Good morning, let's all stand
together. We'll sing hymn number 442. 442. Praise Him, praise
Him, Jesus our blessed Redeemer. ? Oh, earth is wonderful, love
proclaim ? Hail him, hail him ? Highest archangels in glory
? Strength and honor give to his holy name ? Like a shepherd,
Jesus will guard his children Praise Him, praise Him, tell
of His excellent greatness. eternal salvation. Hail Him, hail Him, Jesus the
crucified. Sound fierce praises, Jesus who
bore our sorrows. Praise Him, praise Him, tell
of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, ever
in joyful song. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus,
our blessed Savior. Heavenly mortals, glad with those
at His feet, Jesus, Savior, reigneth forever and ever. Crown Him, crown Him, prophet
and priest and king. Christ is from Israel. ? Over the world victorious ?
? Power and glory unto the Lord belong ? ? Praise Him, praise
Him ? ? Tell of His excellent greatness ? ? Praise Him, praise
Him ? Be seated. We'll sing hymn number 318. 318. I need thee every hour. Most gracious Lord How tender
words like thine Can peace afford Oh, bless me now, my Savior,
I come to Thee. I need Thee every hour, stay
Thou nearby. I need Thee, I need Thee, every
hour I need Thee. O bless me now, I say, I come
to Thee. I need Thee every hour in joy
or pain. Come quickly and abide, for life
is vain. I need Thee, I need Thee, I come to Thee. I need Thee every
hour, Most Holy One. When will I need Thee, Thou blessing
Son? Where need You, where need We? Every hour I need Thee. It's been so long since our pastor
and sister Shirley's been with us. I'm going to reintroduce
them. We're sure glad to have you back. Thank the Lord brought
you back to us. I'm going to reintroduce myself.
Yeah, it's been a while. It has. But it is good to be
back. I've been stressed about being
back here this morning. I really have. I don't know why,
but I have been. I got a funeral to take care
of this afternoon, too, with Joe Angel down in Piedville. I've known Joe for a long, long,
long time. If you pray for me, please pray
for that service. I don't know what to say. I don't
know what to say. But look with me in Mark, chapter
2. Mark, chapter 2. Last time I preached, I preached
on that bridegroom. You don't put new cloth on an
old piece, an old garment. You don't put new wine in old
bottles. Everything's got to be made new. And so here in verse 23 through
verse 28, 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 Pharisee
said unto them, Behold, why do they on the Sabbath day that
which is not lawful? And he said unto them, Have you
never read what David did when he had need, and was hungered? 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 priest, and gave also to them which were
with him. 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. Our most blessed and gracious
and glorious God in heaven. How thankful, how thankful, how
thankful we are to be able to meet here this morning. I'm thankful
that you gave Shirley and I safe travels, seeing us back to be
with our dear brethren, to be with the saints here. And Lord,
we ask for your great and abundant mercies here this morning. You
said your mercies are new every morning, and your compassions
are new every morning, and they never fail. So, Lord, here we
are needing those mercies for today, grace for today, power
for today, strength for the day. And we ask, Lord, that you'd
bless the gospel here this morning. And Lord, I thank you for these
dear saints and their faithfulness to the men who came to preach
the gospel in my absence. And I thank you for them, dear
brethren, who came so faithfully and so clearly, blamed the free
grace of God in Christ. And Father, meet with us today.
