The 10 Commandments: “Remember the Sabbath”

Intro:

The commands reflect God’s character. God gave us His commands to show us who He is.

The commands reveal our condition. When we’ve been changed by the love grace and mercy of Christ Jesus we will desire to obey them. If we don’t desire to obey the commands of God, then we have a heart or sin issue that needs to be addressed. In that way the commands show us who we are.

God’s commands are relational as well. They are about our relationship with God and our relationships with others. That’s why why Jesus was able to boils all the commands down two those two. Loving God and loving others. If we love God, we will show it by obeying His commands. If we love others, we will show it by treating them in a way that aligns with the commands of God.

God doesn’t love us less when we disobey His commands. And He doesn’t love us more if we obey His commands. Rather, by obeying God’s commandments and living in subjection to them, we show our love for God and out faith in Christ are genuine.

1 John 5:3 (NASB)

3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.

So let’s look at the ten commandments.

Exodus 20:1–17 (NASB)

1 Then God spoke all these words, saying, 2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 3 “You shall have no other gods before Me. 4 “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. 5 “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. 7 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain. 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 a sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. 11 “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the 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. 12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you. 13 “You shall not murder. 14 “You shall not commit adultery. 15 “You shall not steal. 16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. 17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

The Fourth Commandment: Remember the Sabbath

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 a sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. 11 “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the 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.

Mark 12:30 (NASB)

30 and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’

The first commandment, no other gods, is primarily about loving God will all you heart. Who do you serve? The one who is first in your heart is God. “No other gods before me!”

The second commandment, no idols, is primarily about living God will all your soul. Idols are about worship and that’s primarily about where you are emotionally invested or attached.

The third commandment, do not take the Lord’s name in vain, is primarily about loving God with all your mind. It isn’t just about thinking of God continually, it is about HOW you think about God. And how you use the name of God depends on your view of God.

The fourth commandment, remember the sabbath day and keep it holy, is primarily about loving God with all your strength. On the surface it might seem a little ironic because the command is about rest, but when we acknowledge our strength comes from the Lord, and we learn to live, dependent on Him, like we should, then we will remember the sabbath, rest from our labor, and keep it holy, dedicated to God.

11 “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the 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.

The Sabbath is about Remembering the Lord.

8 “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy…

11 “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the 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.

The key here is the word, “holy”. It is the word “qadash” (cuh-dash). It is used twice in our passage and it means to set apart unto God or to sanctify or dedicated to the Lord.

Webster’s 1828 Dictionary: Holy, adjective

Hallowed; consecrated or set apart to a sacred use, or to the service or worship of God; a sense frequent in Scripture; as the holy sabbath; holy oil; holy vessels; a holy nation; the holy temple; a holy priesthood.

It is about remembering to set apart a day in your week to worship God. It is about making sure you dedicate significant time to refocusing your attention and affection on the Lord.

We remember not only that our lives are to be oriented around God, gut we remember who God is.

Ezekiel 20:20 (NASB)

20 ‘Sanctify My sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that you may know that I am the Lord your God.’

So we remember our lives are to be oriented around God, we remember who He is and worship Him in the spender of His majesty, and we also must remember what He has done for us…

Deuteronomy 5:12–15 (NASB)

12 ‘Observe the sabbath day to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. 13 ‘Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 14 but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant or your ox or your donkey or any of your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you, so that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. 15 ‘You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to observe the sabbath day.

The Sabbath day was the primary day dedicated to worshipping God. It was first and foremost about Him and giving Him what He deserves. On the sabbath, the strength you use is supposed to be used in worship and honor of the one true God.

Leviticus 23:37–38 (NASB)

37 ‘These are the appointed times of the Lord which you shall proclaim as holy convocations, to present offerings by fire to the Lord—burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings, each day’s matter on its own day— 38 besides those of the sabbaths of the Lord, and besides your gifts and besides all your votive and freewill offerings, which you give to the Lord.

