed. It's hard to step away from work because of our technology. Families are rushing all over the place for sports and extracurricular activities. And there's so many options today for those things. You know, when I was growing up there, I don't remember a whole lot of options, soccer, basketball, baseball. Now there's just about, there's just everything, right? I mean, Canada and I, I mean, you guys have always had hockey, but all kinds of things, dance and music lessons, and maybe, I don't know, curling. other things, right? There's just countless options. It's almost like a tyranny of options. And so parents feel like they gotta sign their kids up for every possible thing and give them every possible opportunity. And we can burn ourselves out in that way as well. We live in a very fast-paced and burnout culture. And for these reasons, we especially need a day of rest. We especially need a day of rest. I think we all sense that deep down, and as we'll see, because we're creating the image of God, and God has given us a day of rest, and he's given it even in creation, as we'll see. And we're gonna consider this afternoon the importance of the Lord's Day, the fourth commandment, and what our countess calls our festive day of rest. I love that, our festive day of rest. That ought to be how we view Sunday, the Lord's Day, as a festive day of rest, or as the Puritans used to put it, as the market day of the soul. It's the market day of the soul. Sadly, this commandment has fallen on hard times and many Protestants today have completely abandoned it altogether. D.G. Hart and John Mether, some Presbyterian brothers in the OPC, comment in their book, With Reverence and Awe, Returning to the Basics of Reformed Worship, they ask this question, sort of lamenting, why has a practice that enjoyed universal acceptance among American Protestants from roughly 1776 until 1960 virtually disappeared in the last half of the 20th century? And it's happened, right? This is something that's not even on people's radars. I didn't grow up with any concept of the fourth commandment myself in the church I grew up in. They go on and they say this, believers are sanctified through a lifetime of Sabbath observance. In other words, the Sabbath is designed to work slowly, quietly, seemingly imperceptibly, in reorienting believers' appetites heavenward. It is not a quick fix, nor is it necessarily a spiritual high, right? Let's be honest, it's not always a constant spiritual high, and yet God uses it to feed our souls. They say it is an outward and ordinary ordinance, part of the steady and healthy diet of the means of grace. And they comment that North American Protestants we have noted, are generally not in sync with this rhythm. Attracted to the inward and extraordinary, they commonly suffer from spiritual bulimia, binging at big events, then purging by absenting themselves from God's prescribed diet. Right, and that's sadly what we often see, right, is people have today ignored this commandment, and they don't find rest, they don't diligently attend church anymore, it's sort of this sort of optional thing when it's convenient, and they're starved spiritually. But then they binge at big events, conferences and whatnot, right? But then they go back to being hungry again spiritually, and it's not a healthy diet. This is God's prescribed diet for the Christian life. And so let's consider the fourth commandment in our festive day of rest. And we'll ask a few questions about this. What does God require in the fourth commandment? And why does God give us the fourth commandment? We want to understand the reasoning behind it. And how is it fulfilled in Christ? And what does that mean for us today? So what does God require in the fourth commandment? Well, the word Sabbath comes from the Hebrew word Shabbat, which simply means cease. or stop, cease or stop. The Sabbath was a day that God gave as a gift to the Israelites to cease from their ordinary work that they were to perform on the other six days of the week. It was like a weekly holiday, or more literally a weekly holy day. a day to be set apart and different from the other six days of the week. Holy, the word holy means to set apart, to be different. And it was to be a holy day set apart from the other six days. But the day wasn't about just stopping and doing just nothing. It wasn't a day to just sleep all day or to just do whatever one wanted to do. It was a day to actively remember something. Notice that God wants his people, notice what God wants his people to do on the Sabbath. In verse eight of our text, in the fourth commandment, it says, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Remember. And remembering involves more than just our memories, just sort of saying, oh yeah, I remember that, right? Rather, it calls forth our whole person in love for God. You can think about it like this. If it was mine and my wife's anniversary and I go up to my wife and I say, hey, honey, guess what? I remember it's our anniversary. And she says, well, that's great. So what are we doing? Oh, nothing. I just remembered it. Does that cut it? No, right? Remembering on an anniversary involves more than just saying, oh yeah, I noted that it's our anniversary today, right? It's more, calls forth our whole person, right? To remember it and to