We turn then to the word of God
and our text this morning is found in the epistle of Paul
to the Hebrews in chapter 4 at verse 9. Hebrews chapter 4 and
verse 9. There remaineth therefore a rest
to the people of God. But this morning I want us to
follow the reading that is given in the margin. As you are aware,
in the authorised version there are these marginal readings as
I recognise the difficulty sometimes of giving an exact translation
of what is there in the original, the original Greek as it would
be here in Hebrews. And so we have an alternative
reading in the margin and I want to follow that reading this morning
The margin reads like this, there remaineth therefore a keeping
of a Sabbath to the people of God. The rest is a keeping of
a Sabbath. In fact, the context here is
one in which Paul has a great deal to say with regards to rest
from chapter 3 at verse seven following right through into
this fourth chapter to verse 11. Not an easy passage in many
respects for us to read and to understand but throughout these
verses he does speak much of rest and the various manifestations
of it. Now the word rest as we have
it is more literally the word Sabbath. In fact our English
word Sabbath comes from the Greek and the Greek word comes from
the Hebrew word and so we can follow the word through right
from the Old Testament into the New Testament and then even into
our English language rest is Sabbath and we're reminded here
at verse 4 of how God himself ordained the Sabbath day at the
beginning of creation. In verse 4 we read these words,
He spoke in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise
and God did rest the seventh day from all his works. Now, we have that recorded, of
course, right at the beginning, as I say, after the accounts
of creation in chapter 1 of Genesis, as that God made all things out
of nothing in six days. We know that such is the power
and the glory that belongs to God that he could, as he willed,
have made all things in one moment of time, that in his wisdom He
made all in that period of six days and they are of course very
much literal days because we have that repetition throughout
Genesis chapter 1 concerning the evening and the morning. The evening and the morning were
the first day and then the second day and the third day and so
on throughout those six days of creation. And then at the
beginning of the second chapter there, we read, Thus the heavens
and 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. He rested. Now the Hebrew word
for rest is sabbath, from which we get Sabbath. He rested. on
the seventh day from all his work which he had made and God
blessed the seventh day and sanctified it. He set that seventh day apart
as a separate day because that in it he had rested from all
his work which God created and made. It was the day of rest,
it was the Sabbath day and so When God brings Israel to Mount
Sinai and enters into covenant with them, there in Exodus chapter
20 we have the giving of the law. Amongst the commandments
that the children of Israel are to keep is the observance of
that day, the fourth commandment. Remember, he says, the Sabbath
day to keep it whole. It was to be treated as a day
separated, separated to God, and in Israel separated to the
worship of God. Now to remember it, it wasn't
something that they were unfamiliar with previously. It's there at
the beginning, it's a creation ordinance as we say, but they
must remember it and they must observe it. What of us now in
this day of grace under the New Testament? Well here, in the
text that we are considering this morning, if we follow the
marginal reading, there remaineth therefore a keeping of a Sabbath
to the people of God. There is still a day to be kept,
there remains the keeping of a Sabbath. And the first day
of the week is that day appointed and determined for the day of
rest or the Sabbath under the Gospel, that is, what Dr. John Owen says in his great work
on expounding the epistle to the Hebrews. Six volumes of his
writings are taken up with an exposition of this book of Hebrews
and that is contention with regards to what we're reading here in
our text this morning. The first day of the week has
been appointed and determined by God to be observed as the
day of rest, the Sabbath day, to the Church under the New Testament. And it's that that I want us
