Let's turn to Isaiah chapter 58. Isaiah chapter 58. Now, this chapter appears difficult for many people to understand, but the difficulty, it seems to me, is one that men have made rather than one that is in the chapter itself.

Now, clearly when you read this chapter in its historical setting, particularly and distinctively, it was addressed to the Jews during the time of Babylonian captivity and was giving instruction to them with regard to that time, with regard to the worship of God that had so greatly declined among the saints of God in Israel. But God gave this word of instruction about worship And it was intended by God when he gave it to be a word of instruction to us as well.

Whenever you read the scriptures, understand that whatsoever things were written aforetime in the Old Testament, the Apostle Paul said, were written for us. They were written for our learning. They were written for our admonition that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. So this passage of Scripture has meaning to us only in that it applies to us in its fullest purpose and in its fullest message.

When you look at the Scriptures and you interpret them as being applicable only to the Jews at this stage or only to folks at this stage, then you eliminate the message of Scripture in its universality. When you read the scriptures, always understand, we are the people of God, we are the church of God, we who believe are the Israel of God, and the word of God was written particularly for us.

So the instruction given in the chapter clearly is given for us, and for our benefit, and for our instruction. Now these 14 verses of Isaiah 58 give us crystal clear instructions about worship. Indeed, the promises that are made in verses 8 through 14 cannot be fully applicable to anyone except us today, who are God's saints, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.

If you read carefully what is promised in verses 8 through 14, the promises could not be fulfilled except in Jesus Christ and to those who worship the Lord Jesus Christ as we do today. In verses 1 through 4, the prophet of God shows us the sin and folly of empty religious rituals and ceremonies without faith in Christ. He shows us the abomination of a mere form of godliness without the power of godliness, without the power of life through faith in Christ the Lord.

Then in verses 5 through 7, he shows us the essence of true worship. He tells us that it really, in its essence, does not involve the outward deed. We're coming here tonight to observe the Lord's table. Now, if all we do is eat the bread and drink the wine, We haven't observed the Lord's Table. We must observe the outward ordinance as God gave it, otherwise we show contempt for God.

But if all we do is observe the outward ordinance, the ordinance is worse than meaningless, it's an abomination to God. But as we come together, the essence of the Lord's Table is in your heart. The essence of true worship, the essence of all divine ordinances of worship, has to do with heart and spirit. It's your heart right with God when you come and worship. And if your heart's not right with God, if you don't come to God by faith in Christ, if you're not conscious of your sin and your need of a substitute and Savior, and come to God trusting Him, then you don't come to God at all. You understand that? So he tells us in verses 7 through 12 that the essence, or verses 5 through 7 rather, that the essence of worship has to do with heart and spirit, mercy and grace, kindness and love. These are the marks of true religion and pure religion. These are the evidences of genuine humility and genuine faith.

And then in verses 8 through 12, the prophet displays the blessedness of faith in Jesus Christ the Lord and obedience to the gospel. The promise is, as we look to God and trust the Lord God, believing on his Son as he's revealed in Scripture, that he will give us the light and life of free, full, sure, everlasting salvation by his grace. That's what we see in verse 8.

The promise is that we will obtain the blessing satisfaction of contentment, the contentment of faith toward God, so that the Lord God says, Then shalt thou call, and the Lord will answer. Thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here am I.

I'll give you a parallel passage to verse 9, verse John 5, 14. We know that whatsoever we shall ask, we have it. Whatever we ask of God, we have it. Not as though prayer is some kind of a blank check. You fill in the amount you want, you fill in what you want, God will give it to you. Oh no, no, no, no.

The believer comes to God in prayer, the believer does. Now, the religious chauvinist, the religious hypocrite, the religious words can't be found contemptible enough for these health, wealth, prosperity preachers who lead folks astray. Those religious hucksters, they come and say, God give us a new Cadillac, God give us good health, God give us this, God give us that.

Oh no, the believer comes and he wants the will of God. the glory of God, the interest of God's kingdom. Those are things he really wants, and what he wants he has. God hears and answers his prayers. He gives him contentment, the contentment of faith and surrender.

And then in verses 10 and 12, 10, 11, and 12, we see a promise that is made here of the delightful privilege of usefulness as instruments of mercy and grace in the hands of God. In the last part of verse 12, He says, this is what you'll be called, the repairer of the breach, the restorer of paths to dwell in.