celebrate it, to maybe buy flowers, maybe write some poetry, maybe go to a restaurant, have a fine meal. Better not say too much. My wife will be holding me to this next time. But remembering calls forth our whole person. So to remembering on the Sabbath day involves more than mere simple intellectual remembering. He called forth the whole person. They were to actively love the Lord, their God, with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength on the Sabbath day. They were to love him even with their time, and setting apart a day for God to say, Lord, you are sovereign over our time. This is your holy time. So how then were they Israelites to remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy? Well, it says in the commandment, 6 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, you or your son or your daughter, your male servant or your female servant, or your livestock or the soldier who is within your gates. Notice that included in this commandment is not simply a prohibition of work on the seventh day. It includes that, but also, It has a positive command to work for six days. You see, work is a good thing. Work is a good thing. Work is something God created us to do in the Garden of Eden. It's a creation ordinance. He gave work before the fall. I know we often experience it and think, man, work is such a drudge. It's so laborious and Monday's coming and all that, right? That's not because work is bad. That's because of our sin. And it's because of the effects of the fall, right? That now it's by the sweat of our brow and toil and pain, right, that we put bread on our tables. But it's not good for us to not work. It's not good for us to be lazy people who never work. God calls us to work for His glory and the good of our neighbor. And so this is a call to those who struggle with laziness in their life and procrastination to get to work. To get to work. Work six days. Work hard for six days. So that when the Sabbath day comes, you aren't tempted to do work that you didn't get done because you procrastinated all week. because you were goofing off all week. And God graciously gives us six days to labor and do all our work. I mean, that's gracious. That's generous. Is it not? Couldn't God have said, you know what? I'm going to give you one day to get all your work done, and I want six of them for myself. Is not God the one who owns all seven days? Couldn't He have done that? And yet God is good and gracious. He's generous. He says, I'm going to give you six days to do all your work. But the seventh day, you're to cease to rest from your ordinary labors that are good and lawful on the other six days. And notice he not only calls us to cease, he says, if you have anyone underneath you in your household, if you have any children, if you have any servants, you need to allow them to rest as well. Even the animals get a rest that you put to work on those other six days of the week. And any soldiers in your home, give them a break. Give them a rest from their ordinary labors. So part of remembering the Sabbath day and keeping it holy is not only that each person strives to rest and worship God themselves, but that each person strives to give others rest as well. We're to strive to avoid causing others to work unnecessarily on the day of rest so that they can have rest as well. And so we should be careful about how we spend our day and think, is what I'm doing causing other people to work as well? Should we not want for them what we want for us, a day to rest? I understand we live in a consumeristic day and age, and we might say, well, they're just gonna stay open anyway and whatnot, but that doesn't excuse it, right? We should still strive to give people rest. I remember a story of D. James Kennedy when he used to go to restaurants on the day of rest, on the Lord's Day, and asked the waitress, why aren't you in church? And she said to him, well, because of people like you. And he was convicted and never went out to eat on Lord's Day again. But we should be careful and think about that. And we have to avoid causing other people to work unnecessarily. And really, it's about given the day to the Lord and identifying as a pilgrim people in this life. We are a pilgrim people making our way to the new heavens and new earth and on Sundays, on the day of rest, which is our day of rest, the new covenant as we'll see, we are saying we are not ultimately of this world. We are citizens of the heavenly kingdom of the new heavens and new earth and we identify in that way on the Lord's day with God's people in that way and worship him. So why does God give us the fourth commandment? That's a little bit of what God requires. Why does God give us the fourth commandment? Notice the reasons God gives us in Exodus 20 for why they were to remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Notice v. 11. It says, 4-6 days the Lord Yahweh made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. So you see, the Sabbath was not something that began with the nation of Israel on Mount Sinai in the giving of the Ten Commandments, in the giving of the law. It's much older than that. In fact, it comes earlier in Exodus, it comes earlier in Exodus, before Exodus 20. It's mentioned as well, but it goes, the commandment is rooted here in creation. It's rooted in