to consider this morning. Why this day? Now it is anticipated
in a sense in the Old Testament Scriptures, because there we
discover that The remembrance of redemption was an important
part of their keeping of the Sabbath day. They kept the seventh
day, that that God had sanctified at the beginning, so they remembered
God's great work of creation. But they didn't only remember
creation, when the Israelites kept the day, they were also
to remember how God had redeemed them. We see that when the law
is repeated in Deuteronomy chapter 5. Remember how after the wilderness
wanderings, 40 years, it was a generation, that was unbelieving,
they are spoken of here at the end of Hebrew chapter 3, they
couldn't enter into the promised land because of unbelief. and
they were there in the wilderness wandering for 40 years and that
generation dies in the wilderness and there's another generation
that comes up and these are the ones who are to enter into the
promised land and there in Deuteronomy now after the 40 years are on
the borders of the promised land and Moses recounts the law and
that repetition of the Ten Commandments there in Deuteronomy chapter
5 So amongst them we have the fourth commandment, verse 12.
Keep the Sabbath day to sanctify it, as the Lord thy God hath
commanded thee. 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, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant,
nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy
stranger that is within thy gates, that thy manservant and thy maidservant
may rest as well as thou. And remember, this is a significant
verse here, that to remember the seventh day, the Sabbath
day, the creation ordinance, but he says this in verse 15,
and 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. Therefore the Lord thy God commanded
thee to keep the Sabbath day." Now to remember their deliverance,
how God redeemed them from Egypt, brought them out. Now to remember
all that was entailed, the sacrifice of the Paschal Lamb, the great
Feast of Passover, In Exodus 15 and verse 13 we read these
words, Thou in Thy mercy hast led forth the people which Thou
hast redeemed. They were a redeemed people when
they came out of Egypt and they had to remember redemption. And
so you see that there is an anticipating as it were of the Christian Sabbath
day because on the first day of the week what do we remember
above all things we remember that great work of redemption
which the Lord Jesus Christ himself accomplished and they were to
remember redemption as they knew it there in that wonderful time
when God brought them out from Egypt the night of the Passover
and Paul to the Corinthians can say even Christ our Passover
is sacrificed for us. All these things happened unto
them for examples to types and they are written for our admonition
upon whom the ends of the world are come says Paul there in the
10th chapter of 1st Corinthians and if you read the opening verses
of that chapter you'll see that he is speaking of God's dealings
with the children of Israel as he brings them out of Egypt.
These are the things that are an ensemble, a type, to the Christian
Church. And so, coming again to the words
of the text this morning here from the margin in Hebrews 4.9,
there remaineth therefore a keeping of a Sabbath to the people of
God. The Christian Sabbath then is
the subject matter that we come to consider for a while. Now,
first of all, we have to recognise here the Lordship of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The Lordship of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Does not the Christian believer
confess that Jesus Christ is not only Saviour, He is that,
but He is a Saviour God. He is God. All that great mystery
of Godliness, God, was manifest in the flesh. And those lovely
words of John Newton in the hymn, So guilty, so helpless am I,
I darest not confide in his blood, Nor on his protection rely, Unless
I was sure he is God. Are we those sinners who feel
that the only one who could ever save us from our sins, save us
from our sinful selves, save us from all the assaults of Satan,
the only one who could ever save us must be God. And so we confess
Jesus Christ to be our God and our Saviour. He is our Lord.
And what did we read in that New Testament lesson earlier
in Matthew chapter 12? Christ says the Son of Man is
Lord even of the Sabbath day. And as the Lord of the Sabbath
day, does he not have every right to change the day from the seventh
day which was the case of course at the beginning in creation,
that was the day that God and Christ is God, Christ is there
in the creation. He is the Word of God as we read
of in the opening chapter of John, in the beginning was the
Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. All things
were made by Him. He was the one who was there
then, sanctifying that seventh death. And as God, he has authority
to change the day. And isn't that what we see here,
in the text this morning? There remaineth therefore a keeping
of the Sabbath to the people of God. For, and the word for
here is a strong word, we might render it because, Here is the
reason you see why there is a Sabbath remaining to the people of God,
because they, and the pronoun is referring to an individual,
it's the Lord Jesus Christ, because he that is entered into his rest,
he also hath ceased from his own works as God did from his. It's referring to the Lord Jesus
Christ who is entering into his rest, after he has finished his
work, that great work that the Father had given him to do in
the eternal covenant. The reference here then is to
that work of redemption. It's a finished work. And here
we see that this is the reason for the change of the day. Because we remember another work,
and a greater work than that that God accomplished when he
created all things, and that greater work is what Christ himself
performed here upon the earth, when he did all that was necessary
for the saving of his people. We know that the Lord Jesus Christ
did not come to abrogate, to destroy, the Law of God, he says
quite plainly in the course of his ministry that that was not
the reason, that wasn't the purpose of his coming when he preaches
there in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 5 verse 17,
think not that I am come to destroy the Law or the Prophets, I am
not come to destroy, he says, but to fulfil. for verily I stand
to you till heaven and earth pass one jot or one tittle shall
in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled he is not
that one who has come then to destroy the Lord of God and he speaks of it you see in
very high and lofty terms one jot remember what we said previously
the jot or the joth is such a small letter the smallest letter in
the Hebrew alphabet And not even that little letter can pass away.
The title, that's just a part of a letter. The part that might
distinguish one letter from another. And as I said previously, we
might liken the title here to a dot on an I in our Latin alphabet,
or to the cross on a tur is just part of a letter. But what a
high view the Lord has then of that Lord of God. He doesn't
come to destroy it. Verily, truly, I say unto you,
till heaven and earth pass one jot or one tittle, shall in no
wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. What the Lord Jesus does, you
see, is not to abrogate it, but He guards it from all those perversions
that the Pharisees were putting upon it, all those glosses that
they were putting upon it. how they swamp the Lord of God
with the traditions of the Fathers. And that's what the Lord Jesus
Christ is preaching against. And he states quite clearly,
you see, that the Sabbath is made for man. Again we read it
in the Nights, well it's not in Matthew 12, but if we'd have
read the corresponding portion in Mark's Gospel in Mark chapter
2. And then at the end of verse 27 we have those words, the Sabbath
was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. The Lord Jesus
is making it plain in those Pharisees they might come and they might
accuse his disciples of being abusers of the day because they
were hungry and they're taking corn and they're robbing it and
they're eating it and they're saying, oh look, you're guilty
of work, it's as if you're reaping and you're grinding. What nonsense
they were speaking the Lord, you see, will have none of that.
It reminds them quite plainly that the Sabbath was made for
man and not man for the Sabbath. It's for man's best interest.
And his best interest is salvation, that great work that Christ himself
has come to accomplish. It's interesting that he says
there, quite plainly, it was made for man, for mankind. It's not only for the Hebrews.
As we've already said, it's a creation order. And so those who would say it's
simply a part of the law of God, and that that law of God is something
that the Christian believer is not under, as was the case in
the Old Testament, that they're misunderstanding, and they're
twisting the Word of God. Because the Sabbath is a creation
ordinance. It is intended for man that is
not just the Jew but also for the Gentiles. It's sanctified.
It's set apart. As we've said there at the very
beginning in those opening verses of the second chapter of Genesis,
there's no disputing that. God doesn't set it apart for
himself. God rests. He's completed his
work of creation. It doesn't mean that God no more
works. He does no more creation work.
But God, of course, is revealed to us in the first place as a
God who works. And God works still in his preservation
of all things. God still works in the realm
of providence. He governs all the events here
upon earth throughout his creation. And he has done his greatest
work, of course, in the Lord Jesus Christ, that wondrous redemption
that was accomplished when Christ offered himself as the great
sacrifice for sins. And God still works as that great
work of Christ is being applied, the sinners are being saved.
All God is a working God. And when he sanctifies that day
at the beginning of creation, He doesn't set it apart for himself.
He sets it apart for man, for the good of man, for the benefit
of man. That there might be that opportunity of rest as we see
it even in the giving of the law with regards to the children
of Israel. Their manservants and their maidservants
were also to observe the Sabbath rest. They were not to be always
working. And as we said, ultimately of
course, and we mustn't forget this, ultimately in the Old Testament
the day points to Christ and his work of redemption. And how that work is there in
the Old Testament in time. It's there when the children
of Israel are redeemed from the bondage which was Egypt. when
God sends his destroying angel into the land and the children
of Israel they shelter under the blood of sacrifice. How the
Paschal Lamb having been slain of course they were to take the
blood and they were to put the blood upon the door posts and
the lintels and they were to remain inside their houses and
when that destroying angel came he would see the blood and he
would pass over them. And all of this, I say, is typical. Typical of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And they remembered it. Even as they constantly throughout
their history kept that day of rest, the seventh day. Those
words of Deuteronomy 5 and verse 15, remember. William Godfrey
says the Sabbath was a day of rest, the day the Lord Jehovah
blessed a lively type of Christ. It's a type of the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's the Sabbath day. So what
is it called in the New Testament? It's the Lord's Day. It's the
Lord's Day. It's the Lordly Day. That's a
more literal rendering of what we're told there in Revelation
chapter 1. John was in the Spirit on the
Lordly Day. The Lord's Day. You see, under the Gospel, the
Sabbath is changed to the first day of the week. We see it there,
of course, at the end of the book, the end of the Bible, in Revelation
chapter 1, John in the Spirit on the Lord's Day. But previous
to that, in the Acts of the Apostles, do we not read of the disciples
coming together on the first day of the week? Acts 20 verse
7, upon the first day of the week the disciples came together,
it says, to break bread. They came together the first
day of the week for what purpose? To break bread. To observe that
holy ordinance of the Lord's Supper. To remember Him. and it was the first day of the
week that they came together and this seems to have been the
pattern then Paul writes in his first epistle to the Corinthians and he's dealing
with a practical matter the raising of funds collection for needy
saints it was a great Darth in Jerusalem and other believers
were seeking to minister to the needs of the believers there
at Jerusalem. And what does Paul say? In the
opening verses of 1 Corinthians 16, now concerning the collection
for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia,
even so do ye. Upon the first day of the week,
he says, let every one of you lie by him in store as God has
prospered in that there be no gatherings when I come." On the
first day of the week they were to take these offerings for the
needy saints. That was the day on which they
came together. We know how the Lord Jesus Christ
himself has honoured this first day. It was upon this day, of
course, that Christ rose again from the dead. There at the beginning
of the 20th chapter in John's Gospel, the first day of the
week, cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the
sepulcher, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulcher. He was not there, he was risen
again from the dead. And then that very day, In the
evening of that day, he comes where his disciples are. There
at verse 19, then the same day at evening, being the first day
of the week, when the doors were shut, where the disciples were
assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst
and said unto them, Peace be unto you. And remember that Thomas wasn't
present on that occasion, doubting Thomas. But what do we read later,
verse 26, after eight days again, that was the following first
day of the week. That was one week after his resurrection,
the next first day of the week. After eight days again his disciples
were with him and Thomas with them. Then came Jesus. the doors being shut and stood
in the midst and said, Peace be unto you. We see that from
the beginning then they were gathering together on the first
day of the week. That was the day upon which Christ
had risen from the dead. And then the Lord Jesus Christ
was pleased to honour that day by coming and appearing in the
midst and declaring to them that blessed priest, peace be unto
you. Was that not the very thing that
he had accomplished by his resurrection from the dead? And by that great
work of redemption that he had previously accomplished? I like the way it continues there
in the 20th verse of John chapter 20 was that first day of the
week when he came and stood in the midst and said unto them
please be unto you and when he had so said he showed unto them
his hands and his side here he shows them his wounds you see
by which he had purchased that place by which he had reconciled
them to God those who in their very nature were alienated from
God whose carnal mind was enmity against God and not subject to
the Lord of God, neither indeed could be. He shows them his hands
and his feet when he says these words, Peace be unto you. And
the disciples were glad, it says, when they saw the Lord. Or isn't
this what we should desire as we come together? Every Lord's
Day that Christ himself might come and stand in the midst and
show us himself, reveal himself to us. cause us to look upon
his wounded hands and feet and sight, that we might see the
great price of our redemption, not that we want to be visionaries,
we're not talking about something that we see with a natural sight,
but all that there might be those spiritual manifestations that
the Lord would come and show himself. You see, the New Testament
Sabbath day reminds us of the work that is finished, the work
of redemption is done. The Old Testament Sabbath quite
clearly marks the cessation of God's work of creation. As we
said, there in Genesis chapter 1 we have the six days of creation,
we come to the beginning of chapter 2 and it's the seventh day and
God rests from all his work that he had made, his work of creation. Although now he will still govern
the world in his providence, and though he will yet accomplish
his great work of redemption, it marks the cessation of creative
work. And likewise the New Testament
Sabbath marks the completion of a work. Salvation has been
accomplished. Look at what we read here in
the context in that next verse. For he that is entered into his
rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from
his. Because Christ, Christ has entered
into his rest now. He has ceased from his works. It's a finished work, redemption.
