with hymn number two from your
spiral hymn book, the gospel hymns hymn book, number two.
Lord, we come before thee now. Let's all stand together. you Lord, we come before thee now. At thy feet we humbly bow. O do not our suit disdain. Shall we seek thee, Lord, in
vain? Lord, on Thee our souls depend,
In compassion now descend. Fill our hearts with Thy rich
grace, Tune our lips to sing Thy praise. In thine own appointed way, Now
we seek thee, here we stay. Lord, we know not how to go Till
a blessing thou bestow. Send the message from thy word
that may joy and peace afford. Let thy spirit now impart Christ's
salvation to each heart. Please be seated. Good morning. We're going to
continue our study in the Book of Mark. If you'd like to turn
with me to Mark Chapter 2. Most of you know that Mary Wiginton's
mother passed away a few weeks ago and the family has planned
a memorial service to be held here this coming Tuesday at 11
o'clock. So if anybody would like to come
or able to come, you're certainly welcome. Tuesday morning at 11
o'clock for Carol and for the family, actually. Memorial services are really
for those of us left behind. They're not in any way for the
deceased. Let's ask the Lord's blessings.
Our merciful heavenly Father, we're so very thankful for the
gift of life. We thank you for the hope of
salvation. We thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ, who himself
is our life. And we pray that you would enable
us now by your spirit to set our hearts on him. We pray that
you would cause him to be lifted up. We pray that we would be
drawn irresistibly to trust him, to love him, and to believe upon
him. We thank you for the inspiration
of your word. We pray now that you would speak
truth to our hearts and reveal to us thy glory and thy grace. And we ask, Lord, that you would
be pleased to bless the service on Tuesday, and, Lord, that Christ
would be lifted up there as well, and, Lord, that there would be
members of Carol's family that would hear the gospel, Lord,
that you would give them eyes to see and hearts to believe.
And we ask it in Christ's name. Amen. There's a passage of scripture
in Mark chapter 2. I was telling someone this week
that I felt like this verse had so much more to say than what
appeared to be apparent on the surface. And I'm more convinced now that
it does. I don't think I'm capable of speaking
all that this verse really tells us, but well that would be true
of every verse of scripture, wouldn't it? But I pray the Lord would give
us some understanding to verse 27 in Mark chapter 2. The Sabbath was made for man
and not man for the Sabbath. The key to understanding this
passage is understanding the word made for. And another way
to interpret that those words would be meet the needs of. And so what the Lord is saying
is that the Sabbath meets the needs of man. Man does not meet
the needs of the Sabbath. Now, if you think about man-made
religion, man-made religion is all based on God needing something
from man. And that's exactly what the Lord
is saying here. These Pharisees had a view of
the Sabbath that, God was requiring them to do certain things on
the Sabbath in order for God to be satisfied with them. And they had no understanding
that the Sabbath was made for them. They weren't made for the
Sabbath. They needed what the Sabbath
had to say. The Sabbath did not need anything
from them in order for God to be satisfied. Now, you think
about, we've dealt with the Sabbath on a couple of occasions recently
because it's come up in our text. And you know that the commandment
to keep holy the Sabbath and to not work on the Sabbath is
the fourth in the Ten Commandments. And the scripture makes it clear
that the Sabbath is a sign of the covenant. Turn with me to
Exodus chapter 31. In verse 12, and the Lord spake
unto Moses saying, speak thou also unto the children of Israel
saying, verily my Sabbaths you shall keep for it is a sign between
me and you throughout your generation that you may know that I am the
Lord that doth sanctify you. So two things the Lord tells
us in this passage about the Sabbath. Number one, it is a
sign. None of the other commandments
given in the moral law are called signs. And if you think about
where this commandment is, being the fourth of the 10 commandments,
there are three commandments prior to the Sabbath which relate
to our relationship with God. You shall have no other gods
before me. shall worship the Lord God." Well, the Lord summarized
those three commandments when he said, you shall worship the
Lord God with all of your heart, all of your mind, and all of
your soul. And those are the first three commandments. And
the number three relates to God in his triune persons. And then after the fourth commandment,
we have five through ten, which is six commandments. And those
six commandments relate to man's relationship with man. And the
number six being the number for man. So we've got the number
three for God, the number six for man, and in between, sandwiched
in between, is this Sabbath commandment, which is called a sign. It's
a sign of the covenant. And here the Lord tells us not
only is it a sign, but the purpose of this sign is to show that
I have sanctified you. I have set you apart. I have
made you holy. You don't make me holy. And you
don't make the Sabbath holy by your observance of laws. Now the Pharisees, the self-righteous,
legalistic, religious leaders of our Lord's day had written
into their law lots of rules and regulations pertaining to
the Sabbath. And their attempt was to keep
the Sabbath so that they could give back to God something that
God required. And now the Lord is saying very
clearly, the Sabbath was made for you. You weren't made for
the Sabbath. The Sabbath meets your needs. You don't meet the needs of the
Sabbath. Now read on in Exodus chapter
31. And you shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it is holy unto
you, and everyone that defileth it shall surely be put to death,
for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut
off from among his people. Six days may work be done, but
in the seventh it is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord. Whosoever doeth any work in the
Sabbath day He shall surely be put to death. No, there's no exceptions. Anybody