Oh God, make me an instrument of blessings. He says, you follow me, that's what you'll be. You trust me, that's what you'll be. Do you remember what God said to Abraham? He said, I will bless thee, and thou shalt be a blessing. I will bless thee and thou shalt be a blessing."

Now, I'm telling you, God's people, men and women who worship God in spirit and truth, men and women who follow Jesus Christ by faith, men and women who commit themselves to Christ, believing Him, are a blessing. They're a blessing. God makes them a blessing. God makes them useful, instruments in the hands of God Almighty. through which and by whom he confers upon sinners his grace and his mercy.

" Now then, let's read our text this evening, verses 13 and 14. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, now that's a bit of an awkward reading. The meaning is, if you turn away from the things of this world and your pleasures and your delights on the Sabbath day, come worship me. If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call the sabbath a delight, and the holy of the Lord honorable, and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words, then shalt thou delight thyself in the thou will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken in." Now, in this text, the prophet of God, with the inspired vision of divine prophecy, looks ahead to the day in which we live, looks beyond the carnal Jewish Sabbath day and sees in it a picture of Jesus Christ, who is the true Sabbath, and a picture of the rest of faith which we have in him.

Now, this becomes very obvious if you observe this fact. Isaiah's exhortation, call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, quite literally should be translated this way, call the Sabbath a delight, the holy one. of the Lord, the Holy One of the Lord. So it's referring not to a day, but to a person. The prophecy is referring not to a time of day during the week, or a time during the month, or a time during the year. It's talking about a person. Call the Sabbath the rest of God, a delight. Call the Sabbath the Holy One of the Lord.

For the Sabbath day was a picture of Jesus Christ. I'm going to talk to you this evening about the Sabbath day. Call the Sabbath a delight because it's very important that you and I understand why we do things as we do them in the worship of God. Let me try to make this clear to you. We come together and practice baptism by the immersion of believers in water And we do so because that is clearly what God requires in New Testament. There is no other mode of baptism. There's no other means of baptism. This is the way many women who are born of God confess faith in Jesus Christ. They're buried with him in the waters of baptism and rise from the watery grave to walk with him in the newness of life.

We come together here each Lord's Day and observe the Lord's table. We eat this simple bread and simple wine, and we refuse to observe the ordinance in any other way, because this is the way it was prescribed in the New Testament. To alter the ordinance of baptism is to alter the message of baptism, which is salvation through a substitute, and to alter the ordinance of the Lord's table is to alter the message of the Lord's table and that is redemption by Jesus Christ our Savior and our Lord. So we come together and observe these ordinances exactly as the Lord has prescribed them and seek to observe them with a proper heart as well.

Now in this place we do not observe any kind of a religious Sabbath day. This is Sunday, it is not the Sabbath day. It is referred to in the New Testament as the Lord's Day because this is the day that has been commonly set aside by God's people to come together in the worship of our God in the public assembly of the saints. But still, the idea of the Lord's Day has no connection whatsoever with the observance of a Sabbath day. So that there are no laws laid down, no rules specified. If we were to be like many and pretend to worship God and keep a Sabbath day in a ceremonial sense, then we would go back to the Old Testament scriptures and seek to understand all the details of the Sabbath, and we would declare, now this is the way you must worship God, regardless of cost, regardless of how inconvenient it might be.

But we come here tonight now to look at this thing of the Sabbath day, and I want you to understand why, as your pastor, why as God's servant, why we as a congregation, we simply declare that believers do not observe a literal, carnal Sabbath day as was set forth in the Old Testament Scriptures. The reason is clearly this, that Old Testament ceremony, that Old Testament Ordinance of worship, the Sabbath day, was designed by God to portray the believer's rest of faith in Jesus Christ the Lord. Now, to return to the Sabbath day is to, in essence, deny the blessedness of the rest that's found in Christ. Do you understand that?

The high priest in Israel would come in on the Day of Atonement, go into the Holy of Holies with the blood of a slain sacrifice, and there he would sprinkle blood upon the mercy seat, and God would show forth his glory. Now, we don't do that anymore. Why? Because Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. And to go back to those carnal ordinances of worship and call for a priest to come and offer a sacrifice to God is to say the blood of Christ is not sufficient. And to go back to the carnal ordinance of Sabbath day worship is to say the rest in Christ is not yet the blessed rest portrayed in the Sabbath.

