All right, if you'll take your
Bibles and turn with me to Isaiah chapter 58. Isaiah chapter 58. Text will be found in verses
13 and 14, and if you want to, go ahead and go over to Hebrews
chapter four. We're gonna go over here toward
the end of the message, but Hebrews chapter four, these two The texts
are linked together, speaking on the same subject. The Sabbath. The Sabbath. Entitled this message,
Jesus is our Sabbath. Look at this with me in verse
13. God says, if thou turn away thy foot, from the Sabbath, if
you would stop treading on my Sabbath. That's what he's talking
about. If you would take your foot off of my Sabbath, from
doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight,
the holy of the Lord, honorable, and thou shalt and shalt honor
him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure,
nor speaking thine own words. Then, you'll do that. Then he pronounces a blessing.
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 it. Now, my purpose in this message
is to show you that the Sabbath day was a picture and type of
the Lord Jesus Christ just as all of the other ordinances of
the Old Testament. Today we are not worshipping
on the Sabbath day. This is not the Sabbath day.
Anybody that tries to tell you you need to worship on the Sabbath,
that's Saturday. It was Saturday by the calendar
and it was ordained in the Old Testament as part of the Old
Testament covenant. This is not the Sabbath day.
Our Sabbath is not a day, it's a person. It's a person. Now the Sabbath day was first
appointed by God in the beginning. You remember in Genesis chapter
2, it says when God ceased His work of creation, when God finished
His work of creation, He rested on the seventh day. We know God
didn't stop working. This world is held together by
the will and purpose and power of God. From its creation until
now, until the end, God is constantly in and moving and working in
His creation. What it means is He stopped creating.
Whatever was made was made, and there was not anything else going
to be created in the earth. He ceased from His work. The
Sabbath day. was also ordained in the Old
Testament covenant, but just like everything else, it was
a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Sabbath of rest. Rest. Consider the word rest. That's what the word Sabbath
means. Listen to what the definition
is. Intensive rest. Resting Intensively! That's what the word Sabbath
means. I'm sure it's very comforting
to anyone who has ever worked hard when you hear that word
rest. Now when I was growing up I was
reminded of when I was a young child my grandfather had a farm
and we would go out there and bale hay in the hot Texas sun. These bigger boys, they'd go
behind the baler, and they'd throw that bale up into the trailer,
and we, little ones, we would grab that bale and stack it in
the trailer. Then we'd back the trailer up into the barn. We'd
have to restack that hay. It was hot, and I remember that
day, we had this big oak tree out in the front of their yard,
and we rested under that tree, and those drinks, she brought
us some drinks. And oh, that was so refreshing. I remember it was just, I said,
sit down, rest a minute. You know what? That didn't last
long. We had to go back out and we had to do some more work.
And so we know this, that in this world, we do find moments
of rest. They're always short-lived, always. Ever since our father sinned
and was cast out of paradise, God cursed the earth. Anybody
who's ever done any work in their yard knows the thorns and the
weeds grow faster than the grass and the flowers. And so we toil
and we work and we find little rest in this world. And man by nature, because of
his sin, is without God. is like a sailor in the middle
of the ocean who has no sight of any harbor, always toiling
in the storms of life, always toiling in the deadness of calm,
with no rest, no place of repose. Are you like this? Are you a
soul without rest? Are you one who is wearied and
try to find contentment in the people and the things of this
world. Spurgeon said the natural man
is like a galley slave chained to his oars of sin. And he hears constantly the cruel
taskmaster Calling in his ears, long have you tugged at the oar
of ambition and lust and pleasures of the world and still have found
no rest. If you're like that, I desire
that you come now if you're weary and discontent. The world leaves
a bitter taste in our mouth, doesn't it? It's only a short-lived pleasure.
It doesn't last. There's no rest in it. If you're
such a sinner, I want to declare to you a rest. A place of intense repose. Perfect rest. Do you long to
be delivered from sin? Do you long to know how it is
that you may be righteous before God and find rest? I'm not speaking of the peace
of the world. I'm not talking about freedom
from physical pain. This is false religion's message. They tell you that God wants
you to be happy and healthy and wealthy in this world. That's the message of false preachers.
