As I said earlier, I wanted to
spend some time looking at the issue of the Sabbath. And this
healing of this man on the Sabbath was the cause at this stage for
the Jews to seek to put the Lord Jesus Christ to death. And in verse 10 it says, the
Jews therefore said unto him that was cured, it's the Sabbath
day. It's not lawful for thee to carry
thy bed. And he answered them, he that
made me whole, the same said unto me, take up thy bed and
walk. Then they asked him, What man
is that which said unto thee, Take up thy bed and walk? And
he that was healed wist not, knew not, who it was, for Jesus
had conveyed himself away, a multitude being in that place. After Jesus
found him in the temple, he said unto him, Behold, thou art made
whole, sin no more, lest a worse The man departed and told the
Jews that it was Jesus which had made him whole, and therefore
did the Jews persecute Jesus and sought to slay him, because
he had done these things on the Sabbath day. When it comes to
breaking the Jewish notion of the Sabbath day, the Lord Jesus
Christ was a recidivist, wasn't he? He kept being a criminal
in their eyes. They still hadn't forgotten this
incident a couple of years later in John 7 verse 22. He speaks, if Moses therefore
gave his circumcision, not because it is of Moses, but of the fathers,
and ye on the Sabbath day circumcise a man, to obey the law of Moses
meant that the priests had to break the Sabbath by circumcising
him. So written into the very law
was the problem that they had before them. If a man on the
Sabbath day receives circumcision, that the law of Moses should
not be broken, Are you angry at me? This is 12 months later
after the Lord Jesus Christ has witnessed the most remarkable
things to these people. Are you angry with me because
I made a man every whit hole, that means completely whole,
I made him perfectly whole, I made him perfectly complete, on the
Sabbath day. And then he makes this judgment,
doesn't he? Judge not according to appearance. But judge righteous
judgment. To judge righteous judgment is
to judge the things that you see in light of all of the scriptures.
not just looking at them with your eyes. And these men continued
on in this hatred of the Lord Jesus Christ and their enmity. Because in John chapter nine,
you have the remarkable story of the healing of the blind man.
And it was a Sabbath day. The Lord Jesus Christ loved healing
on the Sabbath day. It was the Sabbath day. Then,
verse 15, then again, the Pharisees also asked him how he'd received
his sight. And he said unto them, he put
clay in my eyes and I washed. And I do see, this is judging
unrighteously, therefore, said some of the Pharisees, this man
is not of God. That was their judgment, wasn't
it? That was their judgment that the Lord Jesus Christ was worthy
of death. This man is not of God because
he keepeth not the Sabbath day. He keepeth not the sabbath day. So in John chapter 5 we have
this remarkable miracle, this man who had been for 38 years
in this state, and there he was, rising up, walking, carrying
his bed, and the Lord Jesus Christ found him in the temple. And the Lord's declaration of
him is that he's made him completely whole. And so why this hatred? against the Lord Jesus Christ.
Why? The irrationality of this hatred. These Pharisees never mentioned
that the man was healed. All they can look at is the fact
that the man broke the Sabbath and all they can see is that
the Lord Jesus Christ caused him to break the Sabbath. Why? This hatred will continue
throughout the rest of John's gospel as we keep studying. And
if you go back to the other gospels, you'll see again and again, it
was exactly the same hatred. And if you read the book of Acts,
the same people after the resurrection continued the same hatred. And
when Paul went on his missionary journeys, wherever he came to
the Jews and told them that the law is complete in the Lord Jesus
Christ, and he is the God that they think they worship, there
was hatred and enmity. It goes on and it goes on to
this day, brothers and sisters. It goes on to this day. The natural
man, the natural man finds the declaration of the Lord Jesus
Christ being God offensive, offensive. So where does this all come from?
Where does this irrational hatred come from? Let's go back to Genesis
chapter three and we'll see. We'll see where the hatred came
from. In verse 15 of Genesis chapter
3, the Lord has cursed the serpent above every beast of the field
and says that he'll go on his belly and he'll eat the dust
all the days of his life. And then he says in verse 15,
I will put, God will put enmity between thee, between Satan and
the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. The seed of the
woman is the Lord Jesus Christ. The seed of the woman are all
those who are in the Lord Jesus Christ. The seed of the serpent
are all the rest of humanity. In reality, the Lord Jesus will
say to these Pharisees that seek to kill him here in John chapter
80, he'll say, you're of your father, your origin is of your
father, the devil, and you do his work and fulfil his things. There is. You're of your father,
the devil, and you do the works of your father. See, there is
a spiritual hatred, an irrational hatred, but there is in the heart
of natural man, and particularly in the heart of religious men,
and particularly in the heart of those who are not only religious
but zealous in their religion. and knowledgeable in their religion.
