Abounding Grace

Guest (Male): Six days of work, one day of rest. That's God's design all the way from the beginning. Pastor Ed Taylor says take some time to rest. It's good for you.

Pastor Ed Taylor: God gives you a commandment to rest. It's a needful commandment. Some of us simply need the command to rest. We weren't made to go 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That is not God's design for us.

Being created in His image, He gives the perfect pattern: six days of work, one day of rest. And it's to be hallowed. For the children of Israel, it's to be hallowed in remembering of that new relationship of the covenant. This is God's design, six and one, and it started in creation.

Guest (Male): From Calvary Church in Aurora, Colorado, comes another edition of Abounding Grace with Pastor Ed Taylor. We're in the middle of our study in Exodus and right now going through the Ten Commandments.

When God created the heavens and the earth, He instituted a six-and-one principle to us: six days of work and one day of rest. He now calls us to live that out week to week. Let's talk about it as we turn things back over to Pastor Ed Taylor here in part two of our series in the Ten Commandments.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Exodus chapter 20, if you would, open your Bibles. Exodus chapter 20. We are going to continue where we left off, spending a couple of weeks in this chapter, looking at the Ten Commandments. That's our title, "Ten Commandments Part Two". We're learning about the ten words that God gave His nation, the nation of Israel, the Ten Commandments.

These were intended to guide them and guard them. It is a definition of relationship different from what they've experienced in Egypt. No longer answering as slaves to taskmasters, they're now free in relationship to their Creator, to their Father, their Heavenly Father.

It's as if God's saying to them here in chapter 20, "Look, I heard your cry. Do you realize why I delivered you? I heard your cry and this is the response of seeing your suffering. You cried out to me and I came down and delivered you. Now, don't take that relationship lightly."

How many can hear that today in the new covenant? It's just a word from the Lord. Don't take your relationship with Him lightly or in a secondary role. In Matthew's gospel, Jesus taught us that no man can serve two masters. Here in Exodus chapter 20, He says right in verse two, sounds very familiar, "I am the Lord your God who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me." You shall not serve two masters. Exclusive worship.

Then He says in verse four, no idols, no carved images, because idols and idolatry rob our heart away from exclusivity. Then we learn not to take the Lord's name in vain. We learned that that was much more than just not cussing. It's often applied to "clean up your mouth and don't cuss". Certainly, there's a secondary role in... we learned last time, it's a good thing to stop cussing. Amen?

It's a good thing to have your mouth cleaned out, but there's a better verse for that in Ephesians, to not let no corrupt communication come out except for what is necessary to edify. I memorized that early on as a believer because of my language and where I was coming out of. What God saved me out of was a very foul mouth.

But that's not what He was sharing. What He was sharing is not to take the name of the Lord lightly, not to take the name of the Lord lightly or empty, make it empty because His identity is pure. You remember when Jesus was asked about the law? He said, "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment?" This is Matthew 22, verse 36.

"What's the greatest commandment in the law?" And Jesus said, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. The first and great commandment. And the second is like it: you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

When we turn our attention to the Ten Commandments, you see they fit perfectly with what Jesus is teaching here, where the first four commandments are all about loving the Lord God with all your heart, soul, and mind. Then the final six have this relational aspect with others. Vertical relationship comes first, horizontal relationships naturally follow.

All right, well, let's pick up in verse eight and look at the fourth commandment. It says, "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 do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that's in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it."

The fourth commandment is to keep the Sabbath, or in a more simple way, to rest. Isn't that great? God gives you a commandment to rest. It's a needful commandment. Some of us simply need the command to rest. We weren't made to go 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That is not God's design for us. Being created in His image, He gives the perfect pattern: six days of work, one day of rest.

It's to be hallowed for the children of Israel. It's to be hallowed in remembering of that new relationship of the covenant. This is God's design, six and one, and it started in creation. It's not God's will for you to burn the candle at both ends. You remember over the years, I've been around long enough as each time they introduce some new technology, they always sell it in such a way where it's going to save you time.

What they don't say, and I'm speaking in the workplace, of course, is that that time that you think you're saving is going to be filled with someone else's work. You're just going to keep going. You hear those code words at work. You always know it's going to be more work when they start talking about efficiencies. Whenever you hear that word, you go, "Whoa, I don't know how efficient it's going to be for me."

But there is a culture. It's based in our workforce that truly push, push, push, get as much as you can, make as much money as you can. But this commandment is a personal commandment in your relationship with God that comes to protect you from personal destruction because you can't work seven days a week. We all need rest. As much as we need the work, we need rest as well.

Unfortunately, this commandment to rest and honor this day in honor of the Lord has become very controversial in the church. I'm not going to go into the depth... I'll go to some depth today, but I have done a whole Bible study on this topic if this is a topic you wrestle with, and I think I titled it something like "Should Christians Only Worship on the Sabbath?" because that is the issue. That somehow the command here in Exodus 20 and other places has become the absolute day of worship.

