Genesis 2, read verses 1 through
3 with me. Thus the heavens and the earth
were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day
God ended His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day
and sanctified it, because that in it He had rested from all
his work which God created and made. On the seventh day, God
rested. And He blessed it and sanctified
it. That means He set it apart. He
consecrated it. The word rest there means, or
the Hebrew word is Sabbath. This was the Sabbath day. Now, there's so much ignorance
and even controversy about the Sabbath day, even among some
believers, I think. There has been over the years.
There's one whole religion that's based on that day. They call
themselves by that name. Sabbath day Adventists. So much ignorance, so much tradition,
superstition regarding the day. God declared it a day of rest,
yet it causes unrest among so many people. Those who try to
strictly observe the Sabbath day work real hard to make it
a day of rest. Time out. Most make it a work. Most make a work out of resting. That's what all do who think
they keep the law or try to keep the law. There's not enough time
to deal with this in depth. Not enough time to deal with
all the questions, to answer all the questions. I simply want
us to see, and I'm not talking anyone out there in the world,
but maybe somebody will hear this over sermon audio or maybe,
I don't know, that would be wonderful if somebody would hear it, but
you're here. So I just simply want to show
us the purpose of that day. Now the key words here, look
at it again. Finished his work, rested and
sanctified. Now, what do you think? What
do those words make you think of? Right. Christ. When he was hanging on
the cross, he said, it's finished. Christ came, God manifested in
the flesh, and he said, I have glorified thee on the earth,
I have finished the work that you gave me to do. There's those
two words, finished, work. He said, for their sakes I sanctify
myself, that they also might be sanctified. There's those
words, isn't it? Finished, his work, sanctified. He said, come unto me, all ye
that labor and are heavy laden, I will give you rest. There's those words, isn't it? Christ is our Sabbath. We rest
in Him. Now, before we go any further,
let's just establish it. That's the reason God made the
Sabbath. Completely. Even the law, the
whole law, testifies of Christ. The whole law. Now, some think
that what sets them apart The word sanctify means to set apart.
Some think that what sets them apart is the Sabbath, or their
keeping of it, whether it be the actual Sabbath day, the seventh,
or some who like to think it's been changed to the first day,
the Christian Sabbath. They think that's what sets them
apart. But what sets God's people apart
is one thing. that sanctifies or sets apart
or makes God's people different? Christ. Jesus Christ. All right, let's look at this
Sabbath day. God rested from His work. Did God quit working completely? It doesn't say works. Plural, it says work. His work. Scripture is so perfect. If God
quit working completely, if God does not work, that is, He does
not move, He does not manipulate, He does not control, He does
not do all things at all times, then there will be chaos, confusion,
and the whole thing will fall apart, the whole world. He upholdeth
all things by the word of His power. God never quit working. It says God rested from His work. That means the work of creation.
He was talking about creation. And in verse 31 of chapter 1,
look at it, it says, God saw everything that he had made,
and behold, it was very good. Perfect is what it was. It was
perfect. God's work was perfect. There's
no more to be done. There is nothing left to be done. There's nothing to be added to
it. It's complete. The work is finished. It's perfect. It's complete. And God said, it's very good. We'll just stop right there.
No more working. No more work to be done. No more
creation to be done. It's all perfect. It's all complete. And God said, this day it will
commemorate that. The seventh day. Memorial of
my complete work, my finished work, my perfect work. That day is a type, a shadow,
a picture, a symbol to commemorate the Lord Jesus Christ and His
perfect work. God, from heaven, when He saw
what His Son did, said, I am well pleased. Very good. Very good. The Lord Jesus Christ
came down here to do a work. He did many works, didn't he?
