Who is the Lord of Your Sabbath? God or Man?

 By Pastor Benjamin Glaser - Posted at Thoughts From Parson Farms:

Good Morning!

Three Long Larger Catechism questions today that all center around the 4th Commandment. To be sure we just completed talking about the Sabbath Day in our Tuesday time, but seeing as though this statute and the Second receive the most pushback within the body of Christ (all of them receiving various major disagreements out in the world) it probably wouldn’t kill us to hear out what the Westminster Divines have to say on this particular subject. I’ve probably already said it elsewhere, however, it bears repeating that the reason why Fourth gets as much guff as it does has puzzled me for a great while. I think the reason is because it asks us to get on God’s schedule and not our own. Time is something we recognize as a limited resource, and it is in using that dwindling supply that our true reliance on the rhythms of the Lord of glory are truly shown out to be what they are in reality. Our examination of the law on this matter will bear that out to be correct I believe. So without further ado here are today’s LC Q/A’s:

Q. 115. Which is the fourth commandment?

A. The fourth commandment is, 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 man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, 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.

Q. 116. What is required in the fourth commandment?

A. The fourth commandment requires of all men the sanctifying or keeping holy to God such set times as he hath appointed in his word, expressly one whole day in seven; which was the seventh from the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, and the first day of the week ever since, and so to continue to the end of the world; which is the Christian sabbath, and in the New Testa­ment called The Lord’s day.

Q. 117. How is the sabbath or the Lord’s day to be sanctified?

A. The sabbath or Lord’s day is to be sanctified by an holy resting all the day, not only from such works as are at all times sinful, but even from such worldly employments and recreations as are on other days lawful; and making it our delight to spend the whole time (except so much of it as is to be taken up in works of necessity and mercy ) in the public and private exercises of God’s worship: and, to that end, we are to prepare our hearts, and with such foresight, diligence, and moderation, to dispose and seasonably dispatch our worldly business, that we may be the more free and fit for the duties of that day.

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