We continue tonight with Part 2 of the sermon on the Fourth Commandment, "Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy." As I indicated this morning, I want to highlight some practical aspects of sabbath-keeping, but bear in mind that this sermon cannot be a complete "workshop" or "how-to" seminar, nor is it intended to be. So, when we have that Sunday School Class or workshop scheduled, be sure to attend it. Also, let me call your attention to the Catechisms in our Book of Confessions — the Heidelberg Catechism, and the Westminster Shorter and Larger Catechisms — which give detailed practical instruction regarding the observance of the Lord’s Day. We also have two new books in the library: The Lord’s Day, by Joseph Pipa; and Celebrating the Sabbath, by Bruce Ray, and I commend them both to you.

Now, with regard to the practical application of, and faithful obedience to, the Fourth Commandment, I want us to focus on the positive — not the negative — keeping of the Sabbath. In other words, the real question is not: What can’t I do on Sunday? What’s prohibited? What must I give up (as though it were some sort of negative, penitential debt we were paying). No, let’s don’t get started on that way of thinking about the Sabbath. The Sabbath is intended by God to be "a day of gladness, not of gloom." And so, again tonight the emphasis is on "calling the Sabbath a delight," and learning how to delight in doing those things for which the Sabbath Day in particular has been set apart by God.

The Children’s Catechism offers a very helpful, simple summary of positive Sabbath-keeping. Q.#88: How do we keep the Sabbath holy? A: By worshiping God with His people, praising and thanking Him, singing and praying to Him, reading and listening to the Bible, and doing good to others. This answer focuses on the positive ways of keeping the sabbath — what we are to do, in terms of corporate and private worship, and in works of mercy and necessity.

The Scripture we read from Hebrews 10:10-25 puts worship, fellowship, and good deeds together in the context of regular corporate gatherings:

... since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through that curtain, that is, His body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of fait, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good works. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another — and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Robert Ray, in his book, CELEBRATING THE SABBATH, comments on this passage:

Notice the repetition of "let us": let us draw near to God; let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess; let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds; let us not give up meeting together; let us encourage one another. And we are to do all these things in light of the approaching Day, the Lord’s great Day when he will judge the peoples of the earth. A casual attitude toward participation in the services of your church is not a sign of maturity, but of spiritual degeneracy.

You and I need the Sabbath. We need all of the blessings it can communicate to us. We need the friendship and the fellowship gained by worshiping with others, and we need the stimulation and the encouragement to love, obedience, and kindness that meeting together can provide. When Sunday is swallowed up by the weekend and loses its uniqueness, its holiness, as the Lord’s Day, then you and I are the inevitable losers. We cannot, by taking shortcuts, gain what the Sabbath is designed to give us.

Now, the important thing for us is to approach Sabbath-keeping from the positive point of view. Let’s not define sabbath-keeping by a list of things we "can’t" do on the Sabbath. Of course, we must keep the Sabbath holy. It is the Lord’s Day. It is not a day for common or ordinary use, but an extraordinary time set apart by the Lord and Creator of time to be a blessing and refreshment to His people, and so we are to cease from our work in this world and withdraw from the distractions and trivialities and burdens of this world. We must also understand that we must keep the Sabbath happily, delighting in the Sabbath. For people who love the God of all grace, having the privilege of spending a whole day in fellowship with God and His people, with no other obligations put upon us, is no reason for gloom and doom, but for great joy and gladness.

And rather than thinking in terms of a list of "don’ts" and "can’ts", think in terms of principles, examine your heart before God, and think of how you can best positively spend the day for God’s glory and your spiritual good, honoring the Lord on the Lord’s Day. And we might not agree on every detail, and I want to make clear that when I offer some practical illustrations and suggestions, I am not laying down any man-made laws. I’m just trying to help you, and encourage you, to think with a renewed mind about how you can "keep the Sabbath holy and call the Sabbath a delight." Robert Ray has written:

As we "think out principles," we will not always agree on how to apply them. We must be prepared to think the best of those who may in good conscience reach different conclusions than we do.

And then, there is this warning from Walter Chantry:

Legalistic and Pharisaic minds will imagine that if they cannot jog and still keep the Sabbath holy, then neither can any of their brothers. This is just the way man-made rules begin to be made and oppressive traditions start. Let’s approach it from the standpoint of calling the Sabbath "a delight," and delighting in doing those things for which the Sabbath has been set apart by God. What are some practical ways that we can more faithfully "keep the Sabbath holy"?

First of all, faithful Sabbath-keeping, in a sense, begins on Saturday. Got milk? And bread? Get it on Saturday. Need gasoline? Get it on Saturday. This used to be a way of life for Christians, before stores were open seven days a week twenty-four hours a day. Also remember that the Jewish Sabbath actually begins at sundown on the Friday evening before Saturday. Though we are not obligated to begin Sabbath-keeping on Saturday night, I think there is good practical wisdom from the Jewish practice. How you worship on Sunday morning is greatly determined by what you do on Saturday night. This isn’t a matter of Pharisaical rules, but it is just good common sense to say that you and your children must get a good night’s sleep. And after all, whenever you have a big day coming up (whatever that is), or whenever you have an important event that is going to take physical effort and mental concentration and emotional energy, don’t you make it a point to get a good night’s sleep the night before?