Bring glory to yourself. Open hearts that's never been
opened. Open the dark understanding that's never been opened. dispel
the darkness, bring in the light, take out the stony heart and
put in a heart of flesh. And we ask these things in our
blessed Savior's name. Amen. Amen. Let's sing hymn number 249 together. was shed for me, and that Thou
bidst me come. Just as I am and waiting on to
rid my soul of one apart to Thee whose blood can cleanse I come, I come. Just as I am, the toaster burns. With many a doubt, findings and
fears Within, without or without. Just as I am, O rich in mind,
so rich is he, the other mind, ye all. Just God I come, I come. help compared that this relief
may cause a promise We'll stand together as we sing
the hymn of the day in the bulletin. ? Jesus our priest forever lives
? ? To bleed for us above ? ? Jesus our king forever gives ? ? The
blessings of his love ? ? The blessings of his love ? ? Thou
hast redeemed our souls with blood ? ? Hast set the prisoner
free ? ? Hast made us kings and priests to God ? ? And we shall
reign with thee ? ? And we shall reign with thee ? the whole creation
joins in one to bless the holy name of him who sits upon the
throne and to adore the lamb He breaks the power of reigning
sin. He sets the prisoner free. His blood can make the foulest
clean. His blood avails for me. His blood avails for me. Back here in Mark chapter 2. And I'll ask the question, why
the Sabbath? Why the Sabbath? And they came
to pass in verse 23 that they went through the cornfields on
the Sabbath day. Now the Sabbath day to the Jews
was from Friday night 6 o'clock to 6 o'clock on Saturday evening,
so their day was Saturday. And they went to pluck the ears
of corn. And the Pharisees said, Why do
they on the Sabbath day that which is not lawful? The Pharisees and the scribes
were the greatest enemies of our Lord Jesus Christ and also
of His people, also of His people. They were like dogs, barkin',
barkin', barkin', barkin', barkin'. Continually barkin', constantly
barkin', nippin', nippin', nippin' at them. They were hounds out
of hell itself, and they were good at asking questions, but
not good at answering questions, not good at giving answers. They
was good at asking questions, but not good at giving answers.
But now this is the fourth out of fifth consecutive times that
our Lord Jesus and His disciples were confronted by the Pharisees. Fourth out of the fifth consecutive
times that they were confronted with the Pharisee. You remember
the first time is when our Lord healed the man that forgave the
man of his sins was let down through the house. And they said,
who in the world can forgive sins but God only? That's the
first thing they wanted to know. When they saw our Lord said He
forgives that man's sins, well, who can forgive sins? That'd
upset them to no end. And then the second time was
when our Lord Jesus was eaten with publicans and sinners, people
like us, people of the lowest kind, people of the basest sort,
people that have nothing, have no claim to fame whatsoever.
And they said, Why do your Master, eat with publicans and sinners.
Why does He do that? We KNOW that that s not the right
thing to do. No, you can t possibly, that
makes Him, what kind of man would eat with publicans and sinners?
And then the third time is, they ask them, said, Why don t your
disciples, and that was about the Bridegroom, Why don t your
disciples FAST like John s disciples? They fast and like the Pharisees
they fast. And our Lord said, as long as
they're with the bridegroom and with the bride chamber, why would
they want to fast? It's the time of feasting, time
of feasting. And the fourth time here, they
accuse him of breaking, here's the fourth time they accuse him
of breaking the Sabbath. They're doing something that's
not lawful. Now this is also in Matthew,
this accounts in Matthew, and it's also in the account of Luke
chapter five. And in Luke chapter five, they
take the corn and rub it in their hands so they can rub it off
and eat it out of their hands. And then down here in verse chapter
three, look at the first two verses here. And he entered again
into the synagogue and there was a man there with a withered
hand. And listen to this, and they
watched him whether he would heal them on the Sabbath day.
And why did they watch him? That they might be able to accuse
him. I'm going to accuse him. I'm going to accuse him. And
I tell you what, in Matthew's gospel, you know when this story
starts? After our Lord said, all ye that
labor. And these Pharisees labored.
All you that labor under the law, all you that are burdened
under the guilt and power of sin, all you that are trying
to be justified by yourselves, all of you that's heavy laden
with all the sin and the burden of trying to be saved by yourself,
come unto me. Come unto me and I'll give you
rest. I'll give you rest. And that's
when this story started over there. Immediately they watched
them fellows going through the cornfields picking corn, and
they said, Oh my, they're doing that that's not lawful to do
on the Sabbath day. And I'll tell you what, our Lord
Jesus Christ, what were they doing? What do you reckon they
were doing in this cornfield? What do you reckon they was doing?
Just to upset the Pharisees. just to make them fellas upset.
