The Spiritual Observance of the Lords Day

The fundamental principle governing the observance of the Lord’s Day

The fourth commandment, as expressed in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5, is clearly the foundational passage of Scripture in reference to our observance of the Lord’s Day. However, God’s will concerning His day finds expression in numerous other passages in the Old Testament, one of which is the text for this meditation, in which God conveys His will concerning His holy day with equal clarity. In addition to the clear repetition of the fourth commandment, however, the Holy Spirit emphasizes certain truths regarding the observance of the Lord’s Day which it behooves us to carefully consider.

First of all, it is noteworthy that the Sabbath, referred to in Exodus 20 as “the Sabbath of the Lord,” is here denominated as the “Sabbath of rest!’ A careful consideration of the Hebrew words used here will at once reveal what God’s specific and non-negotiable requirements are for His holy day. Our word “Sabbath” is derived from the Hebrew word “Shabbat,” which means “cessation from labor,” and the word “rest” is the translation of the Hebrew word “nu’ ah,” which means “to rest in a goal achieved.” The meaning of these words immediately explain why it is stated in the fourth commandment that God rested on the seventh day, for on this day God ceased from His creative labors and rested in the achievement of His eternal goal, namely, the creation of the universe and its inhabitants. It is very evident from the fourth commandment that our observance of the Lord’s Day is directly related to God’s observance of the seventh day of creation, and that our observance of this day is to be patterned after His observance of the seventh day. “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it” (Ex. 20:11).

Therefore, our observance of the New Testament Sabbath, the Lord’s Day, must be in harmony with this divinely established pattern, namely a cessation from all labor and a resting in God’s goal achieved.

The New Testament observance of the Lord’s Day

In what manner are we, the New Testament church, called to “rest in a goal achieved” on the Lord’s Day? The answer to this question can be found in examining the reason why we rest on the first day of the week rather than the seventh day. The very reason why the New Testament church rests on Sunday instead of Saturday (the Old Testament Sabbath) is directly related to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, which occurred on the first day of the week. Every Lord’s Day as it were is a renewed commemoration of His blessed resurrection, and this is precisely the reason why our Sunday is called ‘The Lord’s Day,” i.e., the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. On this memorable day God the Father made a public declaration that He is well-pleased with the mediatorial work of His Son, accepting His finished work as full payment for the guilt of an innumerable multitude of fallen sons and daughters of Adam whom He has loved and chosen before the foundations of the world. On the basis of the accomplished work of His beloved Son, the Father, in a manner perfectly consistent with His holy character, could fully restore fallen sinners to be His sons and daughters forever. Therefore, the resurrection of Christ was the Father’s declaration that His eternal goal to save and perfectly restore fallen, lost sinners, had been fully achieved. And, therefore, as God rested in the achievement of His creative goal on the seventh day of creation, so God rested in the achievement of His redemptive goal on the day of resurrection, this glorious event which is the basis for the recreation and restoration of what has been ruined and destroyed as a result of our tragic fall in Paradise. On this day God beheld and rested in the finished work of His beloved Son, and could say as He said upon completion of His creative work, “and, behold, it was very good” (Gen. 1:31)!

Here then we have the primary and ultimate reason why we must cease from our labors and rest on the first day of the week. On this day it is God’s revealed will that we rest in the achievement of His redemptive goal, in the finished work of His magnificent Son. In other words, the rest to which we are called is not a resting which is equivalent to non-activity, but a resting which manifests itself in holy activity, in holy worship of God as Creator and Re-Creator.

The Lord’s Day and the ministry of the gospel

This is the reason why a proper resting on the Lord’s Day is preeminently a resting in God’s house, where we may hear the gospel proclaimed by which God bears testimony to His Son and His finished work, whereby He reveals to fallen and lost sinners that in His Son His eternal goal of re-creation and restoration has forever been achieved. And because His goal has been perfectly achieved, He summons His servants on His day, on this blessed day of commemoration, to bear witness to the Son of His eternal good pleasure, the Lord Jesus Christ; to proclaim in the midst of the congregation, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him” (Matt. 17:5); to proclaim this faithful saying which is worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save lost sinners to the uttermost (1 Tim. 1:15); to proclaim to hell-worthy and sin-burdened sinners that there is a resting place in Jesus Christ in whom God rests forever, a truth which is so richly expressed by Christ Himself when He exclaims, “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest…and ye shall find rest for your souls” (Matt. 11:28,29)!