These were the most highly esteemed men the Jews had that were doing
this. They knew their Bible, possibly
knew the Old Testament off by heart, and they were meticulous
about all of the activities that they carried on, and yet in their
hearts, in their hearts, was hatred for God. So where does
God find his people? He finds them. He finds them
like he found this man, doesn't he? Amongst the lame and the
withered. While you're in Genesis, this
is where he finds them, in verse eight of chapter three. They
heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the
cool of the day, and Adam and his wife, hid themselves from the presence
of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. That's where he
found them, didn't he? That's where he finds all of
his sheep, hiding amongst the trees of the garden. I've broken
in on my grandchildren playing hide-and-seek at home lots of
times, and it's amazing. open a door or open a cupboard
and there's this little one curled up in there. When you're going
high, what do you do? You always find the darkest place
you can possibly find, don't you? The one that's furthest
away from all the light. Such is the nature of man, such
is the glory of the gospel that the Lord Jesus Christ comes.
He comes into that darkness and He shines a light and He takes
His people out of there. That's where He finds His sheep. And that's why our weapons are
not carnal weapons, brothers and sisters. Our weapons are
spiritual weapons because there's a spiritual battle going on.
These men had the most remarkable amount of evidence you could
ever wish to have. that Jesus Christ is God. In fact, he kept
saying he was God. He made sure that they knew he
was God at the very beginning of all of his activities, isn't
it? That's what they said in John
chapter five, you make yourself out to be God. We have in the
gospel the power of God unto salvation. Faith comes by hearing,
and hearing by the word of God. And that's why the Lord Jesus
Christ was a preacher. And that's why he sends preachers.
That's that voice, isn't it? The voice of the Lord God walking
in the garden in the cool of the day. The voice of God finding
us, hiding. The voice of God drawing us out
of all of that. But the religious hatred in the
heart of man is exhibited just over the page in Genesis, isn't
it? In Genesis chapter Four, we have the murder of Abel. Why did Cain murder Abel? Why was there hatred? Because his deeds were evil. What's the response of someone
who has their own works righteousness? No doubt came and he brought
his vegetables and his other produce that he'd grown, had
brought it along to church that day. It was magnificent, wasn't
it? You can imagine the carrots that he grew and the fruit that
he had. It was all magnificent. It wasn't rubbish. It would have
been magnificent. But what did Abel bring? The Lord didn't have respect.
to his offering, and he had no respect. And Cain was very wroth,
verse 5 of Genesis 4. But Abel brought of the firstlings
of the flock. Abel brought that which the Lord
had provided as covering for Adam and Eve inside the garden.
He brought to God the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
it says in at the end of verse four of chapter four of Genesis,
and the Lord God had respect unto Abel, and to his offering. He respects Abel because he respects
the offering that Abel brings, and Abel is bringing that which
represents the Lord Jesus Christ. Abel has had a long time to contemplate
the glories of the Lord Jesus Christ, and Cain's had a long,
long time to contemplate the sadness and the fact that
he was warned and the fact that he knew and the fact that his
disobedience was a willful disobedience. It was unbelief. It was unbelief
that characterizes these people. So let's go back to our miracle
in John chapter 5 and let's have a look at the This Sabbath, this
man was made completely whole. Completely whole. So while you're
there in Genesis, let's go back and have a look at the fourth
day, the Sabbath day, the last day, the last verse in Genesis.
