The Sabbath: A Burden or a Delight? Chad V.

It is indeed a sad thing among Christians that the moral law of God which is the Ten Commandments is so widely disputed. There seems to be an endless controversy among Christians as to what the moral law of God is and what it is that God requires of His people. This need not be so. The scripture is quite plain on this. There are indeed many things in the bible that may be difficult to understand but God's moral law is not one of them. There is an eternal moral law which reflects the very nature of God himself. To violate this is to sin. This law is the Ten Commandments and it is clear and concise. There should be no dispute about this what so ever and no other law of the Decalogue is so maligned as that of Sabbath keeping.
Excuses for doing away with the Sabbath are plentiful and there are an endless stream of doctrines invented to nullify the fourth commandment. Claims of confusion over this fundamental doctrine will be no excuse on the day of judgment. True, if you are Christ's there shall be no condemnation for you, but that is no excuse for you to tempt God. By the law every mouth will be stopped (Rom 3:19). There will be no occasion for you to plead misunderstanding or ignorance. False systems of theology will be of no use at all. The heathen will not be able to plead ignorance or confusion on that day despite their blindness, how will you who have the spirit of God indwelling you fair any better?
In an attempt to do away with Sabbath keeping the Fourth Commandment is virtually tossed aside as part of the Mosaic Law. It is counted as a relic of a past dispensation and a burden too heavy to be borne. Indeed at the Jerusalem council in Acts 15 Peter rebukes those who say that the church is to keep the Law of Moses by saying; "Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?" (Acts 15:10). But is the Sabbath a burden too heavy to bear? Is it included in the Mosaic Law? What was Peter referring to when he said a "burden too heavy to bear"?
Peter is referring to circumcision which identified the recipient as a Jew and placed the receiver of it under the rules and regulations of the ceremonial law and was a great burden indeed. Righteousness could not be attained by it and indeed the constant refrain of the ceremonial law was "unclean, unclean". In that case the Law was a burden to be borne. The sacrifices and the ceremonial washings and ordinances of the Mosaic Law never perfected anyone. But now the fulfillment of all that the Mosaic Law pictured had come and the people of God are liberated from that burden. There is no longer a need to picture the coming Christ, he has come and finished his work. There is no longer a need to slaughter countless numbers of animals and to go through countless washings which never made anyone clean. However, the moral law of God remains. Who among us would say that we are no longer required to worship only the one true God? How many of us would say that blasphemy is now permissible? None who can claim the name of Christ can say such things. How is it then that those who claim the name of Christ call the Sabbath a burden?
The Sabbath is a gift of God to his people for their good. "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath" (Mark 2:27). It is given for his refreshment and so that he has a day to commune with his God without the intrusion of the cares of the world. The Sabbath is a vital part of the worship of God. And how can it be said that the Sabbath is part of the Mosaic Law and a burden too heavy to bear when God calls the Sabbath a delight (cff. Isa 58:13)? The scripture says plainly in Isaiah 58 vss. 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."
The prophet tells us that if we call God's holy day a delight and we stop trampling it under out feet then we shall take delight in the Lord. This then begs the question; can it be rightly said of anyone who despises, or as a matter of regular practice, profanes the Sabbath, if he says; "The Sabbath is not for me."; if he treats the Sabbath as a common day like any other, can it be said that he delights in the Lord? If a person hates the idea that he must keep the Lord's Day set aside for the worship of God can he be said to delight in the Lord? If a person worships other gods, if he is covetous, if he steals, if he is an adulterer, if he is a blasphemer, if a person did such things it could not be said that such a person delighted in the Lord. The fourth commandment is no less crucial than any of the other nine. Isaiah tells us that if we delight in the Sabbath then we delight in the Lord. There is no separating the two. One cannot have God and yet cast off his commandments. To cast off God's commandments is to cast off God himself for by his commandments God's redeemed may know how to live in a way pleasing to him. The Apostle John in his first epistle teaches us that if we love God we keep his commandments and they are not burdensome (1 John 5:3). How wicked is it if we say then that if we are required to keep the Sabbath that it would be bondage?
If you find yourself crying out against the Sabbath then know that you are crying out against what God has commanded. God has given the Sabbath as a delight to His people. He promises to bless those who keep and honor His holy day and to cause them to ride upon the heights of the earth. Those who honor God and his Sabbath he will honor. You who reject the Sabbath; why do you test God? Why do you trample His holy day under your foot? The fourth commandment is plain.
"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 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, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy."