morning all right that's pretty
loud is it good all right we're going to be in mark chapter 2
mark chapter 2 we'll start with this one first today and we're going to be in verses
23 through 28 mark 2 23 and last week we saw how our lord was questioned why the disciples
of John the Baptist and the Pharisees fast often and what we found
is that it was nothing more what they were doing was nothing more
than a religious man-made tradition that they thought was important
and Christ Jesus of Nazareth said that he's the bridegroom.
And when he said that, what he's declaring is, I'm the Christ.
And the people that are with me are rejoicing in the fact
that the Christ is here. So that's why they're not fasting.
But now, at the end of chapter two, The Lord is also approached
again, now this time just by the Pharisees, and they ask,
well why do they on the Sabbath day that which is, why do they
do on the Sabbath day that which is not lawful? Because they were
going through a field and picking corn and eating it, and on the
Sabbath you're not supposed to work, you're not supposed to
do any work, and so the fact that they were picking the corn
and probably rubbing the corn and working to get it off so
that they could eat was seen as a work and they weren't supposed
to do that on the Sabbath day. But what we'll see today is that
Christ is the believer's Sabbath rest. He's the believer's Sabbath
rest. So that resting in Christ, we
have fulfilled the law in its entirety. There's nothing for
us to do as believers to fulfill the law and to do some other
thing to make ourselves righteous and pleasing to God. So our title
is Rest for the Believer. And we'll have three divisions,
rest for the distressed, and then second, rest from fault
finders. And then if we have time, we'll
look at a spiritual rest in Hebrews. All right, so rest for the distressed.
Let's read the first four verses, but we're going to focus in this
first. this first section in verses 25 and 26, but let's start
with 23. And it came to pass that he went
through the cornfields on the Sabbath day, and his disciples
began, as they went, to pluck the ears of corn. And the Pharisees
said unto him, Behold, why do they on the Sabbath day do that
which is not lawful? And he said unto them, have ye
never read what David did when he had need and was in hunger,
he and they that were with him, how he went into the house of
God in the days of Abiathar, the high priest, and did eat
the showbread, which is not lawful to eat, but for the priests,
and gave also to them which were with him. So here we find again
our Lord faithfully defending his sheep. He doesn't leave them
to the wolves to pick them apart and knock them off one by one.
He stands up and he defends his sheep. And that's one of the
great blessings that we have in Christ our Savior, that he's
all our salvation. And he doesn't leave us to fight
off and fend for ourselves, but he always defends his distressed
followers. And Hebrews 7.25 tells us, Christ
is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto
God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. So Christ is the one who, his
whole purpose is to be an advocate for the sheep. He's the one who's
doing the entire work of salvation so that he himself makes us fit
to stand before holy God. He did everything necessary,
made all the preparations that we now are the very righteousness
which God requires of those who would stand before him and were
made entirely righteous by the Lord Jesus Christ. He did all
the work for us so that God now can look upon any sinner who
comes to him in the Lord Jesus Christ and God will show mercy
to that sinner. We don't come looking to and
trusting in our righteousness and saying, look God, look what
I did for you. That's what offends and angers
God. We come in that very salvation that he himself provided for
the people. Any other salvation is to say,
God, you're a liar, and what you did isn't sufficient. I'm
going to do it my way. That's an offense to God. But
all who bow before him and say, Lord, what you did is right,
and it was the only way, the one that you provided is the
Lord Jesus Christ, and that's why I'm coming to you. God will
gladly and very kindly receive them and allow them in his presence
so that in Christ we can partake of holy things. Otherwise, we
have no business coming before God. Like he said in Isaiah 1,
who hath required this of your hands to come into my court,
to tread on my court? I didn't ask you to do this,
the way you're coming in with your own works. All right, but
let's look at this, what Christ references in 1 Samuel 21. 1 Samuel 21 and we'll just read
the first six verses with very little comment. So 1 Samuel is one of the historical
books before Psalms. 1 Samuel 21 verse 1. Then came David to Nab, to Ahimelech
the priest. And Ahimelech was afraid at the
meeting of David, and said unto him, Why art thou alone, and