Genesis chapter 1. And God saw everything that he
had made, and behold, it was very good. The evening and the
morning were the sixth day. 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, work which he had made. God wasn't tired, brothers and
sisters. He didn't need to rest as we
need to rest. But he stopped his work because
the work was complete and the work was finished. The work was finished. So the
Sabbath, the Sabbath is about the completed work of the Lord
Jesus Christ and the rest that God has in that, which is why,
if you turn over to Exodus chapter 20, it's one of the Ten Commandments,
as people well know. In verse nine of Exodus 20, it
says, six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work, but the
seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it thou
shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter,
thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor the stranger
that is within thy gates. For in six days, this is the
reason, for in six days the Lord made the heaven and the earth
and the sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day,
wherefore, The Lord blessed the Sabbath and hallowed it. He sanctified the Sabbath day. The Sabbath speaks of a finished
work. God resting on the Sabbath day. Let's turn over while we're in
Exodus, just a few more pages to Exodus chapter 31. and I want us to see what this
Sabbath is, and I want us to see why the Lord Jesus Christ
wasn't breaking the Sabbath, and I want us to see that all
the people who think they have ever kept the Sabbath and want
to be angry with other people who haven't kept one are actually
completely missing the point that God has brought here. Just
as these Pharisees missed the fact that this man had been healed,
Out of that multitude, this man had been healed and healed completely
by the Lord Jesus Christ. That mattered nothing to these
people. So in Exodus chapter 31 verse
12, And the Lord spake unto Moses, I'm on the wrong chapter, no
wonder it's not doing what it's supposed to do. And the Lord spake unto
Moses, saying, Speak thou also unto the children of Israel,
saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep. For it is a sign
between me and you throughout your generations, that you may
know that I and the Lord that doth sanctify you. That's to make you holy. I am
the Lord that doth sanctify you. The context here, of course,
is that they're building the temple, they're building the tabernacle.
So even in the midst of building the tabernacle, there's this
instruction about resting on the Sabbath day. Let's go on. You shall keep the Sabbath therefore,
for it is holy unto you. Everyone that defile it shall
surely be put to death, for whosoever doeth any work therein, that
soul shall be cut off from among his people. If you want to know
how serious God takes his Sabbath, turn with me to Numbers chapter
15. That's a remarkable story in Numbers chapter 15 in verse
32. And while the children of Israel
were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks
upon the Sabbath day. And they that found him gathering
sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron. And of all the congregation,
they put him in war, they put him in jail, because it was not
declared what should be done to him. And the Lord said unto
Moses, The man shall be surely put to
death. All the congregation shall stone
him with stones without the camp. And all the congregation brought
him without the camp and stoned him with stones. And he died
as the Lord commanded Moses. God established the Sabbath before
they got to Mount Sinai. We don't have time, but if you
read Exodus 16, you'll see in Exodus 16, before they got to
Mount Sinai, they had the provision of the manna. And then they have
the Sabbath, the first Sabbath declaration to them having left
Egypt. And of course the manna, the
manna pictures, doesn't it? Life in Christ, life from above. It came every morning. It is
the bread of heaven. Our life is in the bread of heaven. And the Sabbath, the Sabbath
pictured God's provision of rest in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
what it's picturing. The Sabbath is picturing the
fact that we are not saved by working. The Sabbath is picturing
the fact that we rest in the completed work which the Lord
sees as complete. And it's so typical of religion,
isn't it, to make a burden out of something which God had made
a blessing. You can imagine what a burden it was to these Jews
to get up every morning and try and figure out how to keep the
law. It's amazing, if you go on the
internet now, you'll see that they're still doing it. They're
having debates about Sabbath lifts, you know, in Israel, in
various places where the Jews are gathered together, they have
a Sabbath lift. And the Sabbath lift, you don't press any buttons,
because pressing a button is working. So what the lift does,
it opens at the first floor, it goes up and opens at the second
floor, it goes all the way up, and at each floor it opens. So you can go in and out of the
lift without touching a button. And now they're having a debate.
This is where legalism goes, brothers and sisters. Now they're
having a debate about the fact that going up in the lift is
not work, but coming down might be work because it is your weight
that's bringing this thing down. So they're still having debates
about it. Goes on and on and on. Once legalism starts, it has
no bounds. In fact, when it comes back to
this regulation with this man carrying his mat on the Sabbath
day, if you had a piece of cloth, if you're carrying a piece of
cloth in your pocket, it's called carrying a burden on the Sabbath
day. They've divided work into 39 different categories. One
of them is to carry a burden. And so if you're carrying a handkerchief
in your pocket, you're carrying a burden on the Sabbath day.
