How do you spend the Lord's Day? The Bible's clear that God intended that this day

would be more than simply a time of inactivity. And today on Truth for Life we'll learn

about God's purpose and pattern for the Sabbath.

Alistur Begg is teaching from Exodus chapter 20.

We're focusing on verses 8 through 11.

Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.

In other words, sanctify the day. The phrase here means two things.

It means, first of all, remember the Sabbath day by setting it apart. That's what it means to keep it holy. It means to set it apart. Now, the immediate reaction to that on the part of some is to say, but you don't understand,

or maybe not so forcibly, but to say, well, what about the fact that every day is the Lord's

day? Well, there's a sense in which that's true. We ought to serve the Lord every day,

and we ought to serve the Lord every moment of every day. And the way in which we do our work ought to be

a service to the Lord. John Murray, the late John Murray, Professor Westminster Theological Seminary,

says to obliterate the difference between one day and the other six. To obliterate the difference

may appear pious, but it is piety, not piety. It is not piety to be wiser than God. It is impiety of the darkest

hue. The Sabbath day is different from every other day, and to obliterate this distinction in thought or

practice is to destroy what is the essence of the institution.

Now, there is a wealth contained in that statement. Let me summarize it for you. The recognition

of the distinction of the day is indispensable to its observance.

So that unless you and I be convinced that God has distinguished this day for all of time

and that because He has distinguished it in this way,

we must live within the framework of what he has laid down,

then any attempts at keeping the Sabbath day will simply be as a result

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