Lord’s Day 18: The Fourth Commandment #

62: What is the fourth commandment?  #

The fourth commandment is, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy: six days you shall labor and do all your work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God, in it you shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor the stranger that is within your gates: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. 

(Ex. 20:8-11)

63: What is required in the fourth commandment?  #

The fourth commandment requires the keeping holy to God such set times as He has appointed in His word, expressly, one whole day in seven to be a holy sabbath to Himself. 

(Ex. 20:8-11; Deut. 5:12-14)

64: Which day of the seven has God appointed to be the weekly Sabbath?  #

Before the resurrection of Christ, God appointed the seventh day of the week to be the weekly Sabbath; and the first day of the week ever since, to continue to the end of the world, which is the Christian Sabbath.

(Ex. 20:8-11; Deut. 5:12-14; Ps. 118:24; Mt. 28:1; Mk. 2:27, 28; Jn. 20:19, 20, 26; Rev. 1:10; Mk. 16:2; Lk. 24:1, 30-36; Jn. 20:1; Acts 1:3; 2:1, 2; 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:1, 2)

65: How is the Sabbath to be sanctified?  #

The Sabbath is to be sanctified by a holy resting all that day, even from such worldly employments and recreations as are lawful on other days; and spending the whole time in the public and private exercises of God’s worship, except so much as is to be taken up in the works of necessity and mercy.

(Ex. 20:8, 10; Ex. 16:25-28; Neh. 13:15-22; Lk. 4:16; Acts 20:7; Ps. 92:title; Is. 66:23; Mt. 12:1-13)

66: What is forbidden in the fourth commandment?  #

The fourth commandment forbids the omission or careless performance of the duties required, and the profaning the day by idleness, or doing that which is in itself sinful, or by unnecessary thoughts, words, or works, about worldly employments or recreations.

(Ez. 22:26; Amos 8:5; Mal. 1:13; Acts 20:7, 9; Ez. 23:38; Jer 17:24-27; Is. 58:13)

67: What are the reasons annexed to the fourth commandment?  #

The reasons annexed to the fourth commandment, are God’s allowing us six days of the week for our own lawful employments, his challenging a special propriety in a seventh, his own example, and his blessing the Sabbath day.

(Ex. 20:9; Ex. 20:11)