Hi,
I am a member of a church that believes the Lord's Day is a precious gift to the believer. We follow the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, which is similar to the WCF.
Provision for necessity and charity are always given. We need hospital staff, policemen, etc. all the time, and hopefully some of these are solid Christians. We also know that the Lord healed on the Sabbath among other things, and He was perfect.
Further, we cannot be saved by obeying the Law. We should be neither legalists nor antinomians.
I cannot find, however, any Scripture that gives me the liberty to disregard a law God has given to me. God may change the day set aside, but the principle remains just as God's holiness remains. The decalogue was never revoked or revised, only clarified. We can't obey God perfectly (thus needing a Savior), yet that is not nor has ever been an excuse to disobey.
I stopped doing unnecessary errands on the Lord's day, and I fill my gas tank on Saturday, except when with travel it is necessary. I have not died. It is not impossible. When I forget to fill my tank and must, I go ahead and do it and it is impressed on me more fully the need to remember. We can cut down what we do on the Lord's Day, and thus impact society in a way that frees more people up for church on Sunday, and at the same time is noticed by the unsaved as reverence for God, just like when we refrain from saying 'oh God' as if He were a common person or thing. I would imagine nobody here would say it is ok to disobey the other 9 laws of the Decalogue.
Grace has never stopped God from being God. He is still to be obeyed. We are given liberty, and we can go to Him for forgiveness in our failings, but we are never given license. Neither does God change. He did give this law, and it makes perfect sense to obey it. We need it...spiritually, physically, and in so many ways.
How fully blessed I am since conviction on this. I am blessed with a church where I see an overwhelming majority of my brothers and sisters in Christ regularly. I am blessed with preaching that is Biblical and committed to staying that way. I am blessed with a congregation of people who also know solid Biblical doctrine (because...they hear it regularly). I am blessed even in the singing of hymns by all the voices of the saints in my church. I am blessed with accountability of myself and others (not just as in sins, but in health and troubles). I am blessed beyond measure, and it is because I have a day set aside for true worship every week, and I am in fellowship with others who are likewise blessed. I am not forgotten, I am missed when I am not there. That speaks volumes to my soul.
As a Christian, I never seek to be free from anything God commands. I am only free in it, and freely forgiven when I fall short.
I think someone should have confronted this preacher with his inconsistency. Well, I also believe in a plurality of elders <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />
disciple
