Princeton Presbyterian Church (EPC) Sermon # 1742
August 9, 2026
Deuteronomy 5.12-15 Click here for audio worship.
Dr. Ed Pettus
(This is an extended outline, not a verbatim transcript.)
“Fourth Commandment – What is Forbidden”
“‘Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.
What is Forbidden:
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Failure to Observe, Keep, or Remember
There has been and will be a portion of these sermons that overlap as we look at how the Larger Catechism teaches what is required and what is forbidden for each of the Ten Commandments. Last Sunday we considered how we are to remember and keep the Sabbath Command. And, of course, the opposite concern in what is forbidden deals with the same concerns. What is forbidden is to not remember and not keep the Commandment. That is spelled out in great detail in the Catechism as things like: treating the Sabbath carelessly, being tired of keeping it, even treating the day as unholy by loafing! Failure to observe the Sabbath is shown through useless works, words, and thoughts about worldly affairs. What the Commandment and the Bible are doing is truly setting this day aside as the Lord’s day to such a degree that we do all we can to honor it as His day like no other day. He gives us six days to work, to deal with our worldly affairs and recreations, but the seventh day is like no other day in that it is devoted solely to God.
The prophet Ezekiel is well known for calling out the religious leaders of Israel and mentions God’s Sabbaths, more Sabbaths than just the one day as God had other times when God’s people were to rest. About Israel Ezekiel says, “Her priests have done violence to my law and have profaned my holy things. They have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they taught the difference between the unclean and the clean, and they have disregarded my Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them (22.26).
The Catechism draws a lot from this passage in Isaiah,
Isaiah 58.13-14. “If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly; then you shall take delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
Let’s examine a few phrases from this Isaiah passage:
Turn back your foot – that is to cease from what is done the other six days.
Your own pleasure – this is the Lord’s day, not ours.
The Sabbath a delight and holy day to be honored – because it is the Lord’s day and not our own.
Not going your own ways, not seeking your own pleasure, not talking idly – all lifted up in the Larger Catechism as ways to avoid dishonoring the Sabbath.
Jeremiah offers the consequence of not honoring the Sabbath:
Jeremiah 17.24-25, 27, “‘But if you listen to me, declares the Lord, and bring in no burden by the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but keep the Sabbath day holy and do no work on it, then there shall enter by the gates of this city kings and princes who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their officials, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And this city shall be inhabited forever...But if you do not listen to me, to keep the Sabbath day holy, and not to bear a burden and enter by the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem and shall not be quenched.’”
Observing the Sabbath is for our benefit, for our good, for our rest, and for blessing to us and to God.
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Failure to Recognize Its Fairness
The Larger Catechism teaches us to recognize the fairness of the Fourth Commandment. You got six days out of seven to get everything done! One day is for the Lord. The only Bible verse given for this is within the Commandment itself, Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. The world is set on working us to death seven days a week. I remember a commercial not too long ago -- some old guys sitting on a porch on Sunday and a FedEx truck pulled up across the street. They looked at one another puzzled and then the voice-over came up, “FedEx delivers on Sunday because the world works seven days a week.” That might say something to why the world is so troubled!
This too is why John writes that we are not to love the things of the world.
1 John 2.15-17, Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
The world seeks its own will, the desire of the flesh, desire of the eyes, the pride of life, so that it does not care about God’s will for life. God’s will is that we keep the Sabbath for the world is not eternal, but God’s kingdom is.
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Failure to Acknowledge It is the Lord’s Day
In one sense we can look at the Sabbath as a day to follow Jesus’ command to deny ourselves, take up the cross, and follow Him. This is the best day to focus on self denial. This is the best day to recognize that the world does revolve around us. This is the best day to stop and see that God is God and this day belongs solely to Him.
God has blessed this day in particular. In the Exodus account we read, “Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy” (Exodus 20.11). We might note that all the other days are called good and only the Sabbath day is blessed. The effect of the blessing is that it signifies this day as God’s own and it signifies that those who keep it holy will also be blessed.
It is the Lord’s Day and to fail in giving God praise and thanks is to rob the Lord of this day. We “steal from the crown of heaven” when we neglect the Sabbath. (Thomas Watson, p.94)
We also recognize that the observation of the Sabbath is a moral law. Its morality is in that it pays respect in two ways, to God and to one another. The Sabbath is for God and the Sabbath is for us. It is a blessed day, to honor and recognize God’s goodness and the blessings of the day are showered upon us when we keep the Sabbath day holy. This makes the Sabbath a relational practice. It is a part of what it means to worship God alone, to have no other gods, and to honor God’s Name. Secondly, the practice of Sabbath fosters holiness in our lives which, in turn, promotes godliness toward our neighbor and therefore to the remaining Commandments which all deal with how we relate to our neighbor.
Each week in sermon preparation, I come across many comments and insights into Scripture. One particular one stuck out this week, to paraphrase Thomas Watson, this Commandment was etched in stone and should be etched in our hearts. That is true of all the Commandments, but perhaps Watson highlights this Commandment because of the great comfort and benefit it brings to us. We are told to remember this Commandment which indicates we have a greater tendency to forget this one.
We are told to keep it and observe it as a regular weekly duty and joy to the Lord, for it is His day. It serves as something like a hinge between our love for God and our love for neighbor as it is the Commandment that sits between the first three about God and the final six about our duty to honor our neighbor. This is not to raise this Commandment above any other, but let us take it into our hearts with deep commitment to remember, keep, and observe the Sabbath Command. For in so doing, we revere and love the God we worship and we love our neighbor as well. May we never fail to honor the Sabbath Commandment. Amen.
