Hebrews 4:1-10 – the Sabbath Day as a Commandment, by Bill Rhetts
This was a difficult sermon to preach. Afterward, I tendered my resignation as pastor, giving them a six-week notice. My wife and I love this church dearly, and we will miss them dearly. But Lord willing, by faith, we are transitioning into a new chapter in our life; with new opportunities – Deo volente!
In this sermon, the Lord speaks of the prolific power of His saving Gospel. I then confess the sins of my former dispensationalism, and as a Covenant theologian how I’ve learned that keeping the Fourth Commandment, the Lord’s Sabbath Day, is still a commandment today; and is as important as the other nine commandments.
As I’ve said before. “I am a former Dispensationalist, and today I still have to fight against that former teaching. Dispensationalism is not just one error. Dispensationalism is the mothership that leads to many other errs. When an oncologist removes cancer, they don’t just remove cancer seen only on the surface of the skin. They surgically remove the root of cancer. And so that is how Dispensationalism must be treated, including “Leaky Dispensationalism.” Because a little leaven leavens the whole lump. And, when Calvinists and Reformers accept, tolerate, and/or acquiesce to Leaky-Dispensationalism, they are enabling Dispensationalism. When they tolerate Arminianism (aka Semi-Pelagianism), they are negotiating with Pelagianism. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. Semper Reformanda!”
Nonetheless, eschatology does not change with the political climate, nor with the trends of crime. Our eschatology is full of err, but God’s providence is perfect, and He does not change. Therefore, I will not wear eschatology like an accessory. I will trust in Him, for He is never wrong.
I share the bloody story of how the Lord used me to thwart active shooters at a church, killing the primary shooter, and all on the Lord’s Sabbath Day.
I then charge the church with the importance of being Sabbatarians, but without being hypocrites or ecclesial tyrants.
I pray for the unction of the Holy Spirit through the preaching of His Word about His Sabbath, on His Sabbath; that he would bring either conviction or exhortation where required.
To speak against keeping the Fourth Commandment is not only sinful antinomianism. It is allegorical to the craftiness of Satan when he told the woman in the garden “Yea, hath God said (Gen 3:1),? Our occupations or recreations do not change God, nor His Word. Only by the grace of God, so go I.
I also included our Holy Communion service, doxology, and benediction. Soli Deo Gloria!
Disclaimer: Our church practiced a Regulative Principle of Worship. Therefore, the Christmas tree was not ours as it belonged to the church that we leased space from.
Dr. James White on John MacArthur’s “we lose here.. we don’t win…”
Powerful video on ‘The Wrath of God in Preaching,’ by Dr. R. C. Sproul
Video of an expository teaching on the Epistle of 1st John Chapter 2:1-14
About The Author
Bill Rhetts
An ordinary sinner saved by an Extraordinary Savior. Radically saved, and radically changed, by a Radical God. For more details, see the above 'About me' tab.
Add a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.
To speak against keeping the Fourth Commandment is not only sinful antinomianism. It is allegorical to the craftiness of Satan when he told the woman in the garden “Yea, hath God said (Gen 3:1),? Our occupations or recreations do not change God, nor His Word. Only by the grace of God, so go I.
I suspect perhaps 98% of churches (and professing Christians) in America are not saying this, and are certainly not practicing this. Why not? Because they do not want to lose chronic violators of this God glorifying Christ exalting Commandment. Fact is, the Lord set His Lord’s Day (aka the Sabbath) aside, so His people could worship Him together, demonstrate His means of grace together, and then rest. The Lord’s Day is not set aside for the ball game, sports, entertainment, recreation, and/or work. My position is not legalism. It is being obedient to God’s Decalogue, which is for us today until we are in glory.
.
Show me a man that does not love this Commandment, and I will show you a partial antinomian.
.
Lord, I fall short. Help me love and obey Your Law more.
.
The Lord’s Fourth Commandment says, Exodus 20:8-11 says “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: 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.”
.
