A Sabbath Sermon from Mitch Chase (Kosmosdale Baptist Church)

In preaching/teaching through the Ten Commandments, there is a glorious depth attending the explanations and scriptural connections for each commandment. But, for the most part, the basic application of each command is fairly straightforward. (Although I admit that, even in application, careful thought is needed in specific situations concerning how we can best follow each command for the glory of God and the good of others.) In general, if the command says, "Don't take the name of the LORD your God in vain" or "Don't murder," etc., we simply try our best, by God's grace, to obey the command. Basically, in many cases, our obedience would look quite similar to the obedience of the Israelites to whom the commands were first given. (Though, even here, obeying commands such as the prohibition against idols might look different from one culture to another; in America, most of our idols are not carved depictions of images that people have explicitly named as gods, as people in Hindu cultures still have today.)

But the Fourth Commandment is necessarily seen as somewhat different than the other commands.

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 the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. ¹¹ For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it." (Exodus 20:8-11 NKJV)

The wording of the Fourth Commandment is different from the others, in that this command is positively stated, it is longer, and it is related to creation (and then to redemption, when it is repeated in Deuteronomy). The situation of the Fourth Commandment is different from the others, in that the Sabbath is taken as a covenant sign between God and Israel (see Exodus 31:13).

The application of the Fourth Commandment is also different from the others. For Christians throughout the centuries, the set-apart day has been the first day of the week rather than the seventh day. (I would argue that even members of "seventh-day' worshiping congregations do not keep the Sabbath in the same way that is described in the Mosaic Law.) How should we understand this change? And how does the Fourth Commandment apply to Christians today?

This past Lord's Day, continuing a sermon series on the Ten Commandments, Pastor Mitch Chase of Kosmosdale Baptist Church gave careful consideration to issues of applying the Fourth Commandment. He especially emphasized how the "rest" that God initiated on the seventh day of Creation Week was not just a cessation of labor: it was intended to signify Him residing in and over creation as the true deity entering into His temple, to receive worship there. (The insights in this regard were in line with material in G.K. Beale's The Temple and the Church's Mission and Richard Barcellos' Getting the Garden Right, but hearing them explained within the context of a worshiping community was especially glorious.) I strongly recommend that everyone listed to Mitch's sermon on the Fourth Commandment, which can be heard at the following link:

https://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=92181911578