Sanctifying Super-Bowl Sunday

Last Sunday I preached on the Fourth Commandment from Deuteronomy 5:12-13, “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.” Is this commandment for today? Why are nine commands valid, but this one has been expunged? What kinds of activities has God defined for this day. This sermon deals with these issues.

A commandment for family life

The fourth commandment pictures one of the most important aspects of family and church life. In this commandment, the governors of the house (father and mother) are under divine mandate to assure that children, servants, strangers and even the animals and anyone else under the roof will have a Sabbath rest – for the whole day, not half.
 

A threatened commandment

It is a threatened commandment that families need to respect. We are commanded to “keep” it – to guard and protect it. This means that we build a fence around it and don’t allow anything else to over run it, because there is a public war against this commandment.
 

As with all the commandments the devil is always waging war with the fourth commandment. He places many stumbling stones in our way and attempts to disfigure it, eliminate it, or keep us from it. This is why we must "observe" or guard the Sabbath day.
 

Barbarians at the gate

The French revolutionaries abolished the Sabbath. In Egypt the children of Israel had lost their computation of it. The pagan enlightenment philosopher of the eighteenth century, Voltaire, wrote,"if you wish to destroy the Christian religion you must first destroy the Christian Sunday."

Vulnerabilities

Here is how vulnerable we are to neglecting this command:

1. Fear will overrun it
2. Greed will overturn it
3. Obsession will overwhelm it
4. Ungodliness will overthrow it
5. Antinomianism will nullify it

It has to be kept safe from the barbarians in the heart, the culture, and the church that will make us breakers of the fourth commandment.