In this passage where the Lord
leading his disciples, it says in verse one of Matthew 12, it
says, at that time, Jesus went on the Sabbath day through the
corn. Some translations say it's a
wheat field, but it doesn't matter. Whatever it is, it's either a
corn field or a wheat field. I'm perfectly satisfied with
what the KJV says here. But he took him through the corn,
a corn field. And his disciples weren't hungry,
they're hungry, and began to pluck the ears of corn and to
eat. And it says, when the Pharisees
saw it, they said unto him, behold, thy disciples do that which is
not lawful to do upon the Sabbath day. Picking corn, eating the
corn, or harvesting wheat and eating that, either way. But
this is the issue of the Sabbath. I thought about this when I was
doing this lesson. The timing here is so significant. I believe that the Lord consciously,
purposely led his disciples through a cornfield, knowing they were
hungry. And it's on the Sabbath day. Now, you know, this is such
a pivotal time in the Lord's earthly walk. Because this is
where it began. You know, the Pharisees, the
religious leaders, they hated Jesus of Nazareth. They hated
his message. And they sort of tolerated it
and opposed it. up to this point, but here we
come to the point where it says that they resolved in their minds
to destroy him. Look at verse 14, it says, then
the Pharisees went out, held a council against him, how they
might destroy him. This is the point in his life
that they determined that they were gonna kill him. some way
somehow they were going to get rid of this man because they
hated his message so much and the reason we know that that
they hated his message is because that which they highly esteemed
such as sabbath keeping the lord says is an abomination to god
now you know the sabbath was a special, special times. There wasn't just one Sabbath
day. There were Sabbath weeks, there
were Sabbath years, there were all kinds of Sabbaths. Sabbath
keeping was sort of a token or one of the signs of the covenant. You can read about that back
in Exodus 35. I've got that in your lesson.
We won't turn there. But the Sabbath means rest. That's what the word means. In
fact, we're going to see in Hebrews 4, the word that's translated
by the King James Translator as rest is literally Sabbath. And that's where he says there
remains a Sabbath for the people of God, even today. But the Sabbath
days was indicative and symbolic of the spiritual and eternal
rest that God's people have in Christ. based upon his finished
work. And that was symbolized throughout
the Old Covenant in days and weeks and years that Sabbath
rest. And it was the indicative of
a finished work and rest. You work six days, you rest the
seventh day. And it was a day, it was a week,
it was a year. We don't have to go into all
that, but the Sabbath keeping. Well, when Christ came, and did
his work on the cross and finished it, that's the rest that believers
have today. Christ is our Sabbath. Our Sabbath
today under the new covenant is not a day. It's Christ and
we need to see that. The Sunday is not the Christian
Sabbath. Sunday's the first day of the
week, and that's when the disciples met together in public worship,
and that day was set aside. It was the day of recognizing
the finished work of Christ, praising God, fellowshipping
together, and it is a special day. But our Sabbath, somebody
asked me, I was talking to a Seventh-day Adventist one time years ago,
and he asked me this, he said, where in the Bible does it say
that the Sabbath changed from Saturday to Sunday? And I told
him, I said, it doesn't say that. Nowhere. I said, what the Sabbath
was fulfilled, the Sabbath day was abolished by way of fulfillment
in the person and work of Christ. And so it was the Catholic Church
that changed it to said the Sabbath on Sunday, or something like
that. But the Pharisees, along with all, as they taught the
people under the law, they misused the Sabbath. They turned it into
a legal system of works, salvation. Part of their trying to establish
a righteousness of their own. But if you'll look over at Hebrews
chapter four, You know, here's what the writer of Hebrews is
talking about here is how the Hebrews, after they came out
of Egypt and they complained and they didn't believe and all
that, they refused to enter into the rest of the promised land.
That promised land was a picture of the rest. Egypt was bondage. The promised land was rest, freedom,
liberty. And of course, all that's a picture
of how Christ led us, God's elect, out of the bondage of sin and
Satan and the law into the rest of grace, saved by the grace
of God. We rest. We're not trying to
work or labor for our salvation. The work's been finished by Christ. So that's what that picture but
the people didn't enter into the rest and they died in the
wilderness So he says look at verse 1 of Hebrews 4 He says
let us therefore fear lest a promise being left us of entering into
and I always love how this this goes his rest His rest any of
you should seem to come short of it For unto us was the gospel
preached as well as unto them, but the word preached did not
profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard
it." How do we enter into His rest? We enter into it by God-given
faith. We believe in Him, we rest in
Him, we're secure in Him, we look to Him. He is all of our
salvation. He's all our righteousness. We're
not working and laboring to, you know, the Bible talks about
this, how we're not working or laboring to make ourselves righteous
in order to be accepted with God, because Christ has already
finished that work. And on down here, look at verse
nine. Or, yeah, verse nine, he says, it says, there remaineth
therefore a rest, and that word is Sabbath, the keeping of a
Sabbath, to the people of God. Well, what is that rest? Is it
Sunday? No. He says, for he that is entered
into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works as God did
from his. Talking about the creation, when
God created the world, then he rested on the seventh day. It
doesn't mean that God got tired and had to re-energize himself
or anything like that. It means the work was finished.