If you take a pin and pin it to your clothes, you're not carrying
a burden on the Sabbath day. They had so many rules and regulations,
you can look them up on the internet, it's just extraordinary. You
weren't to move a chair on the Sabbath day because moving a
chair might be making a furrow and it might be called ploughing.
God gave us his name in that verse
in Exodus 31. He says his name is Jehovah M'Kaddish. The Lord that does sanctify you. The Lord that does sanctify you. Sanctification's the work of
God, isn't it? It's the work of God in election
in Jude chapter one. It's the work of God the Son
in redemption in Hebrews 10 and First Corinthians 130. It's the
work of God the Holy Spirit in regeneration. We're sanctified
by the triune God. The triune God, that's that picture
of this man healed, isn't it? The triune God makes us clean.
and he washes us, and he hallows us, he makes us holy, he makes
sinners holy, and he sanctifies, he sets apart a people to himself,
his own peculiar people. Where did he find them? He found
them hiding, hiding in the forest, didn't he? He says in 1 Corinthians,
Nay, not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom
of God, be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor
adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor
extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God, and such. and such, you Corinthians, and
such were some of you, but you are washed, you are washed, you
are sanctified, and you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus
and by the Spirit of our God. The Lord does sanctify you. So to put your hand to the work
of your sanctification is to say that God hasn't done enough.
And that's why God takes Sabbath-keeping so seriously. You'll know, of
course, if you've been around in religion, that there are so
many denominations and so many particular groups that make a
very big deal out of Sabbath-keeping. And Galatians explains exactly
what they're doing. Anyone that thinks that they're
keeping a Sabbath, anyone that's thinking they can keep any one
of God's laws, is denying the reality of who God is. They're
denying His holiness and they're denying the fact that they're
sinners. And what they're doing is, in Galatians 6.12, they're
making a fair show in the flesh. Look what I've got these people
to do. Look how obedient I've got these people to be. It's
a fair show in the flesh. Greg Elquist was preaching in
Scotland some years ago before the Lord did his mighty work
of grace in his life, and he was to preach in a church on
Sunday. He'd been invited to go to Scotland
to preach in his church, and someone asked him in the morning
before he was preaching, he said, what are you doing after church?
And Greg said, well, there are some ruins. There's an old castle
just up the road, and some ruins. I want to go and have a look
at those, that old castle. It was a tourist thing. And the
man turned to him and said, you're not preaching. Why did he even
ask the question, this man? Why did he ask the question?
Because he had his own righteousness. And he saw our brother as being
unrighteous. If you're going to keep the law
of God, There are four things from the scriptures that are
absolutely essential. If you're going to keep the Sabbath
day, it's always a Saturday. It starts on Friday afternoon,
our time, and it goes to an hour after sunset, our time. I was
rounded up by a guy a couple of weeks ago who tore strips
off me for being wickedly disobedient to God because I'm not obeying
the Sabbath. And I've asked him, are you doing this? Well, I try. Trying is not good enough for
God. It must be perfect to be accepted. It's the seventh day
of the week. Sunday is not a Sabbath day and
there's not a single hint in the scriptures that the Sabbath
day was turned into a Sunday. Sunday is the day of the Lord's
resurrection and there can be no work done on the Sabbath as
we've read. And also, if you turn to Numbers,
I don't want you to turn there, but in Numbers chapter 28, verses
nine and 10, if you're gonna keep a Sabbath day, you have
to offer, it has to be a double sin offering, there has to be
a double meal offering, there has to be a double drink offering,
and those offerings must be made at the temple in Jerusalem. No
one has kept a Sabbath. No one has kept a Sabbath. And
anyone who insists upon other people keeping the Sabbath must
also insist, as God does, that Sabbath breakers should be executed. Anyone that wants to put the
children of God back under legal, carnal ordinances, just reveal
the fact. They don't know God and they
don't know themselves. They don't know God in his holiness
and they don't know themselves in his sinfulness. See, Christ
is our Sabbath and we rest in him. That's what the healing
of this man on that day was. He was healed completely. And where did the Lord Jesus
Christ find him? He found him in the temple. He healed him
and he brought him He brought him into the place where God
meets with sinners. So Colossians warns us, Colossians
2.16, Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or
in respect of an holy day, or of a new moon, or of Sabbath
days, which are a shadow. of things to come, but the body
is Christ. The body, the reality of all
of that is Christ. My friend, Mr. Hawker, Ben's
gonna miss it, but my friend, Mr. Hawker, has written a wonderful
hymn about the Sabbath. You've had some of these verses
before you. God thus commanded Jacob's seed
when from Egyptian bondage free. He led them by the way, remember
with a mighty hand, I brought thee forth from Pharaoh's land.