the creation account, in the opening chapters of the book of Genesis. So this is why Reformed churches believe and confess that the fourth commandment, it still applies. To us today, we believe and confess 10 commandments and not nine. The fourth commandment, or the Sabbath principle, is what we call a creation ordinance. As Jesus put it, the Sabbath was made for man. He didn't say the Sabbath was made for Israel. He said the Sabbath was made for man. And we see this in Genesis 2. If you want to look there with me, Genesis 2. This is the end of God's work of creation in six days. He created the heavens and the earth. And then in Genesis 2, verse 1, we read, Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day, God finished his work that he had done and he rested. God rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it, God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. There's an emphasis here on the fact that God rested on the seventh day. It's mentioned two times. Why does it say that God rested, we might wonder, because, you know, children, does God get tired like us? Does he have to take naps? Does he get exhausted and need a drink of water? No. God doesn't get tired like us. So then why does it say that God rested? God's not a man. They just get tired and need a break. but he rested because he wants man to rest. He rested because he wants man to rest. He's teaching Adam and Eve and all of humanity that we are finite creatures and we need to rest. Man is created in the image of God and he is to reflect God by imitating God. And so just as God formed and filled the earth in six days, as we read, He formed and filled the earth, so too man is called upon with his wife to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, imitating God. And just as God rules over all things as creator, so too man in the garden was to subdue the earth and exercise dominion over it as God's vice-regent on earth, imitating God, his creator. And just as God works six days and rests on the seventh day, so too man was to work six days and rest on the seventh day. God gave man this pattern of six days of work and one day of rest for man's own good. He blessed the seventh day and made it holy, it says. Man isn't meant to just, you see, work and work and work and work and work and never rest. We need to work, but we also need to rest. And that's important for us to really take to heart. We tend to be workaholics. Some of us tend to be lazy, and on the other hand, some of us tend to be workaholics, right? And to just work and try to always be productive and try to get ahead in the game, right? We live in a fast-paced culture, like I said. But we need to rest. We need to not just work and work and work. Your creator knows what is best for you. I often think of this in terms of the parent-child relationship, as I often do in my sermon illustrations. We have our children take naps or go to bed on a scheduled time. We try to be consistent on bedtimes, and we tell them it's time to go to bed, and often they're like, I'm not tired, I don't want to go to bed. And we said, let's go to bed, you gotta go to bed. And it's good for you, you need the rest, you need to sleep. Sometimes I wish I had somebody that did that to me, so I'd be a little bit more disciplined. And I try, by God's grace. But you know, God is our good and gracious Heavenly Father, and he tells us we need to rest. We need a day of rest. We need to take a break from the buzz of the culture, of our work, of our labors. And the fourth commandment reinforces, the fourth commandment reinforces that creation ordinance for our good. And this day of rest for Adam also served as a sign to Adam that one day he might enter into God's eternal Sabbath rest. Have you ever noticed that in the creation account it says after each of the six days there was morning, there's evening and morning the first day, there's evening and morning this day, and there's evening and morning this day, but then the seventh day does not have that refrain. It doesn't say there's evening and morning the seventh day. And so many have taken this to mean that God's day of rest in Genesis 2 is an eternal day of rest. Picturing something beyond the blessed life in the garden even. A life beyond. the possibility of a fall into sin, a life of sharing God's Sabbath rest with Him forever in a state of consummate blessing. It was a sign of the new heavens and new earth. It was a sign held out to Adam that if he had obeyed God, he would have eventually received the reward for his work. He would have eventually been given the right to eat of the tree of life. and would have led all his posterity into the eternal glories of God's eternal Sabbath rest. That was the goal of creation. But Adam failed to obey, as we know. He sinned and brought sin and death into this world. And so the fourth commandment is a creation that was republished to Israel to reinforce it for their good. It pointed them to the creation week, It taught them to rest and be refreshed both physically and spiritually. And it reminded them of God's eternal rest that was offered to man in the Garden of Eden, but was lost through the fall. And so in republishing it to Israel, it held out hope of one day entering God's rest. But they could never enter it by their own works. They needed the