Brother, I tried to adjust the heat. If it gets too hot for you, feel free to turn that down, Ravi. It feels either too hot or too cold. I can't get it right. Luke, Chapter 6. That scripture goes so well with our text, Brother Adam. Glad you read it. Luke, Chapter 6.

Verse one tells us that this came to pass on the second Sabbath after the first. And Gil says that that means the first Sabbath after the second day of the Passover. Passover was going on, so it would be about this time of the year. I looked it up and the Their calendar is a little different than ours because they go by the moon and we go by the sun. That in itself seems like a pretty good illustration to me because the sun has no light. It gets its light from the moon. And it makes sense that folks who are still trying to come to God in the law would have a calendar that revolves around, it's like man that has no light has to get it from Christ. whereas we're looking to the sun, and that sets our calendar.

But this would have been, it changes because of that, because it's the moon and we go by the sun, so the calendars change from year to year when they have these festivals. But this would have been, this year, this would have been around April the 4th, so close to this time of year. But I thought it was significant that This was when they offered the sheaf of the first fruit and the harvest had begun. Well, Christ is the first fruit. And as we're gonna see here, he's the bread that we can see pictured here in the corn. He's the Sabbath rest of his people. Everything here in this setting, Christ himself is.

But it says here, It came to pass and his disciples plucked the ears of corn and did eat. So they're just walking through the cornfield together and they plucked some corn and they did eat and they rubbed it in their hands. Now that's put there on purpose, that they rubbed it in their hands and these Pharisees spoke to them. The other gospel says they said it to Christ and in here they said it to the disciples. So they said it to both of them. But they said, why do ye that which is not lawful to do on the Sabbath days?

It was lawful, according to God's law, it was lawful for them to pluck corn out of another man's field. God made that law and was merciful to do it. So if a man was hungry, he could pluck corn out of another man's field. But they had added some commandments of men to this. And so here's what man added. Man said it was not lawful to walk through a cornfield on the Sabbath day, because that was work, to walk through a Sabbath field. They said that was a man doing his own pleasure on the Sabbath day.

They added this, that when you plucked an ear of corn on a Sabbath day, you were reaping. If you just pluck one little piece of corn, you're reaping. If you rubbed it between your hands like they did, they had a law that said you were milling. It's like you mill corn and wheat. You were milling if you rubbed it between your hands. If you blew it after you did that to separate the chaff and the silk from it, you were winnowing.

They considered that a work. And the penalty that they had adopted, this is the Pharisees now, the penalty they adopted was stone the man to death. They did this. And now they had other rules though. Now listen to these rules. Something he couldn't carry anything in his right hand or his left hand or or across his chest or on his shoulder But he could carry something with the back of his hand and with his foot and with his elbow Or in his ear so I could I could have my hearing aids in it. I'd be alright He could carry something in his ear in his hair in the hem of a shirt in his shoe or a sandal This is not the commandment of God, this is man's commandment.

And they couldn't tie a knot on the Sabbath, but a woman could tie a knot in her girdle. Now this next law sounds like all of that was a man-made law, so the women would have to go draw the water, because a woman could tie a knot in the skirt of her garment. So if you had a bucket of water, and you're trying to get water out of a well, You had a bucket, you could tie a rope to it to get the water out. But a woman could tie, she could tie her girdle to the bucket and pull the water out. These are all man-made commandments that they added. Now listen to what the Lord said, verse three.

Jesus answering them said, have you not read so much as this? He's saying, you don't have a clue what scriptures teach. You have no business teaching anybody, you don't know the scripture, you don't know what they're about, who they're about. And he said, have you never read what David did when himself was hungry, he was hungry, and they which were with him, his men, how he went into the house of God, he went into the temple of God, and did take and eat the showbread, and gave to his men to eat the showbread. which is not lawful to eat except for the priest alone. That's what God's law said. None but the priest could eat the showbread. They did this and ate that bread and did it on Sabbath day, the Lord said.