The glorious purpose of the proclamation of the gospel on the Lord’s Day, is that sinners might seek and find rest where God rests, and that in finding that rest by the applying work of His Spirit, they may stammer in holy amazement and genuine worship, “Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable Gift” (2 Cor. 9:15)! How beautifully this is expressed in Psalm 132:13–15, “For the Lord hath chosen Zion; He hath desired it for His habitation. This is My rest for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it. I will abundantly bless her provision: I will satisfy her poor with bread” (i.e. with Jesus Christ, the Bread of Life). It is God’s delight and holy desire, especially on His day, to draw poor, guilty, and undone sinners by His Spirit to His beloved Son, to rest in Him in whom He will rest for ever.

Therefore, to seek and find rest in the Son of God and His finished work by faith, is Sabbath observance in the truest sense of the word. God cannot be honored and exalted more on His day, as when guilty and bankrupt sinners cease from their own works, acknowledging that all their righteousnesses are as filthy rags, and by faith rest solely in Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That is the blessed rest which remains to the people of God (Heb. 4:9). Consequently, only when on the Lord’s Day we prayerfully and in dependence upon the gracious operation of the Holy Spirit, strive to find rest (by faith) in God’s achieved goal, i.e., in Jesus Christ and His finished work, have we truly observed this day in a manner pleasing to God. Only then will we have truly delighted ourselves in the Lord (see Isa. 58:13,14), which is the highest purpose for which we were created, and which is the supreme purpose for which God has hallowed His day. Only then will our observance of the Lord’s Day be what it is meant to be, namely, the beginning of the eternal sabbath, i.e., heaven itself, where God’s Church will forever cease from its labors to rest forever in the achievement of God’s goal, eternally magnifying a triune God for the accomplishment of His eternal good pleasure in Christ Jesus.

To seek and find rest in the Son of God and His finished work by faith, is Sabbath observance in the truest sense of the word.

How blessed are we if, by the gracious operation of the Holy Spirit, the Lord’s Day becomes a day of rest for us in this sense of the word! Then the precious truth expressed in Psalm 36:8 will become a personal reality, namely that “They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of Thy house; and Thou shalt make them drink of the river of Thy pleasures,” or as it is so beautifully expressed in the Dutch rhymed version of Psalm 36, “Hier wordt de rust geschonken; hier ‘t vette van Uw huis gesmaakt; een volle beek van wellust maakt hier elk in liefde dronken.” (Translation: Here rest is granted, here the fatness of Thy house is tasted; a full river of pleasure makes everyone saturated with love.)

The divine penalty for the desecration of the Lord’s Day

A consideration of the manner in which God calls us to rest on His day, should therefore make it abundantly clear why the penalty for the violation of His commandment and the desecration of His day is so severe, as our text, in addition to many other passages, states unequivocally that the violator of this commandment must be put to death. The flagrant violation of the ungodly person, as well as the subtle and sophisticated violation of this commandment by the nominal believer, is nothing less than an act of contempt towards God and His revelation of Himself in Jesus Christ. In breaking the Sabbath, sinful man expresses that he has no desire to delight himself in the Lord by resting in His achieved goal.

Therefore, to despise the Sabbath as well as God’s ordinance for that day, namely, to “reverence His sanctuary” (Lev. 19:30), i.e., a refusal to cease from our labors and to rest in God’s achieved goal, is nothing less than to despise the Son of God and His finished work! The desecration of the Lord’s Day is therefore an act whereby man insults God to the superlative degree. It is an act whereby the natural man gives expression to His enmity towards His Creator, to his blatant defiance of His will, and to his utter contempt for His Son. On no other day are the words of the Apostle Paul so graphically and profoundly illustrated, namely, that “the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God” (Romans 8:7), and that men are “lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God” (2 Tim. 3:4). Should we then be surprised that God demands the death penalty for those who desecrate His day? (Ex. 31:15).

If we truly love God, we will love and reverence His day, and weekly we will long for the moment that we may cease from our labors, in order to go to God’s sanctuary to find rest for our weary, sin-burdened souls in Jesus Christ who is God’s ordained resting place.

Considering this divine penalty, must we not tremble for our western civilization, as well as our own nation, which blatantly and contemptuously tramples on God’s commandment concerning His day, especially in view of what we read in Hebrews 10 concerning those who sin wilfully after having received the knowledge of God’s Word (which obviously is applicable to our nation)? God’s Word states here, “Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant (which is the reason why God can achieve His goal!) an unholy thing?”