So this thing of Sabbath day observance is a very, very important issue. Now, I want to make five statements concerning it. First, I want you to understand that the Sabbath, which God required the Jews to keep, was only a temporary, typical ordinance which represented Christ and our redemption by Him.

Turn to Exodus chapter 20, if you will. I want you to go back to the giving of the law. recognized the first Sabbath day was kept back in Genesis. That's where you had the first mention of it. And Moses commanded the children of Israel to keep a Sabbath day even before the giving of the law. I think it was back in Exodus 16. But here in Exodus 20, we have the law of the Sabbath given.

Now when the Lord instituted the Sabbath keeping for the Jews, in the legal dispensation, he gave two reasons for it. Two reasons. This is These are the reasons why they wouldn't keep the Sabbath day. First, it was to be a symbol of God's rest. Look here in Exodus 20 and in verse 8. I'm in Leviticus, excuse me, back to Exodus. Exodus 20 and verse 8. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God, in it thou shalt do no, thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made the heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day. The Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

Do you see that? The first reason for the giving of the Sabbath day then was to recognize the rest of God when he had finished his work of creation. It represented the completion of God's creation and God's satisfaction with his creation. Now though God's creation has been marred by our sins, God's creation has been marred by the sin and fall of our father Adam and by the sin of our race. The Sabbath day looked forward to the ultimate consummation of God's creation when all things shall be restored to God who made it and God will make all things new and there will be again a time of the restitution of all things.

So the Sabbath day pointed to both God's rest after having made the creation. all the creation, and it pointed to God's rest at the consummation of the creation. But secondly, the Sabbath day was a constant reminder of Israel's redemption and deliverance by the hand of God through the blood of the Passover lamb out of Egyptian bondage. Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 5. Deuteronomy chapter 5. Here is the second giving of the law. In chapter 5 and verse 15, as Moses gives the law again the second time to Israel, he gives a little bit more insight into the Sabbath day.

First, it was designed as a picture of God's rest. Now he says in verse 15, remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence. through a mighty hand and by a stretched-out arm, and therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day." He said, now, God commanded you to keep it as a picture of rest, and God commanded you to keep it as a picture of redemption.

In other words, the Sabbath day, like all other aspects of Mosaic law, was a picture prophecy of our perfect redemption by Jesus Christ. As the Jews rested on the seventh day of the week from all their works, so believers come to Jesus Christ and rest with him.

I want to talk about that a little bit more, but this is what I keep calling for you who are yet without Christ, who yet believe not. This is what we keep calling for. Come to Christ and cease trying to make up with God. Come to Christ and quit trying to earn God's favor. Come to Christ and rest. Come, rest in Him. That's what it is to believe Him.

Now secondly, we do not observe a literal legal Sabbath day because Christ is our Sabbath and we rest in Him. Let me give you a little bit of a challenge, give you a lesson to do at home. Get your concordance out and look up the word Sabbath, or Sabbaths, or Sabbath days in the New Testament.

Now, the word Sabbath is often used in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts. It's used frequently with reference to worship in that time of transition as the Church of God was moving out of the Old Testament era into the New. But it was always used. Now listen, the word Sabbath is always used in connection with Jewish worship in the temple or in one of their synagogues. It is never used. It is never used with reference to the worship of God's saints in his house. Not one time in all the New Testament.

As a matter of fact, if you go through all the epistles from Romans through Revelation, The word Sabbath and the Sabbath day comes up only two times. You find it in Colossians chapter 2 and you find it in the actually the Greek text in Hebrews chapter 4 though in the English it is translated rest.

Let's look at those two times too. Colossians chapter 2 and verse 16. Let's see if God gives us some definite, clear instruction about the Sabbath. I know sometimes folks say, well, these are matters of indifference. Some folks keep Sabbath days and some folks don't. During the time of transition, as the Apostle Paul mentions in Romans 13 and 14, certainly there were days that Some folks kept, not yet being fully enlightened, that other folks shouldn't keep. And the apostle tells us, now be charitable. Be charitable and understand that a weak brother, he needs this thing.

