Sweet moon, my soul, sweet, sweet,
sweet moon. Let's all stand together and
sing hymn number 51. Hymn number 51. Praise the Savior, ye who know
Him, who can tell how much we owe Him. Gladly let us render
to Him all we are and have. Jesus is the name that charms
us He for conflict fits and arms us Nothing moves and nothing
harms us While we trust in Him Trust in Him, ye saints, forever
He is faithful, changing never Neither force nor guile can sever
Those he loves from here Keep us, Lord, O keep us, claiming
to Thyself and still believing till the hour of our receiving
promise joys with Thee. Then we shall be where we would
be. Then we shall be what we should
be. Things that are not, now nor
could be, soon shall be our own. Be seated. We'll sing hymn number
355. From every stormy wind that blows,
from every swelling tide of woes, This fishery treat is found beneath
the mercy sea. There is a place where Jesus
sheds the oil of gladness on our heads. A place that all Besides more
sweet, it is the blood-bought mercy seed. There is a scene where spirits
blend Where friend holds fellowship with friend Though sundered far,
by faith they meet, Around one common mercy seed. The withered good we flee for
aid. We're tempted, desolate, dismayed. Or how the ghosts of hell defeat? Had suffering saints no mercy
seen? Of their unequal wings we soar
Then sin and sins will last no more And heaven comes down While glory crowns the birth
of Jesus. Good evening, let's all read
together the 12th chapter of the book of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes
chapter 12. Remember now, thy creator, in
the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the
years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them,
while the sun or the light or the moon or the stars be not
darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain. In the day when
the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall
bow themselves, And the grinders cease, because they are few.
And those that look out of the windows be darkened. And the
doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding
is low. And he shall rise up at the voice of the bird. And
all the daughters of music shall be brought low. Also, when they
shall be afraid of that which is high, and fear shall be in
the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper
shall be a burden, and desire shall fail, because man goeth
to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets. Wherever
the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or
the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken
at the cistern, Then shall the dust return to the earth as it
was, and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. Vanity
of vanity, saith the preacher, all is vanity. And moreover,
because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge.
Yea, he gave good heed, and sought out, and said in order many proverbs. The preacher sought to find out
acceptable words, and that which was written was upright, even
words of truth. The words of the wise are as
goads, and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies
which are given from one shepherd. And further, by these my son
be admonished, of making many books there is no end, and much
study is a weariness of the flesh. Let us hear the conclusion of
the whole matter. Fear God and keep his commandments,
for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every
work into judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good
or whether it be evil. Our kind and gracious and merciful
Heavenly Father, we're so thankful that you are kind, you are gracious,
you are merciful. We thank you for the mercy you've
given us in Christ, our Redeemer. And we thank you for this time
of worship that in which we've gathered to speak of him, to
learn of him, to be taught of him, to hear his word preached. Thank
you for this pause in our lives, this period of time where we
stop our going to and fro and tending to this and tending to
that, and we come together And by your help and by your grace,
shut out the world from our minds and our hearts and look at your
word together. Lord, open our ears to hear what
your word has to say to us as it's preached tonight. We pray
that you'd fill the preacher's heart and mind with what you'd
have us to hear in this hour. Lord, you've encouraged us and
helped us and given us grace and taught us and given us joy
in thy truth many times before. You've met with us so many times. We ask you to do it once again.
Condescend and be with us as we consider thy great salvation,
as we consider our Savior who died for us, And as the song
we heard this morning, who am I that a king would bleed and
die for? Our king came and died. Lord, let us never get over that.