The sobering and deeply troubling conclusion we must come to in view of our text is, that our nation, due to its persistent violation of the fourth commandment, has forfeited the right to exist! The God of the Old Testament is the God of the New Testament, and since in Him there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning (James 1:17), we must assert that He views His day and its desecration in identical fashion as He did in the days of Moses and Israel. Scripture tells us, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die” (Ezek. 18:4). What is true for man individually is true for nations as well, i.e., the nation or the civilization that sinneth, it shall die! Also to our nation and civilization it applies, “Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them” (Gal. 3:10). It should be evident that our text clearly confirms these truths.

The desecration of God’s day is, therefore, a very serious matter indeed, and it behooves the church, as well as its individual members, to urgently and unceasingly call our local communities and our nation to repentance from this sin, whereby we so deeply insult the God of heaven and earth. For, unless there is repentance, also our nation “shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah” (Isa. 13:19). The Lord of the Sabbath, whose precepts our western civilization so wickedly and arrogantly defies, warns us most solemnly, “I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible” (Isa. 13:11).

Conclusion

How evident it is from our text that the observance of the Lord’s Day (or the lack of it) is a matter of utmost importance, a matter of life and death. We must take God’s day seriously, because God takes His day very seriously. Our attitude towards, and our observance of, the Lord’s Day, is an unmistakable indicator of our attitude towards God! If we do not take God’s day, and His precepts governing this day, seriously, it inevitably reveals that we do not take God and His Word seriously.

If we truly love God, we will love and reverence His day, and weekly we will long for the moment that we may cease from our labors, in order to go to God’s sanctuary to find rest for our weary, sinburdened souls in Jesus Christ who is God’s ordained resting place. Then the confession of David will be our wholehearted confession, “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord (=Jesus Christ!), and to enquire in His temple” (Psalm 27:4). Then we will long for the day which God has expressly sanctified for the purpose of showing forth His loving-kindness in the morning and His faithfulness every night. Then we will yearn to be in His house where it pleases the Lord to make His people glad through His work, where He causes them to triumph in the works of His hands, where in response to the declaration of the gospel they, in beholding Jesus Christ by faith, may cry out in holy amazement, “O Lord, how great are Thy works, and Thy thoughts are very deep” (Psalm 92:2–5)!

However, if we do not love the Lord’s day, if it is an unwelcome interruption of our pursuit of the riches and pleasures of the world, if we do not desire to cease from our labors in order that we might rest in God’s achieved goal and enter into His rest (Heb. 4:10), how serious is then our condition. Our text tells us that God’s judgment is certain upon all who do not honor His day, who do not honor and believe His revelation of Himself in the Lord Jesus Christ by means of the gospel. Everlasting death and eternal restlessness will be the inescapable future of all who in unbelief have trodden the Son of God under foot, and counted His blood as an unholy thing, and to whom God swears that they will not enter into His rest because of their unbelief (Heb. 3:19).

May God graciously grant that we may observe His day, not merely in an external sense, but in spirit and in truth, so that, by grace, our observance of His day may truly be an expression of our heartfelt desire to love the Lord with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our mind.

May, therefore, our observance of the Lord’s Day be in harmony with Isaiah’s exhortation in chapter 58:13,14, “If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord.” If we may observe the Lord’s day in such a fashion, then alone will our Sabbath-keeping be in harmony with His revealed will expressed in our text. Then only will it be “a Sabbath of rest to the Lord” (Exodus 35:2)!

The Sabbath

God thus commanded Jacob’s seed,
When, from Egyptian-bondage freed,
He led them by the way:
“Remember, with a mighty hand
I brought thee forth from Pharaoh’s land;
Then keep my Sabbath Day.”

In six days God made heaven and earth
Gave all the various creatures birth,
And from his working ceased;
These days to labor He applied;
The seventh He blessed and sanctified.
And called the day of rest.

To all God’s people now remains
A Sabbatism, a rest from pains,
And works of slavish kind;
When tired with toil, and faint thro’fear,
The child of God can enter here,
And sweet refreshment find.

To this, by faith, he oft retreats;
Bondage and labour quite forgets,
And bids his cares adieu;
Slides softly into promised rest,
Reclines his head on Jesus’ breast,
And proves the Sabbath true.

This, and this only, is the way
To rightly keep the Sabbath Day,
Which God has holy made.
All keepers that come short of this,
The substance of the Sabbath miss,
And grasp an empty shade.

— Hart

Bartel Elshout is presently on leave of absence as evangelist, and is translating W. Brakel’s Reasonable Religion (Redelijke Godsdienst).

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