work of another. And so the Sabbath pointed them to the hope of a coming Messiah. A second Adam was on the horizon, and that's what it was preaching to them. But that's not the only reason that God commanded Israel to keep the Sabbath day holy. It not only was a sign pointing them to creation and the goal of eternal Sabbath rest, it also was a sign pointing them to the fact that God had redeemed them from slavery. Exodus 20, roots the Sabbath command in creation. But if you look at the Ten Commandments as they appear in Deuteronomy 5, there the fourth commandment is rooted in redemption, the exodus. God says, you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord Yahweh 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. So you see, not only did the Sabbath look back to God's work of creation and forward to the eternal Sabbath rest, it also looked back to his gracious redemption of Israel from slavery. God had redeemed them from slavery, bitter slavery in Egypt for 400 years. For 400 years, imagine being in bitter slavery. And then God says, I freed you from the tyranny of the Pharaoh and that bitter slavery. And guess what? You don't have to work seven days a week anymore in bitter slavery. I'm gonna give you a day of rest, a whole day. Do you think they would have said like, oh, it's such a drudge. I don't want a day off like that. No, this is a gift. Thank you, Lord, for this day of rest. After all of that. So this then also helps explain why they weren't to cause anyone to work for them on the Sabbath day because they themselves were graciously freed from bondage to Egypt and granted rest in the promised land. And so they weren't to make someone labor on the day which pictured their freedom from the bitter work that they experienced in Egypt. In Egypt, they were slaves. They didn't experience rest. It was work, work, work, work, work every day. And God freed them from that and brought them into a land of rest. So how then could they become taskmasters like the Pharaoh and force people to work for them seven days a week? They were to remember their redemption and imitate their gracious God who gave them rest by giving rest to others so that others could worship God too. So do you see how rich the Sabbath is? It is so rich, there's so much there. in this Sabbath principle in the Bible. It's a gift from God. It's a sign that ties us to creation and redemption in the past and to consummation in the future. This is why God gave the Sabbath in creation and republished it in the fourth commandment. It was a day to rest and worship and remember God's mighty acts of creation and redemption and held out hope of the consummate rest in God's presence. But after the fall, man can't enter the eternal rest based on his own works, as I've said. Adam failed to enter God's eternal rest, and we fail in our own sinful works as well. And so how is the fourth commandment then fulfilled in Christ? Well, the good news is that Christ came and fulfilled all of God's law for us, and earned for us all the blessings of God's covenant for us. including when it comes to the fourth commandment and this eternal rest in God's presence forever. Jesus earned that for us as our second and final Adam. It says throughout the Bible that he came and he accomplished the work that God the Father sent him to do. You see that especially in John's gospel. Unlike Adam who failed when he was tempted by Satan, we see Christ in Matthew 4 conquering Satan's temptations in the wilderness. Whereas Adam listened to the serpent, Christ listened to the word of God and resisted the devil's lies. And throughout Christ's ministry on earth, he always did what was pleasing to the Father and kept the Sabbath day holy. Even when the Pharisees accused him of violating the fourth commandment, he was keeping it and giving it its true interpretation in contrast to the parody of the Sabbath that the Pharisees had made of it. You see, the Pharisees came up with a huge list of things that defined what was work and what wasn't work, such that if your neighbor's ox fell into a ditch, you couldn't help him get it out. If you were sick, you couldn't receive medical treatment. But Jesus says you've missed the point of the Sabbath. You've missed it. You've missed the point of it. He says the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. The Sabbath is to be a blessing. It's to be a picture and foretaste of God's eternal Sabbath rest where life and love flourishes. And so Christ showed us that works of necessity and works of mercy are lawful and part of keeping the Sabbath. Some modern day works of necessity would be the kind of work that doctors and police officers and firefighters and others do that is necessary for protection and sustaining of life. You know, we can't have all the cops taking one whole day off, where there's no cops, right? I mean, how much crime would happen on that day? and violence, perhaps. We can't have all the doctors taking a whole day off. I mean, there's people in critical condition, right? We need people in the intensive care unit, and we need doctors. Now, if you are a Christian doctor, doesn't mean you have to try to work every single Lord's Day. You can try your best to get those days off. but it is a lawful work, is a work of necessity or mercy. And we still need to eat food, so