You know in a classroom, every
student has to use a book that's published by the same publisher,
so that everybody's looking at the same words, using the same
book. And it's the same when you come
into a worship service. If you're using a Bible by a
different publisher, you got, everybody would have different
words, and it wouldn't be the same. So there's, if you don't
have a King James Bible, there are some King James Bibles and
I encourage you to use one of those, so we're all using the
same publisher, same translation, following along with the same
words. All right? All right, Exodus 31, verse 12.
Exodus 31, 12, and the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak thou also unto the children
of Israel, saying, Verily, my Sabbaths shall ye keep. For it is a sign between me and
you throughout your generations. You notice it says it is a sign. He says Sabbaths, plural, but
then he says it is a sign. All the Sabbaths was a sign of
one thing, just one thing. He says, it's throughout your
generations that you may know that I am the Lord that doth
sanctify you. You should keep the Sabbath,
therefore, for it is holy unto you. 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 is the Sabbath of
rest, holy to the Lord. Whosoever doeth any work in the
Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. 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, for
in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh
day he rested, and was refreshed. Now, we come into this world
as sinners, and because we come into this world as sinners, we
come into this world under a heavy load, under a burden. We usually don't even realize
what it is until we're confronted with the gospel and declared
from scripture what this burden and this weight is. We come into
this world under the curse of the law. We're guilty, and so
we know there's a God. We know we're gonna have to meet
God one day. We're gonna die, and we have
this fear of death, and that's a burden, because we have some
understanding by nature, at least to know we have a guilty conscience,
and we're worried, and that's a burden. We have a sin nature
that's a burden. Our nature is to only do what's
sinful. That's all the sin nature is.
It is totally bound to do what is sinful. We're under this weight
of sin. Our conscience is constantly
burdened by nature with condemnation. We're weighted by the traditions
and commandments of men. Think how For a person that doesn't,
if you're sitting here, just be honest for a minute, if you
really don't want to be here today, just think how free you
would feel if there was no church in the world. Wouldn't that just
take a load off of you? Because every time you drive
by a church sign, it reminds you of what you don't want to
be reminded of. And that's a burden. That's a
burden. Burdened by the troubles of this
world. All these things that weight
us down, that burden us. Well, here's the good news. Before
this world was ever made, God sanctified His Son. He chose
His Son, He set His Son apart, and He provided His Son to His
people to be our rest. He gave His Son to be our rest. Rest from all these burdens,
rest from all these weights that we have and all this guilt we
have. Rest in Christ. That's why He
gave His Son. And I want to show you that today.
We see it, we see Christ typified in the Sabbath. The Sabbath just
means rest. And we see Christ typified in
this, number one, in what the Sabbath was a reminder of. Number two, we see it in how
the Sabbath was holy to the Israelites and how it was holy to God. And
then number three, in the death of those who worked rather than
rest, we see the result for those who work rather than rest in
Christ. So all of this shows us a type
of Christ. First, the Sabbaths were for a sign, and that's what
God gave the Sabbaths for, for a sign, from God to the children
of Israel. Look there in verse 12. The Lord
spake to 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 generations,
as long as you last as a nation, this is a sign between me and
you, that you may know that I'm the Lord that does sanctify you.