It don't take much to upset some people. A dear friend of mine,
and I've told you about him, Billy R. Jeropoulos, he got to
service Wednesday night, and they had a whole church house
full of people. They beat the bushes to bring
them in to get rid of him for preaching the gospel, preaching
the gospel of free grace of God. They run him off. They told Him
He had to leave, and they had crosses all over the place, and
He said, You idolaters, you need to get rid of these. And He had
been preaching that for quite some time, and they said, Oh
no, we can't get rid of these crosses, they're comforting to
us, they bring us peace. If something PHYSICAL brings
you peace that you can see, touch, taste, or handle, you ain't got
a clue who Christ is, you're just another Pharisee. You don't
know God, and I'll tell you what, they run him off, but listen,
he said he's happy, he's free. Oh, I'm so happy for him, he
said, oh my. But I'll tell you, that's what
happens to people who preach the gospel. Everybody wants to
go back to the law. Our Lord come here, what's wrong
with picking up ear of corn and rubbing it between your hands
and getting the grain off of it and eating it? Well, these
Pharisees thought there was something wrong with it, but why did they
go through the corps? Because the Pharisees are always
looking to find fault. And that's what they said there
in verse 24. And the Pharisees said unto him,
said to Christ, now they're talking to the Lord. Behold, why do they
on the Sabbath day that which is not lawful? Not lawful. Well, let me see you something.
Why do they do that that's not lawful? I want you to look with
me in Deuteronomy chapter 23. That's the fifth book of the
Bible. Deuteronomy is the fifth book
of the Bible. And I want you to look in chapter 23 with me,
and we'll see something together here about this. But there was nothing that our
Lord could do to ever satisfy them. And there's sayings that
no matter how clear the gospel is, how powerfully the gospel's
preached, how plainly it's preached, there's some people that can
never be satisfied with it. But look what it says here in
verse 24 of Deuteronomy 23. And when thou comest into thy
neighbor's vineyard, then thou mayest eat grapes to thy fill. at thine own pleasure, eat all
the grapes you want to, but don't carry a bucket in there, don't
carry something in there and pick the grapes and carry them
away. Eat all you want to, but don't put it, don't take any
away with you. And then look what he said, and when thou comest
into the standing corn of thy neighbor, then thou mayest pluck
the ears with thine hand, but thou shalt not move a sickle
into thy neighbor's standing corn. So they welcome, you know,
if you're going through a fellow's cornfield, you need a couple
of ears of corn to eat. Stand there and eat them. Don't
start cutting it down. That's what they're telling about.
And you know, hypocrites, and that's what these Pharisees are.
Our Lord called them hypocrites. Hypocrites love trifles. They
love trifles. Things that absolutely mean nothing. Nitpickers. In Bunya's Pilgrim
Procress, they called them muckrakers. muckrakers, they'd get a rake
and get in the muck and just stir up all the stink and all
the dirt and all the nastiness that they could on anybody that
they could. And I tell you, hypocrites love
trifles, they love nitpickers, come up to you and just pick,
pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick,
pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick,
pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick,
pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick,
pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick,
pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick,
pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick breaking the law, and he's allowing it,
he's permitting it. You know what our Lord said about
him? He said, you'll strain at a gnat, a gnat will get around
you, and you'll look in your food, you'll look in your drink,
and you'll strain trying to get that gnat and deal with that
gnat, and while you're dealing with that gnat, you'll turn right
around and swallow a whole camel. You find fault in the minutest
details, but you'll swallow a whole camel. And oh, the Pharisees
made an issue out of it without any understanding of what the
law really taught. And this in the fourth commandment,
let's look at that. Look at this on Exodus 20. Look
in Exodus 20, second book of the Bible, Exodus 20. In verse
8, let's look at here, see what, this is the fourth commandment. The fourth commandment. Working
on the Sabbath day was prohibited. What it was, it was a day of
rest, a day of no work, and everybody needs a day off, and that's what
God would give them, a day off. And look what it says here in
verse 8. Remember the Sabbath day, to
keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and
do all thy work. But everybody needs a day off,
and that's what he said. But the seventh day is the Sabbath
of the Lord thy God, in it thou shalt not do any work, thou or
thy son or thy daughter, thy maidservant, thy maidservant,
nor thy cattle, nor thy strangers within thy gates. Don't do anything,
don't do any work. But now here's what the Pharisees
did. Made a work out of not working. They made a work out of not working. God said, here's a day of rest.
