How Would You Answer This Question Regarding the Sabbath Day?

Isa 58:13  "If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly; Isa 58:14  then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken." 

I realize that the majority of the church today does not believe that we should obey the 4th Commandment. On the whole I don't believe the reasons are Scriptural. Rather, I believe there is something else at play, something that I see in my own life every Sunday.

Let me demonstrate what it is now by asking a simple question.

If you could have a day, one day every week, where you would not have to worry about work at all, would not have to worry about what you are to eat or what you are to wear, wherein God promises to supply all these things to you, so that you can just spend a day loving Him, enjoying Him, worshiping Him, learning from Him, singing to and about Him, reading and hearing about Him from His word, a day where you also get to spend with other believers in sweet fellowship of Him, a day where He promises to bless you in Christ,

- if you could have this opportunity, one whole day of every week, would you take it?

I want you to think very seriously about your answer. Would you take it?

First, let's go to the "book" answer.

We all know what the book answer is to this question. Our answer would be, "of course I would, who wouldn't!"

Right?

Isn't that what we are supposed to say to such a question?   I mean, it's like answering the question, "would you like to spend time with Jesus?"  How ridiculous is that?

We would answer "yes" because it would be absurd to answer any other way in light of who God is and what He has done for us.

Think about it. We are not talking about just anyone here. We are talking about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the King of Kings, the Fairest of Ten Thousand, the one who gave His life in great suffering for us, the one who purchased our salvation with His own blood, the one who is excellent in all of His attributes, the one who gave us everything we have including all the days of our lives, the one that we will spend eternity with when we leave this world, and on and on and on.

Do I really need to go on here? If you are a Christian, you know very well that the reasons why our answer to the question, (if we are in our right minds), is "yes," because of who God is and what He has done for us. We could spend eternity discussing the reasons why the answer is obviously "yes" and not exhaust the reasons.

Do you doubt this?  Remember that the Bible itself doesn't contain all the good Jesus did in just a few short years.

Joh 21:25  Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. 

No one could make a biblical argument against the idea that the only right answer to the question above, especially if we have been redeemed by Christ, is "yes, I would want to have that day."

[Some will argue that they have this every day, that they enjoy Him every day. True, but that's not the question. The question is, would you want a day FREE of the cares and concerns and labors of the world, something we all have the other six days. Unless we are independently wealthy and have all of our needs addressed by someone else, no one has what this question is asking every day of the week.]

The "book" answer is "yes." Now let's go to our real answer, which also will explain why I believe we have issues with the 4th Commandment.

If we are honest, our real answer to the above question is probably "no."  Please allow me to explain.

If you have ever tried to obey the 4th Commandment, you will immediately know what I am talking about here. It is very difficult to do. And the reason why it is difficult has nothing to do with some flaw in the commandment, or that it no longer applies, or that it isn't holy and just and right, or that there is some compelling spiritual reason not to do it.

Is there a biblical reason NOT to enjoy Christ only one day a week?  Please!

The reason why many of us have difficulties with the 4th Commandment, and why our real answer to the question above is "no" is this.  We don't want it! And to be more thorough, we want something else more. Oh, we might be willing to enjoy Him for a couple of hours, but a whole day?

When you boil things down, we really don't want a whole day of and for Christ only. If we did, we would have a much different reaction to the 4th Commandment?  Do you doubt this?

Think of the other commandments. Let's take one, the Ninth Commandment as an example.

Exo 20:16  "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. 

Now, because of Christ, not only should we want to tell the truth, but we we should love the truth as well. It should be something that we delight in, if we belong to Christ. The psalmist says as much in Psalm 119,

Psa_119:47  for I find my delight in your commandments, which I love. 

There isn't a true Christian anywhere that would say that we should not love and do the ninth commandment. The Scriptures declare that His commandments are not a burden to us.

1Jn_5:3  For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. 

The only time telling the truth is a problem for us is when we believe we are going to by hurt by it, or it serves our own purposes to lie, and even then it is because we probably have done something else wrong. In short, when we disobey the Ninth Commandment, it is simply because we want to do so. It certainly is not because of some investigation of the Scriptures or some flaw in the commandment.

The same applies to the Sabbath Day. We don't take the Sabbath because we don't want the Sabbath. In many cases, we simply don't want to give up the things of the world, even if it meant that we could enjoy sweet fellowship with Christ for an entire day.

This has been my experience (or failure). I don't do the Sabbath because I want something else more. And that is where the issue lies with the 4th Commandment in most cases.

But wait a minute, it's a commandment, not a question...

Some will say that I framed this commandment in a way different than what is seen in the Scriptures. They will say that it is not offered, it is commanded. So, let's take a look at this for a moment.

True, the 4th Commandment is just that, a commandment of the Lord. There is no way around this. But that is not all that it is. It is also that, which I asked above. It is an opportunity to enjoy God for a day.  God promises great blessings to those who honor it (Read Isaiah 58:13-14 above.). It is a day of rest from the weary things of the world, that we would be refreshed, encouraged and strengthened in the presence of Christ.

It was patterned after God's rest in creation (Exodus 20:8-11) and is meant for our good. Jesus said,,"The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." (Mark 2:27) 


Think about it for a minute. The things we want to do, we do. We find ways to do them, and if we can't do them,we are usually disappointed. So let's go back to our question.

If you could have a day, one day every week, where you would not have to worry about work at all, would not have to worry about what you are to eat or what you are to wear, wherein God promises to supply all these things to you, so that you can just spend a day loving Him, enjoying Him, worshiping Him, learning from Him, singing to and about Him, reading and hearing about Him from His word, a day where you also get to spend with other believers in sweet fellowship of Him, a day where He promises to bless you in Christ,

- if you could have this opportunity, one whole day of every week, would you take it?

So, if you know that the only reasonable answer to this question is "yes," is that your real answer? By that I mean is that the answer that your life provides every Lord's Day? Do you see it that way, in that light? Do you long for it, prepare for it, enjoy it and regret when it is over? Well, if you do, you are in the distinct minority today. If this is the case for you, then thank God in Heaven that He has graced you with wisdom to know and do what should be obvious to us all.

On the other hand, if your answer is "no" because you think the commandment does not apply, consider now the implications of such a belief. In other words, you won't do it voluntarily and are not going to do it unless someone convinces you that God is commanding you to do it, promised blessings or no.  Hmmm...

Is there any reason why any of us cannot take the day and enjoy Christ, whether it is commanded or not?

Honestly, what in the world could we possibly have to do or want to do on the Lord's Day that is better than spending it with, on and about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?  If you can answer that one, then maybe you can convince me that the 4th Commandment no longer applies.

In the meantime, I will seek the grace of God to make my answer to the above question to be "yes," not only in the "book" but in my life as well.  I will by the grace of God continue to believe what Jesus taught about the Sabbath,

"The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." (Mark 2:27)