Now notice, first, this was God's word to the children of Israel
only, just to them. He said, speak thou unto the
children of Israel. This word was not for any other
nation. This word was not for the heathens
out in the Gentile world. God gave this word to his chosen
nation. That's who he gave it to. Well,
brethren, the nation Israel is a type. God put together the
nation of Israel to show us a picture. That's what it's for. It's a
type of God's true Israel. God's true Israel is a spiritual
nation. It's made up of God's chosen
elect people, chosen from among Jews and from among Gentiles. There's some from among us Gentiles
that are elect too. It's not just Jew. But that one
nation made up That political nation shows a picture of God's
one spiritual nation. His spiritual Israel made up
of Jew and Gentile, and we were all chosen. Each member of this
nation was chosen by grace. That means not according to anything
in you. And that's the true children of Abraham. Abraham had a bunch
of other children, but the only ones God counted as true children
were the ones God produced himself. in a spiritual way. And you'll
be turning with me to Romans 9, and let me give you a couple
of scriptures. Psalm 2230 says, a seed shall
serve God. A seed. and it shall be accounted to
the Lord for a generation." In other words, a people will serve
God and God will count them to be His chosen generation, His
chosen race, His chosen people, His nation. Well, Peter was using
that and he said, you're a chosen generation. chosen race, a chosen
people. You're a chosen generation, a
royal priesthood, a holy nation. That's what he's calling his
people, his elect. You're a holy nation, separated
from all other nations in the world, just like political Israel
was separated. You called forth to praise God
and give him all the glory because he called you out of darkness
into light. He did all the work. Now some
in political Israel were God's elect. Some in that nation of
Israel were chosen of God and elect and precious, but not all
of them were. There's nothing special about
political Israel, brethren. That shocks people when they
hear that. Oh, you can't say that. Listen, the nation was
made to picture God's people, and God destroyed the nation
in 70 AD. Men built it back in the 50s. But God said, I'll throw it down. The nation God built was to show
his picture. And once he showed it, he was
done with it. Because it pictured Christ and
his people. And now Christ has come and he's
assembling his true Israel now. We're not to go back to that
nation and treat it special any more than we're to go back to
the law and treat it special. That's what he's teaching us
here. Look here in Romans 9.6. Not as though the word of God
had taken an effect. Now listen to this next word.
They are not all Israel which are of Israel. Everybody in that
political nation Israel is not all the Israel of God. Look,
neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all
children. but in Isaac shall thy seed be
called. That is, here's what that means,
they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the
children of God, but the children of the promise accounted for
the seed, the children God created, the ones he chose, the ones he
produced, the ones he brought forth and gave life, those are
the true children of God. For this is the word of promise.
See, everything God does is by promise. He said, at this time
I'll come and Sarah shall have a son. God produced Isaac. God promised Isaac and he produced
Isaac. Ishmael was the product of Abraham's
works. God said, cast him out. He's
not one of mine. You see that? Not all Abraham's
children were elect children. Ishmael was not. Isaac was. Watch this. Not only this, but
when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by her father Isaac,
the children being not yet born, neither having done any good
or evil, that the purpose of God, according to election, might
stand not of works, but of him that calleth. In other words,
salvation's not by our works. These two were in the womb and
had done nothing. Good or evil, God's showing that his choice
of who he will save is not based on anything in you and me. It's
based on God calling who he will. Read on. He says, it was said
to her, the elder shall serve the younger, as it's written.
This is what God told the mother. Jacob have I loved, but Esau
have I hated. What shall we say then? That's
not fair for God to choose some and not others. God forbid you
accuse God of not being righteous. God forbid any sinner, little
piddly, puny, vile, wretched maggot of a man accuse holy God
of doing something that's not righteous. Huh? Ain't that right?
Look here. For he said to Moses, this is
the gospel right here. God said, I will have mercy on
whom I will have mercy. And I will have compassion on
whom I will have compassion. So here's the conclusion. Do
you think salvation was by your will? Did you think salvation
was by your works? Will you bow to God's word? Listen,
so then it's not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth,
that is, the him that works, but of God that shows mercy. Somebody will get mad and say,
well, I don't like that. Take it up with holy God, because
that's his word. And that's how he say, and you're
going to take it up with God one day, and you're going to
lose. So bow to him now. See, we need mercy. Reason a
man gets angry at this and won't hear it is proof he needs God's
mercy. will fight God. Christ said they're
going to stand before God on the day of judgment and say,
no God, we did wonderful works. Look at what we did. Fight God
right up until the day he says, depart from me, I never knew
you. So bow now. See, not everybody's
God's elect. Paul said over in Galatians,
He said at that appointed time when God comes and He regenerates
His child and He gives him spiritual life and He gives him faith and
He gives him repentance and He brings him to rest all in Christ.
He said that's what shows a man is a true elect, chosen child
of God, a true son of Abraham. Listen to this, you're all, he's
talking to believers, he said, you're all children of God by
faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been
baptized unto Christ have put on Christ, there's neither Jew
nor Greek. It's not our natural things that
makes us anything. Wherever you're from, whatever
race you are, that don't matter. You know what would solve all
the problems in America and in the world today? If God gave
everybody the heart he gives his people, there wouldn't be
no division over black and white or red, green, purple, or whatever.