In another gospel, he says, and one greater than the temple is here. That's him. He's the one the temple pictured. Everything about it pictured him. And he said here, unto them, the son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath. In another gospel, he said the Lord didn't make the Sabbath, he made the Sabbath for a man to give him rest. But Sabbath wasn't made for man, or man wasn't made for the Sabbath.

That's a picture, brethren, all this is a picture of Christ. He's the bread who feeds his hungry people. David pictured that. Christ is who was pictured in David and Christ brings us to the temple of God. He brings us to his house where the gospel is preached and he's the bread that feeds us because we're hungry, we have a need. That's what Christ does. He's the rest when he makes you know what he's done for you and how he's fulfilled the law and honored it and made you righteous. He's our rest. We rest in him.

But in the spirit of the law, now this is what I'm gonna deal with a little more here today because I preached a lot on Christ being the Sabbath, and we'll look at that more, but I wanna get at what the Lord is saying here, what they were doing exactly.

You know, the spirit of the law is love. That's what the Lord declared several times. Have compassion on somebody that's in need. Meet the need of your neighbor. That's what the law was saying, our fellow man. That's more important than sacrificing or doing some religious ceremony to keep the letter of the law.

That's what the Pharisees were doing. They just saw in the letter, that's all they really saw was the letter of the law. And then they added all their own commandments to it. It wasn't the word of God. The apostles were men, they were hungry. This was their fellow man. This was their neighbor that was hungry. And they would rather stone them for breaking a law, a commandment. They needed something to eat. They needed something to eat. They were hungry. Our Lord did for us what he did for his people that day. They were hungry. And he gave them bread.

He took them to that cornfield and they ate bread. It was his cornfield. The whole world's his. Everything's his. There's God standing before them, they're saying this too. He owns everything. And our Lord did for us, he does for us what he did for them. Worst apostles, they're not speaking. The Lord does the talking. And he stands between his people and these men.

He said over in Matthew 12, seven, let me just give this to you. He's quoting Hosea, but in Matthew 12 in verse seven, he says, if you had known what this means, I will have mercy and not sacrifice. He said, then you would not have condemned the guiltless, the innocent. If you knew what this meant, you wouldn't have condemned the guiltless. I'll have mercy, not sacrifice. Go with me to Hosea 6. Hosea 6, this is where it comes from, where the Lord said that. I'll have mercy, not sacrifice. It says here in Hosea 6 and verse 6.

He says, I desired mercy. I desired mercy and not sacrifice. And the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. What did we just read, Adam? David said, you don't delight in burnt offerings. You're not looking for burnt offerings from your people. Well, here the Lord says, I desired mercy, not sacrifice. And the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

God delights to show mercy to sinners. That's what was missing that day. Here's hungry people. And the Lord was merciful to them. He took them to a cornfield and they ate the corn. But these Pharisees showed no mercy. They want to pour out judgment. They wanna pour out judgment.

Just before this, the Lord said, thy judgments are like the light that goes forth. God's judgments are like the light that penetrates the heart. But the judgment of man, it's just fading, it's nothing. And the Lord said, if you knew what this meant, that I desire mercy, not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the guiltless.

And he delights in mercy. That's why he sent his son for his people. He delights to show mercy. And our Lord Jesus showed us mercy by, instead of coming to us with the law and condemning us like the Pharisees, he laid down his life for us. He came, just like they're sitting there and they're saying all this, the Lord's between them and the Pharisee, and the Lord's doing the talking. Well, the Lord came between us and the law, for his people and laid down his life for his people and suffered and bled. Why?

Because God delights in mercy. And it was the Lord that gave that scripture to Hosea. And then that day when he was looking at those Pharisees, And he said, if you knew what this meant, I will have mercy and not sacrifice. He's telling them, he's God. He's saying, I'm the one that gave that verse to. When he said, I will, it was really him that said it. I will have mercy, not sacrifice. And he said, you know what Micah says, who's a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage.