And so there was no more work to be done. The creation was
finished. Well, in the same way Christ in his death on the cross
as our surety and our substitute and our redeemer, he finished
the work. He finished the transgression,
made an end of sin, and brought in everlasting righteousness.
Everything that God requires of us for salvation is finished,
complete, and perfected by Christ for us. And so he is our Sabbath,
and so it says in verse 11, let us labor therefore to enter into
that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.
Isn't that strange how he puts that? Labor to enter into rest. Now what does that mean? Does
that mean we've gotta work for our salvation? Well, no. We're
to labor to enter into his rest. Why is it such a labor? I'll
tell you why, because we're still full of the flesh. Self-righteousness,
unbelief, and we're in a battle within ourselves. And it is a
labor, not to be saved, not to finish the work, but it's a labor
for us, by God-given faith, to have sealed in our minds that
Christ is our Sabbath. But now if you go back to Matthew
12, the Pharisees, they challenged the Lord. They said that these
disciples picking that corn and eating it, they've broken the
law. And they were accusing Christ
of breaking the law too because he allowed them to do it. And
so Christ comes along here. He didn't break the law, we know
that. Christ did not break any law.
Remember back in Matthew five and verse 17 and 18, where he
talked about, he came to not to break the law, but to fulfill
the law in every job and title. He kept it perfectly. And then
going to the cross, he satisfied its justice perfectly. For by
one offering, he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.
And then he told the people, he said, except your righteousness
exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you
shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. They're laboring
to keep the Sabbath, they're laboring to keep the law, because
what they did is they turned that law into a legal system
of works for salvation. Now, why was the law given to
Israel? It was given to show them their sinfulness. It was
given to show them their need of salvation by the grace of
God that would be fulfilled, finished, in the perfected work
of the Messiah to come. But they didn't know that. They
refused to believe that. And so they challenged him. They
said, well, your disciples are doing, they're breaking the law. And you all know that in the
law, The breaking the Sabbath meant the penalty of death. You
do know that. And I've got scriptures in your
lesson here that will tell you that. But look at what he said. Christ raises some issues here
to show them how wrong they are. Look at what he says in verse
three. But he said unto them, have you not read what David
did? King David. Now when he says
have you not read, you know what he's doing there? He's exposing
their ignorance of the scriptures. These Pharisees, they read these
things. You remember in John chapter
five, when he said, verse 39, I think it was, he says, you
do search the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal
life, but they are they which testify. You read the Bible. It's like people today. They
read their Bibles, but they've missed the message. And of course
we know, according to what Christ said in Matthew 11, it's got
to be revealed. And that's God's business. To
whom will God reveal the arm of the Lord? Remember Isaiah
asked that question? Well, who is the arm of the Lord?
The arm signifies power. Well, what is the power of God
that brings sinners to salvation? It's Christ. Remember 1 Corinthians
1? Christ, the power of God, Christ, the wisdom of God. So
that's what he's talking about. So he says, have you not read
what David did when he was an hungred and they that were with
him, he entered into the house of God, the temple, or the tabernacle,
and did eat the showbread, which was not lawful for him to eat,
neither for them which were with him, but only for the priest."
David did that. Now, what's his point? Did David
break the Sabbath? The answer's no. What Christ
is going to show them is this, under the law, On the Sabbath,
day of rest, acts of necessity and acts of mercy were never
forbidden. They never were. And so, when
you read these things, keep them in the context. Back over, we
won't turn here, Deuteronomy 23 and 25. Strangers, if hungry,
were allowed on the Sabbath to pause in a field and eat some
corn or eat some grain. That was an act of necessity.