no man with thee? At that time, it was not very
normal for a person, especially a high-ranking person of David's
stature, to be alone. It just looked weird. It looked
suspicious that maybe he was fleeing from his lord. And David,
not wanting, and that's exactly what David was doing, but he
didn't want to bring Ahimelech into what he was doing. He didn't
want to make him privy to that so that he'd be now responsible
and have that on his conscience. But David said unto Ahimelech
the priest, the king hath commanded me a business. and hath said
unto me, let no man know anything of the business whereabout I
send thee, and what I have commanded thee. And I have appointed my
servants to such and such a place. So what he was doing is he was
indeed fleeing from Saul. And now therefore, David asked,
what is under thy hand? Give me five loaves of bread
in my hand, and what there is, for what there was present. And
the priest answered David and said, well, there's no common
bread under my hand, but there is hallowed bread, if the men
have kept themselves at least from women. And David answered
the priest and said unto them, of a truth, women have been kept
from us about these three days, since I came out, and the vessels
of the young men are holy, and the bread is in a manner common,
though it were sanctified this day in the vessel. So the priest
gave him hallowed bread, for there was no bread there but
the showbread that was taken from before the Lord, to put
hot bread in the day when it was taken away. So what David
was asking for was not lawful according to the law. The law
said that is there for the priests that minister before me. That's
their bread. And because they're sanctified,
they can eat the bread. And here comes David, and he's
asking for that very bread. He's not a priest, and the men
that are with them aren't priests. And in fact, we know that they're
pretty sinful, because the priest boils it down to say, look, at
least if they haven't been with women, at a minimum, they can
have the bread. But what we see here, what we
learn from this and what Christ is teaching in that passage is
David was seeking mercy. He was just asking for mercy.
Yeah, the law says, nope, you can't have that, but the man's
distressed, he's weary, he's afraid, He's hungry, the men
that are with him are hungry, he's seeking mercy. And that
always trumps the law, right? Because he's just asking for
mercy. And he can do that because of
Christ. Because of Christ. Because Christ
made it possible where God can show a sinner mercy in him. And so that's, David's just coming
there saying, yeah, you're right, I'm not a priest and I'm not
worthy of this bread, but I need mercy. I need something to eat. And so that's showing love to
your neighbor. That's showing the love and the
kindness that we should show rather than being exacting and
harsh and saying, sorry, can't help you. Good luck though. Good
luck, brother. May the Lord bless you. You know,
we haven't done anything to help them. So that's why it was acceptable
because he's seeking mercy. And the scriptures declare every
one of us unfit to partake of anything that which is holy,
but because of the Lord Jesus Christ and what He's done in
bearing our sin burden, putting it away, God can be merciful
to sinners. And now we have no sin. We're
righteous. We're the very righteousness of God. So all who seek mercy
shall find it. The problem is, of course, that
no man seeks for mercy. No man seeks after God. That's
what Paul said in Romans 3.11, there is none that seeketh after
God. And the reason why is because
the scriptures declare to us plainly that every one of us
comes forth being born dead in trespasses and in sins. Turn over to Colossians 1. Colossians
1. Paul, I want us to see in verse
2, Colossians 1-2, I want us to see who Paul is writing this
letter to. This is not just the vagabonds
off the street that he's writing to everyone in the world, but
he's writing to a particular people. And it says right there
in the beginning of verse two, to the saints and faithful brethren
in Christ, which are at Colossae. Now, is he writing this because
they themselves are righteous in themselves and worthy of these
things to worship God and worship his Christ? No, because they're
sinners just like every one of us. So look over there in Colossians
2.13 now. So we see that he's writing to
the saints and the faithful brethren. And look what he says here in
Colossians 2.13. And you, being dead in your sins
and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together,
with him having forgiven you all trespasses. So the spring
out of which God is merciful to a sinner is that quickening
power of Jesus Christ, who has made us righteous. Christ has made us the very righteousness
of God so that now, because of what Christ has done, our trespasses
are forgiven us, our iniquity is gone, our sin is cleaned away,