Purple might be taking it too far, but there wouldn't be any
of that. There wouldn't be any of that. Because it don't matter. There's neither Jew nor Greek.
There's neither bond nor free. There's neither male nor female.
You're all one in Christ Jesus. This is what he says to believers.
And if you be Christ, then are you Abraham's seed and heirs
according to promise. You're somebody God promised
he would produce. You're an heir of God. You're
a child of God. A true child of Abraham. He only
counts the elect. Paul, remember we just read Romans
9, he said, in Isaac shall thy seed be called. Paul, after he
wrote that to the Galatians, he said, now we, brethren, as
Isaac was, are children of promise. You're a child of promise. If
you believe Christ and trust him and trust God's mercy to
save you, you're a child of promise, just like Isaac was, an elect
child of God. Now, so my point in this Go back
to our text, Exodus 31. My point is God only provided
this rest to the nation of Israel. Well brethren, God only provided
Christ our rest to his elect people. That's the only ones.
They're the only ones that want to rest from their works because
he makes us willing, but they're the only ones he provided Christ
our Sabbath for. Now look, the purpose of the
Sabbaths, here's what people miss. The purpose was to be a
sign to keep them remembering that God alone sanctified them. In other words, it was to remind
them God alone did everything for them. Look, verse 13, verily
my Sabbaths you shall keep for it is a sign between me and you
throughout your generations that you may know that I'm the Lord
that does sanctify you. God gave them a Sabbath. He gave
them some days. It means rest. He gave them rest. So they didn't have to do anything.
And on that day, God provided everything for them. They just
rested. He gave them rest to be a sign.
That means a distinguishing mark. That means a token, a pledge,
a beacon, a reminder. If you have some monument, that's
to remind you of something. That's to put you in mind of
something. That rest was to keep them constantly remembering something. And what was it? It wasn't to
make them focus on the day. It wasn't to make them focus
on saying, let me make sure I'm resting here. Look how much I'm
resting, y'all. It wasn't to focus on them or
to focus on the day. It wasn't to make them focus
on, are you resting? It wasn't that. It was to make
them to think about God. and to remember he did everything. He sanctified them. Now their
rest typified Christ our rest. Now let me show you what they
would remember and what we remember. God chose to make Israel a nation. He chose them. He set them apart. He sanctified them apart from
all other nations for himself simply because he would. That's all. They didn't even
know what a Hebrew was. till God said, you're Hebrew.
They didn't know what an Israel was till God said, you're Israel.
They didn't. He did it. And so when they rested
on that day, they remembered God created us. God chose us. And brethren, when you're brought
to faith in Christ and you really rest in Christ from all your
labor, from all your works, trying to make yourself accepted and
righteous and holy or more so, or whatever thing you think Christ
is insufficient for. When you rest in Christ, you
rest in him remembering, God chose me. God set me apart. God sent his son. God did all
this. I have this rest because God
gave it to me. He sanctified Israel by sending
his word to them through Moses when they were in bondage in
Egypt. And so in their rest on that day, they remembered, I'm
so thankful God sent his word to us and told us this good news
about bringing us out. And when we rest in Christ, we
come here to hear about Christ, our rest, we rest in Christ as
we're hearing, and we're reminded constantly of how he graciously
sent the gospel to us and made us hear of him and taught us
he's our rest. It was a sign, it was a reminder.
God sanctified Israel by delivering them out of Egyptian bondage.
Actually, God put them in bondage. God told Abraham, your children
are going into bondage. And then he told Abraham the
exact day, I'm gonna go deliver them. And he did it. He put them
in bondage and then he went to the day and brought them out
of bondage. And as they rested, they remembered that we were
under God's care the whole time. And God sent his word and he
delivered us through the blood of a Passover lamb. And they
were to teach their children, that lamb's a picture of Christ.