Chapter 22, paragraph 8 of the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith reads.
“The sabbath is then kept holy unto the Lord, when men, after a due preparing of their hearts, and ordering their common affairs aforehand, do not only observe an holy g rest all day, from their own works, words and thoughts, about their worldly employment and recreations, but are also taken up the whole time in the public and private exercises of his worship, and in the duties h of necessity and mercy.
.
(g Isa 58:13; Neh 13:15-22; h Mat 12:1-13)
.
The Orthodox Catechism reads,
Question 116: What is God’s will for you in the fourth commandment?
Answer: First, that the gospel ministry and education for it be maintained, (a) and that, especially on the festive day of rest, I regularly attend the assembly of God’s people (b) to learn what God’s Word teaches, (c) to participate in the sacraments,(d) to pray to God publicly,(e) and to bring Christian offerings for the poor.(f) Second, that every day of my life I rest from my evil ways, let the Lord work in me through his Spirit, and so begin already in this life the eternal Sabbath.(g)
.
(a) Deut. 6:4-9, 20-25; 1 Cor. 9:13-14; 2 Tim. 2:2; 3:13- 17; Tit. 1:5 An Orthodox Catechism 75 (b) Deut. 12:5-12; Ps. 40:9-10; 68:26; Acts 2:42-47; Heb. 10:23-25 (c) Rom. 10:14-17; 1 Cor. 14:31-32; 1 Tim. 4:13 (d) 1 Cor. 11:23-25 (e) Col. 3:16; 1 Tim. 2:1 (f) Ps. 50:14; 1 Cor. 16:2; 2 Cor. 8 & 9 (g) Isa. 66:23; Heb. 4:9-11.
#1689confession #1689lbcf #OrthodoxCatechism #Sabbath #SabbathDay #LordDay
When I was a dispensationalist, I believed the lie that the Fourth Commandment was relaxed, optional, and/or nullified in the New Covenant. However, we are still commanded to keep the Lord’s Day Holy.
.
Exodus 20:8-11 says “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: 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.”
.
Chapter 22, paragraph 7 of the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith reads.
.
“As it is the law of nature, that in general a proportion of time, by God’s appointment, be set apart for the worship of God, so by his Word, in a positive moral, and perpetual commandment, binding all men, in all ages, he hath particularly appointed one day in seven for a e sabbath to be kept holy unto him, which from the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ was the last day of the week, and from the resurrection of Christ was changed into the first day of the week, f which is called the Lord’s Day: and is to be continued to the end of the world as the Christian Sabbath, the observation of the last day of the week being abolished.”
.
( e. Exo 20:8; f. 1 Co 16:1-2; Act 20:7; Rev 1:10)
.
The Orthodox Catechism reads,
.
Question 116: What is God’s will for you in the fourth commandment?
.
Answer: First, that the gospel ministry and education for it be maintained, (a) and that, especially on the festive day of rest, I regularly attend the assembly of God’s people (b) to learn what God’s Word teaches, (c) to participate in the sacraments,(d) to pray to God publicly,(e) and to bring Christian offerings for the poor.(f) Second, that every day of my life I rest from my evil ways, let the Lord work in me through his Spirit, and so begin already in this life the eternal Sabbath.(g)
.
(a) Deut. 6:4-9, 20-25; 1 Cor. 9:13-14; 2 Tim. 2:2; 3:13- 17; Tit. 1:5 An Orthodox Catechism 75 (b) Deut. 12:5-12; Ps. 40:9-10; 68:26; Acts 2:42-47; Heb. 10:23-25 (c) Rom. 10:14-17; 1 Cor. 14:31-32; 1 Tim. 4:13 (d) 1 Cor. 11:23-25 (e) Col. 3:16; 1 Tim. 2:1 (f) Ps. 50:14; 1 Cor. 16:2; 2 Cor. 8 & 9 (g) Isa. 66:23; Heb. 4:9-11
#1689confession #1689lbcf #OrthodoxCatechism