The Lord's Day

A Note on the Lord’s Day

Since the inception of popularizing carnal Christianity, the desire to throw away the commands of God is ever increasing. This is called Antinomianism. It is the attempt towards creating an easy Christianity at the expense of the truth. To serve a Master who commands little, or less, relieves the disciple of many pains and ills, and especially the denying of oneself for the greater good. In the act of discarding the law of God one commandment at a time, it is never surprising that the more difficult commandments to understand are those which are discarded first. Such is the case with the third commandment concerning the Lord’s Name, and fourth commandment concerning the Sabbath. I am not referring to the shadows of the ceremonial and judicial law of God, but of the moral law or the Decalogue commonly known as the 10 commandments. God desires to have His mind picked. He desires His people to traverse the deep recesses of the Bible in order to pick apart the truths housed within. Simply because some commandments are more difficult to understand does in no way means that they are expendable.

I finished a work concerning the law of God, which includes the 4th commandment that you may want to consider. I have furnished the links to the right (or below) with many good articles on the subject.

• Preparing for the Lord’s Day by Thomas Ridgley
• The Sabbath – Edited by Rev. David Scott
• A brief and common inquiry into understanding the perpetuity and change of the Sabbath to the Lord’s Day as presented in the Old and New Testaments – by Dr. C. Matthew McMahon
• The Perpetuity And Change Of The Sabbath – by Jonathan Edwards
• An Excerpt from What is the Duty of Magistrates, From the Highest to the Lowest, For the Suppressing of Profaneness? – by Rev. Samuel Slater A.M.
• Sabbath: A Day to Keep – by Bishop J. C. Ryle
• Sabbath, or Sunday? – by Dr. David Steele
• Sanctifying the Lord’s Day and Holy Conversation – by Rev. Thomas Watson
• An Excerpt from his book The 10 Commandments – by Rev. Thomas Watson
• The Change of The Sabbath – by Dr. Thomas Shepherd
• Sabbath, The Day Changed: The Sabbath Preserved – by Dr. A. A. Hodge
• The Sabbath – by Dr. John Murray
• The Christian Sabbath: Its Nature, Design and Proper Observance – by Dr. R. L. Dabney
• The Fourth Commandment – by Dr. Charles Hodge
• The Sabbath – by the Mayor
• The Lord’s Day – by Dr. Archibald Alexander
• THE TEN COMMANDMENTS: Manual for the Christian Life – Compiled by Rev. William DeJong
• The Lord’s Day – by Francis Turretin (1623-1687)

If a serious study is to be done of the Sabbath, the Biblical passages should be exegetically studied (which should take the researcher considerable time) and then the following books should be read:

Check out these books on the Lord’s Day at Puritan Publications.

The True Doctrine of the Sabbath, by Nicholas Bound
Moral Law and the Covenants, by Anthony Burgess
The Christian Sabbath Vindicated by Daniel Cawdrey and Herbert Palmer
The Commandments of God, by Edward Elton
God’s Holy Mind, by Edward Elton
An Exposition of the 10 Commandments, by Ezekiel Hopkins
An Abstract of the Duties Commanded and the Sins Forbidden in the Law of God, George Downame
The Law Unsealed, James Durham
The Sermons of John Calvin on the 10 Commandments, by John Calvin
The Commandments, John Dod
Sunday a Sabbath, John Ley
A Defense of the Christian Sabbath, John Wallis
The Moral Law Expounded, Lancelot Andrews
A Brief Exposition of the Ten Commandments, Patrick Simon
The Lord’s Day, Thomas Young
The Sabbath’s Sanctification, William Gouge
The Christian Sabbath Defended, William Twisse
A Profitable Discourse on the Sabbath Day, Zachary Ursinus
Sin, The Law and the Glory of the Gospel, by Joseph Bellamy
The Lord’s Day, by Joseph Pipa
The Ten Commandments, by Thomas Watson
Theses Sabbaticae, by Thomas Shepherd
A Treatise on the Law and the Gospel, by John Calqhoun
Call the Sabbath a Delight, by Walter Chantry
Celebrating the Sabbath, by Bruce Ray
The Lord’s Day, by Daniel Wilson
The Grace of Law, by Ernest Kevan
The Law of God, by William Plumer
The Worship of the English Puritans, by Horton Davies
The Worship of the American Puritans, by Horton Davies
Calvin and the Sabbath, by Richard Gaffin
Hebrews, Volume 2, The Name, Original, Nature, Use, and Continuance of a Day of Sacred Rest, [Pages 265-460], By John Owen
Discussions, Volume 1, [Pages 496-550], by R. L. Dabney
Systematic Theology, by [Pages 351-357; 366-397], by R. L. Dabney
The Works of Jonathan Edwards Volume 2, 3 Sermons on the Perpetuity and Change of the Sabbath, [Pages 93-103] by Jonathan Edwards
The Marrow of Theology, [Pages 112, 283-284, 291-295, 298] by William Ames
The Collected Writings of John Murray, Volume 1 [Pages 205-225] and Volume 3, [Pages 34-35; 43, 49, 72-73, 75-76, 101, 108], by John Murray
Institutes of Elenctic Theology, Volume 2, [Pages 1-37; 77-100] by Francis Turretin
Institutes of the Christian Religion, Volume 2, [Book 2.8.29ff], by John Calvin
Systematic Theology Volume 3, [Pages 257-275; 321-340], by Charles Hodge
The Works of Richard Baxter, Volume 3, [879-926], by Richard Baxter
The Works of Ezekiel Hopkins, Volume 3 [Pages 236-267; 364-387], by Ezekiel Hopkins
Paul, An Outline of His Theology, [Pages 99-100; 106-107; 130-158; by Herman Ridderbos
The Sabbath Defended, James Milligan