When he comes to the end of his life, in John 17 we have that
great high priestly prayer, when he addresses himself to his father,
when he prays for his disciples. And what does he say? He speaks,
amongst other things there, of a finished work. I have glorified thee on the
earth, he says to the father. I have finished the work which
thou gavest me to do. He had lived that life that he
had engaged to live in terms of the eternal covenant. He had
been made of a woman and made under the law. He had been subject
to that Holy Lord of God and throughout his life he had honoured
it and magnified it. He had fulfilled every one of
its precepts. He has accomplished a righteousness,
this is that robe of righteousness that is imputed to the believer
in the great truth of justification by faith, is it not? It's Christ's
righteousness, you see. And he has finished his life
there, he is about to die, and even there upon the cross, what
does he say to the Father amongst those seven sayings upon the
cross? He cries out, it is finished. And having said thus, he yields
up the ghost. He commits his soul into the
hands of his heavenly father. He gives himself his life. This
is what he has authority to do. No man can take his life from
him, he says. He has authority to lay his life
down. And he has authority to take
his life again. Or this is the commandment he
has received from the Father in the Covenant. And this is
what he does then, he utters those words, it is finished,
and he heals up the ghost. And there we see him honouring
and magnifying that same law that had been so honoured and
magnified in the obedience of that sinless life and now Why? He is honouring and magnifying
it in terms of all his dreadful penalties. He is bearing the
punishment that was due to the sinner. He is dying in the room
instead of his people. Oh, it's a finished work. Now,
we have it there in Daniel chapter 9 to finish the transgression.
To finish the transgression and to make an end of sin. and to
make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness,
and to seal the vision and the prophecy, and to anoint the most
holy. This is the work of Christ. As
Daniel speaks of it there in chapter 9 and verse 24. It's
a finished work. And so, there's nothing for sinners
to do. As we come together today as
sinners, what do we have to do in order to be reconciled to
God? What do we have to do in order
to know the salvation of God? We don't have to do anything
in a sense. There's a cessation from all work. Cease from your
own works, bad and good, and wash your garments in my blood. The hymn writer, as it were,
puts those words into the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's
done it all. He's done it all. And as John
is there on the Isle of Patmos on the Lord's Day, what do we
see? He's in the Spirit. He's in the
Spirit. and being in the Spirit he beholds
the Lord Jesus Christ. He tells us there, verse 10,
I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day and heard behind me a great
voice as of a trumpet saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first
and the last and what thou seest write in the book and send it
unto the seven churches. is in the Spirit and he turns
to see this voice that is speaking unto him and he says being turned
I saw seven golden candlesticks representative of course of the
seven churches and in the midst of the seven candlesticks one
like unto the Son of Man always in the Spirit and he beholds
the Lord Jesus Christ And friends, you see, what we should desire,
as I've said, when we come together on the Lord's Day, we should
desire that we might see the Lord. We should seek to prepare
ourselves for the day then that we might be found in the Spirit,
and that we might behold something of the glories that belong unto
the Lord Jesus Christ, the believer Joseph Hart says, in respect
to this day, in that lovely hymn that he has on the Lord's Day,
358, how the believer slides softly into promised rest, reclines
his head on Jesus' breast and proves the Sabbath true. Or do
you prove the Sabbath to be truly the Lord's Day? as you rest in
the Lord Jesus Christ, as you delight in the Lord Jesus Christ. I love those words that we read
there in the end of that 58th chapter in Isaiah's prophecy. Here is God rebuking the children
of Israel. Their fast was not the fast that
He had ordained. All they had, you see, was the
externals. And the externals were all right
and proper. But they didn't understand the real significance, the true
spiritual significance of a fast. But then at the end of the chapter
he refers them to the Lord's Day. Well, it's the Sabbath here
in the Old Testament, the Old Testament Sabbath. But what lovely
words, if thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing
thy pleasure on my holy day, and call the sabbath a delight,
the holy of the Lord, honourable, and shall honour him, not doing
thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine
own words. So men do what is right in their
own eyes on this day, and I guess it created even today here in
Portsmouth, of course, the so-called Great South no thought of God,
men just think of themselves, oh yes, they say it's good, it's
a charity, but it's abomination if you're
not in the sight of God, it's a desecration of what God himself
has appointed as a day to be observed. We have to keep it
then, but what a promise, what a promise God attaches to the
keeping of the day. Verse 14, Then shalt thou delight
thyself in the Lord, and I 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. God has given this promise to us. He will cause those who
observe it to write, and we observe it, and we can only observe it
when we are those who are truly trusting in Christ, He will cause
his people to ride upon the high places of the earth and feed
them with that heritage of Jacob. Or Jacob who became Israel, the
prince with God. There is a day then to be observed,
there remaineth therefore a keeping of the Sabbath to the people
of God. It's to the people of God. It's
God's people who are to observe it. But what of those who are
not the people of God? What of unbelievers? Well, the
Sabbath serves the unbeliever. The Sabbath serves the unbeliever.