it's put away so that God now is merciful to us and he's not
going to leave a sinner in darkness for whom Christ died. He's going
to bring us out of that death into the life of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And when you understand that
and you see that, all right, it's not because of anything
good in me. It's not because I've done anything
good that makes me worthy now to worship God and that I'm somehow
better than anybody else. But when you see that it's the
work of Christ, it gives great meaning to that word in John
3, 3, when he said, truly, truly, I say unto thee, except a man
be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. So, you know,
so many people have it backwards. They think that God, that being
born again is something that we have to do to make ourselves
born again. And the popular thing in the
culture today, especially in America, is that we must believe
on Christ. And when we believe on Christ,
then we're born again. But that's not what the scriptures
teach. We're dead in trespasses and sins. We're not going to
believe anything. The beauty in what Christ did is that we
didn't seek God. We weren't looking for Him. We
didn't know how to look for Him. We didn't know how to worship
Him or do anything that pleased Him. And yet, while we were enemies
of God and hating him and hating one another and doing nothing
worthy of life, Christ died for the ungodly. And Christ made
it possible, not possible, Christ is the one who opened the door
of salvation so that we now freely go in and God ensures that we
shall be brought out of that darkness into his glorious light
so that now we will see the kingdom of God. We will hear the gospel
and it'll be life and light and liberty to us so that we do see
the kingdom of God and say that's, there is salvation. God has provided
it in his son, Jesus Christ. And therefore we understand when
he says, that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that
which is born of the spirit is spirit. So if faith was a work
that we do in the flesh, then you know, it would just be a
fleshly work, and it wouldn't be a profitable spiritual work,
but it's the Spirit that gives us faith and that gives us life
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a spiritual work,
so it must be from heaven above. It's a spiritual birth from the
Lord Himself. Christ said, it's written in
the prophets, and they shall be all taught of God. Every man,
therefore, that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh
unto me." And that offends man because he's saying that it's
not something we've done. It's not something that we've
earned that God is merciful to us. We've earned death. We've
earned the wages of sin, which is nothing but death. But the
Lord, because of what Christ did, he's going to send that
gospel out. It's going to reach us. He's
going to give us life, and he's going to enable us to hear that.
And so You know, that offends man, and so in the variety of
churches, so-called churches around, on the street corners
all around us, you know, they seek to take the offense out
of the gospel by turning faith which is a spiritual work, into
a work that natural man can do. And say, you must believe, you
need to make a decision for Christ. You need to walk down the aisle,
or however they do it, but they're looking for you to make a decision
because that's a tangible thing that the flesh can do. And faith
is important, and we are going to believe. He's not going to
leave us in darkness, but we understand that when Christ rose
from the grave, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto
men, so that when he rose, in his train which followed him,
were all the gifts necessary for our salvation and our eternal
life. He did all that work, everything's
of him, so that we glorify and praise him. It wasn't some work
and some convincing that someone did in our flesh for us to make
a decision for Jesus, but rather, he did that work and he convinces
us and shows us our need of him. Christ said in John 539, search
the scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, but
these are they which testify of me. So that one, we see that
Christ is all the subject, all the scriptures are talking about,
but also what he's saying is salvation isn't in your study.
of the word, salvation is me. I am salvation. I'm the one who
gives salvation and creates life in a dead sinner. I'm the one
who will bring flesh and sinews and blood on dry, dead bones
that have no life in them, in and of themselves. I do that
by my power. That's what Christ is saying. And that's why in John 5, 40,
the very next verse after he said that, He says very plainly
to those who are left in their own flesh, in their own power,
he said, and ye will not come unto me that ye might have life. Because no one left to themselves
ever comes to Christ. And we see that example every
single day. We see it throughout the scriptures.