But the work, he said, I finished the work that you gave me to
do. What's that? Salvation. Redemption. Redemption. Like creation. It
was finished. When Christ worked his work,
it was finished. Complete. God satisfied. well
pleased for His righteousness sake. That's what this day represents. Romans 10. Go over there to Romans
10. And nearly everyone in here knows
these things, but I enjoyed studying it again. I was able to rest
a little more thinking about this. Romans 10. And you know the Sabbath day. What God said about keeping the
Sabbath day was so strict. It was so strict. God said, don't
do anything. Don't even go anywhere. Stay
put. Don't do anything. Don't go anywhere. Don't even cook on that day. And a fellow went out one day
and picked up sticks to light a fire on the Sabbath
day and God killed him. That's strict, isn't it? That's somebody who wants to
keep a Sabbath day. They don't understand how strict
it is. They just don't understand how strict. Why was it so strict?
Why was God so strict about that day? Don't even pick up sticks. Don't move. Don't go anywhere.
Don't do anything. Don't do one single work. Some of you are smiling. You
know why. The flesh and blood didn't reveal it to you. Because
the work of salvation is completely in and by and through Jesus Christ. Don't do anything. It's done. It's complete. Don't go anywhere. Stay right
there. Don't do anything to be accepted
by God. Just look to Christ, His person,
and His work. The law, when we speak of the
law, we're not just talking about the Ten Commandments. My, my,
this is how ignorant people are. When they think of the law, they
think of ten commandments. Oh, my. Paul, who was a scholar
of the law, a Pharisee, he knew the law, or that is at least
the letter. He knew the letter of the law. He studied it carefully.
Ed one time gave me a printout of all the, at least the modern
precepts that Jews are supposed to observe. And how many were
there, Ed? Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds. They had to keep them, and they're
not trying to keep them. The law, when the scripture speaks
of the law, it means every law. Not just the Sabbath day, but
every law. And when God says the law, He
means every jot and till of it. Better keep every jot and till
of it, not just the ones you know. Not just the ones you think
you can keep, not just the ones you like. No, no, no. Every jot and tittle
of every law. And our Lord Jesus Christ, Isaiah
53 says, by His knowledge shall my righteous servant justify
me. He justified us by keeping the law perfectly. He knew it. How did He know it? He wrote
it. And he kept it. And he worked
for 33 years in fulfilling that law and keeping that law perfectly. And God said from heaven, I'm
well pleased. Scripture says he'll see the
travail of his son and be satisfied his soul and to be satisfied.
God is satisfied with all that Christ did. Christ magnified
the law and made it honorable. And he said it's finished. It's
kept. And Colossians 2.10 says you're complete in him. Now rest. Look at Romans 10.4. This is
such a key verse of Scripture in understanding the law. Romans 10.4. Memorize it. I don't know where it is, but
be able to quote it. Romans 10.4. For Christ is the
end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. You want to be accepted by God?
There's only one way. Christ said, I'm the way. He's the end of the law. Does
that mean He put away the law? Well, He took away the first
to establish the second. That's exactly what it is. Did
He destroy the law? No. He said, don't think I've
come to destroy it. I've come to fulfill it. God's
law is His law. It's something of a a description
of his holy person, but it's not a perfect description. God's too vast, but God doesn't
put away his holy law, but Christ fulfilled it. And it's either a covenant of
works. The law is a covenant of works.
This do and live. or you're under the covenant
of grace, which says, Christ did it, and now you live. The second Adam, first Adam,
all under the law, this do and live. Did Adam, did the first
man do it? No. What did he do? He died.
He died. And every son of Adam from then
on has broken every single law of the earth. Guilty. Whatsoever
things the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law,
that every mouth stopped, and all the world became guilty.
Well, the second Adam, Jesus Christ, came from above, holy,
without sin, harmless, blameless, unreprovable. He came. He kept
the law as a covenant hand. He kept the law a substitute,
a representative for God's people. He kept the law for them. He's the law keeper. And miraculously,
amazingly, graciously, mercifully, God imputes that to His people. And imputed their sin to Him. Charged their sin to Him. Yea,
made Him to actually be sin to them. Now they are holy, unblamable,
unapprovable, and He is guilty as charged. And God punished
Him in their stead. And now justice has been carried
out. The sentence has been handed down. Death has been accomplished. Sin has been put away, paid for.