And you all made a work out of not working. Many laws, they
made laws concerning the Sabbath themselves. But the Sabbath,
what we call the Sabbath, what the Jews call the Sabbath, we
ll call it the first day of the week. The Sabbath was given to
FREE us from WORKING for salvation. That s the whole purpose of it,
not WORKING for salvation. God give you a day of rest, don
t WORK for your salvation. That s the purpose behind it.
It s to REST And Numbers 23, 15 tells us that. Now look what happened there
in Numbers 15. I'll just tell you about it.
There was a young man out on the Sabbath day picking up sticks.
Picking up sticks to build a fire with. Well, they caught him doing
that and they brought him to Moses and brought him to Aaron
and said, what are we gonna do with this young man? And they
said, well, they put him in war till they made a decision about
it. And they said, well, take him out and stone him. He must
die for what He did. And what that tells us, that
if you try to work on the day that God set apart for a Sabbath,
and Christ is our Sabbath, Christ is our rest, that if you try
to work on the Sabbath day, and you try to work when God demands
rest, and you try to work to be saved, it produces death. That's all Law keeping, that's
all, doing anything besides resting in Christ will produce you is
nothing but death. And that's what he said. Working
for salvation brings death. And you know, let me, I want
you to see this. You got to see this in Genesis
now, Genesis chapter one. You know, there's a law first
mentioned. And wherever you find a word or a subject first mentioned
in the Bible, that's what it'll mean the rest of the way through
the scriptures. And the law of first mention, look what it says
here in Genesis chapter one and verse 31. When was the first
mention of the Sabbath? And God saw everything that he
had made, and behold, it was very good. and the evening and
the morning were the sixth day. Now watch what happens now. Thus
the heavens and the earth were finished, and all of the host
of them. And on the seventh day God ended
His work which He had made, and he rested on the Sabbath day
from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh
day and sanctified it, because that in it did he had rested
from all the work which God had created and made. Now the gospel
is clear as a nose on your face in this here. The first mention
of the Sabbath was God said, everything that I made is good,
very good. Well, let me tell you something.
And what he said was, the work was finished. The work was finished. And God don't need rest. God
does not need rest. He said, the work is finished.
And what he's telling us is that the work is finished. And though
the gospel, Genesis 2-1, the work was finished, and God said
it was very good, Now let me tell you something, what Christ
did is not good, not good like it was there. And what Christ
did was perfect. When he said it is finished,
salvation was accomplished, it was over, done, did, finished,
complete. The most blessed word we ever
had was that everything Christ did was perfect. He perfected
forever them that are sanctified. Now, I mean, that's what God
said is very good, and the work was finished. When Christ finished
the work, He said, I've finished the work that thou gavest me
to do. Oh, Father, glorify me now. And when the last words
our Savior said on the cross was, it is finished, it's accomplished,
it's done, it's finished, it's over, it's through. And I tell
you what, when he cried that, and when verse two says, here
in verse two of chapter two of Genesis, it says, and God ended
his work. God ended his work, which he
had made. Christ ended the work. That's
what he says, that God's teaching us a gospel here. Stop! STOP
WORKING! GOD STOP WORKING! GOD SAID THERE
IS AN END TO THIS! CHRIST IS THE END OF THE LAW
FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS TO WHO? EVERYONE THAT BELIEVES! NOT KEEPING
A SABBATH! NOT DOING A WORK! CHRIST IS THE
END! THE FINISH! THE GOAL! of the law. For what? For righteousness. To whoever one of us that believes
the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't have to work for righteousness.