that does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death. That's pretty harsh. Verse 16, wherefore the children
of Israel shall keep the Sabbath to observe the Sabbath throughout
their generations For a perpetual covenant, it is a sign between
me and the children of Israel forever. Now, go back with me
to our text. The book of Hebrews in chapter
4 makes it absolutely clear that this sign was pointing to, as
all signs do, the Lord Jesus Christ and that he is our rest. And the scripture says, he that
entereth into his rest ceases from his works even as God has
from his. Why did the Lord rest on the
seventh day? In creation because he was finished with the work. This commandment that God gave
the children of Israel to not work on the Sabbath is a sign. It's a spiritual picture. Does
that mean that if something comes up and you have to work on, well,
if you're going to keep the Sabbath literally as far as working and
that sort of thing, you have to do it on Saturday, aren't
you? I know that there are people
who interpret this to mean that on Sunday you just can't do any
work. Well, if something comes up and
you have to work, does that mean that the sentence of death is
to be executed against you? No. It means that if you lift
your hand to do any work, to gain favor with God, to merit
to merit worth with God, whatever it is. If you're not trusting
the Lord Jesus Christ alone and the work that he did, then it
will sentence you to death. That will be the death penalty. And not just
physical death, eternal death. I think I had mentioned this
recently, all other commandments will be forgiven you. All other
violations of any commandments will be forgiven you. But the
violation of the Sabbath, the not trusting Christ and His perfect
work of redemption for your salvation, Thinking that you can do something
to make what he did work for you. Thinking that you can do
something to add to his work. That's what man-made religion
is all about. God needs something from me in order for him to be
able to save me. He needs me to make a decision.
He needs me to exercise my free will. He needs me to invite Jesus
into my heart in order for me to be saved. God needs something
from me, and so the religious world, just like the Pharisees
of our Lord's day, believe that the Sabbath is dependent upon
them. Go back with me to our text. meets the needs of man. Man does not meet the need of
the Sabbath. What the Lord is saying here
is that I don't need anything from you. You have nothing to
offer me. You need me. You are completely dependent
upon me for your salvation. This Sabbath was a sign, the
sign of the one who would sanctify you, who would set you apart
and make you holy and make you acceptable in my sight. And if
you think that the Sabbath needs you to bring something to the
table in order for God to be able to save you, then you are
in violation of the Sabbath. You're not resting in Christ.
You're trusting something other than the glorious person and
finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ for the hope of your salvation. Is that clear? The religious self-righteous
Pharisee believes not only that in order for them to have acceptance
with God. They've got to make a decision.
They've got to give their heart to Jesus. God needs my faith
in order for him to save me. Faith is what I bring to the
table. No, no. The Sabbath was made for man. not man for
the Sabbath. God doesn't need, what kind of
faith are we gonna bring? God says, for by grace are you
saved through faith and that not of yourself. It's a gift
of God. Lord, I need for you to give
me faith that if I'm gonna find my rest and my hope in Christ,
I'm gonna have to have you to give me faith. The point of this passage is
that God doesn't need anything from us. He doesn't need our
acceptance. We need to be accepted of Him.
He doesn't need our faith. We need to be given faith from
Him. He doesn't need our works. It's
not by works of righteousness which we have done. God's not,
God's not looking to us for, to provide some good work in
order for us to be saved. And I know there's a lot of folks
that say, well, I know that works are not, are not the cause of
our salvation, but they sure are the proof of it. God doesn't
need your works to prove to him that you're saved. You need him to prove to you
that you're saved. The Sabbath was made for man,
not man for the Sabbath. Say, well, God needs my worship. God needs for me to come and
pray and listen to the gospel and worship. Oh, no. No, God
doesn't need us here. He doesn't need us here. God doesn't need us at all. Our
God's eternal. Now, if we interpret the existence
of man strictly by the genealogy of scripture, we've only been
around for 6,000 years. And somebody hears that and said,
well, you'd really believe that? Well, let me give you the benefit
of the doubt and say, okay, if we've been here for hundreds
of thousands of years, How does that compare to eternity? And what did God do in eternity
for all eternity before he created man? That's what I am means. I am self-existent. I am self-dependent. I am everything that I need within
myself. I have absolutely no need whatsoever
for you. You have every bit of need for
me. The Sabbath was made for man
and not man for the Sabbath. The Sabbath meets the needs of
man. Man never meets the needs of
God. I remember a song in religion
that I don't remember all the words, but we are his hands and
we are his feet and, you know, God can't do what he wants to
do without us. Well, that's pretty much sums
up the God that we worshiped back then, a God that needed
us. You hear, I hear preachers talk
about God needing man to give. That's so foolish. God doesn't need a penny from
you and me. He owns the cattle on a thousand
hills. Now I want you and me to learn
the joy of giving because we need it. We need to give. We need to acknowledge that everything
that we've been given belongs to God. Giving is just like worship,
it's just like witnessing, it's just like everything else. It's
not that God needs it, it's that we need it. The Sabbath was made
for man. The Sabbath meets the needs of
man. Man never meets the needs of
God. God doesn't need anything. He
doesn't need anything. Oh, but how much we need Him,
don't we? how much we need him. That's what the Lord was saying.