The law has no claims on the people of God. He kept it, and
he was punished for us not keeping it. Complete. Complete. It's finished, he said. It's finished. Nothing to do,
but trust me. Nothing to do. That's what I
said. Nothing to do. I didn't say it. He said it. End of the law for
righteousness. Now we're under this covenant
of grace. Everything's freely given to
us in Christ. What about this Sabbath day law,
though? What about this Sabbath day?
What about it? Well, you know, this Sabbath
day is not mentioned again for over 2000 years. And after that, not mentioned
again until Exodus chapter 16, when God gave the law to Moses.
That means Abel didn't observe a Sabbath day. Abraham did not
observe a Sabbath day. Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and on
and on it goes until Moses came. And the scriptures deal a great
deal in Galatians about Abraham being justified before the law. Didn't he? There was no law 400
years before Abraham. And the rest before him, before
Abraham. Well, how is anybody saved? Well, how is anybody saved? By grace are you saved. Through
faith. It's not of yourselves. It's
a gift of God. Christ, faith in Christ. Abraham did not, our
Lord say, Abraham, rejoice to see my day. He saw it and he
was glad. Christ was his Sabbath. Christ
was Abraham's Sabbath long before there was a Sabbath day to keep. God never said for Abel or any
of them to keep a Sabbath day. Never. When God, Jehovah God, revealed
Himself to mankind in Exodus, it was to the Jews. It was to Israel through Moses
who gave them the Law, not just Ten Commandments. And there were
so many. And it was so strict. And God
even said, It shall be perfect to be accepted. To offend in
one point, He said, be guilty of it all. Go to Galatians chapter
3 with me. Galatians 3. And this is not
just, it is doctrine. There's nothing wrong with doctrine.
Doctrine is wonderful. If it's the doctrine of Christ,
the doctrine of Christ will make you glad. Good news. Good news. Christ kept the law. Scripture
says to offend in one point is guilty of it all. Look at Galatians
3, verse 10. As many, Galatians 3, 10. As
many as are of the works of the law are under the curse. It is
written, Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things
which are written in the book of the law to do them." What
does that mean? Outwardly, Paul said in Romans
7, 10, the law is spiritual. It requires, you've got to do
it in thought, in word, in motive. God looks on the heart. A pure
heart. Not just keep the law outwardly,
but to love, here's what he said, love God with all your mind,
heart, soul, and strength. That's not even talking about
outward observance of it. Every law. The whole law. Now, look at verse 13. Christ
has redeemed us from the curse of the law. And Paul said there's
nothing wrong with the law. The problem is us. The law is
good, it's holy, it's just, it's good, but we're not. And we're
under the curse because we can't keep it. And so it's made a curse to us,
not life. Paul said the commandment I thought
was done to life killed me. When I finally saw what the law
was saying, it pronounced me guilty. Why
was the law added anyway? Because of sin. To show the exceeding
sinfulness of sin. Paul said, I wouldn't have known
sin if it wasn't by the law. That's why. Not to keep it, to
be saved, but to show you you're a sinner. And he went on to say,
look at verse 22. The Scripture hath concluded
everyone all unto sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ."
Scripture is clear there. That's not a typo. Not faith
in Christ. Faith of Christ. It says this
four or five times. That is His faithfulness. He
had to live by faith. He had to live according to the
law. Why did He do that? Show us how? No. To do it for
us. And He did it. Verse 22, "...that
promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe."
Believe Christ, not work, but believe. Before faith, we were
kept under the law, shut up under faith, which should afterward
be revealed. Therefore, the law was our schoolmaster to bring
us unto Christ. What law? The Sabbath. Name a
law. Our schoolmaster. Bring us to
Christ. Show us Christ. Look at Galatians
4, verse 4. When the fullness of time was
come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the
law. Why? To redeem them that were
under the law. Look at this, verse 9 and 10. He said, after you've known.
He's talking to the Galatians. The Galatians were the ones who
were going back to the law. They believed. Someone said,
you've got to be circumcised. You've got to keep the law. And
I'm just assuming one of them was keeping a Sabbath day. All
right. And Paul said throughout this
book, are you so foolish? He said, did you receive this
work, the Spirit of God, by the works of the law or by faith?