And, in addition to your Saturday night bedtime, what are your Saturday night activities? What do you fill your mind with on Saturday nights? What movies do you watch? What books do you read? How do you spend your family time on Saturday nights? Now, I’m not suggesting any strict rules or regulations, and of course there is room for good, wholesome fun, socializing, getting together with friends, enjoying various forms of entertainment and social activities together. (I even know a preacher who, every now and then, dances on Saturday night!) But in all that we do, we ought to remember that worship on the Lord’s Day is our number one priority, and therefore, nothing we do on Saturday night ought to create a physical, spiritual, mental, or emotional hindrance to our worship on Sunday morning.

Another pastoral, practical suggestion to parents of young children — and it is only a pastoral suggestion, not a legalistic rule, not a Pharisaic regulation, but only a practical suggestion — is that we teach our children the specialness of the day, the holiness of the day, by providing them with "special," clothing "set apart" for the holy day. This doesn’t have anything to do with wearing fancy or expensive clothing, or uncomfortable clothing, on Sunday. It doesn’t have anything to do with "dressing up" for show. And I don’t want to be accused of man-made legalisms. But children learn abstract truths by way of concrete examples. It’s an educational tool, an object lesson for our children. We have special clothes for Sunday because Sunday is a special day. That’s just a practical suggestion, and only a practical suggestion, for parents with young children.

Each week, you receive in the RPN newsletter a listing of the hymns that we will sing and the Scripture verses that will be read in the worship service. Take time to review the hymns (if you have a hymnbook — and I think everyone should have a personal copy of a hymnbook; but don’t take it from the sanctuary! We can order it for you!). Be mentally, spiritually, and emotionally prepared to sing to the Lord with all your heart. Read the words of the hymns to your children. Even if you don’t know the tune, you can still benefit by reading the words of the hymn and learning its theme. Take time to read the Scripture verses in advance of the service. Meditate on the passage before going to bed. Pray for your pastor, pray for the preaching of the Word, pray for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the congregation, pray for the members of your family, pray for members of this congregation that you know personally, that they would be personally blessed by the preaching of the Word and every aspect of corporate worship.

And, then, on the Lord’s Day, come to worship with your heart warm and your mind awake and your spirit longing to meet with God. Come, desiring God. Come, delighting in God. Then, following Sunday School and corporate worship, continue to call the Sabbath "a delight." Rejoice that God commands you to rest and calls you to a spiritual retreat. Obey God, and give thanks that He gives such good and gracious commands. Listen to what Marva Dawn has written about sabbath-keeping:

A major blessing of Sabbath keeping is that it forces us to rely on God for our future. On that day we do nothing to create our own way. We abstain from work, from our incessant need to produce and accomplish, from all the anxieties about how we can be successful in all that we have to do to get ahead. The result is that we can let God be God in our lives.

So, enjoy the day. Enjoy your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual rest. Disconnect from the world. Practical suggestions ... and only practical suggestions. Turn-off the ringer on your phone and let your answering machine or caller ID take care of your calls. Don’t read anything in the newspaper that’s going to trouble you, or frighten you, or make you mad, or distract you from your communion with God. One of the disciplines that I have established for myself on the Lord’s Day, as a way of sabbath-keeping, is not to do e-mail on the Lord’s Day. I’m not laying that on you as a rule for you. I’m simply saying that on the Lord’s Day, I say "no" to the computer, in order to maintain a discipline that keeps me disconnected from the busy-ness, the distractions, the trivialities, the clutter, and chatter of the world on the Lord’s Day. Now, on the other hand, to sit down and hand-write a thoughtful, substantive letter to a dear friend or relative, as a way of sharing fellowship with them from a distance on the Lord’s Day, would be a good spiritual discipline for me. (These are just examples).

But I would say this, especially to our youth but also to us all, and ask you to think about it: computers are addictive; e-mail is addictive; the internet is addictive. The Lord’s Day is a good day to exercise self-discipline and to disconnect from the electronic world and to break that technological addiction and show that we are not slaves of technology. Now, I’m not laying that on you as legalistic regulation, but the point is: we need to examine ourselves and think about how we spend time on the Lord’s Day.

How do you keep the whole Sabbath holy? How do you show that it is a whole day set apart for God? Surely there are trivial distractions and worldly entanglements which we all need to do away with so that we can spend quality time in communion with God and with our families and Christian friends — enjoying God’s creation, taking a walk or a bike ride and praising Him in our hearts as we see His handiwork in nature — or reading a good book, of good spiritual quality, or reading books of good spiritual quality to our children; or going to visit someone in the hospital, or in their home; making a batch of cookies, or a cake, and taking it to an elderly shut-in (a work of mercy, what a great thing to do with children!), or other deeds of mercy on the Lord’s Day.

Remember, the Lord’s Day is to be a day of gladness, not of gloom! Keeping the Lord’s Day is not a matter of pulling the curtains closed and doing nothing all day; and it’s not a matter of a list of "don’ts" and "can’ts." Think of all the ways that you can honor God and enjoy the day. Think of families getting together and enjoying fellowship and wholesome activities which help to build bonds of Christian love and fellowship. And, yes, we need our physical rest. And isn’t God good? "The LORD is my shepherd ... He maketh me to lie down ... ." So, you might need a nap before coming to evening worship. Or, you might find refreshment, including spiritual refreshment, by taking a walk or a bike ride on Blackwater Creek Trail or the Parkway. John Calvin, of all people, found refreshment by playing lawn bowling (outdoor bowling) on Sunday afternoons But, whatever you do, sanctify the Lord Jesus in your heart, and do it for the sake of delighting in and resting in Jesus Christ. He is your great and glorious Savior. He is the Lord of the Sabbath. He has set you free, that you might glorify God and enjoy Him, forever! Honor Him! Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy, and call the Sabbath a delight!

To God be the glory! Amen.