The Fourth Commandment – Exodus 20:8-11

Recall where we’ve been the past 4 weeks. Before commanding us to do anything, God tells us He is our Redeemer in the prologue to the 10 commandments. Our identity is shown to be secure in Him not based on any of our own activity, but on His activity to redeem us. Identity comes first then we see activity commanded, and in this we see the gospel principle at work here: our identity is secure in God’s activity for us, rather than our identity being made secure by our activity for God. Then the 1^st commandment instructs us to worship the correct God. The 2^nd commandment instructs to worship the correct God correctly. The 3^rd commandment instructs us to avoid the incorrect while pursuing the correct use of God’s name. How you guys doing so far? Any of you feeling that you’ve already struck out? 3 commandments given, 3 commandments broken, 0-3. If you’re feeling that way, great! You’re experiencing the exact reason God gave us His law. God did not intend the 10 commandments to be a ladder we climb to work our way up to God. Rather God intends the 10 commandments to be a wall we run into to show us our need for the gospel. All of us are 0-3 so far, and guess what? We’re about to be 0-4, because for most of us we not only don’t keep the Sabbath, we ignore it completely.

Exodus 20:8-11 says this, “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 is 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.”