He's worthy of all the love that this poor heart can give him,
that you give us. Help us to worship him. How we
do thank you for our dear Savior. He's more beautiful. The more
we seem, the more beautiful he is. Thank you, thank you for. The revelation of him. Though
we don't seem fully. Yet we do see him by faith and
we trust him. Keep us looking to him, keep
us trusting him. Keep us honoring Him and serving
Him. He alone is worthy. Help us in this service. May
we not be just going through the motions. May we actually
hear from you, from your word. Our souls are weary, weary of
this world, weary of this flesh, weary of our sin. We find no rest, no help, no
comfort, and none of our needs are supplied through this world
or any man. But your word, your gospel, our
savior supplies our every need. Thank you for him. Save our children. All let them see. The vanity
of this world, the preacher said, vanity of vanities, all is vanity. And the milk and honey that the
scriptures, that land of milk and honey that the scripture
speaks of, that eternal day, that land beyond this veil of
tears, it is beyond this wilderness. Our home's not in this place.
We look to that new heaven and new earth where we'll live forever
with thee. Help us to witness to our generation and
save those that we love and pray for, our children, our grandchildren. Leave them not to themselves
and intervene in their lives, we pray. Once again, go with
us through this service. Lift up your son in our midst.
Come and meet with us, we pray by your spirit. In Christ's name,
amen. Hymn number 249. 249. Just as I am without one plea,
but that thy blood was shed for me, helpest me come to thee, O Lamb
of God, I come, I come. Just as I am and waiting not
to rid my soul of one dark one to thee whose blood can cleanse
Each spot, O Lamb of God, I come, I come. Just as I am, though tossed about
with many a conflict, many a doubt, findings and fears within, Without
a lamp of God I come, I come. Just as I am, poor, wretched,
blind, sight-precious, seeming of the mind, yea, all I need
in thee, To find, O Lamb of God, I come, I come. Just as I am, Thou wilt receive. Will welcome, pardon, cleanse,
relieve Because Thy promise I believe O Lamb of God, I come Look with me in Genesis 2. I've
been reading some in Genesis. Look at a couple of things here,
if we can. Genesis 2, read the first four
verses. First four verses. Thus the heavens
and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And
on the seventh day, God ended His work which He had made, and
He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had
made. And God blessed the seventh day
and sanctified it, because that in it He had rested from all
the work which He had created and made. These are the generations
of the heavens and of the earth, when they were created in the
day that the Lord God made the heavens the earth and the heavens. I want you to notice there in
verse 2 where it says that God rested on the seventh day. God
ended His work and He rested. He rested. I want to talk about
rest. Rest. You know, it was only after
God finished the heavens and the earth did He rest. And if I may say it this way,
God found no rest until He ended all His work. And you know, our Lord Jesus
Christ, God gave Him a work, and there was no rest for Him
until He finished that work. He said, My meat is to do the
will of Him that sent Me, and FINISH the work which He gave
Me to do. So our Lord Jesus Christ, He
had a work and He finished it. And our Lord Jesus Christ said,
the same works that I do, you shall do also. And I'll tell
you this, that Christ is the golden key that unlocks this
Bible. We're dealing with shadows. Christ
is the substance. We deal with types, Christ is
anti-type. Everything we find in the Old
Testament, it speaks of our Lord Jesus Christ. and the Sabbath,
it s what s called here the rest, the rest of God. And when you
talk about a Sabbath, a rest, and it s the rest of God, what
it means is a ceasing of work, a ceasing of work, a perfect
satisfaction in the work, and when there s nothing else to
be done, satisfied, God s satisfied. with his work. He said up in
verse 31, and God saw, chapter 1, 31, God saw everything that
he had made and behold, it was very good, very good. He is satisfied
with his work. He ceased his work. And I'll
tell you this, God did not rest and stop and rest because he
was tired. That's not the reason God rested
here. God don't rest because He's tired. He don't get weary. He don't get wore out. He neither
slumbers nor sleeps. No. And I tell you what, when
He finished His work, that's when He stopped. He alone is
the Worker. He alone, His rest alone belongs
to Him. And here's the thing about it,
that this is telling us that there is a rest. There is a rest,
and God's the first one to enter into a rest. and it was only
after He finished. And I want you to notice a few
things here, that it was the seventh day, the seventh day,
ain't that what it says? And on the seventh day, in verse
2, on the seventh day, the Lord ended His work which He made,
and He rested on the seventh day from all the work which He
had made. And so God ordained this seventh day and fixed it
and settled it, to be a time of rest and joy to Himself. He?s satisfied with what He done.
