Thy mercy, my God, is the theme
of my song. But religious and self-righteous
men will always prefer the husk of the grain to the pure meat
of the kernel. They will always find their greatest delight in
religious duties which can be seen by the multitudes, and deemed
to be satisfying to their darkened minds. They are generally not
content with simply fulfilling those duties themselves, but
feel compelled to lay these burdens upon those who are God's free-born
children, often making them the standard of conduct by which,
they say, the true children of God can be identified. It has
been my observation that the litmus test of those who would
blade these commandments on the backs of God's children is most
often a magnification of the fourth commandment, remember
the Sabbath day to keep it holy, because compliance with this
commandment can be easily scrutinized by them as it was by the Pharisees.
The word Sabbath literally means to cease or rest. The Lord first
illustrated the principle of the Sabbath when He rested on
the seventh day. His work in creation was finished,
and therefore He rested, or ceased, from His labor, since there was
nothing left to be done. He gave the law to Moses, which
demanded the observance of the seventh day as holy unto the
Lord. No work at all was to be done. It was to be a day of total
rest when all labor ceased and human endeavor was forbidden.
The Lord's anger was often stirred against the Israelites for polluting
or profaning the Sabbath by performing their own religious observances
and other fleshly endeavors on that day which he said was to
be set apart unto him. They polluted my Sabbaths, then
I said I would pour out my fury upon them to accomplish my anger
against them in the wilderness. Bring no more vain oblations.
Incense is an abomination unto me, the new moons and sabbaths,
the calling of assemblies. I cannot away with. It is iniquity,
even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed
feasts my soul hateth. They are a trouble unto me. I
am weary to bear them. The Pharisees had turned this
day into an idol, counting their religious observance of it to
be of more value than the one who is the true object of it.
The Lord taught them the truth of the Sabbath when He said,
The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.
Therefore the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath. The writer
of Hebrews says, There remaineth therefore a rest, literally a
Sabbath keeping, to the people of God. For he that is entered
into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did
from his. Christ Jesus is the Sabbath,
or rest, of the sons of God. He has finished the work which
he came to do and is now seated at the right hand of his Father.
The salvation of the sons of God is that which is purchased
by Christ and freely bestowed without any labor on their part.
Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none
other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be
saved. For he hath made him to be sin
for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. There can be no mixture of man's
endeavor included in that which is pure. For we which have believed
do enter into rest, as he said, as I have sworn in my wrath,
if they shall enter into my rest, although the works were finished
from the foundation of the world. When he said it is finished,
he spoke of the finality of that which he determined to perform
from the beginning. True faith is that which is found
a resting place, not in device, creed, or religious observance.
Christ Jesus our Lord is the only Sabbath we desire or recognize. The only fashion in which the
Sabbath day, which was but a type and foreshadow of the true Sabbath,
could be kept without polluting it was to cease all endeavor
and effort. May we be those who are found
to be keepers of this rest, and not those who seem to come short
of it by their insistence on their own deeds of righteousness
and duty works. Seeing then that we have a great
high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of
God, let us hold fast our profession. We have no doubt as to the holy
nature of this commandment as he gave it to Moses for the children
of Israel. Yet we reject the notion, as
did the Lord Jesus, that the God of heaven and earth has any
regard to days and religious times and seasons. It is vitally
necessary for the sons of God to view the keeping of the Sabbath
in the same light in which the Lord has revealed it. If a man
misses the purpose of this commandment, he cannot have a clear understanding
of salvation by grace alone, but will continue to mix in the
works of the flesh, as if there were some sort of compatibility
between the two. Have you ceased from your own
religious endeavors and fled to Christ as your rest? On Christ
the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. Is He
the Sabbath that you desire to keep, or are you satisfied with
an empty husk? If you would like a free transcript
of this broadcast, email us at forthepoor at windstream.net.