That deliverance is a picture of Christ. That's what the true
believers in that day, they saw Christ in this rest. Now for
us today, we don't have to observe a day. God has given us the picture
in body. He's given us Christ our rest,
and as we rest in Him, we remember our fallen Adam wasn't by mistake. God did that on purpose. He was
in control of everything, and He did it declaring beforehand,
I'm going to deliver you out, and I'm going to do it to show
you Christ, your Passover, who through His blood brought you
out of bondage and saved you. And so as we rest in Christ,
if we hear and believe and trust and are reminded constantly,
Christ is our Redeemer. You know what a Redeemer means?
Somebody brought you out of bondage. He delivered us. And we're remembering
Christ as we rest in Him. He delivered us from the bondage
of our sin nature. We remember him. He made a covenant
of works with Israel, saying, now, if you keep my law, then
I'll fulfill all these promises. And as they rested on that day,
they were reminded, we have to keep this rest. Because God's
made a covenant with us. As long as we keep his law, he's
going to fulfill the promises. Well, the truth was they didn't
keep any promises. They broke every promise. We're
going to see in the very next word that when Moses came down
out of the mountain, they already had made a golden calf and started
worshiping it, and they had totally broke the covenant before God
ever got the final words to them. Because you can't keep the law,
and I can't either, brethren. That's the picture of what we
are. But Christ has come and he's fulfilled the law for his
people. He's made us righteous and holy in him and he is our
rest. When it says he's the end of
the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth, it means
Christ is the end purpose for which God gave the law. He gave
it to reveal you and me our sin and to drive us to Christ. And
when we get to Christ, when we believe on Christ, we're free
from the law. We're done with the law now.
Why? Christ fulfilled it perfectly. He gave the law every bit of
obedience it demanded and also purged all of our sins for breaking
the law. So that you that believe on Christ,
God says of you, I don't remember any sin of yours ever, past,
present, or future. I have no record of any sin.
There'll never be any record of any sin. And you're righteous
and accepted. You fulfilled my law perfectly.
What are you talking about sin? Believers can't break the law
of God. Do you believe a believer is
righteous in Christ? That's what it means. He can't
break the law of God. Now, you and I and ourselves,
all we ever do is break the law, but I'm saying where it matters.
On God's judgment seat, in His courtroom, in His record books,
God's people cannot break the law. Why? Christ already fulfilled
it. He's the fulfillment of it. God
looks at his son, and then he sees me, and he says, well done,
my good and faithful servant. That's rest, brethren. That's
rest. You can't tell people that. They'll
see it. You don't rest, do you? If you
think that, you don't have any rest. You're just burdened and
bondaged and just full of guilt all the time. When has any of
your works ever satisfied you, much less God? When have you
ever come to a point where you said, I've done enough now, I
quit working to try to get acceptance with God? You never have. A man
can't do that. That's what the bondage of the
fear of death's about. You just constantly think you
gotta do more. Let me tell you something that
is rest. Believer, you don't have to do anything else. You
don't. You don't have to do anything
else. And if you don't do one more thing, you're going to be
as righteous and holy as Christ is righteous and holy, and that's
what matters. But you know what that makes
God's child want to do? It makes him walk in newness of spirit. You know what that is? That's
having a heart constrained by the love of Christ to see what
Christ did for us and believe what Christ did for us so that
I want to honor him. I want to. Now, maybe I have
a heart like that, and I say, well, I want to try to observe
a Sabbath day. Okay, fine, go ahead. So you start observing your Sabbath
day, and next thing you know, you see your brother that's not,
he doesn't feel like he has to observe it. And you start saying,
well, you know what? You ought to observe this day.
If you really loved God like I did, you'd observe this day.
You just stopped resting in Christ. You just entered unbelief. You
just became a legalist. You just started trying to make
your brother do something you think he ought to do. Won't you
make yourself do what you ought to do? Stop worrying about your
brother and rest in Christ and trust him. He created this world. You don't think he can handle
his people? He redeemed His people with His
blood and perfected His law forever. Do we not think He can manage
His church? Teach His people? I believe He
can. I believe He can. We're not under
legal restraints or the scrutiny of legalists. We serve God from
a willing heart, trusting one another to God to build us up
by the word of His grace. It's called walking in spirit,
not in the oldness of the letter. It's because we're under a covenant
of grace, that God didn't leave anything in our hands. It's ordered
and sure in all things, and it's all our salvation. Christ did,
he did all the terms of God, and he did all the terms of his
people, so that in him, the covenant's fulfilled. That's what, you have
Old Testament, New Testament. That means Old Covenant, New
Covenant. The old covenant said, if you
do this, then you can live. That means you've got to do the
whole law by yourself, all 600 plus commandments. Never once
think about not doing them or you're guilty of all of them.