God never promises us peace in this world, does He? When Jesus,
before He left, He said, In this world you shall have what? What are you going to have? Tribulation. That's His people He's talking
to. He said, You're not going to
have rest in this world. But the peace that I'm talking
about is a spiritual peace. It is an inner peace in the midst
of trouble. in the very teeth of your difficulties. This Sabbath of rest is one that
is spiritual and it cannot be won by the flesh. It cannot be
earned, it cannot be merited, it cannot be worked for. But only can be had by the finished
work of God. Now in our text, God promises,
He says in our text, if you turn away your foot, see they were
treading on His Sabbath day, they were treading on that commandment
which was a picture of Christ. He said if you turn away your
foot from the Sabbath, if you stop doing your pleasure, and
you won't do your ways, or find your own pleasure, speak
your own words. He said, then you'll have rest. Then you'll have delight. Hear
this, there is a way of rest that seems right to a man. There
is a way that seems right to us how we may find rest. That way is always by works. This is the natural inclination
of every child of Adam to earn rest, to earn it by his obedience
or some religious exercise. The scripture says there is a
way that seemeth right to a man, but the end thereof is death. The end of all works religion
is death. We are by nature, we are by nature
sin. This is not just what we do,
sin is who we are by nature. Even the apostle confessed, in
my flesh dwelleth no good thing. Because all we do is sin, therefore
all we can do is fall short of this rest. You never enter into
it. There's no rest to be found in
the works of the law because it requires constant, perfect
obedience. You that desire to find rest
by your obedience, you not hear what the law says, listen to
what the law says. Cursed is everyone, I don't care who you
are, cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things. written in the book of the law
to do them. Men like to pick and choose what laws they desire
to obey. I like that law about the Sabbath
day. I'm just going to keep that.
I like the law of tithing. I think I'm going to keep that.
You're not supposed to lie and steal. Well, I'll quit that.
Listen, if you're going to take any one of those commandments,
you also need a high priest, you also need a temple, you also
need a sacrifice. The law does not just extend
to the Ten Commandments, but rather the whole offerings and
dietary laws. They're all the law. Cursed is
everyone that continueth not in all things written in the
book of the law to do them. Look over in Isaiah 57. Look what God says to those who
try to find rest by their obedience. Look at verse 10. He said, Thou
art wearied. You're not resting. You are wearied. in the greatness of thy way. The greatness, I don't think
men consider the greatness of the task that they have put on
themselves. You understand the task, if you
are desiring to be accepted of God by what you do, you don't
really understand the greatness of that task. Therefore you row
and you row and you toil and you toil in religion trying to
satisfy your conscience and the law of God. You make promises
and vows. Well, I'll never do that again. I promise this time I'll stop
sinning. You try to make amends for your
sins. You feel the guilt of them, you
try to make amends, try to offer sacrifices, but see the greatness
of this gulf that is fixed between God and man. There is a chasm
that reaches farther than heaven and hell. It is a gulf that you
cannot bridge. And yet, even because of the
greatness, he said, thou art wearied because of the greatness
of thy way. Yet, you will not confess it. You will not confess
there is no hope. You keep trying. Thou hast found life of thy hand. Therefore, thou hast not grieved. You know who need rest? Only
the weary. Come unto me all you that labor
and are heavy laden. You see the requirement? And
I will give you rest. Rest. Men will not confess that
there's no hope in law. They won't confess it. You who
are not wearied of sin and will not grieve for your hopeless
condition, you do so because you're deceived to think that
all is well. Listen, if you have rest, if
you are very, if you're at rest and peace in this world, you
are at rest with the world, if you're sure that God is going
to accept you based on your goodness and your obedience and religious
exercise, listen, God said something about that. He said you are under
a refuge of lies. You have made a covenant with
death and with hell and God says I will I will disannul it. I
will disannul that covenant. Therefore, behold, the only Sabbath
of delight is this. It is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The only rest for a weary sinner
is found in Christ. Remember the Sabbath was a result
not of man's work, The Sabbath didn't come about by man finishing
anything. It was God. When God finished
His work, He declared it was a Sabbath. And so as creation, the salvation
of man is completely the work of God. It is completely the
work of God. Man cannot find rest, even because
his works and labors in the flesh cannot save him. I want you to
see the work of God. Cease from looking toward your
own work and behold the work of God. Behold, it was the work
of the Father in sovereign election and the adoption of sons. Before the world began in eternity,
it was God who set his love upon his people. It was God who set
His love upon some of Adam's race even before the fall of
man. It was the Father's eternal,
immutable love and purpose that His people should be saved. So all He had chosen in that
He chose them to save them in a covenant He had made with His
Son. And the father who chose the
elect decreed that they should be saved. And he even purposed how. Sometimes
we purpose to do things we don't even know how we're going to
do it. I'd like to do this. Well, how are you going to get
it done? I don't know. God didn't do that. God purposed to save
His people and then in a sovereign act of His will, He determined
the way by which they should be saved. Even by Jesus Christ. That's how they should be saved. This is what we everything I
just told you. We know this in Ephesians chapter
one is plainly revealed to us. Blessed be the God and father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places. According as he had chosen us
in Christ. You see, it was the work of the
father to put us in Christ. Before the foundation of the
world. That we should be holy. That was his purpose, that I
should be holy and without blame before him. It was an act of love, in love,
having predestinated us under the adoption of children. Here's
the means, by Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will,
to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made
us. Here's his work, he hath made
us accepted. in the beloved. This is the work
of God. Where's your work in that? Secondly, behold the work of
the Son. If it's by Jesus Christ, the Son of God was from eternity
purposed to be our representative and our surety. A representative
and our surety. Jesus says of the elect that
they were given to Him. Over in John chapter 6, John chapter 6 and verse 37,
he said, all that the father giveth me. Here's the work of
the son. All that the father giveth me
shall come to me. And when he comes, I'm not going
to cast him out. For I came down from heaven,
not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me.