Christ gave it to me. I don't have to work to get God
to do it. That's what He meant. He said,
STOP! And I said, and it ended. God's
work ended. Salvation's work ended when Christ
died on the cross, when Christ put away sin, when Christ accomplished
salvation, when Christ bought us with His precious blood. That's
when it ended. Oh my, the most miserable people
in the world are people that's working for their salvation.
And I know because I've experienced it myself. I tried to work for
it. I tried to accomplish it. But
I never had any peace. You never have any rest. You
never feel like your soul is ever satisfied until you see
that Christ did it all. And you know what happens? Your
soul will go to rest once and for all. Listen, when a work
is finished, you rest. You rest, you stop, you stop. And oh my, and he rested on that
day. And like I said, God don't need
a rest. Who needs a rest? We need a rest. God wasn't tired. This was given
us to teach us the gospel. That's all it is. All that's
left for us to do is rest. Our Lord said, come unto me and
I'll give you rest. And then he turned around and
said, when you come to me, you'll find rest. He gives it to us,
and when you find that everything's in Christ, then you find your
rest. You find your rest. And oh my,
God blessed that seventh day. Oh, he blessed, how he blessed
Christ to be our savior, to be our redeemer, to be our mediator,
to be the salvation of our very souls. And oh my, And he set
it apart, he made it holy. He blessed the day and he said
he sanctified it, he blessed that day. And he set it apart
for holy purposes. What was the holy purpose that
he set it apart for? To rest. He set it apart and
blessed it and sanctified it and said, this is the day that
I gave you to rest. And you know when it says in
the Psalms, it says, this is the day the Lord hath made. Let us be glad and rejoice in
it. That don't mean today. That means
the day that Christ came. This is the day the Lord made. The day of Christ's coming. The
day of Christ's living. We always talk about, boy, I've
never seen such trouble in this day and what we mean in all our
life. And that's what he meant in the
day. This is the day the Lord has made, the day. Abraham rejoiced
to see my day. And he said, this is the day
the Lord made. What day? The day of Christ's coming. the
day of His living as our representative, the day of Him dying as our substitute,
the day of Him dying to put our sin away, the day of His substitutionary,
satisfying, glorious death that He put away sin once and for
all by the sacrifice of Himself. Oh my, David, oh my. And then go back over here to
our text. Oh my, we can't, we can't, we
can't talk about the gospel. Oh my, if you ever get tired
of hearing the gospel, I feel sorry for you. And no, I listened,
I listened, Shirley and I listened to some of the messages that
was preached here. And, uh, Larry Chris message on, uh, on so great
a salvation. I was listening to that. And
you know, it'd been a while. I mean, we'd been, we was gone
for a long time. And I listened to that and I
broke down and cried twice. The gospel affected me hearing
it through my ears. Brought me to tears twice. So
great a salvation. Oh, how great is this salvation?
And the first thing he said, it's for great sinners. Cause
that's what they need. Sinners need it. Great sinners
need a great salvation. That just touched my heart. You
know why? Because I'm a great sinner and
I have a great need. I have a great need. And then
look what our Lord said here. And verse 25, they said, that's
not lawful. And he said unto them, he answered
them, have you never read what David did? First thing he said,
have you never read? Of course they read it. Of course
they did. They were scholars. They people
that just, I mean, they went over the Bible with a fine tooth
comb. Oh, yet, but they didn't understand
it. Why didn't they understand it? Nobody can understand anything
about the scriptures without the Holy Spirit. Our Lord says,
search the scriptures. Search them, look through them.
And I tell you what, He said, they are they which testify of
me. If you find me in the scriptures,
then you understand them. If you don't find me, then you
don't know it. And that's what He's talking about. No man can
do it without the scriptures. And he said, what David did,
look what he said here again, and what David did. And look
what he says, when he had need. That's the first thing about
David. David had a need. Here's the king of Israel, he
had a need. Here's the man after God's own
heart, he had a need. He had a need. And that's the
question that asked, do you have a need? Do you have a need? Oh my. And then he had a need. Then look what else it says about
him. He was hungry. He was hungry. Oh, he had a need
and he is hungry. That sounds like, that's me.