And not only that, but because we come into the world sinners,
you've got to die under the justice of God to fulfill that law. We
can't do that, brethren. The scripture says that God gave
the law to shut our mouths and show us we're guilty. He didn't
give it for us to try. Nobody in Israel ever kept a
Sabbath day. Can you honestly tell me, first
of all, are you keeping it Saturday? Because that's the Sabbath. It
never switched to Sunday. And if you even do that, then
tell me this, have you never on Saturday one time had a thought
about wishing you could do something besides just rest? If you ever
had one thought about it, you broke it. Now, when any of your
brothers did that, you that are strict Sabbatarian and keep the
Sabbath, when your brother broke it, did you kill him? Because
if we're going to come in a letter of the law, that's required to
keep the Sabbath. One time a man picked up sticks
and they stoned him to death. And you have to if you're going
to keep that law. See, the law requires not just active obedience,
it requires punishment in case of disobedience for it to be
upheld. So if you're going to keep that Sabbath day, you not
only have to fulfill it, you have to kill everybody that don't.
See, Christ not only fulfilled the positive side of the law
by fulfilling it actively for his people, He went to the cross
and died for his people because we hadn't fulfilled it. That's
required to uphold the righteousness of the law. But Christ did that,
and when we rest in Christ, that's when we realize it's all finished. It's all done. Christ has perfected
us. We have righteousness in him. Turn to Hebrews chapter one.
I'm gonna show you a few things real quick. I'm not gonna get
through my message, but I'll just I'll stop and we'll come
back and if you're interested you come back and we'll look
at the rest of this. In Hebrews 1, when you rest in
Christ, God said the reason I've given you this Sabbath rest I
want you to remember that in six days the Lord made heaven
and earth and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed. He said, I'm wanting you to have
this Sabbath and as you're resting, I want you to remember this.
When I finish my works, I rest. That's what God was wanting.
I want you to remember this. When I finish my works, I rest. Look
at the creation. I did it in six days. You know
why I rested? There wasn't a thing else to
do. You finished. Now remember that, when I finish
my works, I rest, God said. So when you finish your works
in six days, I want you to remember me and what I do. Why? Why did he want him to remember
that? It pointed to Christ. Look at Hebrews chapter one,
verse three. It says of Christ Jesus the high priest, the great
high priest, the brightness of his glory, the express image
of his person upholding all things by the word of his power, when
he had by himself purged our sin, he rested at God's right
hand. He sat down. Why? The works were done. Go to Hebrews
10. There never was a high priest
that could enter that holiest of holies in that Old Testament,
under that Old Covenant. He could never sit down. He could
never rest. Why? Because there never was
a blood of a lamb that put away sin. Not one. What Christ did,
Hebrews 10, 11, every priest stands daily. He stands daily,
that's an important word. He standeth daily, ministering,
offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can never take
away sin. But this man, after he offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of
God. from henceforth expecting till
his enemies be made his footstool. He's not just sitting. He's got
a big old lazy boy. He's reclining. He's resting. He got a footstool. He laid back.
Why? For by one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. Now go to Hebrews 4. I just want
to try to see if I can show you this. Now Hebrews 3. Now legalists
who are trying to make people, and that's the difference between
a legalist and somebody who wants to serve God. A person that wants
to serve God from the love of his heart, who wants to observe
a day, he's in error, he shouldn't do it. Scripture's clear on that,
I'm gonna show you that if I have time. He shouldn't do it, but
he's not a legalist. He just wants to do it out of
love of Christ, for love of Christ. That don't make him a legalist.
