HONORING THE LORD

"Bringing the truth of the Reformation to a disciplemaking ministry."

EXODUS 20:8-11 ¶ "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 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. "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."

This is a direct command from God, yet Christians can be seen cutting their grass, working on their cars and a myriad of other activities on "The Lord’s Day." Many times they can hardly wait for church to be over to go home and watch Sunday football. Is this honoring God?

Some might respond that The Sabbath is a part of the Jewish law and does not apply to us as Christians, yet in GEN 2:1-3 it says "Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. And by the seventh day God completed His work which He had done; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made." This shows that the resting on the Seventh or Sabbath was not given to the Jews only but to all mankind.

There are some that might say that the New Testament did away with the Sabbath requirement but in the New Testament we find that the Sabbath is replaced with what we call The Lord’s Day.

REV. 1:10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet,

ACTS 20:7 ¶ And on the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul began talking to them, intending to depart the next day, and he prolonged his message until midnight.

The first century Christians changed the Sabbath worship to the first day of the week because this was when Christ arose from the dead.

Just because the day of worship was changed does this mean that the commands of God or the Rules that He gave are no longer valid.

The founders of Protestantism and the later Puritans said "no." We as Christians are to honor the Lord’s Day and to keep it holy just as the Jews honored the Sabbath.

The early Puritans declared that there were only three works that should be done on the Lord’s Day and these are:

1. Works of Piety: This means the Pastor can work and preach the Word.

2. Works of Necessity: This means if something happens that absolutely demands work then it may be done. This would not include, cutting the grass, studying, working on cars, etc.

3. Works of Mercy: This would include visiting hospitals, nursing homes or visiting people in their homes who are sick.

The early reformers and Puritans would be appalled at how 20th Century Christians use and abuse the Lord’s Day.

How do you use the Lord’s Day? Is it a day of rest, relaxing and honoring God with worship or do you use it to get things done you could not get done the rest of the week? Perhaps we should all evaluate the use of this day and consider how we can use it to honor God more and be involved in less activities for our amusement.

Why don’t you look at how you have spent your last few Sundays and see what you could delete, then honor God and rest.

Learning to Honor God on the Lord’s Day,
In Christ
Dr. Louis Hill

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