Have a need and I'm hungry. Have a need and I'm hungry. Oh
my. And then look what else he did.
When he had a need and was hungry, where did he go? He went to the
house of God. If you have a need and you're
hungry, where do you go? You go worship Christ. You go
worship God. You go to where our high priest
sits at the right hand of God, living to make intercession for
us. He went into the house of God, and then look what he did.
And they that were with him, you know what kind of people
were with David? And David is a type of our Lord
Jesus Christ. People who were in debt, people
that were fugitives, people that had no place to go, people that
were Nothing and they congregated
around David and that's the way everybody that congregates around
cross was people that had a debt These fellas couldn't pay their
debt They were vagabonds were vagabonds They didn't have nobody to gather
around to come to Christ oh my and Then look what he says about
him and they that were with him. And how he went into the house
of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest. And you know
what happened to him? Saul's men came and killed him
because he was good to David. Came and killed him. And that's
what happens to the Lord's people. They get persecuted for the gospel's
sake. And then look what it says. And
did eat the showbread. You know, when we was going through
the tabernacle, when you went into the tabernacle, on the right
was a table about 30 inches high. And they had 12 pieces of bread.
I don't know how big they were. And that had a little old gold. around about that high, and it
was in gold, and they laid 12 pieces of bread across there,
and they made them fresh every day. And those high priests,
that was what they would eat, and some of the things from the
sacrifices. Well, nobody was able to eat
those things but the high priest, and the priest that served at
the tabernacle. Well, David went in there, David went in there, and he was
hungry, and he had a need. And the only place he could get
bread, the only place he could get something to eat, and they
that were with him was in the house of God. And all there was
to eat in that house of God was nothing but bread. David took
all that bread, And he started passing it out just like our
Lord did. He passes out bread. And who'd he pass it out to?
People in debt, people in need, people helpless, people that
was vagabond. Here, you eat, you eat, you eat.
And that's what our Lord does. And he said that only the priests
and gave also to them that was with him. So I tell you what,
he went in there and he said, they never read that. Of course
they read it. Of course they read it. And look what our Master said
now. And He said unto them, The Sabbath was made for man. Before Adam was made, before
Adam was in the garden, God had the work finished. God had salvation
complete. God had The day set apart for
rest. He had Christ pictured in the
gospel. The work is finished. Rest, rest. He blessed that day. He blessed
Christ to be our rest. And then he says, the Sabbath
was made for man to rest. It's a day to cease from working,
a day of blessing, a day of grace. God didn't make men for the Sabbath. And that's what these fellows
are saying. God made us to protect the Sabbath day. Protect it. Oh my. And look what our master
said now. And he said unto them, therefore
the Son of Man, listen to this now, is Lord also of the Sabbath. You know, He is the one that
made the Sabbath day and blessed it. He is the one that did all
the creating. He was the one who made this
day of rest to point to Him being our rest. And what a day, what
a day it was when you and I finally went to rest in Christ. There's
nothing like it. There's no experience you ever
had. Till that day you finally realize
in your heart, in your soul, in your mind, in your whole being,
that there is perfect rest in Christ. And you cease that moment
forever trying to do anything for God. Huh? Oh my. You know, when they've run Billy
off, some of them fellas says, what you're preaching is blasphemy.
Would you call what I preach this morning blasphemy? Would you be, how would you like,
that's what these Pharisees are saying to Christ. Oh my, oh when
he says Lord of the Sabbath, that means that he has power
over the rest. He has power over this day. He's
got the right over this day. He's got the right over every
day. You know, some men esteem one day above another day, is
what it said in Romans chapter 14. Some men esteem this day,
some men esteem that day. He says, what's a day? All days are just alike, he said. Every day's the Lord's day. Every
day's a day of rest. Sunday's not a day of rest for
me. It may be a day, but it's not a day of rest for me. But
it is a rest for my soul. And that's where I want the rest
at, in my soul. This body's gonna wear out, and
it's wearing out fast. But oh my, to have rest for your
soul, to have rest for your heart, to have rest, a peace of mind
with Christ. And oh my, it says in Romans
chapter 14 and nine, Christ, Both died and rose again for
what purpose? To be both Lord and Christ. Oh my. And Lordship is the power
of right. He sovereignly, sovereignly over
this day. He sovereignly gives salvation.