That don't make him wrong. He's in error, but he's not an
unbeliever. But that man who thinks he should
keep a Sabbath day, and he says everybody else has got to do
it. This is necessary. We have to keep this day. You
have to keep this law. If you don't keep this law, you're
not a believer. That man's a legalist. That man's
hope is keeping that day. It's not Christ. Christ is only
the end of the law to everyone that believeth. The man is still
working in the law. He don't believe. and making
others, trying to make others do what he thinks scripture say
they ought to do. He hadn't believed yet. Listen to Hebrews 6, 3,
6. Now here's what he starts out
talking about. Christ as a son over, is a son
over his own house, whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence
and rejoicing of the hope from unto the end. If we continue
believing to the end. And he's gonna give an example.
He says, the Holy Ghost said today, if you'll hear his voice,
harden not your hearts, as they did back there in the provocation
in the day of temptation in the wilderness. And so he used Canaan
as a type of Christ our rest. He's reminding them, you can't
enter rest except you believe on Christ. You can't enter rest
unless you believe in him and rest from all your works. Look
at, look, verse 18. and to whom swear he that they
should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not.
The emphasis here is on either believing on Christ or not believing
on Christ. If a man's still working for
anything he believes is a necessity he'd do for God to save him,
he does not believe Christ. He's an unbeliever. If you think
it's a necessity that you have to do something in addition to
what Christ did, you are an unbeliever. Christ did it all. Christ did
it all. Better to find that out now,
it wouldn't hurt your feelings for nothing in the world, but it's
better to find it out now than to meet God and find it out.
Now look, so we see they couldn't enter into Canaan because of
unbelief. He keeps talking about belief
and unbelief. Chapter 4, verse 1, let us therefore fear lest
a promise being left us of entering into his rest, into Christ's
rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. How am I
going to come short of it? By not believing on him, by not
ceasing from my works and resting in him. For unto us was the gospel
preached as well as to them, but the word preached didn't
profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard
it. For we which have believed do enter into rest. Now listen
to me. Do you know the word in Galatians
that says the law is not of faith? You can't have in your heart
that you have to do something to keep the law or God's gonna
reject you. That's not faith. That's works. The law's not of faith. You can't
go to the law for anything as a necessity and believe God. You can't do it. Either Christ
is all and none of your works have any bearing on that period
or you're trusting your works. It's one of the two. That's all
there is to it. The law is not of faith. And
that's what he's teaching them here. He said the whole Hebrew
letter is about don't go back to the law. Don't go back to
the law. Don't go to Canaan and think
that's God's rest. That could be an absurd illustration,
and he's telling them the same thing about the Sabbath day,
or about any of the ordinances. He's telling them, believe on
Christ. Believe on Christ. Look at verse nine. There remaineth
therefore a rest to the people of God. It's Christ. For he that is entered into his
rest, he also is ceased from his own works as God did from
his. Remember he said, I'm giving
you this rest so you can remember when I finish my works, I rest. I rest. And right here, when
Christ finished the works, he entered into his rest, he stopped
working, just as God did in creation. And for the believer that enters
into Christ, our rest, we cease from our works for righteousness,
or for holiness, or for rewards, or to gain a better acceptance,
or whatever it is, the many thousands of reasons men give for trying
to put people under law, all of that's gone. We're just resting
in Christ. We believe Him. He's all our
acceptance with God. Verse 11, now here he's using
humor. Let us labor, therefore, to enter into that rest. He's
saying you want to work, you're so intent on going back to the
law and working, here's your work you need to work on. Try
to rest in Christ. lest any man fall after the same
example of unbelief. He's got to be talking about
Christ, brethren, as the rest, because you only enter into Christ
the rest by faith. And he's warning them, if you
go back to your work, you're gonna fall after the same example
of unbelief that those folks fell in. Read on. Seeing then,
look, we have a great high priest. He's talking about Christ our
rest. He's passed into the heavens. Jesus is the son of God. What's
he doing there? He's resting. And seeing that,
let us hold fast our profession. Let us rest in him. Let us continue
believing in him. And he goes on talking about
this and about Christ. He shows you how that, you know,
men bring you under a fear and they wanna legally terrify you
and all that. And basically he goes through
and says, we're not called to be fearful. Christ is our high
priest and we come to him to find grace to help in time of
need. He takes our burden off of us
and gives us rest. And he goes on talking about
that. And to show you, I started showing you, he's talking about
faith in Christ. He's not talking about a rest
being a day. He's turning them from that. And if somebody's
telling you he's talking about a day, they're a false prophet
who's turning you from Christ back to your works. I've run
from them like I was on fire. Look here, Hebrews 6.1. He says,
he winds it up, therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine
of Christ, let us go on into perfection, not laying again
the foundation of repentance from dead works and a faith toward
God. He said, the whole time I've
been talking to you, I've been telling you, turn from your dead lawmongering
and believe on Christ. Now we finished talking about
that, he said, now we're going to move on to some other things.