He looked at everything He said and said, ?This is good, really
good, very good.? So whatever God does, He does it good. There?s
nothing left to be done. When He finished creation, there?s
no more creation to be done, and when He finished His Work,
there?s no more Work to be done. And just like in our new creation,
you know, I talked about the old creation, this new creation,
it s work, God s work alone. Everything that is in this world
that God does, He does it by Himself. He don t need no help.
He done this creation by Himself. He rested by Himself. He is SATISFIED
with the work, and I tell you, He settled it to be a time of
rest and joy to Himself in all creation, in all creation. And
what I love about it, it says there in verse 2 and 3, that
He rested, God blessed the seventh day, sanctified it, the third
verse, because that it had rested from the work which He had created
and God had made. So there rest, no more work to
be done, no more work to be done. He rested, not because He was
tired or weary, because everything was done that needed to be done.
You know, Paul said it this way, He which hath begun a good work,
good work in you. What s he going to do? He s going
to finish it! He s going to perform it till
the day of Christ. And you know, our Lord this is
a strange thing to me, but you know that God Himself said He
rested. God rested. And I tell you something
else, God's done everything without moving. Everything God done in
this world, He never moved. He never got off His throne.
He never got away from His glory. He never got away from being
in heaven. He never got away from being
who He is, and He never moved to do anything that He ever did.
He never moved a muscle. He never moved a body. He just
used His Word. And everything He's ever done,
He's done it by His Word. He spake and it was done. And
He commanded it, it stood good. So I tell you, it's a day of
rest because there's no work to be done. And then look what
else it says here in verse three. It was a day of blessing. God
blessed the seventh day. God blessed the seventh day.
And that means that He gave special favor to this particular day. The special favor of God was
in this special day. The delight of God was in this
day. God blessed this day. God's truth
and satisfaction was in this day of rest. He said, I'm gonna
bless, not only am I gonna rest this day, but I'm gonna bless
this day. I'm gonna cause it to be a day
of blessing. It's gonna be a blessing for
me, gonna be a blessing for creation, it's gonna be a blessing for
everybody from here on out. It's gonna be a blessing. And
all God's delight was in that day. It was a day of blessing. And then look what else he said
about it there in verse three. God blessed the seventh day and
he sanctified it. If God done it, it ought to be
sanctified to start with. But he said he sanctified it.
What does that mean? That he set it apart. He said,
THIS IS A SPECIAL DAY, THIS IS A DAY OF MY REST, THIS IS A DAY
THAT I FINISH THE WORK, THIS IS THE DAY THAT I CEASE FROM
THE WORK, THIS IS THE DAY THAT EVERYTHING I DID WAS GOOD, AND
I BLESS THIS DAY, THIS IS A BLESSED DAY, AND THEN, HE SAID, I SET
IT APART, SANCTIFIED IT. HE SAID, THIS IS MY POSSESSION,
THIS IS MY POSSESSION, THIS IS MY INHERITANCE. WHY DID HE DO
THIS? Well, it resulted, the creation
resulted and shown us, and God ended it. First of all, He showed
us His wisdom. Oh, the wisdom of God in creation.
The wisdom of God in creation. And it shows us why He sanctified
it, it was because of the power of God. Do you know what power
it takes to create something? To make something? God didn't
make anything, He created it. He made, He created it with His
Word. And I say not only, but it showed His goodness. Everything,
and when He got through doing something, He said He saw that
it was good. And He saw that it was good. And He saw that
it was good. What made it good? God doing
it made it good. It shows us His authority. God
said that this is the day of my rest. God said that He made
the world. God said He's Lord of heaven
and earth. God Himself has all authority in heaven and in earth.
And I tell you what, and it also shows He set it apart to show
us His glorious, glorious purpose in creation to show us that how
He has got the power and the will and the decree and the purpose
to make a heaven and an earth, and then what's He going to do?