we'll have to make ourselves food on the day of rest, but one practical way you can give yourself a greater physical rest on the Lord's day is to do your best to try to prepare stuff in advance. You know, so there's less rushing around on Sunday and wearing yourself out. You know, you can prep some food the day before, you can, you know, if you have a family with young children, lay all the clothes out the night before, especially, so that things aren't so rushed in the morning. We can prepare for the day of rest in advance. So Christ remembered the Sabbath day and kept it holy, and he gave it its true interpretation as opposed to the Pharisees' interpretation, which made it a burden. And in his perfect obedience to the law, he fulfilled all righteousness, and he prayed to the Father. If you remember his prayer, his high priestly prayer in John 17, verse four, he says, I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. He accomplished his work for us. He accomplished the work of redemption for you and me. And then on the cross, as the spotless lamb of God, he cried out, it is finished. It is finished. What wonderful words. That ought to comfort you and me. It is finished. There's no work left to do for salvation, for redemption. He did it all. Jesus paid it all. He accomplished all the work for you and me so that we can receive the inheritance of God's eternal Sabbath rest as a free gift of grace, by grace alone, through faith alone, and because of Christ alone. And as He rose again from the dead, it says in Hebrews that He then ascended and He sat down. He was enthroned. He finished His work, He sat down, He rested from His labors. Just like God in the first creation, the original creation, worked and rested, enthroned over it all, so too Christ, our second and final Adam, worked, accomplished His redemption on our behalf, and then sat down, enthroned, rested from that work of redemption. It's complete. It's complete. But the only way in which we enter that eternal Sabbath rest, this side of the fall, is by faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone, apart from our own works. And so we must not work to try to achieve that eternal Sabbath rest. It's all a free gift of grace. We rest in Christ alone. Jesus says in Matthew 10, verse 28, come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. He promised that to us. And so, that eternal Sabbath rest that was held out to Adam in the garden, held out to Israel, is once and for all fulfilled in Christ. Does that mean, then, that there's no longer a need to set apart a day of rest? Some try to say, well, Christ accomplished, He earned everything that it meant, and now there's no more special day. No, well we need to remember here a couple things. One is that the Sabbath is a creation ordinance. It's a creation ordinance. It's rooted in creation. We still need to rest as image bearers. And we also haven't yet arrived in the consummate land of eternal rest. And so the author of Hebrews says in Hebrews chapter four, there remains a Sabbath. There remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. like the Israelites in the wilderness, were described in the New Testament as a pilgrim people in the wilderness of this world. We already have God's eternal Sabbath rest given to us as a free gift received by faith alone, and it's ours in principle, but we haven't fully entered into our promised land of rest yet, and so we still set apart one day in seven for rest and the worship of God as our creator and redeemer, and we look forward to the day of eternal rest when Christ returns, and we rejoice, and we celebrate his resurrection from the dead. And how much more should we stop every week and remember our redemption in Christ. I mean, they were called to remember God's redemption, but how much greater is our redemption in Christ? We've been redeemed from slavery, not to the Pharaoh, not in Egypt, but slavery to sin and death and the devil, which is a far worse slavery. That's our biggest enemies right there. Nothing is more oppressive than that. and yet we're redeemed from it all. And it was not by the blood of just a lamb, but the Lamb of God, the precious blood of the Lamb of God, without spot or blemish. So we ought to motivate us all the more to, in gratitude, set this day apart for the Lord. But there's one big difference between the Old Testament South Day and the New Testament. Christian Sabbath, Adam worked and rested, and this was a sign, I believe, of the probationary state that he was in, as he was to obey God and then earn the reward of God's eternal Sabbath rest. He was in a covenant of works. And that pattern reflected that, of six days work, then rest. Six days work, then rest. Work, working towards, rest. But now that Christ has come, and finished the work of redemption on our behalf and earned heaven for us, we no longer work six days and then rest on the seventh. The pattern has been flipped, if you will. Rather, we begin with rest on the first day of the week, on Sunday. Rather than working six days and resting on the seventh day, we begin the first day of the week with rest. highlighting that we are no longer in a covenant of works, we're in a covenant of grace and Christ our second Adam already earned that rest for us. So on the first day of the week we rest and the