And this is the will of Him that sent me, that of all He hath
given me, I should lose nothing. I want you to understand, you
that are believers in Christ, I want you to rest in that. Because
Christ took the full weight and responsibility for our salvation
to Himself. The full responsibility. That's
what a surety is, isn't it? That's what Judah said. Judah
was surety for Benjamin. He said, let me bear the blame
if I bring him not again today. That's what a surety does. He
bears the blame. He receives the glory if he does
the blame if he doesn't. Jesus Christ said, I will be
surety for them. And behold, at the appointed
time, we know this, that Jesus Christ did come into the world
as God purposed. He came into the world, was made
flesh, He was given a body of the virgin's womb, and being
found in fashion as a man, Christ Jesus humbled Himself to this
work. That's what we just read earlier.
God said, Behold My servant. Christ became a servant. See the truth that Jesus came
into the world then as a servant to do the bidding, to do the
work that God purposed. To perform
perfect righteousness for all the Father gave to Him. That's what a representative
man is. That's Him we're just saying. When Adam sinned alone. When Adam sinned alone, he was
the one that sinned. He was by himself. Yet we in
his transgression died. He was a representative man and
when he sinned, we sinned. Even so, this is how righteousness
comes. by a representative man, someone
else doing the work. So Christ came to perform perfect
righteousness, and when He came into this world, you realize
that Christ was the only sinless man? There was only one sinless
man in the whole world that ever existed. It was Jesus Christ.
He was the only sinless man. You suppose that we desire to
be better people, right? We desire to be, you the believer,
you desire to be without sin. You know what the world would
do to you if you were without sin? It'd kill you. If you were a righteous
man, the world would kill you. That's what it did to him. They found no fault in him. He
said, the prince of this world hath found nothing in me. You got that? Not one sin has
He found in me. And yet He was rejected and despised. Can you imagine that? A perfect
man. You would expect that a perfect man would be accepted. No. He was rejected. Why? He was
rejected not for His sins. He was despised in this. He was to bear the sins of His
people. Isaiah 53, 8, it says, for the
transgression of my people was he stricken. Senator, look at the cross. Look
at him upon the cross. What was he doing? He was working. He was earning. He was meriting. He was satisfying the justice
of God by His one offering, and He laid down His life for the
sheep. Therefore, the Father must have
charged Him with sin, because He made Him to be sin for us,
who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. Then behold, it is the work of
God, the work of the Son, to suffer and satisfy the justice
of God for sin. The law. There's no rest in the
law. For you, there's no rest in the
law for me. It demands a perfection that
we can never earn. I don't care how sincere you
really are in trying to. There is no way you can earn
perfect obedience and there is no sacrifice you can make. How foolish is it to think, man,
well, you know what, I think I'm going to give this up for
God. I'm going to stop doing this for God. They think God is going to be
pleased with that. They don't know who God is. God does not desire your sacrifices. Behold then, now the Sabbath
of God is found in this, that Jesus Christ, after He had earned
our righteousness, after He had satisfied the justice of God
for our sins, after that, He said this, It's finished. It is finished. When it's finished,
it's finished. It's done. You see, my salvation,
the work of it, is done. You see the rest in that? I'm not trying to be saved. I'm saved. I'm resting in the
salvation of the work of another. I'm resting in the work of another,
Jesus Christ. And when He ceased from His work. God raised Him from the dead. And this is very important. He
says when God raised Him from the dead, He sat down. That's vitally important. You
know why? Because in the law, nobody had
a chair. No priest had a chair. In that
tabernacle, there was no seat. There was no place to sit because
the work was constant. The work was never ending. That's
why Paul the Apostle says in Hebrews, look at this in Hebrews
chapter 10. Read it with me again. This is
a glorious passage. Hebrews chapter 10 in verse,
we can begin in, let's begin in verse 6. He says, in burnt offerings and
sacrifices for sin, thou hast had no pleasure. God doesn't
want your burnt offerings. He don't want your sacrifices.