Did you? Oh, my. In the Spirit, now you're going
to go back to the law? You're saved by trusting Christ and
you go back to Moses? Oh, no. Don't do that. He said
in verse 9, after you've known God, or rather known of God,
how turn you again to the weak and beggarly elements? What's
that? The law. What's up with that? Verse 10,
you observe days. and months and times and years. And in Romans 14, he said, he
told the Romans, don't let anyone judge you according to days. Sabbath day. Didn't he say that? Sabbath day. We're not required
to keep a Sabbath day. And he said in verse 21 here,
Galatians 4, he says, tell me, you that desire to be under the
law, do you not hear The law. He said, the law is spiritual,
but we are carnal, sold unto sin. Ah, boy. The law says, this do and live. So Christ came. He said, I'll
do it, that they might live. He said, I am come that they
might have life. Come unto me, he said, he that
believeth on the Son hath life. Accepted. Well pleasing to God. No other way. Don't try to keep
the law or be saved. You know, the law is wonderful.
It's good. I don't want any other God before me. I don't want to take His name
in vain for you. I want to love God. I want to love my neighbor.
and so on and so forth. It's good, but trying to keep
it to please God, you can't do it. You can't do it. We're not
under the law of Moses, the law that was given to Jews. We're
under the law of the Christ, Scripture said. Like Mary said,
whatever he saith, do it. She said, he that loveth me keepeth
my commandments. In the paper, I put an advertisement
in our Franklin News Post challenging anybody that could show him where
the seventh day was changed to the first day, where the seventh
day was changed. Challenging everybody. Well,
nobody can challenge him on that because
it hasn't been changed. You can look all you want to
and you won't find. where Scripture says the first day is now the
Sabbath day. He won't find it there, because
it's not. But I challenge him to show me
where Jesus Christ said one time to one person while he was on
this earth, keep the Sabbath day. He said, if you love me, you
keep my commandment. Show me one place where Jesus Christ
said, now you go and keep my Sabbath day. I challenge you. You won't find it. You won't
find it. He said, come unto me. I'll give
you rest. So many times he did things on
the Sabbath day, I think, to not only show us, but to aggravate
those law-keeping sabbatarians. And people say, oh, well, he
didn't work some mercy and all that. Hold on now. The law didn't
say allow for any of that. Never. You won't find it in the
law. It's okay to do acts of mercy. No, no, no, no. You won't
find it anywhere. Find it. You're going to be strict
about it. We're not under the law. of Moses
were under the law of Christ. Under the law of Christ. He kept it. He kept it. We say,
our Lord observed the Sabbath day. Well, you would find him
in the temple on the Sabbath day, as you would. And the apostles,
they observed the Sabbath day, didn't they? Well, you would
find them whenever they were around where Jews were, Paul
in particular. would go in the temple on the
Sabbath day. Yes, you would. Now, our Lord
observed, was there on that day, because He's keeping the law.
He's keeping the law for us. Paul did it. Why did Paul do
it? He said, I'm going to be to those under the law, I'm going
to be as under the law. But he's the one that wrote,
we're not under the law. He told the Gentiles, we're not
under the law. And all those Jews said, let's
have all these Gentiles circumcised. He said, no. We're going to write
them a letter and tell them they're not under the law. And Peter
spoke up and said, we're going to be saved like them. Not by
the law, but by grace. No, we're not going to write
the Gentiles. If we be circumcised, Christ profits you nothing. That's
how serious it is. You do one thing for your salvation. Christ didn't need to come. If
you can do one thing, you can do the rest. But we can't do
one thing perfectly. He can. He did. He did it all.
Christ is all. He's all our law. Christ is our Sabbath. So Paul
went and he kept... When the church... I'm getting ahead of myself. Is there a Christian Sabbath?