If God passes by a sinner, they may hear religious things, they
may do religious things, they may even hear the blessed gospel
of Jesus Christ and it will profit them nothing because it won't
be mixed with faith because naturally we have no faith. God has to
give us that spiritual faith for us to believe and to rejoice
in Him. So God's gonna ensure that we
hear the gospel and God's gonna bring distress upon the hearts
of his people. He's going to bring us through
this understanding. Like David, like we see, he was
afraid and he was distressed and he was fleeing from Saul
because Saul was going to kill him. But God will do the same
in our own hearts to show us our need of him, to seek him
for mercy, to seek his grace and kindness and the salvation
that he provides in his son, Jesus Christ. So, by nature,
you know, we're much like that picture there David Fling saw,
because we have a hard and a cruel taskmaster, naturally speaking,
when we're dead in trespasses and sins, the whole lot of Adam's
race was fallen in sin. We were all the children of disobedience,
waiting for the wrath of God to come upon us so that we were
taken captive by Satan at his will, just like he does for all
the other people who do not have faith and aren't saved, aren't
brought into a knowledge of what Christ has done yet. They're
still in their deadness and in their sins. And if you go over
to Hebrews 2, 14, Hebrews 2, 14 and 15, it says,
For as much them as the children are partakers of flesh and blood,
he also himself likewise took part of the same, that through
death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that
is the devil. and deliver them who through
fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. So we know and understand that
the sting of death, the problem with us dying is that we're sinners
and that we're going to have to stand before God in judgment. It's in our contents, we know
it. But Christ came to put away that sin and to destroy the works
of the devil. As it says in 1 John 3, 8, for
this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy
the works of the devil. So that, yes, we all, when Adam
sinned, we all fell into sin, but Christ destroyed that work
so that now his children, he'll come, because he paid the price
for his children, he can deliver them. And he does, he takes them
out of that house He binds a strong man, destroys his work, destroys
what he was doing, and takes us out and into the kingdom of
God's dear son, the Lord Jesus Christ. So David knows it's not
lawful for him to eat it, but he needs mercy and he finds it.
He finds it. So just remember that, brethren. of us, you know, there's many
people that profess Christ and that think that they're Christians
but they really don't even know the gospel and they're not resting
in Christ and Christ alone but because it was their decision
that brought them in to this religious work that they're now
in and what they think is salvation they're still afraid and they're
still looking and searching for some work to do to give their
conscience some kind of rest and If you're still troubled
and afraid of dying and you're not at peace because you don't
realize that Christ, that His salvation is sufficient and that
all our righteous works are filthy rags anyway. God's not going
to look to our righteous deeds because they're filthy in and
of themselves. But Christ himself said, I am
the bread of life. So center here, Christ himself
is the bread of life and he that cometh to me shall never hunger
and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. So David could
take that bread because he was Christ. He needed mercy. You
got it. You got it, David. You can have
mercy because he found it in Christ. He trusted in Christ.
He wasn't looking to the law for his righteousness. He needed
mercy. He already knew he was righteous
in the coming Savior. He was looking to the Christ
and so he found mercy. It wasn't an exacting thing for
him. You know, when we look here at
what is going on as they're going through that field, think about
it. Christ's disciples have been
laboring and ministering with their Savior, the Lord Jesus
Christ. He has nowhere to lay his head. They have nowhere to
lay their heads. They don't have any comfort to
go back to home and to rest and to go to their cabinets and get
their food. They're on the go the whole time.
They're hungry. They probably haven't eaten in
a while. And what they eat is probably pretty scant. And so
they're going through a field, maybe even going to the temple.
It's a Sabbath day to worship God. And so they pick some corn
for some breakfast on the way in there because they're hungry.