Well, I'm done! He said, I'm done! I'm finished! It's very good. And I'll tell
you something else about this day. It was a day of grace for
man. God made man on the sixth day. God made Adam out of the dust
of the earth. And he was an inanimate object.
He was just a man standing there, just a big hunk of clay standing
there with everything that he needed except life. And you know
the only way he got life was God walked up to him and in Christ
Jesus, this is the only way God could ever deal with a person,
He blowed in his nostrils. And that man became a living
soul. He was just standing there, a hunk of clay, statue, until
God breathed into his nostrils a breath of life. And I tell
you, God made man on the sixth day, and the first day that it
dawned on Adam, you know what it was? It was a day of rest. God made him, and he got up,
and he got up, God made him one day, and the first day, the seventh
day come up, and God, and then Adam looked around and said,
boy, there ain't a thing, I mean, the first day of my life, I've
got a day of rest. A day of rest for a man, oh my. Hey, oh, the day, first day that
dawned upon Adam was the rest of God, the Sabbath of God, the
rest of God. and man IMMEDIATELY, man IMMEDIATELY
entered into the ENJOYMENT of the rest of his Creator. God
rested so we could rest, Adam could rest. God finished the
work and man ENTERS into that rest WITH Him and the ENJOYMENT
of all that God had made. He got to enjoy everything that
God had made. And beloved, it's God's grace
that brings a man into such a blessed possession as the rest of God. And God blessed him with grace
and he entered into rest the first day God made him. God made
him. But now let me tell you, this
is the first day of rest. This is the only time it's ever
mentioned up to this time. But I tell you what, that rest
didn't last long. That rest didn't last long. That
rest was destroyed. How was it destroyed? Well, look
what God said down here in verse 15 Chapter 2 and the Lord took the
man and Put him into the Garden of Eden. You notice that put
him there. He didn't say Adam Would you
like to go in the Garden of Eden do something for me? That's not
the way God does things and took the man and put him into the
Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it And the Lord God commanded
the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely
eat, eat, eat, eat. But there's one tree in this
garden, the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Thou shalt
not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou
shalt surely, surely die. Adam didn't enjoy the rest of
that God for very long. We all know the story about how
Satan came and tempted Eve and told her, God said, you surely
won't die. You surely, surely won't die.
God's not a God of justice. God's not a God of, He wouldn't
punish you for doing what He told you not to do. You'll never
die. There's no way in the world.
And God doeth know that when your eyes are opened, you'll
see to be like God Himself. So they partook of that tree.
And when they partook of that tree of good and evil, Adam fell,
and he lost his rest, he lost his fellowship, he lost his enjoyment,
and he was lost, he lost that rest, and Adam not only did he
not only lose that rest, but he fled from God himself. Here
he was the first day he entered into God's rest, and then when
he fell from that rest and got out of that rest and destroyed
that rest, And not only did He destroy it for Himself, but He
destroyed it for the whole human race, and He fled from God, and
He hid from God. And sin ruined man for the enjoyment
of God s rest. And man s been trying to figure
out a way to do something to rest ever since. He wants to
WORK for his rest. He wants to GIVE for his rest.