But then Paul comes to give clear instruction with regard to this thing of Sabbath days. Just as he does with regard to all other aspects of the law. Now read what he says. Colossians chapter 2 and verse 16. Let no man, therefore, judge you. That is, because Christ has spoiled principalities and power. Because Christ has taken the handwriting of ordinances against you and nailed it to his cross and blotted out your sins. Therefore, let no man judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of an holy day. What you talking about? In the law, you will remember, the law gave certain requirements concerning the kind of meat you can eat. In our scripture reading this morning in Deuteronomy, Moses describes the clean animals, and he describes the unclean. He said that you can eat the clean, not the unclean. He specifies you can't eat any rabbit, and you can't eat any hogs, and then it goes on to things we normally wouldn't eat anyway, camels and horses and such as that. Then he specifies you can't eat bees if you want to, and you can't eat doves if you want to, and you can't eat lamb if you want to.

Now then, when Peter saw that sheep let down from heaven, and God set her eyes and Peter saw the pork chops, he said, not me. I've never eaten anything unclean in my life. And God said, Peter, don't you call what I've made unclean. Don't you call it unclean. And what he was telling him was that now Jesus Christ has fulfilled all the requirements of the law and we're no longer under the covenant of the law and no longer under the ceremonies of the law and we're free. And to go back to the law is in essence a denial of what Christ has accomplished in fulfilling the law.

He says don't let anybody tell you you can't eat certain kind of meat. Don't let anybody tell you you can't have certain things to drink. Don't let anybody give you any matter of condemnation that makes you feel guilty because you don't keep the Feast of Tabernacles or the Feast of Passover or the Feast of the Eleventh Bread. Don't let anybody put you in judgment concern of those things. We're free. Christ has fulfilled it all.

Or of the new moon or of Sabbath day. What does God say? Don't observe Sabbath days. Is that what you get out of that text? Don't observe Sabbath days. Any kind of Sabbath day. Don't matter when you call it. Don't matter what you call it. Don't observe a Sabbath day. Which are a shadow of things to call. That is, they were justified. When God instituted the Sabbath day, he said, fellas, rest is coming. When he instituted the Sabbath day, he said, watch out now, redemption's coming. All those things were portrayed in the Sabbath. But now, the body is Christ. Christ is come. We don't observe Sabbath days. We don't need the Sabbath days any longer. All right?

There the apostle then strictly forbids the observance of a Sabbath day. He does so on the basis of this fact. In Christ, God's elect are entirely free from the law. Now, when you write that down, if you're writing anything in your notes, underscore the word entirely. Entirely. In Romans 7 verse 4, the apostle says we are become dead to the law by the body of Christ. How free is that? Just about as free as you can get. Dead to the law. A woman, when her husband is dead, she's no more obliged to anything her husband commanded, anything her husband said, anything her husband expected. She's dead with reference to him. Now, with reference to God's holy law, the believer is dead.

That does not mean the believer is a licentious person. Not on your life. That does not mean the believer has no sense of responsibility. Oh no. That does not mean the believer is not governed by the word of God. Not at all. That means the believer no longer walks before God on the basis of law. We walk before God on the basis of grace and mercy and love. We walk before God and render obedience to God not because we're afraid He might take something from us or might punish us with the rigors of the law, but rather we walk before Him and do what we do for Him because we're lucky and we seek His glory. Do you see the difference? All the difference in the world. All the difference in the world.

Michael Campbell sitting back there is about the age of my daughter. There was a time when Michael did things that Lindsey wanted him to do because he feared the consequences. Am I correct? Well, he's a grown man now. And if he does what Lindsey wants him to do, it's only for one reason. Because he loves that man. That's all. Just respect for that man. That's all. Otherwise, otherwise, he has no sense of dread and fear, because he's no longer a minor under law.

And the believer coming to God by faith in Jesus Christ, there was a time when he did or didn't do certain things during the days of his rebellion, not because he loved God or reverenced God, he was just scared to death. Oh, but now, we look on God our Father and we want to honor Him, and we want to please We want to magnify his name. That's the difference. That's the difference.

Christ is the end of the law then for righteousness to everyone that believe it. All right, let's look at the second reference. Hebrews chapter 4. Hebrews chapter 4, verse 3. The Apostle is talking about those Jews who perished in the wilderness because they heard the word preached but it wasn't mixed with faith in them.

Verse 3, for we which have belief do enter into rest. You know what the word is? Get your concordance out and look it up. It's Sabbath. We've entered into a Sabbath there. We've entered into rest. As he said, as I sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my Sabbath, my rest, although the works were finished from the foundation of the world, for he spoke in a certain place of the seventh day on this rise, and God did rest the seventh day from all his works.