And they're worth their labor, but where are they going to get
it? They don't have anybody there to cook the food up at night
and have it prepared for them the next day. So they eat. And the Lord himself is standing
right there. He approved it. He allowed it.
He didn't say anything. And they didn't even ask him.
They just were hungry and ate. And he saw it and was happy that
they were eating because he cares for them and he loves them. And
so they needed mercy. And that's what he's saying to
the Gentiles. That's why he said that to the Pharisees. Don't
you know what David did? He needed mercy. And these right
here, they need mercy. They need to eat. These guys
haven't eaten in who knows how long. So they need to eat. It's
a thing of mercy. And that's why it's such a sweet
thing when Christ said, come unto me, ye that labor and are
heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Believe it. He's not a harsh and exacting
master. He's a God of mercy and kindness
and grace and patience with his people. We need mercy and grace. And Christ gives it. He fulfills
it fully. All right, now I need to move
on. So rest from fault finders. Rest from fault finders. Look
at verses 23 and 24 again. It came to pass that he went
through the cornfields on the Sabbath day, and his disciples
began as they went to pluck the ears of corn. And the Pharisees
said unto him, behold, why do they on the Sabbath day do that
which is not lawful? So legalists are always very
quick to spot and to point out the faults of others. They're
very good at that. They can see all your faults
and everything, every mistake that you make, and they're going
to be sure to point that out because they think that somehow
that's good. It's a good work for them. I
don't know what they're thinking it is for you, but they're certainly
happy that they can do it. But remember that Pharisee that
prayed and the Lord said he prayed thus with himself? He wasn't
even praying to God. And he said, God, I thank thee
that I'm not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers,
or even as this publican. So he's real good at finding
faults with others and stepping on them to exalt himself and
make himself look better in the eyes of God, so he thinks. Second, we see that legalists
accuse others, just like their father, the devil, is an accuser. We don't want to be like the
devil, because he's an accuser. He's an accuser of the brethren. So Christ, when he was talking
to the unbelieving Jews, he said, why do you not understand my
speech? Why don't you understand the
words that are coming out of my mouth, even because you cannot
hear my word? They hadn't been born again.
They weren't born. of the Spirit of God, so they
couldn't see the Kingdom of God. And he goes on to explain it
further. He says, ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts
of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning,
right, when he deceived Eve and destroyed Adam and all his race.
And he abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in
him. And when he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he
is a liar and the father of it." And the Pharisees hated sinners. They hated them because they
were so sure that they were righteous in and of themselves. But whoever
hated his brother is a murderer. And that's just like their father.
the devil. He's a murderer from the beginning
and those who hate others are murderers as well. We're not
to hate others but to be kind and gracious. But when Christ
finished that work of salvation, we see how he delivered us from
the power of Satan. In Revelation 12, 9, and 10,
it says, And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent
called the devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world,
he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out
with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now has
come salvation and strength in the kingdom of our God and the
power of his Christ for the accuser of our brethren is cast down
which accused them before God day and night." So Satan, before
Christ came, was always up there accusing the brethren of sin
and God wouldn't hear because he knew My son is going to put
away all their sin. They have no sin. There's nothing
to destroy them for. And he's a jealous creature,
Satan is, because he isn't the most glorified of God. But God
created man. And I don't know if he fell before
them or if it was after he created man. I have no idea. But he hates
everything that God has created and wants to destroy it. He's
not a friend of man, although many wicked people seem to think
so in this day. Now, another thing is that legalists
show no mercy, right? And Christ said in the parallel
passage in Matthew 12, 7, he said, but if ye had known what
this meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice, ye would not
have condemned the guiltless. So a sinner who needs mercy and
grace and has been shown mercy and grace will show mercy and
grace to other sinners because mercy begets mercy and grace
begets grace so that we who have been shown mercy and grace remember
