God’s Weekly Gift

In the Old Testament, violating the Sabbath day was a capital offense.  Evidently, God took honoring His day very seriously.  Aren’t we glad to be under grace and to know that Law has been satisfied by the offering of Christ’s righteousness for us sinners?  I know I am.  But, we also recognize that the “Big Ten” still apply to us.  The Ten Commandments reflect God’s unchanging moral character and still shape the heart and intention of those under grace in the new covenant.   It means God still takes his “Day” seriously.  The reason is because the people he bought at a price have been given a great gift.  The Lord’s Day is a gift and a welcome respite in a crazy world and the insane schedule many of us are oppressed by.   Missing it and neglecting it is in effect killing us.  Consider the following quote from a retired Presbyterian missionary in his book,  The Day God Made (in our library).

“No nation has been permanently blessed and prospered that has disregarded the Fourth Commandment.  In 1944 Prof. John Murray of Westminster Seminary preached a sermon, later judged one of the best preached that year, entitled ‘God and the War’.  His text was: ‘When thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness’ (Isa. 26:9b[KJV]).  Murray said that, evil as the Hitler regime was, the war was also a judgment on the Allied powers, America included.  He cited some of the sins for which America was being judged, among them the neglect of the Sabbath Day.  Then the preacher made the amazing statement, ‘One well-kept Sabbath would end this war.’ 

What can one person, one family, one church do? We can begin with the law of love and spare the Sabbath or the Lord’s Day for other people so that they may have the freedom to enjoy this gift of God.  If they do not make use of the Day as God intended, that is upon their own consciences, but if you or I take from them the precious privilege of meditating upon God and resting in His good providence on that Day, we shall answer for that to Him who is the Lord of the Sabbath.”    (The Day God Made, by Glen Knecht, pg. 57-58).

Our motivation now for worship under Christ’s gracious rule, is both love and gratitude.  It is these two pulses of the heart that drive us from the worldly propensity to feel that we know best in how to tend to our restless and spent spirits.   Love for God, who has given us redemption and yearns to give us more grace is the drive to want to worship Him.  Gratitude for the mercy and forgiveness that is never deserved drives us to embark on the happy labor of attending a structured design of gathered individuals into a single voice of praise in the glorious concert of biblical worship.   This once a week discipline, that regulates our hearts in a world of time wasting chaos, is the chief and paramount event that sets us apart as a redeemed community, of which outside of it, as our confession states, “is no ordinary possibility of salvation” (WC,Ch. 25:2).  No pious “I’ve got Jesus in my heart” religion that doesn’t square with the regular living and confessing the faith of Jesus in public worship is optional.   In the now 30 % of the American population that are regular church goers, our participation in the Lord’s day, as design of creation and a gift of redemption is indeed a counter cultural protest in our destruction bent world.   And you thought, I imagine, that going to church was just for traditional middle-class humdrums, which one could take or leave.  Think again.  Nothing like worship will cure the heart, give witness to the world and bring stability to your living.  I don’t know if honoring the Lord’s Day will bring an end to the war in Afghanistan, but it will bring an end to the war in your heart and grant peace in our life.   Why refuse the gift?   In heaven’s name, why?