Look in verse 9. There remaineth therefore a rest. Did you have a marginal reference? It reads, a keeping of the Sabbath. There remaineth, therefore, a keeping of the Sabbath to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, that is, he who has entered into God's Sabbath, he also hath ceased from his own works as God did from his. Let us, therefore, labor, strive to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example

Now, here the apostle shows us plainly that all who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, all who trust the Son of God, keep the Sabbath in a spiritual way. That is to say, those who believe Christ, those who trust Christ, and they only keep the Sabbath day. They've entered into a Sabbath day. They've entered into a state of life, into a condition of life called the Sabbath, the rest of God.

All right, thirdly, the Lord Jesus Christ, our mediator, entered into his rest as a man, and his rest is glorious because he finished his work. Look at verse 10, he that is entered into God's rest, into his rest, he also hath ceased for a long while. as God did in the beginning. The Lord Jesus entered into heaven. Isaiah chapter 11 verse 10 tells us that His rest is glory. His rest is His glory.

Our Savior, having put away our sins, Having satisfied all the justice of God, having satisfied all the demands of God, having finished his work as far as making his people new by his blood, reconciling us to God and making all things new, has entered into wrath. That means he ceased from his works. He ceased from his works. The Lord Jesus has finished the work of redemption and salvation for his people. Look in Hebrews 10. Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 10. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can never take away sins.

I remember several years ago I was preaching on this passage of Scripture and my friend, Brother Paul Reniger, who was a missionary in Italy, was sitting in the congregation. This had been 16, 17 years ago. He came to me after services and he said, I couldn't help telling you this. He said, when we were in Rome, there was a preacher, a Roman priest, who was also a preacher, which was a bit unusual. He said he was a very well-known, very popular priest because he was a preacher. And he was a man who attracted large crowds wherever he went. He said, one day, He was with his fellow priests in one of their huge masses, observing the mass before the people, and he came to read this text of Scripture. Every priest, and if they lived, ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which could never take away shame. And he said his heart was immediately smitten, and he walked out of the Roman Catholic Church at that moment. for God had brought him finally to faith in Jesus Christ the Lord on the right hand of God.

Why did he sit there? Because work's over. He's got nothing more to do. Everything's finished. From henceforth expect him till his enemies be made his footstool for by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Oh behold the risen Christ in his rest, and understand that his rest is his glory. Christ has finished his work. He finished the work of righteousness and he finished the work of redemption. He brought about the salvation of his people and made it a matter of certainty with his own blood he entered in once into the holy place having obtained eternal redemption for us. And all his enemies soon shall have made his footstool. So there's no more work to be done. Christ did it all. And when all the work was done for us, our blessed, glorious high priest entered into his rest. And he sat down. Oh, there he sits in the serenity of total sovereignty, having finished his work. And now he rules all things from that glorious, peaceful seat on the throne of God. to give eternal life to as many as the Father has given him.

Fourthly, I want to show you from the scriptures that all who believe on the Lord Jesus keep the Sabbath day by faith because we've entered into rest. Turn back to Hebrews 4 again, verse 3. For we which have believed do enter into rest. not perfectly, because we don't believe perfectly, but we do keep the Sabbath sincerely and truly by faith in Christ. Our Sabbath observance is not a carnal, literal thing. We do not keep a Sabbath day. God forbids that, as I've already shown you, but we keep the Sabbath spiritually by faith in Christ.

Now remember, the Sabbath was ordained by God in the ceremonial worship of the Jews in the Old Testament as a symbol of God's rest after his creation and as a reminder to the Jews of redemption out of Egypt by the hand of God. The instance of Sabbath observance was self-denial and consecration to God. Turn back to Isaiah 58 again. Isaiah 58. Here is an elaboration on what God commanded in Exodus 20. In Isaiah 58, it says, verse 12, Call the Sabbath a delight, the holy one of the Lord, honorable, and shall honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, or speaking thine own words." Now what does that mean?