He doesn't retain his anger forever because he delights in mercy. He delights in mercy. The only reason we're saved is because he delights in mercy. He sent the gospel to us because he delights in mercy. Now, he didn't just pardon our sin and he didn't just forget it and put it, you know, he had to take care of it. His law had to be honored. So he sent his son because he delights in mercy. Christ laid down his life because he delights in mercy.

He justified us because he delights in mercy. He came and taught us this gospel because he delights in mercy. He gave us the spirit of his son and eternal life through faith. Gave us the faith, gave us the life, gave us everything involved because he delights in mercy. And he delights when his people show mercy. That's how much he delights in mercy, when his people show mercy.

He doesn't have any desire for our sacrifices. He's not looking for our sacrifices. When we're here, there's some form involved. We have to come into a building, sit down, hear the gospel preached, we sing songs, we do things. There's some form involved. But the Lord's not looking at the form. He's looking at the heart and the motive for the form.

And that's so in everything he does. And he knew their heart. We're gonna see that later in another, but the passage right after our text, the Lord knew their hearts. He knew what they were thinking when he healed this man with a withered hand. But everything about that day pictures Christ. The temple, the bread, the corn, everything about it. Him standing there between Him and the Pharisees to protect His people, everything is to His glory. Everything is to His glory. And because of what He's done and because of what, that God delights in mercy, He's the end of the law for righteousness. He has satisfied it better than any, we couldn't do it, and He did it. so thoroughly that God's satisfied, because his law's honored, and he's the end of the law for his people. But the Pharisees were doing just the opposite of love. This was hate.

Are you still there in Hosea? I want you to see this, Hosea 6. Listen to what the Lord says here. He says, I desire mercy, not sacrifice, the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. But they, like men, this is what men are accustomed to do, they, like men, have transgressed the covenant. They've broken my law, he's saying. There have they dealt treacherously against me.

And that day, in Hosea's day, that's what men were doing. But that day when the Lord was standing there and the Pharisees began to condemn him and charge him and his disciples for breaking the Sabbath, they were dealing treacherously with God. And the Lord said, and when you do it to one of these, the least of my brethren, you've done it to me. And by charging his people, somebody he died for and justified, they were dealing treacherously with our Lord, with our Savior.

And look at this now, self-righteousness is murder. It's murder, condemning others, using the law. It's sin, it's iniquity, it's not righteousness, and it's murder. And look here at Hosea chapter six. They, like men, have transgressed the covenant. They've dealt treacherously against me. Gilead is a city of them that work iniquity and is polluted with blood, and as troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder in the way by consent, for they commit lewdness." That day, that wasn't righteousness. These men thought they were keeping the law. They weren't working righteousness, and it was iniquity. It fell short of the glory of God.

And when they charged the Lord and his people, he said, just like a troop of robbers lie in wait to murder and rob a man. He said, that's what these people are doing. And that's what they were doing. He says on down the page and after our text, he says, they were watching the Lord that they might find something to accuse him with. And that's the heart of a self-righteous heart, is looking to find something, lying in wait like a robber. And then when condemning, murdering, murdering, and that's truly how God sees it. He looks on the heart and that's how he sees it.

This is somebody Christ, his people, he's laid down his life for his people. He said in Romans 8, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justified them. Christ who died is God, and he justified them, and he's risen, and he intercedes for his people. Who's gonna charge them?

Who's gonna, I'll tell you this, the next time that you, that we have this Pharisee in our nature, our old nature, and the next time that self-righteous Pharisee starts rearing his head and we want to point the finger and to charge somebody, remember, we were these Pharisees, dead in sins, and the Lord came and laid down his life for us, and he came to us and he showed us mercy. He gave us mercy. Now, if he would have condemned, it would have been just, wouldn't it? And yet he came And not only, he came and poured out his blood for us to death and then gave us life and then just was, been nothing but merciful to us. That's the answer to everything that we face in this world, brethren. You know, we go through a trial and it don't matter what the trial is.