that and know that and if we forget it we'll be reminded but
we remember how God has been merciful and gracious to us so
that we show mercy and grace to our brethren who sin as well
as we do. And our Savior said, take heed
and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
So that it's their very doctrine that is just an offense. And
just like leaven pervades through the bread and it affects and
rises the whole bread, that's how the leaven of the Pharisees
is with us. As soon as we let self-righteousness
in, then it just spreads throughout us all and we all become, you
know, those who look at others and question the motives of others
and are wondering why others aren't matching up to our standard
or level of righteousness. We want to encourage the brethren,
by all means, you know, encourage the brethren but we gotta wait
on the Lord to do the work. Through the preaching of the
gospel, he'll teach us by his spirit dwelling in us, he'll
teach us, he'll bring his word home to our heart, and he'll
give that desire and that love and that faithfulness to serve
the Lord and his people and his kingdom here. But he's gotta
do the work. If we just turn all these exhortations
into a law and start beating one another with it, It's not
going to be profitable to us. He does call us to serve Him
and to love Him and to sacrifice and lay down our lives for Him,
but it's something that He's got to work in us. He's got to
do that work and bless it to our hearts. So the thing is that
the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees was that their self-righteousness
The hope that they had in themselves was their comfort and that was
their salvation, was their own righteousness because man naturally
believes that he's saved by something that he does for himself, that
he does for God or to earn a righteousness for himself. Sinners are saved
one way and that's through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
If it wasn't for Christ doing what he did, none of us would
be saved and we'd all have been destroyed there in Adam in the
beginning. It would have been over, but
because God is patient and long-suffering, waiting for all his sheep to
come to a knowledge of the gospel, he's patient, enduring with the
sons of wickedness until we all come, until we're all born in
time and hear that gospel, and then the end will come when it
pleases him. I'll just close with, that's
why Peter says in 2 Peter 3, 9, That's what it means, the Lord
is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness,
but is long-suffering to us-ward, to the people of God who have
yet to come to a knowledge of the salvation that has been given
them in the Lord Jesus Christ. God's not willing that any should
perish, and you could say not willing that any of us should
perish, because that's who he's talking to, the us-ward there,
but that all should come to repentance. All of his people shall come
to repentance. And when they do, the Lord will
return and gather his redeemed purchased possession, which he
redeemed with his own blood to have them. So, all right, we're
gonna, let me just read, I'll just summarize it real quick.
Mark 2, 27 and 28. And he said unto them, the sabbath
was made for man and not man for the sabbath. Therefore, the
son of man is Lord also of the sabbath. So what he's saying
there is that the Pharisees were saying, look, man's got to work
for his rest. He's got to work for his salvation.
And Christ is saying, I didn't make man so he could work for
his salvation. I made man that he might enjoy
the rest and the salvation that I, the Lord Jesus Christ, provide
for my people, so that he is the Lord of the Sabbath, and
that he now It has fulfilled all the law. There's nothing
for us to do. We don't keep a Sabbath. If we
were going to keep a Sabbath, it would have to be Saturday
because today is, they call it the Lord's Day, the first day
of the week, not the Sabbath day, which was a Saturday, but
we're delivered from that Sabbath, that legal law keeping because
we rest in the Lord Jesus Christ. We rest in His work. We cease
from all our spiritual labors, that is, trying to work righteousness
for ourselves by resting in Christ, knowing that He did the whole
thing fully. So, man wasn't made for the Sabbath,
but the Sabbath was made for man. That is, Christ did the
work that He did to save His people. He came to seek and to
save that which was lost, to redeem those that were you know,
ruined in the fall. So he did that work entirely.
So Christ is the Sabbath rest for his people. And I pray the
Lord will bless that to your hearts. Let's pray and then we'll
be dismissed for a few minutes. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for your mercy and your kindness. Lord, please lay this
word to our hearts. Help us to see that Christ is
all. And Lord, give us life light
and liberty and him give us that spiritual birth which is From
above that cannot be done in this flesh. We pray this in Jesus
name our Lord and Savior. Amen Alright, so let's take about
10 minutes I