Some people take this and make something legalistic out of it. Either they're living in fear of violating some rule or they live trying to find out and watch others and see others violating this in their own interpretation, this man-made rule, to just pounce on them. But that's not what God intends here. He did not intend for this to be a debate. It's a very simple command: rest. Work six days, rest the seventh.

He wanted there to be a day for you and me to rest, to sit down one day out of every other day and commune with the Father, commune with one another, to connect emotionally, to connect in rest, enjoying relationship, enjoying friendship. He wanted there to be a day where we turn our minds off to some degree and stop thinking so much, and certainly to stop worrying.

A day where faith could be exercised in a real way. Stop thinking about your career and stop worrying about your grades. Stop worrying about your work and your obligations and the stack of papers and whether you're going to be laid off. All of the things and just rest in a posture of worship so that it becomes a pattern for the rest of the week.

So you learn on your day of rest... or in our culture here in the Western culture, the work week is typically five days and two. They try to go one more, but God says six and one is good. If you get five and two, then certainly there are days of recreation, there are days of rest, but there's also days of communion and connection that we would be able to enjoy God.

Because you know, the reality of the day of rest for God is that He didn't stop all activity because He kept the world together. But He stopped His work. He was able to complete it in six days, and that's the pattern for us. Now, I want you to understand this in the context it was given. Do you think that while they were slaves in Egypt they ever got a day off? Yes or no? No. They were worked into the ground, taken advantage of.

They even probably developed a thought process to be efficient and try to please their taskmasters and try to earn something in this life of slavery for hundreds of years. They didn't get a day off. But now that God is their Master, the fourth thing He tells them is that you need rest. Don't you think their hearts welled up with agreement in unity with the Spirit to go, "Yes, we need rest." We need physical and spiritual rest.

God was creating for them a new rhythm of life where He was priority, where they shared worship with no one else, where they respected and honored Him and His name that represented who He was. You'll remember even back in Mark chapter 6, the apostles had returned to Jesus, they reported all the ministry that they had seen and they had done and they were a part of.

In Mark 6:30, it says then the apostles gathered to Jesus, told Him all those things, both what they had done and what they had taught. And Jesus said to them, "Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while." You've been working hard. It's time to rest.

Even here in the life of our church as demanding as it can be for those that serve here and those that are on staff here on our team here, we arrange throughout the years for special times of rest. We have schedules where we do the best that we can and the best ways that we can to honor days off, to honor the time away.

Because if the requirement of rest was Sunday, if that was the day or even Saturday... we're here to worship, so there's work to be done here. There are other days of rest and it's not about what day it is, although technically you can listen to this in the Bible study, technically according to the Old Testament, the Sabbath would be Saturday. Sunday is the first day of the week. Sunday is the day where the church began meeting in the new covenant.

Again, I don't want to get into too much depth, but I have, just for those that might question this because that's the big question. The big question is: is this a restriction on what day we should gather together for worship and should the Christian follow this strictly? To which the answer is no. Not in the old covenant sense. We're new covenant believers.

Even though this has been so divisive over the years, there are those, Jehovah's Witnesses would be one group, the Seventh-Day Adventists would be another, that would adhere to and even require Sabbath day worship, which would mean you can only worship on Saturday or you're wrong. Some even claim that Sunday worship is the mark of the beast. It's not. It's not.

The day in which you worship... well, I would put it this way: every day is a day of worship unto the Lord. Every day. Let's turn there. We don't turn much. Let's go over to Colossians with me in your Bibles. Just turn over to Colossians. It's just a simple little truth. If we're going to hold to a doctrine, it has to be consistent throughout the entirety of Scriptures.

The idea of restrictions of worship to Saturday or the mark of the beast doesn't pass the Colossian test. Notice with me Colossians chapter 2, verse 16. It says, "Therefore let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or..." what does your Bible say? "Sabbaths". Don't let anyone judge you regarding Sabbaths. They are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.

Paul would say in Romans that you honor one day this way and you honor another day, but let each one be fully convinced in his own mind of what days are important to you, what days you mark. But every day is a day of worship. It's not a command to Christians. It's a covenant with the nation of Israel. Of the Ten Commandments given today, the only purely ceremonial and non-moral command is here at number four.

The other nine deal with transcendent moral absolutes and they're repeated over and over again in the New Testament. In the New Testament: don't murder, don't commit adultery, don't lie, don't steal. But the Sabbath in the new covenant is never expanded upon, taught, or repeated in the New Testament.

We read often that the church worshipped on the first day of the week, very specifically throughout the book of Acts. We just finished studying the book of Acts and they would gather together when? On the first day of the week, continuing steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine. However, I don't believe that's exclusive. They gathered together on Mondays and Tuesdays and whenever they could gather together is a day of worship.

This Sabbath is a shadow of things to come because the Sabbath, our Sabbath today, is Jesus. So being in Christ, you are keeping the Sabbath exactly as it's commanded in Exodus chapter 20.