Then keep my Sabbath day. In six days God made heaven and
earth, gave all the various creatures birth, and from his working ceased. These days to labour he applied,
the seventh he blessed and sanctified, and called the day of rest. To all God's people now remains
a Sabbath, a rest from pains and works of slavish kind. When tired with toil and faint
through fear, the child of God can enter here, and sweet refreshment
find. To this, by faith, he oft retreats,
Bondage and labour quite forgets, And bids his cares adieu. Goodbye. slides softly into promised
rests, reclines his head on Jesus' breast, and proves the Sabbath
true. This and this only is the way
to rightly keep that Sabbath day which God has wholly made. All keepers that come short of
this of the Sabbath, miss, and grasp an empty shade." They're
grasping at shadows to try and find reality is what Colossians
is saying. The reality is in Christ. God
forbids a legal Sabbath day because in Christ every believer is completely,
totally, entirely, and forever freed from the law. Christ is
the end of the law for righteousness. It's as far as the law goes,
and God's people are not lawbreakers. We love the law of God. We love
the law of God. And how do we keep the law of
God? Romans 3 makes it really, really clear. Do we then make
void the law through faith? God forbid, Romans 3.31. Yea, we establish the law. How do you establish the law
now? By faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. What's faith? It's to
rest, isn't it? It's to trust. It's to rely on
him. The other place in the New Testament
where Sabbath is mentioned are those verses in Hebrews 4 that
Ben read to us a while ago. For we which have believed do
enter into rest. Now Sabbath, as he said, I have
sworn in my wrath, if they shall not enter into my rest, although
the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
For he spoke in a certain place of the seventh day in this wise,
and God did rest the seventh day from all his works. Verse nine, there remaineth therefore
a rest to the people of God. Did you notice when Ben was reading
it, He used one of those lovely scriptures, Holy Spirit used
one of those lovely, lovely words. In verse six it says, seeing
therefore it remaineth, the rest of heaven is remains, it's in
place, isn't it? That some must enter. Some must, God's people. must enter into the rest of who
the Lord Jesus Christ. It's coming to him, it's believing
on the Son of God, and we cease from our works and rest. And I love what God says, he
was refreshed. He was refreshed. Which is why
the Lord Jesus Christ said, come unto me all you that labour and
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you
and learn of me, learn of me, learn of the Lord Jesus Christ
in all of his deity, in all of his glory, in all of his humanity,
in all of the wonders of redeeming love. Learn of me, for I am meek
and lowly. That's one of the most remarkable
descriptions of the Lord Jesus Christ in all scripture, isn't
it? And you shall find rest unto
your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. That's why Hebrews 9 says we
cease. Chapter 4 verse 9 says, There's a rest that remains for
the people of God. For he that is entered into his
rest, into the rest of God, has also ceased from his own works,
as God did from his. For he that is entered into his
rest, I'm sorry, let us labour therefore to enter into that
rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. The things that happen in the
Old Testament scriptures are examples for us, brothers and
sisters. Man, and religious man in particular,
finds it so, so difficult in the more successful esteemed,
they are a religion, the darker they are to the knowledge of
who God is and to the knowledge of who they are, because their
fig leaves look very, very polished. Their fig leaves look so, so
polished. Romans 10 is a remarkable prayer,
isn't it, from Paul, and he speaks of his brethren, these people
that are recorded here, and you've got to remember that Paul was
one of them. If the Lord Jesus Christ was being put to death,
then Paul was going to get as close to the rocks as he possibly
could, which is exactly what he did at the stoning of Stephen
and thereafter. It's a glorious picture of God's
sovereign hand in salvation, Paul. He says, but not according to knowledge. For they, this is the knowledge
they don't have, they're ignorant of God's righteousness. Anyone
that thinks that they have any righteousness of their own is
ignorant of God's righteousness. There is only one righteousness,
brothers and sisters, and that's the righteousness of God. It's
the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is only one
righteousness. They're ignorant of God's righteousness.