The essence of Sabbath worship and the essence of faith was consecration to God. Self-denial, that's the essence of it. When God forbade the Jews to pick up sticks on the Sabbath day, When he forbade the Jews from going about and doing work on the Sabbath day except works of necessity. When he forbade the Jews from lighting a fire, from gathering wood, from doing all the things that were forbidden to do, he was symbolizing something. He was saying, I want you by your behavior on this day, every day, throughout the generations of the Old Testament, I want you to display that faith and rest comes by consecration to me. no longer do your pleasure, you no longer do anything for yourself, profitable or pleasurable. Such indulgence would be a breach of the Sabbath.

Sabbath observance was, in its essence, an unconditional, all-encompassing self-denial. It was a renunciation of self and a dedication of oneself to God. Now, that's exactly the way believers observed the Sabbath spiritually, by faith in Christ. Not one day in seven, but all the days of our lives. The believer's life is a perpetual Sabbath day. That's what it is. A perpetual giving of ourselves to God.

Turn to Matthew 11. The Lord Jesus Christ gives rest to every sinner who comes to Him by faith. Matthew chapter 11, verse 28. Maybe, I hope so, maybe some of you here tonight are laboring and heavy laden with guilt and sin, and you won't lift. You say to yourself as I preach, I'd give anything on this earth if I could go to bed tonight and see it. In your inmost soul there's a struggling. You struggle hard with sin, long to find rest and peace with God. Listen to what the Savior said. Come.

Now that doesn't mean come with your faith. come to the front of the church. That doesn't mean come to the preacher or the magistrate or come to the church. No. That means trust God. You read it just a little bit ago, Lindsay. Look to Him. Look away to Christ. You see, the Scripture gives us so many metaphors for faith. Sometimes it's called coming. Sometimes it's called looking. Sometimes it's called calling. But faith is what He's talking about. Look to Him. Look to Him. unto me, the glorious, omnipotent, all-sufficient Savior, who by his blood has obtained eternal redemption, and entered into his rest, having finished the work of redemption, on behalf of chosen servants, come to me."

All ye that labor and are heavy laden, come on. I'll give you this. I heard the voice of Jesus saying, come unto me and rest. Lay down, thou weary one, lay down thy head upon my breast. I came to Jesus as I was, weary and worn and sad. I found in him a resting place. And he saved me so glad. Come then. Yes. Rest. Christ gives believing sinners rest. The rest of complete pardon. He's come to me. And when you come, He says, I've blotted out all your sins. He says, come to me. And when you come, he says, I've reconciled you to God. Come to me. And when you come, he says, they shall never perish. I'll keep on. Come to me. When you come, he says, I'll speak to them. Everything works together for your good. Because you've been called of God and you love him. Come to me. I'll give you rest.

But our Sabbath of faith involves more than a ceasing from our works. and a remembrance of redemption by Christ. It also involves, in its essence, the consecration of our lives to our Savior. Look at verse 29. Take my yoke upon you. Now this is something else. Take my yoke upon you. That is, you come to me believing me. Now, you bow to me, willingly, submitting to my rule, my dominion, my will. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me. For I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is ease there, and my burden is light.

We keep the Sabbath of faith and find rest unto our souls when we willfully, deliberately, wholeheartedly surrender to Christ as Lord. Now if you would keep the Sabbath day, if you'd keep the Sabbath day, it's going to take considerably more than keeping one day in seven for worship. It's going to take considerably more. The legalist promotes bondage. Folks are scared to death. Boy, did I do what I ought to have done on Sabbath. I had a letter from a fellow the other day, and I don't any way to help folks except just tell them the truth. He was talking about someone who was breaking the Sabbath, and I said, forget Sabbath days. I just wrote to him, I said, we don't observe Sabbath days. Christ is our Sabbath.

But the legalist while he puts folks in bondage and in fear, he gives the man something to do that's considerably easier on the flesh than faith. Considerably easier. Far, far easier for flesh and blood to cease from work one day in seven. and go through that one day giving himself to religious exercises and religious duties. Oh, but here we're talking about real, real fabrication. It's surrendering your life. You got it? Your life to the rule of time. And there is no way for any center to find peace in heart and conscience until it comes to Christ in the field of the devil. You can try to convince yourself that you got a little peace, go through a little religious exercise, a little religious duty, but give it a few days or a few weeks or a few months or a few years and the torment returns. Karl Marx was exactly right. He said religion is the opiate of the people. Some folks got to go to the doctor and get tranquilizers and be calmed down so they can get along in the world. And other folks go to the preacher or go to the church or go to the priest and they get a little religious tranquilizer so they can kind of be calmed down and cope with the world.