Leviticus 24:1–9 (NASB)

1 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Command the sons of Israel that they bring to you clear oil from beaten olives for the light, to make a lamp burn continually. 3 “Outside the veil of testimony in the tent of meeting, Aaron shall keep it in order from evening to morning before the Lord continually; it shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations. 4 “He shall keep the lamps in order on the pure gold lampstand before the Lord continually. 5 “Then you shall take fine flour and bake twelve cakes with it; two-tenths of an ephah shall be in each cake. 6 “You shall set them in two rows, six to a row, on the pure gold table before the Lord. 7 “You shall put pure frankincense on each row that it may be a memorial portion for the bread, even an offering by fire to the Lord. 8 “Every sabbath day he shall set it in order before the Lord continually; it is an everlasting covenant for the sons of Israel. 9 “It shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat it in a holy place; for it is most holy to him from the Lord’s offerings by fire, his portion forever.”

Numbers 28:1–10 (NASB)

1 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Command the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘You shall be careful to present My offering, My food for My offerings by fire, of a soothing aroma to Me, at their appointed time.’ 3 “You shall say to them, ‘This is the offering by fire which you shall offer to the Lord: two male lambs one year old without defect as a continual burnt offering every day. 4 ‘You shall offer the one lamb in the morning and the other lamb you shall offer at twilight; 5 also a tenth of an ephah of fine flour for a grain offering, mixed with a fourth of a hin of beaten oil. 6 ‘It is a continual burnt offering which was ordained in Mount Sinai as a soothing aroma, an offering by fire to the Lord. 7 ‘Then the drink offering with it shall be a fourth of a hin for each lamb, in the holy place you shall pour out a drink offering of strong drink to the Lord. 8 ‘The other lamb you shall offer at twilight; as the grain offering of the morning and as its drink offering, you shall offer it, an offering by fire, a soothing aroma to the Lord. 9 ‘Then on the sabbath day two male lambs one year old without defect, and two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil as a grain offering, and its drink offering: 10 ‘This is the burnt offering of every sabbath in addition to the continual burnt offering and its drink offering.

Ezekiel 46:3–5 (NASB)

3 “The people of the land shall also worship at the doorway of that gate before the Lord on the sabbaths and on the new moons. 4 “The burnt offering which the prince shall offer to the Lord on the sabbath day shall be six lambs without blemish and a ram without blemish; 5 and the grain offering shall be an ephah with the ram, and the grain offering with the lambs as much as he is able to give, and a hin of oil with an ephah.

Jesus worshipped on the Sabbath:

Mark 1:21 (NASB)

21 They went into Capernaum; and immediately on the Sabbath He entered the synagogue and began to teach.

Mark 6:2 (NASB)

2 When the Sabbath came, He began to teach in the synagogue; and the many listeners were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things, and what is this wisdom given to Him, and such miracles as these performed by His hands?

Luke 6:6 (NASB)

6 On another Sabbath He entered the synagogue and was teaching; and there was a man there whose right hand was withered.

Luke 13:10 (NASB)

10 And He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath.

Paul and the Apostles used Sabbath services as a way to go and meet with Jews to share the Gospel with them.

Acts 13:13–14 (NASB)

13 Now Paul and his companions put out to sea from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia; but John left them and returned to Jerusalem. 14 But going on from Perga, they arrived at Pisidian Antioch, and on the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down.

Acts 13:27 (NASB)

27 “For those who live in Jerusalem, and their rulers, recognizing neither Him nor the utterances of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled these by condemning Him.

Acts 13:44 (NASB)

44 The next Sabbath nearly the whole city assembled to hear the word of the Lord.

The early church gathered more than just on the sabbath day and special holidays. The early church would gather to worship the Lord every day, and a special emphasis was put on Sunday.

Acts 2:46–47 (NASB)

46 Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Acts 2:1 (NASB)

1 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.

Acts 20:7 (NASB)

7 On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul began talking to them, intending to leave the next day, and he prolonged his message until midnight.

1 Corinthians 16:2 (NASB)

2 On the first day of every week each one of you is to put aside and save, as he may prosper, so that no collections be made when I come.

The letter of the law vs. the spirit of the law.

Romans 14:5 (NASB)

5 One person regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind.

Colossians 2:16–17 (NASB)

16 Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day— 17 things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.

The Sabbath is about Resting in the Lord.

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 a sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you.

The Hebrew word, shabbat (sabbath), literally means “rest”. Before the 10 commandments were given, the Israelites observed sabbath day rest.

10 “… in it you shall not do any work…”

Where do we find rest? Is it just taking a break from work? Well, it includes that, but the sabbath is about more than just rest from labor and work.

