4. Fourth Commandment: Remember the Sabbath

There was a time when denominations divided over other matters were agreed on the Sabbath. Wesley, Whitefield, Edwards, Brainerd, Newton, Carey, Livingston, M'Cheyne, Spurgeon, Muller, Ryle, Lloyd-Jones and Leonard Ravenhill all kept the Christian Sabbath. Tragically, the Church has largely departed from those old paths, and the Lord's Day has become very much like every other day... except in the reformed churches - but even here we have a problem. We give lip service to the commandment but we do not observe it. Like the Pharisees we have learned to cease doing but we seem to have forgotten why. Why did God give the Sabbath? What is the reason for the Sabbath? How is the Christian Sabbath (the Lord's Day) to be sanctified? Is this commandment a grief and a burden? Is this legalism? Or is it a delight?