And going about, Going about, that's what Adam and Eve were
doing in the garden in the dark, weren't they? They were going
about with their fig leaves, going about. That means that
they're seeking in order to find what their God's already given
them a promise. He says, I'm the Lord God that
sanctifies you. That's what he told them in Exodus
31. They're going about, they're
going about to try and establish something and God says it's already
done. God says the work's finished from the foundation of the world.
They're going about to establish, they're going about to set in
place and secure their own righteousness. I can't help but think of people
wanting to set things in place of the marvellous story, picture
that we have of the ark of the covenant being
taken into the temple of Dagon. And Dagon falls over and what
do they do? They immediately go and they
get him, they nail him down and make him as secure as they possibly
can. And the next day they come out in the morning and once Dagon's
broken and his head's fallen off, What did those pagans do? They would have patched Dagon
up, wouldn't they? What did the Jews do when the
Lord Jesus Christ ripped that temple from top to bottom and
God revealed the access into the Holy of Holies is now free
and open to all? I imagine, as soon as they possibly
could, they got their sewing needles out and started stitching.
It's exactly what man does. Just like these men, they saw
a remarkable miracle. And out of their hearts came
wickedness. See, these men are ignorant.
These men that Paul knew and he loved and he prayed for, they're
ignorant of the holiness of God. God says to Abraham, walk before
me and be ye perfect. You read Abraham's life and see
if you can find much perfection in Abraham's life. What's the
perfection that Abraham walked in the presence of God with?
It was the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's that
robe that the saints in heaven are wearing now, that glorious
robe. Oh, to be ignorant of the holiness
of God and to be ignorant of the nature of fallen man. We have, in all of these pictures
of the Sabbath, we have a picture of the gospel. which is why the
Lord Jesus Christ was so provoking of these enemies to expose them
and to teach us. To teach us. This man was made
whole. The man who was healed at the
beautiful gate in the temple, the Lord says to him, by the
faith which is by him has given him this perfect soundness. In
Acts chapter 15, when the legalists from within the church would
bring the church back under the bondage of the law, the bondage
of obedience. Peter makes this glorious declaration
in chapter 15 verse 8. The Lord knows the heart, God
which knows the hearts, bears them witness, giving them the
Holy Spirit even as he did unto us, putting no difference between
us and them, purifying their hearts. What a remarkable declaration
from God, purifying their hearts by faith. And to put people back
under the law, as Peter would go on to say, now then, why do
you tempt God? Why are you testing God? Testing
God, to put a yoke on the neck of the disciples, which neither
our fathers nor we were able to bear. There is freedom in
the Lord Jesus Christ. This man was made completely
whole on the day when God pictured his Sabbath rest of making his
people complete. See, the Lord, in His sovereign
providence, uses the wickedness, the wickedness of legalism, to
preach the gospel to His people. He uses the enmity of these people
against Him, and the hatred of their hearts, to preach the gospel
to this fellow. He's made whole. Verse 13 of
John chapter five, just to go back to some of these glorious
pictures. In verse 13 it says, Jesus finds
him. That's what happens, isn't it?
When you are hiding in the darkness, in the trees of the garden and
afraid, and your fig leaf's falling apart and decaying and needing
constant attention, Jesus finds him. This begins the gospel revelation,
isn't it? In this hatred. And he says unto
me, he said unto him, thou art made whole. Wholeness is a creative
activity of God. And this man makes a glorious
confession. He said, he made, he made me
whole. He didn't make an offer to make
me whole if I help him. He didn't provide a way for me
to make myself whole with his assistance. Salvation is a creative
act. Resting in the Lord Jesus Christ
is the work of God in the hearts of his people. Jesus Christ,
that's what it is. The Sabbath's about Him. He was
the Sabbath standing before them and they couldn't see Him. How
do you sanctify the Sabbath day? You rest in Him. You set Him apart as perfect
in what He does and what He says. Do you rest? Are you resting now in the fact
that He makes His people whole? Do you rest in the fact that
when He says, your whole. He creates reality. Turn with
me to Colossians chapter 2. We're nearly done. Colossians
chapter 2 is a remarkable verse. It's a great book of the Bible. We began our services in this
church going through Colossians and it was such a blessing. It
speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ. says Paul in verse 9, for in
him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Verse 10, and you