He wants to have a righteousness or get him into a rest. He wants
to do something to get into a rest. But oh no, let me tell you, this
Sabbath, this rest of God was a gift to man. A gift to a man. And oh my, and you know what
this law, this rest comes back to a man now? It comes back to
him in the form of a law. God said, remember the Sabbath
day. and keep it holy. It comes back,
they had a rest, and Adam ruined it, and he ruined it for all
of us, and God made a law with it. It comes back as a law, it
comes back as a curse, and I tell you, it comes back in the form
of a law. Remember the Sabbath, and keep it holy. And let me
show you something in Matthew 12. Let's look in Matthew 12
together. You know, No manna fell on the
Sabbath day, you know, on the seventh day. You know why manna
didn't fall? Because that Sabbath day was
a holy day, and they couldn't do any work on it. They couldn't
even go out and pick up sticks to build a fire on the Sabbath
day. That's how man ruined it. Adam
entered into it, and God rested and enjoyed it, and Adam enjoyed
it, and he ruined it, and now God says, I don't want you to
see you pick up a stick to build a fire with on the Sabbath day. I don't wanna see you cook a
fire on the Sabbath day. I'm gonna give you something
to feed, and I'm gonna give you twice as much on Saturday to
take care of the Sabbath day for you. I'm gonna give you enough,
and that's it. They had to get twice as much
on Saturday so they wouldn't have to do anything on the Sabbath
day. And I know there's a lot of people that's really into
this Sabbath day business. They really are. But look here
in Matthew chapter 12. Look what, this is, you know,
this is awful, isn't it? And at that time, Matthew 12,
at that time, Jesus went on the Sabbath day. through the corn, and his disciples
were hungry, and they began to pluck the ears of corn, and to
eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold,
thy disciples do that which, now listen to this, not lawful
to do upon the Sabbath day. God, the thing that God blessed
man with, he destroyed it, and now they said it's not lawful.
You can't even pick corn! You can't eat! That's what the
Pharisees said. But our Lord answered them, He
said, Didn't you read when David and his men were hungry, and
they that were with him, he entered into the house of God, went into
the tabernacle, and did eat the showbread. He took that 12 loaves
of showbread that was in that tabernacle, got it off the table,
got it out of there, and the priest brought the 12 loaves
of bread out, that showbread, that was not lawful to eat, for
him to eat, neither for them, but only for the priest. But
he went in there and he said, I'm hungry, and he took 12 loaves
of bread that's only for the priest, and he ate it. He said, oh, what are you gonna
do about him? or have you not read the law, how that the priest,
how that the Sabbath day, the priest and the temple profane
the Sabbath and are blameless? But oh, listen, he said in verse
seven, if you had known what this means, I'll have mercy and
not sacrifice. You would not have condemned
the guiltless people that's not doing anything, not harming anybody. For the Son of Man is Lord, of
the Sabbath day. I'm the one that made it. I'm
the one that slurred over it. And then look what else it went
on to say. And down in verse 10, and behold, there was a man
which had his hand withered. And they asked him saying, is
it lawful to heal on the Sabbath days that they might accuse him? They didn't want to see him do
any, didn't want him to do nothing on the Sabbath day. Here's this
day of rest now comes back as a curse, comes back as a law. And he said, what man among you
that have a sheep or fall into a pit on the Sabbath day, will
he not lift him up and lift it out? How much more is a man better
than a sheep? Wherefore is it lawful to do
well on the Sabbath day? So you see, this rest that God
gave these people, they turned it into a curse. They turned
it into a curse. It's no longer of grace, but
it's works. They was under the curse. But
let me now look with me over in Hebrews chapter 4, Hebrews
chapter 4, I m going to show you how the Sabbath is restored,
no laws to it, no Sabbath to it, God restored this Sabbath,
this rest, Christ is our Sabbath, Christ is our rest, in Hebrews
chapter 4, Look in verse 18 of chapter 3
to start with. Oh, the Lord Jesus, our Lord
Jesus, restored the Sabbath, restored the rest, took the curse
away from it, took the law out of it. And this says here in
verse 18 of chapter 3, And to whom swear he that they shall
enter into his rest, watch this, but them that believed, God had
a rest, but them that believed not. So we see that they could
not enter into because of unbelief. Men could not enter into rest.
That's why nobody else could enter into it because of unbelief.
You know, when our Lord Jesus Christ cried out, it is finished,
that's when the law was finished. That's when everything was done.
And I'll tell you, look what he started out here. Let's start
and go down through these verses. This is another work that's been
finished. Christ put away sin. He destroyed
the rest. God is satisfied with him, pronounced
him very well pleasing. Let us therefore fear. They couldn't
enter into his rest because of unbelief. Well, let's be afraid.