Is Sunday now a Christian Sabbath? No. No, it is not. You won't find that in the Bible
anywhere. You won't find anywhere where it's called a Christian
Sabbath or where the seventh day, Sabbath day was changed
to the first day. Sabbath day. No. What you will find is the church
meeting together on the first day of the week. And it was called, John was the
one who said it in Revelation 1.10, the Lord's Day. I was in
the Spirit on the Lord's Day. What day is that? That's the
first day of the week. It's not the Sabbath day because
it's never, ever called in the Scripture the Lord's Day. It's
always called the Sabbath day. The Lord's Day was the day the
Lord Jesus Christ arose from the grave. His Lord, His ascension. Like the Passover, you know,
was the first day of the rest of the life of the people of
God. They were coming out. And when
Christ arose from that grave, a new day, a new dawn. The Son
arose with heel in His wing. The first day. It's called the
Lord's Day. And He came out of that grave. And it was called
the Lord's Day. And the early church met. Go
to Hebrews 4 in closing. Hebrews 4. The early church met
together on the first day of the week. But you know, we don't
make it a work. We don't make it a Sabbath day. We don't make it a strict observance
of the day. Really, really, if we only worship God one day
a week, we don't know God. If we limit our worship to one
day, God's to be worshiped every day. God's people do. They worship Him in spirit and
in truth, and that's every day, day in and day out. It's just
a day of the week, and it's a good thing to set aside a day to come
and worship and fellowship with the people and even rest. Every
law our Lord made, every Old Testament law was good. It had
a very practical use. Our God in all wisdom instituted things for man's benefit. And then man makes a work out
of it. But a day of rest is a good thing. It's good for us physically,
mentally, spiritually. But we don't make a law out of
it. Don't make a law at it. And don't judge somebody for
whatever. There's probably somebody working right now from our congregation. I used to have to. I used to
have to. But you know, even at work, I
was resting. You can be at work and resting,
can't you? And cry. Disciples met on the
first day of the week. He called it the Lord's Day,
the day the Lord arose. Look at Hebrews 4, and amazingly,
this chapter is so clear in it. It's so clear to those that have
understanding. Like Proverbs 8 says, it's all
right for them to find knowledge plain to him that understandeth.
But amazingly, people like Sabbath, they, Adventists,
use this chapter to prove, try to prove, they prove they're
ignorant. But to try to prove C, you've still got to keep Sabbath
day. Oh my, that's sad. I don't want to speak of them
like they're ignorant, though they are. Hebrews 4, look at
verse 4. It says, God spoke in a certain
place of the seventh day on this wife, and God did rest the seventh
day from all His work. We read that in Genesis. Well,
down in verse 9 it says, There remaineth a rest, there remaineth
therefore a rest, that is, a keeping of a Sabbath to the people of
God. Read on. For he that is entered
into his rest, God's rest, it doesn't say he that keepeth the
Sabbath day does it. He that still keeps the Sabbath
day. It doesn't say that. It says, he that is entered into
his rest, God's rest. Whose rest? Who is God's rest? Christ, who finished the works. He also, he that is entered into
his rest, he also has ceased from his own works. By the works of the law, by the
deeds of the flesh, no man will be saved. As God did here, let us labor
therefore to enter into that rest. His rest. Christ's. Lest any man fall after the same
example of unbelief. What example? The Jews. They
say they didn't rest. They kept the Sabbath very strictly.
Yes, they did. They tried. But they weren't
resting. They didn't enter into his rest. There were times when God said,
your new moons and your Sabbaths, remember that? Get them out of
my sight. I'm sick of them. That's what
God said. Get this out of my sight. Those
that He said one time who sacrifice a lamb, you might as well have
sacrificed a dog. Because it wasn't by faith in
Christ. They weren't looking to Christ.
Look, we're keeping the Sabbath. Look at us. Look at us. Aren't we holy? I'm looking at my Son. That's
the only one. If you look to Him, I'll look
to you. Don't look to the law. Don't look to Moses. Don't look
anywhere. Look to Christ. Rest in Christ. Observe Him. Everything, everything,
everything, the law, the shadows and type, the substance is Christ. Christ. He is all in all. Christ
our Sabbath, I read. Aren't you glad? Okay.