Holy Spirit refreshes us and strengthens us in Christ and then sends us out into our restless world. not as those who have to earn the eternal Sabbath rest, but as those who already have it in Christ. And so we labor and work for the good of others, in gratitude for our gracious God. And we see this shift from the seventh day, Saturday, to the first day of Sunday in the New Testament, when Christ rose again from the dead. When Christ rose again from the dead, He inaugurated the new creation. He inaugurated the new creation. It's as one theologian put it, it's the birthday of the new creation. And on what day did Christ rise from the dead? On Sunday, the first day of the week. And this is what is emphasized throughout the gospel accounts. In all four gospels, it says on the first day of the week, they saw the risen Christ. And this then became the pattern of the early church in Acts. You see this emphasis in the New Testament of the people of God now setting apart the first day of the week as the day of rest, the day to celebrate, because so great was this resurrection of Christ that it shifted the day. He's the Lord of the Sabbath, and He's able to do that. As B.B. Warfield put it, 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. And so we see this pattern of this first day of the week being now the day of rest, the Lord's day. Even Revelation 1, verses 10 to 11, John says, I was in the spirit on the Lord's day. So that's why we like to call it the Lord's day often. It's his day. He's the Lord. He's King of kings and Lord of lords, risen from the dead. So how does it apply then to us today a little bit more? How can we apply it a little bit more than what we've said already? We've seen what does God require in the fourth commandment, why does God give us the fourth commandment, how it's fulfilled in Christ, and then briefly, what does that mean for us today? And I just wanna give you a few helpful principles that you can, or questions you can ask yourself, and what's the best use of the Lord's day? we should ask, does what I'm doing here, does this promote the purposes of the day? And here's four general principles based on the purposes of the Lord's Day. First, the Lord's Day is a day for worship and spiritual rest. It's a day for worship and spiritual rest. And so we ought to fill the day with worship, whether it's private worship, family worship, or public worship, but especially public worship on the Lord's Day. but it's an opportunity to spend time in God's Word, it's an opportunity to pray, it's an opportunity to gather with God's people and worship God together, as we put it in our Catechism here. What is God's will for you in the fourth commandment? That especially on the festive day of rest, I diligently attend to the assembly of God's people to learn what God's word teaches, to participate in the sacraments, to pray to the Lord publicly, and to bring Christian offerings for the poor. That's a good use of the Lord's day. To come for corporate worship and to do these things, to feed on God's word. take of the sacraments, to give Christian alms or money to those who are poor and needy, to support the work of the gospel ministry and to pray to the Lord publicly. We need these things, especially corporate worship on the Lord's Day. But the Lord's Day is given to us as a gift, you see. How often do you ever say to yourself, oh, I wish I had more time to pray or read my Bible and there's, you know, or a theological book or a devotional of some kind. I wish I had more time. This is a, or read Christian biography. This is a wonderful day, a gift for us to participate in these things. And so Hebrews 10 exhorts us, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. For he who promises faithful 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. And so we should diligently attend to the corporate means of grace and fill the day with rest and spiritual refreshment in Christ. Now we realize that there's things that might prevent us from that, that are, you know, we can't help, like we get sick real bad and we just can't come and, you know, also people don't want your germs, right? And so if you're sick, then, you know, you're not gonna come, right? Or if there's a snowstorm, dangerous, it's gonna be dangerous to drive there or whatever, then there's things that might prevent us. But if there's nothing preventing us, then what could be better on the Lord's day than gathering with God's people to receive the means of grace? I mean, didn't we just sing, a day in your courts? A day, not an hour. A day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. How many people truly believe that? How much do people sing that and not give it a second thought and then complain? Right, that the day is the Lord's. No, the hour is the Lord's, if that, right? Do we really believe that a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere? Not just, and I'll just encourage also, I know here I'm kind of preaching to the choir and the second service, but the second service is important as well. We have morning and afternoon or evening worship, and it helps us bookend the Lord's day, and to set it apart, and to fill the day with activity that's lawful, that's good, that's pleasing, refreshing to our souls, and it's the means of grace. If somebody says, well, why