Lest a promise, God made a promise to us and he left us a promise
that there's an entering to his rest. Any of you should seem
to come short of entering into that rest. Now listen to this,
for unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them. Where was
the gospel preached to them? Every morning then they took
a lamb, every evening when they took that lamb, every sacrifice,
the day of atonement, every sacrifice pointed to the fact that if they
believed that sacrifice, they had a rest. The gospel was preached
to them. But now listen to this, but the
word preached didn't profit them. They didn't get any good out
of it whatsoever. Why not? Because they didn't have any
faith when they heard it. They didn't believe it when they
heard it. They didn't have any faith. When they heard something,
faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God. They heard
the gospel, but they didn't hear, and faith didn't come with it.
They did not believe what God said. And oh, listen now, for
we which have believed, to enter into rest. Oh my, as he said, as I've sworn
in my wrath, if they should enter into my rest, and this is what
I like about it. Although the works were finished
from the foundation of the world. Oh my, if they enter into my
rest, the work was already finished. Everything's already done that
needed to be done for men to enter into a rest. And in this
place again, if they shall enter into my rest. Now listen to it. See, therefore, it remains that
some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached
didn't enter in to God's rest because of unbelief. Well, God
said, I'll tell you what I'm gonna do. Tell you what I'm gonna
do. God said, this is what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna say, today,
today, Today, after such a long time of people not entering into
this rest, after such a long time, as it is said today, today
and every day's today, if you will hear his voice, don't harden
your heart. Don't harden your heart as they
did. And then he goes on to say this, for if Joshua with Jesus,
which was Joshua, who took them into the promised land. For if
Joshua had given them rest, then would not he afterwards spoken
of another day? That day when you hear his voice.
And he said in verse nine, there remaineth therefore a rest to
the people of God. For he that has entered into
his rest, he has also ceased from his own works, as God did
his. You know, and it tells us there,
who enters into this rest? We which have believed. We which had believed. You know,
the only reason in this world, our Lord Jesus Christ said, Father,
I finished the work that you gave me to do. It's done, it's
finished. Now I enter into the glory that
I had with you before the world ever began. And he put away sin,
our Lord Jesus Christ. Sin's what destroyed the rest
for us to enter into. God looked at Christ and God
was satisfied with him. God said, you're my beloved son
in whom I'm well pleased. And God saw the travail of his
soul and God was satisfied. And there's another day of rest
proclaimed. And oh my, what does this rest
do? We enter into this rest. And this rest means to us what
it meant to Adam before the fall. You know what it is? It's a ceasing
from works. Look what he said in verse 10.
For he that is entered into his rest, here's what has to happen.
He has to cease from his works. He has to stop from his works.
God did his, you got to stop yours. And that's what he's talking
about. A ceasing from works. And oh my, when you go into this
rest, it's a ceasing from works, it's to continue a fellowship
with God. We find Him to be all of our possession. We've rejoiced
in God. They could not enter in because
of unbelief. We rest by believing Christ and
Christ's work that He finished, that He finished. And oh, this
is what He says there in verse 10 again. Cease from works. Now what kind of works are we
talking about here? Works of self-righteousness,
works of law-keeping, any kind of work that a person thinks
that they need to do, any kind of work, any work, anything a
man thinks he can do to get on the good side of God, anything
that, like Cain, he brought the works of his hands and we got
nothing that we can bring. And I tell you, we ceased from
the works of sin because Christ put it away. We ceased from our
work of righteousness because Christ is our righteousness.
We ceased from looking to the law and its curse because Christ
satisfied and upheld the law and magnified it. We were slaves
of sin. Now we're free. Now we rest. We had false notions of God,
we had false notions of self, and now we rest. We were bondage
through traditions, bondage to things that we just always did,
and now God saved us from those, and now we enter into our rest.