The Lord is bringing us again to see his faithfulness to us. He's bringing us again to see his power to save us. He's bringing us again to see, you know, you get in a trial and you're full of unbelief, that's sin. You end up doing something that's sinful, trying to get out of it, that's sin. And yet the Lord continues to be merciful and he makes you see that. He makes you see that left to ourselves. We're just unbelieving, proud, self-righteous Pharisees. And yet the Lord showed us mercy and taught us that he's all our salvation.

And he does this over and over and over. And that's the cure to every problem we have, is for him to turn us again to behold Christ. That subdues this fleshly nature by his spirit. That brings us to be strengthened in our new man to look to him. The answer is always the gospel of Christ. That's always the answer.

And worst of all, they were robbing Christ of his glory. Not only lying in wait to charge him with something and murder, the robbery they committed that day was robbing Christ of the praise due to him. All you can say is these men didn't know the Lord. They didn't know the Lord.

He declared to them, He's God. He said in verse 5, Luke 6, 5, He said, the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath. He said the Son of Man. He declared to them that the man that's standing there before them, that they thought was only a man, that He's God.

He's the Lord of the Sabbath. He gave that law of the Sabbath along with every other law. He knows if his disciples have broken the law, he gave the law, it's his law. But this is what it says in another gospel. He said unto them, the Sabbath was made for man. The Lord did that showing mercy, didn't he? Men worked and their beasts worked and everybody was laboring all week. He gave them a day to rest. That's what it was for. So their beasts could rest, their animals could rest.

And man took it and turned it into a work to try to sacrifice to God and think God's gonna be pleased. That's us just taking the things of God and not understanding unless he gives you spiritual discernment and twisting everything to give ourselves glory and put it in our hand. That's what they had done.

And so he's telling them here he's God, and he's saying he gave the Sabbath to give men rest. But here's the most important reason he gave the Sabbath, to declare that he is our rest, to show he is our rest. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Sabbath is so you can rest from working. That's what it's for.

He gave himself. and so honored the law. So he did all the works. He did all the working. He finished it completely so that we can rest in him. We can rest in him. He honored the law so God's judgment is settled. He died for the sins of us breaking all the law, all the laws we've broken.

Did you see the bulletin this morning? The thoughts of foolishness is sin. You ever had any foolish thought? What is a foolish thought? Anything that is not in perfect conformity to God's holiness is sin. That's all we do. And yet the Lord went to the cross and the sin he bore is us breaking the laws. It's us breaking every law there is.

And he answered in our room instead. He answered in our place. He didn't come and point the finger at us. He didn't come and charge us. He didn't come and I could just picture these Pharisees all sour faced and pointing at the Lord and his disciples. He didn't do that to us. He came and had compassion on us and saved us.

You know, in a courtroom, when the prosecutor has no more evidence, they say, your honor, the state rests. No more charges. Nothing else. We can't bring forth any more evidence to charge the defendant. The state rests. And brethren, the Lord's people, there was all this evidence of sin that could have been charged to us. But because of what Christ did for his people, the message of the gospel is the prosecution rests. The Lord is not charging us. And he's done it justly. And the verdict has come down from the judge, not guilty. They're not guilty.

And you know, when the Lord Jesus cried from the cross and said, it is finished, the Greek word is a legal word. And it means, The debt is paid in full. That's what it means. The debt's paid in full. The law demands, the law's demands were met by Christ the life. This is the message of the gospel. So that you can rest. You can rest in Christ.

And in that cross, in that cross, what Christ did, we see the love of the law. We see the love of the law. Now, when the Lord gives us the spirit, we understand then, for the first time, like Paul did, the law is spiritual, and I'm carnal, sold under sin. I can't come to God by the works of the law. because the law reaches to the thoughts and intents of the heart. He made us die all our good works. He showed us that the self-righteous man that we thought was so good before God died, has died. We died that day. We can't put confidence in our works.