All of those sacrifices that they offered, that God required
of them, they were not pleasing. Then said I, lo, I come, in the
volume of the book that is written of me, to do thy will, O God. You see, He was coming to do
work. Above, when he said, Sacrifice an offering and burn offering
for sin, thou wouldest not neither have pleasure therein which were
offered by the law. Then he said, Lo, I come to do
thy will, O God, he taketh away the first, that he may establish
the second, by the which will we are sanctified through the
offering of the body of Christ once for all. And every high
priest standed daily ministering, oftentimes the same sacrifices
that can never take away sin. Ah, here's the contrast. But
this man, this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for
sins forever, what'd he do? Sat down. He sat down because
it was done. He sat down because it was done. He had finished, he had ceased
from his Therefore, if any are weary,
if any desire to find rest for your souls, you won't find it
in religion. You won't find it in your works.
You won't find rest in the things of this world. You won't find
it there. There is only one place There is only one place wherewith
a sinner can find perfect peace and rest. It is in the finished
work of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I declare to you that salvation
and righteousness, a righteousness that does not require your merit, That's what I'm declaring, a
righteousness that you don't have to work for. A righteousness
that you can't earn anyway. A righteousness, as Paul says
in Romans three without the law. Is manifest. Witness by the law
and the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by the faith
of Jesus Christ, that's how righteousness is earned. Matter of fact, the only way
you can not receive this righteousness is if you try to earn it. The minute you put your work
to His, it's defiled. That's the only way you're disannulled
from this righteousness, if you try to earn it. In the next chapter, God says
to these wicked people, He says, Your works are like spider webs.
You're trying to cover your nakedness with spider webs. He said, that's not gonna do
it. You run to evil in your crooked ways and God swears they shall
not find rest. Now then, may a man delight himself
in the Sabbath. Look back at your text, he says, He said, if you take your foot
off my Sabbath, stop doing your own ways, stop doing your own
works, and honor Him. How? Not doing your own ways,
not finding your own pleasure, not speaking your own words.
That's how you honor the Sabbath. You believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. That is how you delight yourself
in the Lord. He said, then you shall delight
thyself. In who? The Lord. Lord Go ahead and go to Hebrews chapter
4 and see the parallel over here Hebrews chapter 4 The Apostle
here says let us therefore fear lest a promise being left of
entering into his rest Any of you should seem to come short
of it For unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them
But the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed
with faith in them that heard it. For we which have believed
do enter into rest. As he said, I have sworn in my
wrath that they shall enter into my rest, although the works were
finished from the foundation of the world. Consider this,
they wandered in that wilderness for 40 years and fell short of
receiving the land promised. Paul's saying this, look, fear,
lest any of you fall short of this rest. What is it to fall
short? I thought of that yesterday.
I said, you know, there might have been a guy out there that
lasted 39 years, 11 months, and 31 days, right to almost midnight,
and he died before he entered in, or they crossed over. He fell short. The way we fall
short is to add our works to his. That's what it is to fall
short of the rest. There is no rest in my work.