Exodus 33:14 (NASB)

14 And He said, “My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest.”

Mark 6:31–32 (NASB)

31 And He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a while.” (For there were many people coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.) 32 They went away in the boat to a secluded place by themselves.

Psalm 23:1–3 (NASB)

1 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters. 3 He restores my soul…

Psalm 127:2 (ESV)

2 It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.

Jeremiah 31:25 (ESV)

25 For I will satisfy the weary soul, and every languishing soul I will replenish.”

Matthew 11:28 (NASB)

28 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.

The passage that comes right after that is about observing the sabbath.

Matthew 12:1–14 (NASB)

1 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath, and His disciples became hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat. 2 But when the Pharisees saw this, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples do what is not lawful to do on a Sabbath.” 3 But He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he became hungry, he and his companions, 4 how he entered the house of God, and they ate the consecrated bread, which was not lawful for him to eat nor for those with him, but for the priests alone? 5 “Or have you not read in the Law, that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple break the Sabbath and are innocent? 6 “But I say to you that something greater than the temple is here. 7 “But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire compassion, and not a sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. 8 “For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” 9 Departing from there, He went into their synagogue. 10 And a man was there whose hand was withered. And they questioned Jesus, asking, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”—so that they might accuse Him. 11 And He said to them, “What man is there among you who has a sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will he not take hold of it and lift it out? 12 “How much more valuable then is a man than a sheep! So then, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” 13 Then He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand!” He stretched it out, and it was restored to normal, like the other. 14 But the Pharisees went out and conspired against Him, as to how they might destroy Him.

The Sabbath is about Relying on the Lord.

9 “Six days you shall labor and do all your work...

Exodus 16:22–31 (NASB)

22 Now on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one. When all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses, 23 then he said to them, “This is what the Lord meant: Tomorrow is a sabbath observance, a holy sabbath to the Lord. Bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over put aside to be kept until morning.” 24 So they put it aside until morning, as Moses had ordered, and it did not become foul nor was there any worm in it. 25 Moses said, “Eat it today, for today is a sabbath to the Lord; today you will not find it in the field. 26 “Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, the sabbath, there will be none.” 27 It came about on the seventh day that some of the people went out to gather, but they found none. 28 Then the Lord said to Moses, “How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My instructions? 29 “See, the Lord has given you the sabbath; therefore He gives you bread for two days on the sixth day. Remain every man in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.” 30 So the people rested on the seventh day.

Deuteronomy 5:12–15 (NASB)

12 ‘Observe the sabbath day to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. 13 ‘Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 14 but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant or your ox or your donkey or any of your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you, so that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. 15 ‘You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to observe the sabbath day.

Exodus 31:13 (NASB)

13 “But as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘You shall surely observe My sabbaths; for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you.

Ezekiel 20:12 (NASB)

12 “…I gave them My sabbaths to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them.

Leviticus 16:31 (NASB)

31 “It is to be a sabbath of solemn rest for you, that you may humble your souls; it is a permanent statute.

Matthew 6:33–34 (NASB)

33 “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 34 “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Amos 8:3–5 (NASB)

3 “The songs of the palace will turn to wailing in that day,” declares the Lord God. “Many will be the corpses; in every place they will cast them forth in silence.” 4 Hear this, you who trample the needy, to do away with the humble of the land, 5 saying, “When will the new moon be over, So that we may sell grain, and the sabbath, that we may open the wheat market…

Exodus 16:14–20 (NASB)

14 When the layer of dew evaporated, behold, on the surface of the wilderness there was a fine flake-like thing, fine as the frost on the ground. 15 When the sons of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “It is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat. 16 “This is what the Lord has commanded, ‘Gather of it every man as much as he should eat; you shall take an omer apiece according to the number of persons each of you has in his tent.’ ” 17 The sons of Israel did so, and some gathered much and some little. 18 When they measured it with an omer, he who had gathered much had no excess, and he who had gathered little had no lack; every man gathered as much as he should eat. 19 Moses said to them, “Let no man leave any of it until morning.” 20 But they did not listen to Moses, and some left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and became foul; and Moses was angry with them.

In closing:

8 “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

Mark 2:27 (NASB)

27 Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.

11 “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the 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.

God didn’t need to rest but He did it as an example for us. He has given us His sabbath’s so that we would remember Him, rest in Him and rely on Him.

Let’s pray!

Memory Verse of the Week:

Psalm 127:2 (ESV)

2 It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.