WCF 21:8 — Of Religious Worship and the Sabbath Day

Good morning. It's nice to have an opportunity this morning to reflect on worship and Sabbath day. We're looking at the last paragraph in chapter 21, which is entitled "Out of Religious Worship and the Sabbath Day." Let me read that paragraph to you and then discuss it with you. The Sabbath is then kept wholly onto the Lord when men, after a dew, preparing of their hearts and ordering of their common affairs beforehand, do not only observe and wholly rest all the day from their own works, words, and thoughts about their worldly employments and recreations, but also are taken up the whole time in the public and private exercises of his worship and in the duties of necessity and mercy. The eighth paragraph of this chapter discusses the very practical question of keeping the Sabbath day wholly. This is something that we want to do because we know it's the Lord's day. Of course, every day is his, but he especially marked out one day of the week to be set apart requiring us to remember the Sabbath day to keep it wholly. The first thing we're told about keeping the Sabbath day wholly is a very practical point indeed, and that is that it doesn't start on the Sabbath day. We need to plan ahead. Now we know the importance of planning ahead because we do this all the time for other special days or even normal days of the week. If you want to have a successful bank holiday outing with your friends, you generally tend to need to plan ahead. If you want to be ready for a meeting with an important client, you'll need to order events ahead of time. We often need to give thought to the next day if it's going to run smoothly, and this is no less true for the day when we gather in a special way to meet with each other, and of course, most specially of all, to meet with our Lord. We need to prepare our hearts, reminding ourselves why we need to be here and want to be here a Sunday by Sunday, and we need to order our many tasks for it's a well-known fact among Christians that we do not carefully, if we don't carefully attend to our work on six days, then we will not easily find rest on the remaining day. Now put negatively if we neglect a proper preparation for the Lord's day, instead of finding rest in Christ and fellowship, a refreshing fellowship with God's people, we'll find ourselves doing or talking or even thinking about our own work. But positively, if you have focused on your work properly during the week, and if you've taken the time to take stock, then you'll find your mind much freer on a Sunday morning. You'll be less likely to be reviewing your own words and thoughts in the middle of a worship service, and more likely to be focusing on God's word and thinking his thoughts after him. So work and rest need to be tied together like they are, and they need to be tied together in our thinking like they are in the scriptures, notably in Exodus chapter 20. Well, I mentioned work. The same is true pleasure, really. We need to find a way during the week to get necessary recreation. And if we do not, we will almost inevitably find ourselves and often our children pining for a second Saturday instead of enjoying our Sunday. Now we see examples of people planning ahead in the Old Testament. Indeed, God's people are commanded to do so. And there we see how the Sabbath requires not only planning, but also faith. Faith that God will provide what we need when we take a day of rest. When every other family in the neighborhood has someone working on the Sabbath, and when every other student seems to be studying, it's hard to believe that we won't fall behind in the rat race of life. But you see we're not rats, we're humans, and we were designed to differentiate between the days. That's how God created us and created his world. And many Christians can testify that when they have taken the time to enjoy a day of rest, that they have found it, a pattern used by God for their blessing. Now, of course, we don't want to lose sight of the fact that the Lord's Day is special for God's sake first and our sakes second. But God does promise to bless those who call the Sabbath a delight and who call his day honorable. And we can see how the church at least can learn from the example of Nehemiah, that great Old Testament reformer, who thought carefully about the implications of ignoring the Sabbath day. He also instructed God's people and created structures for them that would help them see that the Lord's Day was not, for example, this was the case in his situation, sort of shopping jamboree. Well, it seems clear that if we're to find our joy in the Lord, then we need to think beyond going our own ways on his day, or seeking our own pleasures instead of his glory, or talking idly instead of building up the good names of our neighbors and boasting in the cross of our Savior Jesus Christ. Now, just how this God-focused day will look will vary somewhat from family to family and person to person. But all of God's people should find their day characterized by public and private worship. Both individual and corporate worship are very important. The day should also be also be characterized by acts of necessity and mercy as our Lord had to teach some heartless Pharisees long ago. Well, it's an act of mercy to help the sick or feed the poor, and these works are needed every day. But it's also an act of mercy to provide it's not but also it is also an act of mercy to provide housing and to offer food for Christian travelers or strangers. And of course, there are many other acts of mercy that we can exercise as Christians. But it's probably worth saying that activities of necessity and mercy should preferably be best suited to different days of the week. Thus, in the case of tornadoes or earthquakes, fires or floods, they may require Christians to rush to the aid of our neighbors and all costs on the Lord's day. But in most circumstances, we can discern what is wisest, what's the wisest use of our different gifts and skills. And we can discern that building is probably best suited as a weekday activity. And hospitality, for example, is perfectly suited for the Lord's day. But the main point, the main point is that between worship and fellowship and hospitality alone, Christians could easily dedicate and can and should easily dedicate their whole day to the Lord. But at the same time, we do well to avoid being over-prescriptive in defining the structures and activities of the day. And we need also to be aware that that superpious efforts to justify sensible Sunday activities are often too fancy and ultimately can undermine the uniqueness of Sabbath worship and acts of mercy. That is to say, we don't we don't need to call a walk in the park an act of worship or a deed of mercy to legitimize it. That would only have the effect of redefining biblical categories so broadly that we would find them losing their meaning. Now, of course, we can worship God and all that we do. And of course, there are there's a very wide range of acts of mercy and we shouldn't be too strict in our understanding of these things. But in order we need to energetically redefine everything that we do on the Lord's day. Let's be aware of the needs and strengths of ourselves, of those around us. And remember the maxim that our Lord left with the Pharisees. And that is, it's lawful to do good on the Sabbath. And then if we remember the Sabbath day, worshipping the Lord, and aiming to do good, if that's the longing of our hearts, by God's grace, we will not go far wrong. And if we do err, we can turn to the one who calls himself the Lord the Sabbath, who rose one Sunday morning so that we could find life looking forward to arrest with him and with all God's people that will never end. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for the rest that you have ordered for your creatures, for men and women from the beginning of time. We thank you for this privilege and ask that you would help us to enjoy it and and profit from it, for the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. Help us to this day to remember the rest that we have in Jesus Christ and the full rest that we await one day. We give you thanks for these blessings as we give you all praise and ask for your help in Jesus' name. Amen.