do I gotta go to second service? What if I said to that person, what if I could promise you that Jesus will meet you in that service? Wouldn't you wanna be there? Jesus meets us through the public preaching of his word. and the administration of the sacraments as means of grace to nurture our souls. Secondly, the Lord's Day is a day for ceasing from our labor and experiencing physical rest. Once again, this doesn't mean that there won't be any kind of work at all on Sunday, but it's a different kind of work. We are to take a break from the ordinary labor that wears us out during the week. We need to rest from our work. The Westminster Standards even confess that we should avoid talking about our work that wears us out and makes us anxious. I think there's some wisdom in that, right? We can stop physically from working, but we can still be thinking about it so much that it wears us out, right? I think we ought to also be careful about being anxious about our work. Don't be anxious about tomorrow. Tomorrow's got enough worries of its own. It's a day for you to rest in the Lord. And so plan ahead on Saturday so you can rest on Sunday. Third, the Lord's Day is a day for mercy. It's a day for visiting those in need and showing them mercy. Some show mercy by visiting shut-ins and those in nursing homes. Others bring the gospel to the local prison. Others care for the sick. Others feed the poor and needy. Things like this are things that we can and should be doing on the Lord's Day as acts of mercy when the opportunities arise. God has been merciful to us. And the Lord's Day is a day to show mercy to others as well. Finally, the Lord's Day is a day of celebration. As Arkadix puts it, it's a festive day of rest. It's like a weekly holiday. It's our festive day of rest. And just think about how you might celebrate holidays. So too should we celebrate the Lord's Day. You know, there should be things that we do that we might not do on every other day of the week. You know, we're gonna enjoy a particular kinds of food and drink on the Lord's day that we don't eat every other day of the week, right? We'll bring out the best of what we have in order to celebrate. We're gonna enjoy maybe dessert. Maybe you don't eat dessert every single day of the week. I mean, it's not healthy anyway, right? Sometimes we do that though. You know, but you could do things. Think about ways in which you can make the day special for yourself, if you're married, for your spouse, and for your children. I want to emphasize especially for parents. Raise your kids in such a way that they love the Lord's Day, that they view it as a festive day of celebration, that they love it, they look forward to it, and you can do that. I said in the past, you know, we don't typically give our children pop every day of the week. We try to save that just for Sundays primarily. It's just one way that they can look forward to the day and celebrate, just like we celebrate in our life, things. And on this Sunday, we're celebrating that Jesus rose again from the dead in our great eternal Sabbath rest that he won for us. So these are just four general principles, and you can ask yourself these questions. Does what I'm doing promote the purposes of the day? Does it help me to worship and find spiritual rest? Does it help me to cease from my ordinary labor and find physical rest? Does it help me to show mercy to others? Does it help me to celebrate and look forward to the glories of the eternal Sabbath rest? with God's people. Now, none of us keeps any of the commandments perfectly, including the fourth commandment. All of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. There's been times where we have violated this commandment as well, and we've sinned against God, and we've made, we've worshiped our idols on this day when we should be worshiping God. But that's why we are thankful, so thankful for the finished work of Jesus Christ on our behalf, who obeyed God's law and died for all of our sins. And so let us be thankful for his work of redemption. Let us rest in his complete work on our behalf. And in gratitude, in gratitude, let us strive. to set apart the Lord's day for these things and to look forward to the return of Christ and entering into that eternal Sabbath rest. Amen. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word to us. We pray that you'd forgive us of the many times where we have neglected this commandment, where we've complained about it perhaps, or just ignored it. Or maybe even on the flip side, Lord, we've been pharisaical about it and judgmental and just judged others and guard our hearts from that as well. Father, forgive us our many sins and help us to each and every one of us take delight in this festive day of rest that you give us as a gift, and help us to delight, to gather with your people, to worship you, and to receive the means of grace, and nourish us by your spirit on these ordinary means unto everlasting life, and we look forward to that day when we'll be in that eternal heavenly rest, and the new heavens and the new earth, for we are a pilgrim people. This world is not ultimately our home, this is the wilderness that we are in, So we look forward to entering our true home when Christ returns. We pray all these things in Jesus' name. And all God's people said, Amen.