And look what he says there in verse nine. There remaineth therefore a rest
to the people of God. Now, what's he talking about
there, yet remains a rest? If we have a rest now, what rest
is he talking about that remains? This is talking about a future
rest, an eternal rest. Oh, what a rest that's going
to be. What a rest that's going to be. I stopped the other day
to throw away some garbage, and the fellow sitting there, he's
known me and known me for years. You're always sittin' there contemplatin'
somethin' about the Bible or somethin'. He said, boy, I wish
the Lord Jesus would come. When I got out of church, he
said, I wish the Lord Jesus would come. And I said, yes, amen,
even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus. He said, we're on the same page,
Don, we're on the same page. There remaineth a rest to the
people of God. Future. The rest here, and he
said in verse 11, Let us labor, therefore, in unto rest. What
does it mean to labor in unto rest? Why do we have to labor
at it? Because of this flashing, because of the weakness, because
of unbelief, because of burden, because of weary, because of
fret. All the things that trouble us in this world, we'll say,
oh, Lord, I want to end in the rest. But you know, he prayed
this evening and said, Lord, you get the world, shut us out
of this world, out of this world, let us leave this world for just
a little while, just a little while. And sometimes we can't
do that very long at a time in a service like this, we can't.
We can't. Mine goes over here, mine goes
over there, goes out here, goes over, mine does the same thing.
I'm not trying you, I'm just telling you. I know what it's
like, I know what it's like. But this is a future in eternal
rest. And this'll be a rest where there'll
never be another sin. It'll be a rest where death cannot
come. It'll be a rest where time will
be no more. It'll be a rest where everything
ceases to exist. And it'll enter into a place
where nothing but righteousness dwells. And it's called a rest
of grace. It'll be a rest of grace, a rest
in glory. It talked about God entering
into His rest. Christ, after obtaining eternal
redemption for us, entered into His rest. Sitting at God's right
hand. Why is he sitting? Because the
work's done. The work's done. He's finished
the work. He's rested. And one of these
days, bless his name, I rest in Christ now. I'm not trying
to do anything at all. It's all done. Everything's done. My salvation's done. My eternal rest is already fixed.
When I enter into glory, it's already set. Everything is already
fixed for me. Everything's already fixed. I'm just waiting for it to happen.
I'm just waiting for it to happen. But the rest that we enter into
up there, it starts right here. It starts right here. Now I'm gonna go home. And I'm going to take off my
clothes, I'm going to put on a pair of shorts, and I'm going
to rest. A day's a day of labor. Tonight's been a labor. Been
a labor. You say, boy, it don't seem like
much of a one. Well, get up here and do it. Come on. It's a labor. Labored twice today. Sometimes it's a really, really
good labor. Sometimes it's hard. But it's
a labor. And I'm going to go home and
rest this body. Rest my mind. And you go home
and do the same thing. Go home and rest. You know, you'll
have to get up and go to work tomorrow. So have a good evening
and rest. Rest. Rest your bodies, rest your mind.
But oh my, there's only one place to rest your soul, and that's
in the Lord Jesus Christ. We can rest these bodies, but
we can't rest our souls. That can only be done in Christ. Our Father, thank you for your
great, great, great, great, great, great mercies. Great, great,
great, great grace. And Lord, I thank you for this
rest. The rest that you got is for us, and yet you got another
rest for us, an eternal rest. Oh Lord, we tell folks that when
the Lord takes them home, they're through with their labors here
in this world. They're through with their burdens. They're through
with their work. They're through with their day.
And they've entered into rest. And Lord, we love the rest that
you gave us in Christ our Lord. Our Lord, he said himself, said,
come unto me and I'll give you rest. So we've come to you, Lord. We come to you and we rest. We
rest in you. You, you who finished the work,
but not just finishing the work, but who did it. And Lord, help
us all to rest, help us all to believe, and look forward to
that eternal rest that we'll have someday in our Lord Jesus
Christ in eternity. God bless these dear saints,
these dear people as they go their way, go home. Go to whatever
they're doing. God, keep them and preserve them
until we can meet to worship again for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen. He's the Savior of my soul. Jesus, my Jesus. He's the Savior of my soul. He's the Savior of my soul. Jesus, Jesus, Good night and
God bless you. See you Wednesday, Lord willing.
About Don Bell
Don Bell is the current pastor of Lantana Grace Church in Crossville, TN.
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