In two ways, as we conclude, First of all, it serves the unbeliever
in this way, to bring the conviction of sin, that conviction that comes under
the Lord of God. We have the Sabbath day in the
Ten Commandments, in Exodus 20, verses 8 to 11, and then as we
said, repeated again in Deuteronomy 5, verses 12 to 15. It's one of the holy commandments
of the law. The law is holy, says Paul, and
the commandment is holy and just and good. And the law is lawful
if a man uses it, lawful. Who is the law made for? Well,
the law is there given to the children of Israel. But what
does Paul say in Romans 3 and verse 19? We know that what thingsoever
the law saith, it saith to them that what are under the law,
that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world become guilty
before God. Therefore by the deeds of the
law shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law
is the knowledge of sin. It is not just for the Jew, is
it, the law of God? Clearly there, in Romans 3.19,
Paul states plainly that it has to do with the unbeliever, that
every mouth may be stopped, and all the world become guilty. And sabbath desi kraisn, you
see, it's a transgression of the holy law of God. And there
are those whom God in his great mercy has saved who have found
themselves to be terrible. Sabbath-breakers. You read John
Bunyan's Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, he lamented
his Sabbath-breaking. It serves the unbeliever as part
of the law. It brings conviction into the
soul of the sinner. Whosoever commiteth sin transgresseth
also the law, says John, for sin is the transgression of the
law. Or that Sabbath breakers might be brought to feel that
conviction that comes under the law of God when the Holy Spirit
is pleased to come into the soul of such sinners. It says, office
is it not to convince the world of sin as well as of righteousness
and of judgment. The Sabbath then serves the unbeliever
when it brings conviction into the soul but it also serves the
unbeliever in a positive way. It brings to them ultimately
the comforts of the gospel. Poor convicted sinners need to
know the consolations that are there in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Remember how God's being in his hymn calls it a lively type of
Christ in 636. A lively type of Christ. It points us to Christ
here at verse 10. He that is entered into his rest,
he also has ceased from his own works as God did from his. It is Christ who was entered
into his rest. But what of us? How do we enter
into this rest? When he goes on in the next verse
Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man
fall after the same example of unbelief. He's been speaking previously of the children of
Israel who fell in the wilderness And they didn't enter into the
rest of Canaan. Verse 17 of chapter 3, With whom
was he grieved forty years? Was it not with him that had
sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? And to whom
he swore that they should not enter into his rest? They didn't enter into Canaan.
Why? They could not enter in because of unbelief. and we have
to labour, you see, to enter into that rest. But that labour,
we're not to think of it in terms of our works, as we've said,
salvation is a cessation from every work, it's not our works
of any description. But there is to be surely this
diligent seeking after God, this calling upon God, to God. It's that spiritual labour in
the soul, that work of faith, that labour of love, that patience
of hope. This is what we need, to be those
who would desire of God that we might truly be entering into
it. We're not to be those who want just to be at ease, but
we do really want to enter into these things, and we want to
know the blessings of the Lord's that we brought to that fight
in the Lord Jesus Christ. All keepers have come short of
this. The substance of the Sabbath
mist and grass and empty shine. We don't just want the outward
form. We don't just want legal keeping
of the day. Oh, we want more than that. We
want to be those who are truly entering into Christ and trusting
in Him. There remaineth therefore the
keeping of the Sabbath to the people of God. The Lord be pleased
to bless His word to us. Singers are concluding here,
hymn number 1001 and the tune is Mary's in 363. Our welcome
to the saints when cracked with six days noise and care and toil
is the returning day of rest which hides them from the world
a while. Hymn number 1001. you How welcome to the saints when
friends With six-inch voice and care and toil Is the returning
day of rest Which hides them from the world