When that thief was on the cross, you know what he said? Lord,
remember me. Called him Lord, Lord remember
me. Oh my, Thomas didn't show up the first time that Christ
appeared to his disciples. And he said, I'm not gonna believe
until I can see for myself, till I can put my finger where he
put those nails, till I can put my hand where I saw his side
tore open. About that time, Christ stood
in front of him, and you know what he says? My Lord, my Lord,
and my God. My Lord and my God. And I tell
you what, He's the Lord of the Sabbath. He's the Lord of this
Sabbath rest. And Sabbath, I'm telling you,
they use this. They use this as something to
use against Christ. But our Lord said, come unto
me and I'll give you rest. give you rest. I want to show
you something real quick if I can in Hebrews chapter four and then
I'll quit. I hope I haven't been preaching
too long. I never even noticed when I started.
I hope that I won't hold you too long. I'll go through this
very, very quickly if I can. Let us who's us, the Lord's people. Therefore fear, lest a promise
being left us, coming up a day short, seem to come short of
it. Coming up a day short, what that
means. For unto us was the gospel preached. God preached the gospel
to us. As well as unto them was the word preached. But the preaching
did not profit them. Why not? Because they did not
have any faith with them that heard it. They didn't believe. For we which have believed,"
now listen to this, for we which have believed do enter into rest.
Who enters into rest? Believers. What's this now? And as God said, I've sworn in
my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest, although the works
were finished from the foundation of the world. Works were already
done. For he talked about a certain
place on the seventh day, on this way. God did rest the seventh
day from all his works. And again, in this place again,
if they shall enter into my rest. See, all right, we see that there
is a rest, that believers enter into that rest. And seeing therefore
it remain that some must enter therein, and they to whom it
was first preached entered not into this rest, why not? Because
of unbelief. And he limits a day, a certain
day, in David, in the Psalms, today after so long a time, as
it is said, today, right now, if you'll hear his voice, don't
harden your heart, don't do that. If Joshua, this is talking about
Joshua, Jesus and Joshua, same thing, Jehovah's Savior. If Jesus
had given them rest, then would not he afterwards spoken about
another day? There remaineth therefore a rest. And in the margin it says the
keeping of the Sabbath. There remaineth therefore a rest.
To who? The people of God. For he that
is entered into his rest, into God's rest, he hath also ceased
from his own works, just as God did his. God finished, we finished. We're done. We're not going to,
we'll just cease from our works, we'll cease from our labors.
Huh? That's a good, that's a good
thing. That's a good thing. Somebody said, boy, Mr. Spurgeon,
he told him one time, you're driving people to despair. He
said, I certainly hope so. Despair of themselves and any
hope of salvation in themselves. I certainly hope so. Our Father, the blessed name
of Jesus our Lord, thank you for allowing us to be here again
today. Thank you and bless your holy
name for the gospel. Thank you for our Lord Jesus
Christ, who loved us and gave himself for us. Thank you, oh,
Heavenly Father, for sending your blessed Son. Thank you,
Holy Spirit, for bringing the gospel to us, giving us freedom
to believe it, freedom to preach it, freedom to understand it,
freedom to believe Christ and come to Christ. Oh, how we bless
you for this great freedom you gave us, liberty you gave us
in Christ. That, O Lord, keep us cleaving
and believing to our blessed Master, whom we need, whom we
want, whom we desire. God, meet the needs of every
soul in this building, and our dear families, that without God
and Christ, do what only you can do for them, for Christ's
sake. Amen. Amen. Turn your eyes upon
Jesus, look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth
will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. God willing, I'll see you tonight,
6 o'clock.