God sent. Surrender to Christ. There's really nothing for me to fret about. I'm not mine, I'm yours. There's really nothing for me to concern myself about. My family's not mine, it's yours. There's really no reason for me to fret about this thing. I gave up myself to your dominion a long time ago. Come to Christ, my man. Take his yoke upon you, by blessing to your soul.

putting ourselves under the yoke of Christ's dominion, submitting to his will in all things, learning of him what to believe, how to live, and how to honor God, we find his yoke to be an easy yoke and his burden to be a light burden, because in it we find rest unto ourselves. Well, pastor, how can I obtain this blessed rest you're talking about? You've got to keep the Sabbath. You've got to keep the Sabbath. That means you must cease from your works. You've got to cease from your works. Quit trying to make up with God. Quit trying to find the grounds which you have made by which you have peace with God. Now the works were finished before the foundation of the world. And yet, those works being finished by God's decree, you must enter into rest by faith in Christ. And the scripture says that some must enter therein. Somebody's going to enter into rest because God's ordained it. If somebody must enter in, why not me? Why not you? Come to Christ, feast in your way, and rest in your place.

One last thing. Look again at Hebrews chapter 9, or chapter 4 rather, verse 9. There remaineth therefore a rest, the Sabbath keeping, to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also has ceased from his own works, as God did for his. Let us therefore labor to enter into that rest. lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief as the Jews did in the wilderness.

Here's the last thing I want you to say. If we persevere in faith, we shall keep the Sabbath perpetually for all eternity in heaven itself. Now this is what the Apostle says in these three verses. This is the ultimate consummate fulfillment of the legal Jewish Sabbath. There is a rest of Sabbath to be obtained. An eternal remembrance of redemption. A perfect consecration to God. Oh, how enticing. How enticing.

a blessed, blessed perfect man. They're remaining a sabbath to the people of God. Some have already entered into that eternal rest, that everlasting sabbath. Some could not enter in because of unbelief. They just simply didn't believe God. They heard the word, but it wasn't mixed with faith. Those who entered in have ceased from their words. Let us, therefore, labor. Let us strive to enter into that rest. That is, let us hold on to the end. Job said, the righteous shall hold on his way. Hold fast the beginning of your confidence, firm unto the end. Lean hard upon Christ, continue in the faith. Let us strive that we may enter in.

Now the penalty for breaking the Sabbath in the Old Testament was death. Somebody breaks the Sabbath day, God said take him out and kill him because he's despised God's redemption and he's despised God's work. He despised God. The penalty for breaking the Sabbath day is still death, eternal, everlasting death. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. He that believeth not the Son of God hath not life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.

Now listen to me carefully one more time. If you would be saved, There's only one way you can be saved. You've got to keep the whole law of God perfectly. No way you can be saved. You've got to satisfy the justice of God, and you've got to meet all the demands of God for righteousness. You say, Preacher, I can't do that. I hope you realize that. When you realize that, maybe you'll understand this. The only way a sinner can keep God's holy law is by faith in Christ. The Apostle Paul writes in Romans 3, listen to this, I'm already there, in verse 31, he says, Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid! Yea, we establish the law.

Others come along and they say, now keep the law, do this, keep the law, do that, keep the law, don't do the other thing. But they lower the law. They say, we're living by the law, but they bring it down to an accommodating standard so that men can say, well, I'm doing the best I can. God will check that. Oh, no. Oh, no. You've got to come to God with perfect satisfaction. Perfect satisfaction. How can I do that? I've come to God bringing Him What he requires, and what he's given, I bring in Jesus Christ, who is the Lord my righteous, who is all my atonement, and all my righteousness. And God says, that's good enough. That's good enough.

If you would have life, if you would be saved, if you would enter into rest, come to God through faith in Jesus Christ, Then you will enter into this blessed Sabbath, and you will join God's saints, and call the Sabbath of your life. I've been in this Sabbath now, Christ Jesus the Lord, for 27 years. And it was good in the beginning. But I'm going to tell you something. Resting in Christ is more delightful today, right now, than it's ever been in the past.

These men are going to come and pass out to you who believe elements of the Lord's table, this bread and this wine, as you eat the bread and drink the wine. Lift your hearts with thanksgiving and praise to God for fear, through whose blood atonement we enter into rest and call the Sabbath a delight. Amen.