Number five, pick up with me, come back Exodus chapter 20, verse 12. In these defining relationship moments, "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you." The Hebrew word "honor" could also include the synonyms respect, obey, listen, submit to your mother and father.

This is the order for the home. The parents, mother and father, are the authority in the home and the children are to honor and obey their parents in the Lord. Honoring mom and dad is tough for any kid, especially those navigating through the teenage years and the various pressures and temptations. I acknowledge that it can be hard. Even in the best of homes, we all have the flesh.

This can be hard, that's why it's a reminder. This is the pathway of peace and the right way to have... when you have a relationship with Me, God says, then as you have relationships with others, He starts right in the home. The home is so important. Honoring mom and dad, this is God's design.

Parents are given as gifts to their children to teach them and train them and help them handle the issues of life as it's to be handed down relationally throughout the generations. Again, parents, Proverbs 22:6, "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." Ephesians 6:4, "And you fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and the admonition of the Lord."

And for the kids under the training and the kids under the discipleship and discipline of the home, they are to honor their mother and father. He says that the benefit of honoring your mom and dad is that your days might be long. Remember the penalty in the Old Testament for disobedience to your parents was stoning.

So an honoring of your mother and father had a very practical value to it, that your life would live long. I don't believe it's just in days, it's also in enjoyment and in relationship where the same type of relationship you enjoy with your Father in heaven, you can enjoy on earth. The same penalty for cursing your parents is the same penalty for blaspheming God, Exodus chapter 21 in the next chapter. Parents are to be listened to, honored, and obeyed.

Often the question comes up, let me give you a couple of questions for clarification. "Well, Ed, how long are we to honor our mothers and fathers?" Here's the answer: as long as they're your mother and father. We're to honor them. We're to honor their role in our lives. Which leads to a much more difficult question and it's very important that we address this because the answer to it might be a little different than you'd expect.

But what are we to do, Pastor, about those parents who dishonored us? How do we respond in the body of Christ? How do we respond in our relationship with God? How do we honor dishonoring parents? What do I mean, dishonor? Well, how do we respond to the parents that wounded us or abused us? The parents that hurt you and scarred you and abandoned you and damaged you?

Those are important questions to ask. Here's the answer. What are we to do? We're to forgive them. That's the answer. How could I possibly honor a dishonoring parent? It won't happen without forgiveness. Forgiveness is the pathway to reconciliation. Now, of course, remember this, forgiveness only requires one person. You in your relationship with God.

Forgiveness has the idea of releasing someone from the debt that they owe you. So forgiveness is far from approving, it's far from ignoring, it's far from sweeping things under the rug. It's literally acknowledging that a wrong was done and releasing them from that debt. And when you and I choose to release someone from their debt, we also release ourselves. It's a powerful, powerful tool, forgiveness.

Now, we often confuse forgiveness with reconciliation, as if if I forgive, then do I put myself back under that abuse? No. Do I allow that dishonoring person then to harm me? No. Because reconciliation requires repentance and change. But nothing is required for you to forgive, for you to release. This is no small thing to God. This is huge, forgiveness.

Honoring our parents. Unforgiveness is crushing to the bride of Christ. It is destructive. Unforgiveness will crush you and enslave you and embitter you and even kill you. Jesus taught us that we must love our enemies, bless those who persecute us, even if it's a mom or dad. Not because they deserve it or are worthy of it, but because we must forgive.

It is the hallmark. Forgiveness is the hallmark of the grace of God in your life. It is the response when we realize how much our Father has forgiven us and invites us still through the blood of Jesus Christ into relationship. Forgiveness flows because of God's grace. Now, I know forgiveness doesn't alleviate how complex this future may be, how difficult it will continue, how you carry the wounds.

The Lord heals. We are all walking around, I think if we step back, we're all walking around with one or two people wounds in our lives, or three or ten. Or we don't even keep track anymore. We realize it's a part of life. I do acknowledge that the reality of wounds in the home and to those that you trust, they're deeper than most. But forgiveness is non-negotiable for your progress in the Lord.

Guest (Male): Today on Abounding Grace, we've listened in to a portion of Pastor Ed Taylor's study in Exodus. If you joined us late or would just like to give this a second listen, go online to aboundinggraceradio.com or listen to Abounding Grace wherever you get your podcasts and at oneplace.com.

By the way, have you had a chance to download our app? This is another great way to take in the teaching of God's word. Download it for free today by searching for Ed Taylor. Well, we enjoy hearing from our listeners. Even just a quick hello telling us the station you listen to means a lot. Maybe you don't realize it, but Pastor Ed reads these.

Let us know how we can pray for you too. You can email us through the website at aboundinggraceradio.com. And please remember, Abounding Grace is made possible through the support of our listeners. We look to the Lord to guide and provide, and when you give a donation of $25 or more to Abounding Grace, you're invited to request a copy of Anger is a Choice by Tim LaHaye and Bob Phillips.

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