He was speaking to these self-righteous Pharisees who thought that they
were bringing something to God to meet his needs and that God
was going to reward them with salvation. That's what all man-made religion
is about. Every bit of it. Look at our text, verse 27. He
said unto them, the Sabbath was made for man. The Sabbath meets
the needs of man. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
save sinners. We're the ones dependent upon
him, and we have nothing to bring to him. that he's in need of. Matter of fact, the only thing
we've got that we can bring him is our sin. People in religion,
what do they talk about? Give your heart to Jesus. Well,
I got some news for you. He don't want it. It's defiled. What's he gonna
do with it? You're gonna reward him by giving
him your heart? The heart is deceitful and wicked
above all things. Who can know it? But what do they say? Well, you
know, God needs your heart. No. No. You need a new heart,
don't you? And He's the only one that can
give it to you. The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the
Sabbath. But you think about everything
you hear in religion. And everything that's done in
religion, it's all based on God needing something from you. Verse 28, therefore the son of man, now
the scripture uses son of man and son of God to describe the
Lord Jesus Christ. Why is that? Well, it's pretty
obvious, isn't it? Our Lord was fully man and He
was fully God. He was the fullness of the Godhead
bodily. He had to take on the body of
a man. He had to be born of a woman,
born under the law. He had to be made in the likeness
of sinful flesh. Why? Because man needed the Sabbath. Man needed a substitute. Man
needed a representative. Man needed a man to stand in
their stead before God and present himself on their behalf. So he's
called here the Son of Man. The Son of Man. He is the Son
of God. And that's what made Him as the
Son of Man able to stand in the presence of a holy God and represent
us perfectly. And everything that's necessary
for our salvation is bound up in Him. So the Sabbath was made
for man, not man for the Sabbath. The Sabbath meets the needs of
man. Every need that you and I have,
before a holy God is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. All our
righteousness, all of our justification, all of our holiness, all of our
sanctification, all of our wisdom, God has made Him to be sin for
us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
And in Him is wisdom. and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption. Everything, everything that God
requires, he looks to Christ for. And faith is the gift that
God gives to a sinner enabling them to look to the same one
that God's looking to. Does God need our prayers? Does
God need our worship? Does God need our giving? Does
God need our witnessing? Does God need our preaching? Does God not? No, no, no. God needs nothing. God gives everything. It's just that simple. The Son of Man is Lord. He's Lord over the living and
the dead. He's Lord over the armies of heaven and the inhabitants
of the earth. What do men say? The Son of Man
needs you to make Him Lord. Isn't that what they say? You need to make Jesus Lord of
your life. Too late. God's already done
it. He is Lord of your life. Whether
you believe Him or not, He reigns sovereign over your life. The Sabbath was made to meet
the needs of man, not man for the Sabbath. But you listen to the language
of religion. It's always something God needs from you, isn't it?
Always. Lord, I need you to give me faith.
I need you to enable me to worship. I need you to give me the grace
to speak the truth about Christ to my friends and family and
loved ones. Lord, I can't do anything. I
need you for everything. I need you to sanctify me. Man was not made for the Sabbath.
The Lord Jesus Christ as the son of man is Lord, the Lord
of the Sabbath. He's Lord over who rest in him,
isn't he? I was talking to somebody the
other night about election and they, the first question they
had is always the first question everybody, well, what about missions?
What about missions? What about witnessing? God knows where his sheep are.
He's going to get the gospel to them one way or the other.
Or he's going to get them to the gospel one way or the other. God doesn't need us. Now do we need to take the gospel
out into the world? Yeah. You know what? If we don't do
it, God's going to need somebody else to do it. You see, we're
the gainer for that. In every respect, everything we do, we profit. We gain. God doesn't gain anything. The Son of Man is Lord over the
Sabbath. All right, let's take a break.