But brethren, he does give us a new heart to love him and love his people. And this new heart, We see the love that the law requires. Christ Jesus laid down his life because he loved God and he loved his people. If you look at the law, if we were looking at the law, you've got all these commandments on the left to God and all these commandments on the right to your neighbor, and in the middle's the Sabbath. And the Lord Jesus loved his father, and when he loved his father so much that he perfectly obeyed him and laid down his life to honor that law, that's what we did in him. That's what all God's elect did in him.

We perfectly honored the father and in love, in perfect love. And then when he laid down his life for his people, we perfectly honored the second table of the law. We perfectly loved our neighbor as ourselves in Christ and our brethren as ourselves. and even our enemies. And he did that. And that's the love of the law. He didn't come and condemn us. He came and laid down his life for us.

And he did that for God and he did it for his people. And now, in him, God is satisfied. God rests. He rests his case against his people. No more sin. The gavel goes down. Not guilty. Righteous, more than not guilty. He rewarded us double. He says, you're righteous. And you're righteous with a righteousness that'll never be taken from you. You can't mess it up. Sin will never be charged. And you see now that he's united you with people that are just like you, not trying to put on airs and act like we keeping the law, but confessing our fault, we're sinners. And, but he's given you a heart to love one another. And he makes it so that anytime we want to start charging and blaming and exalting ourselves, how does he correct that?

Points you again to the mercy of the Lord toward you and makes us see, I need to show mercy. I tell you this, when you've gone through a really hard trial and the Lord again has shown you his mercy, for, When you're fresh coming out of that, you just want to be merciful to people. You just think, oh, I want to be merciful. And I wish we could stay there. I wish we could keep that heart. But it'll be a little while, and we'll gradually, you know, pride creeps in, and we gradually, gradually, and we need to go through another trial and be brought to the point where we want to show mercy again. And he keeps doing that. He keeps doing that. Now I'm gonna end with this. Look with me to Matthew 11. Anybody here that God has made you to know something of your sin, listen to what the Lord Jesus says right here.

He is the rest of his people. He says right here, he says in verse 28, come unto me, all you that labor, and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and I'm lowly in heart and you shall find rest for your souls because my yoke is easy and my burden is light. The yoke he gives his people is to believe on him and love one another and he The reason it's light is because He's the one that enables you to believe Him and to love your brethren. He's carrying you and the yoke. That's why it's light. And it's not all the mass of the law that they had to follow. Trust Christ and love one another, and He is your power and strength to do it.

Look with me at John chapter 6. And when you're hungry, anybody that's hungry, In John chapter 6, he told them right here, he said, and they asked him, what must we do that we might work the works of God? And he says to them right here in verse 29, this is the work of God that you believe on him whom he has sent. See? Faith in Christ, he robes you in perfect obedience to the law. That's what he robes us in, perfect obedience to the law, his righteousness. And then he keeps feeding you from that day forward. He's the corn, look here, John 6, 35.

He said, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger. He that believeth on me shall never thirst. Look at verse 57, he said, as the living father has sent me, and I live by the father, so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came down from heaven, not as your fathers did eat manna and are dead. He that eateth this bread shall live forever." And when he says there, you're never gonna be hungry, what he means is you're gonna always have bread. he's gonna make sure you always have the gospel. And for his earthy bread, he'll provide that too.

But now listen, that don't mean you make a profession and that's it. I've eaten a lot in 56 years and I get hungry again and I have to go eat again. Well, if you're alive spiritually, it's gonna be just like it is physically. If you're alive and well, when you eat dinner tonight, By breakfast tomorrow, you're gonna wanna eat again. And if you're alive and well spiritually, you ate Christ today in this gospel, but by Wednesday, we're meeting on Wednesday this week, by Wednesday, you're gonna be hungry again.

And he's the bread. We're resting in him, we're feeding upon him, and when we need mercy, he delights to show us mercy for Christ's sake. And so he tells you now, You be merciful. You to be merciful. That's what he delights in. Be merciful and love each other and speak of Christ to one another. That's the answer every time. We need to be reminded of our Lord Jesus. All right, brethren, Brother Adam.