And so he cited this about David eating the showbread that was
given only for the priest, and he said that this was an act
of necessity. that David did for his men, for
their strength. And then go on, he says in verse
five, or have you not read in the law how that on the Sabbath
days, the priest in the temple profaned the Sabbath and are
blameless? In other words, they worked on the Sabbath, but they
were held blameless. They didn't break it. Well, what
was going on? He says, but I say unto you that
in this place is one greater than the temple. What the priests
were doing each day was doing the work of the tabernacle, or
the temple, that pictured the death, burial, and resurrection
of Christ, which is their whole salvation. And so, in doing these
works, they didn't break the Sabbath, they did what was necessary. And then another one, he says,
and then acts of mercy, just like healing them. And you remember
when Christ healed that man on the Sabbath, and they challenged
him then? And he told him, he says, you
need to learn something. He said, I'll have mercy and
not sacrifice. Acts of mercy were allowed. And
he says, you're so attuned to keeping your ceremonies without
mercy. The Pharisees had turned the
Sabbath into a burden on the people, and it wasn't meant to
be a burden. I could imagine that many of
the Jews who were in the vicinity of the Pharisees that they were
scared. Well, they kept that day in being frightened that
the Pharisees would try to catch them. And there were all kinds
of different codicils and laws that the Pharisees added to what
was written in the law. And it was all for their own
self-righteousness. It was all to feed their self-righteousness. And you know the story of the
Pharisee and the publican, how the Pharisee said, I thank God
I'm not like other men. I do this, I keep, I give twice
as much. All of these things. That's what
they were doing. And it was all an abomination
unto God. I think about Isaiah chapter
one, where he said, I'm tired, God told the people through Isaiah,
I'm tired of your feast days. I'm tired of your Sabbaths. I've
had enough of them because all they were doing was just legally
in unbelief, self-righteously trying to keep the law thinking
that they were better than other people. He said, I'll have none
of it. He says in verse six, and this
is the kicker. He says, but I say unto you that
in this place is one greater than the temple. How in the world? Could the Lord Jesus Christ,
Jesus of Nazareth, put it that way, how could he honestly say
that he's greater than the temple? You couldn't say that. I couldn't
say that. No sinner saved by grace could
say that. Only God manifest in the flesh
could make that claim. And how could he say he's greater
than the temple? Well, the temple was a picture
of Christ himself who is, you remember in John 1 14, the word
was made flesh and tabernacled among us. Christ himself is the
dwelling place of God. In him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. And his church is called the
temple of God. And that temple was a picture
of Christ and his church. And it's all centered around
the mercy seat, the Ark of the Covenant, which pictured his
finished work. Having been slain on the altar
of Brazen Altar, the blood was taken back into the holiest of
all and sprinkled on the mercy seat, picturing the finished
work of Christ. There was no salvation in animal
sacrifices. The blood of bulls and goats
can never take away sin. But the blood of Jesus Christ
did take away sin, so he's greater than the temple. The priesthood,
that earthly priesthood, it had to be performed day after day,
week after week, year after year, and the work was never done.
There were no seats in the temple or the tabernacle because the
priest had to constantly go about their work. When one high priest
died, there had to come another and the priest had to offer sacrifices
both for the people and for himself because he was a sinner. But
Christ, his priesthood is a greater priesthood. Remember Hebrews
chapter five and seven and nine talks about that. His priesthood
is an eternal priesthood. The righteousness that he established
is the righteousness of God. So he's greater than the temple.
All of these things, several ways you could say. But verse
seven, he says, but if you had known what this meaneth, if you'd
known what it meant that he was greater than the temple, I will
have mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned
the guiltless. Now he himself says David was guiltless. when
he did that. His disciples were guiltless.
They did not break the Sabbath. They did what was necessary.
Or Christ, in healing people, he did what was merciful. And
they were guiltless. And if they hadn't understood
the issues of mercy and the issues of Sabbath keeping, what it pointed
to, they wouldn't have condemned these men. Oh boy, I think about
it. We're not condemned. There is
therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.
So he says in verse eight, he says, for the Son of Man is Lord
even of the Sabbath day. Christ trumps it all. And he
kept the law perfectly. And he's the end of the law for
righteousness to everyone that believeth. He didn't break any
commandment. He kept it every jot and tittle. And so here's the Sabbath day
that they were to keep. It was to be a day of rest and
worship when the people of God gathered together to praise the
Lord, to rejoice and worship, to fellowship together. And here
they turned it into a nitpicky, trying to figure, you know, how
many miles have you walked and all? The law had those things
in it. It was there, but they added
to it for their own self-righteous purposes. They didn't know Christ. They had never really truly entered
in to the spiritual eternal Sabbath, which is Christ crucified and
risen from the dead. Christ, the Lord of the Sabbath. They missed it. And of course
we know as Christ said, it's got to be revealed. Because if
it's not revealed, no one's gonna see it. Man by nature, always
thinks that he has a work to do in order to be saved. Whatever work it is. I always
say it this way, man by nature thinks that salvation is conditioned
on himself in some way, to some degree, at some stage. And that's
a person who's not entered in to the eternal Sabbath of God,
which is Christ and him alone. Okay.