There is no rest in my efforts, in my service. These people, He said, let us
fear lest the promise being left of entering into His rest we
should fall short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached
as well as unto them the gospel of rest. They had a promise of
Canaan which was a picture of heaven. The Sabbath was a picture
of Christ. They had the gospel preached. How was Canaan obtained? It was
obtained by blood, wasn't it? They escaped by blood. They escaped
through the Red Sea, which is a picture of the work of Christ,
satisfying the justice of God, and yet many of them did not
enter in. They had the gospel preached, but they didn't enter
in. Even so, the gospel of rest is now preached to you. How then
shall you have it? How shall you have rest? It is simply this, faith. Faith in the perfect, complete
work of Christ. In that, there's rest. What is believing in Christ but
trusting his success? Weary, wandering sinner, then,
listen, cease from your works. Are you thirsty? Do you labor? Are you weary? Religion's weary. It's wearisome. Why would you work and try to
build, fix a broken cistern when the water of life flows freely
right next to you? Why would you do that? That's
what men want to do. They want to fix this up. There's no hope
of fixing this up. Cease from your work and drink
from the water of life freely. Rest comes by believing on Christ
alone without works. And we as believers know that
we do good works. Because God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. We do attend to the ordinances
of baptism, the Lord's Supper, the preaching of the gospel,
but we never derive peace from them. I never get peace concerning
my preaching. When have I studied enough? When have I ever executed this
office in full perfection? Never. I never will. I don't trust in my preaching.
I trust in the object of the one I'm preaching. I trust in
Him. We don't derive rest from that.
God comes and gives rest by faith, by the result of a new birth,
a new heart. And therefore, we forsake all
hope of meriting rest. Isn't that free? I'm not trying to earn rest.
Christ has merited my rest. No, Christ is my rest. He's all my rest. Therefore,
I delight in Him. I delight in Him. Believer, you should set all
your heart to serve Christ. We should set our love and our
life should desire to be used of Him, but only in faith, only
faith in Christ is required for rest. You who believe you have
entered into His rest, Let me ask you a question. Do you still
doubt? Do you have doubts? Do you still see the corruption
of your flesh? Yes, I do. You who are believing
on Christ, are you vexed and troubled? Are you not surrounded
by enemies? Are you constantly heaved up
by the storms of life and cast to the depths? Yes! Remember,
God didn't promise you rest in this body, rest in this life. But in the very midst of these,
I can still rest. I still find rest. Notice that
the Apostle says this, look back at Hebrews 4, he said, For we
which have believed do enter into rest. We presently, constantly
enter into rest. Why? How do you do that? The
same way you began resting. Faith. Faith is a very present
thing. Faith 10 minutes ago, and faith
10 minutes from now, you'll find no rest. How do you find rest? Believe now. Trust in Christ now. And what are we doing? We're
entering into his rest. Faith in Christ does give us
unfailing, perfect salvation that is as immutable as Christ. Although our experience and our assurance of this rest
fluctuate. Therefore, I want you to see
that our assurance and faith are linked. If our faith is strong,
we feel that rest. But I want you to understand, our rest does not come if you
feel at rest. Oftentimes, I don't feel at rest. I'm so thankful the scripture
does not say for if we do feel to enter into his rest. No, we
believe. We believe. Therefore, let us
now by faith presently, constantly enter into his rest and don't
judge your rest by the circumstances of this life. Look at the two men. Lazarus who begged at the rich
man's gate until he died. And the rich man who fared sumptuously
every day. Outwardly, who do you think seemed
to be at rest? That rich man, he had a lot of
rest. He fared sumptuously every day. And every day Lazarus toiled
just to survive. But really, who had rest? Lazarus. What made the difference? God. God made the difference. God
chose Lazarus. Christ died for Lazarus. The
Spirit of God gave Lazarus faith to rest in Christ, and he's been
resting for 2,000 years. And God says this, and that promise
in the back of the text, he says this, I will cause thee to ride
on the high places of the earth. Though this body be racked with
pain, though our troubles be so hard and cold, God says, you
delight in my son, you will rise above all these things. I'll
cause you to rise above these things. Where? In your heart. There'll be peace. And I will
feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father. Believer, what
do you eat? What is it that we eat? Christ
is the bread of life, isn't he? He feeds us with the heritage
of Jacob. You know how I know I have this
rest? The mouth of the Lord has spoken it. He said, My word? You don't want my word. The Lord said this, delight in
my Sabbath. Stop putting your foot on my
Sabbath by trying to earn righteousness. doing your own pleasure. Stop doing your own works, looking
to your own works. Delight thyself in Christ. He
is the Sabbath. He's our rest. I know that you
have found Him, you have found rest. I pray God will help you
and strengthen you with this and comfort you. And if you've
not had any rest, why would you not have rest? Come to Christ. Cease from your work. Isn't that
amazing? It's the hardest thing for a
man. The most impossible thing for a man to do is to cease from
working. To depend totally upon Jesus
Christ. Yet I'm so thankful God has made
that a possibility, not possibility, He's done it. In His people,
He's done it. We do rest. I pray God bless
you