You see what I'm saying? I'm trying to show you that everything
he was talking about was not a day. He was saying He said
Joshua didn't give them that rest. He said Canaan wasn't that
rest. He said that Sabbath day wasn't
that rest. Christ is our rest. He's entered
in and He's resting. He finished the works. Now you
enter into Him and you rest by faith and don't fall in unbelief
like they did. That's so clear if you got eyes
to see it. Anything's clear if you can see
it, ain't it? Unbelief and hardened hearts always use the scripture
for the opposite purpose for which it was given. Now you take
that statement and really think on it, because it's so. Unbelief
and hardened hearts use the scripture for the opposite purpose for
which it was given. Always. And it's ironic that
men make a work out of resting when the Sabbaths were given
to typify rest in Christ through faith. And the law is not of
faith. Isn't that ironic? You see, men
just don't have spiritual discernment to understand and really believe
that Christ is the end of the law. He is. He's everything the
law said. I don't have time to go through
all this, but let me just read Colossians 2 to you. I've gone
way longer than I intended. I think my next message is gonna
be a lot shorter, so. Look here in Colossians 2. Paul
tells us here, same thing again. Verse 8, beware, he's telling
them, continue in Christ, walk in him, built up in him, established
in him in faith. Verse 8, and beware lest any
man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition
of men, after the rudiments of the world, that means after the
law, and telling you you gotta observe days and not after Christ. That's 99% of religion, what
he just described. For in Christ dwelleth all the
fullness of the Godhead bodily and you're complete in him. He's
the head of all principality and power, in whom also you're
circumcised with a circumcision made without hands. He's put
off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of
Christ, by him dying on the cross, he put off our sins. We're buried
with him in baptism, we're risen with him through the faith of
the operation of God who raised him from the dead, and you being
dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh as he quickened
together with him, he's forgiven you all trespasses. He has taken
the law, away from you. He blotted out the handwriting
of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us,
and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross." He fulfilled
the law for you, that's what he's saying. And he spoiled principalities
and powers. He made a show of them, openly
triumphing over them in it. So then, let no man, therefore,
judge you in meat or drink or respect of a holy day, or of
the new moon, or of the Sabbath days. Those were shadows of things
to come. Those were shadows of things
to come, but the body's Christ. I'm looking down this aisle right
here. I wish I could figure out how
to illustrate it, but there's a shadow of every pew right down
the center of this aisle right here. You couldn't convince me
to go sit down and try to sit down and rest on that shadow
for nothing because it won't hold me up. But the pew that
made the shadow, I can rest in it. And he's saying that Sabbath
day and those meats and those drinks and that whole ordinances
of the law were a shadow of Christ. Stop trying to find rest in a
shadow and rest in Christ. And you can go on and say, if
your life's really in Christ at God's right hand, why are
you acting like your life's in this world by touch not, taste
not, handle not, and all that stuff? I'm telling you, you want
rest? You want that burden lifted off of you so you can enjoy worshiping
God? Rest in Christ. Amen. Let's stand together. Father, thank you for this word.
Thank you for your grace, your mercy. Lord, we ask you to keep
us, teach us truly in our heart, Christ is all. Lord, just make
us see the folly of denying that. Make us see the folly of thinking
we, with our polluted hands, can add something to what he's
done. Make us rest in him. Make us have the faith to really
know we can just sit down in Christ and rest. Lord, we thank
you for this day. We thank you for Yanna, for giving
her faith. And Lord, help us to honor you
today in this ordinance of baptism. Be with us now as we fellowship
for a moment. Come back and help us to see
Christ in the second hour. Thank you, Lord. Forgive us our
sins. For Christ's sake, amen.