Well, good morning to everyone.
If you would care to open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 12,
we're going to continue our Bible study in the book of Matthew
chapter 12 this morning. Before we begin, let's bow together
in prayer. Our Father, we're so thankful
for this, another opportunity that you have given to your people
out of the storehouses of your mercy and grace, to hear your
gospel preached, to hear one more time the gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Father, I pray that you'd bless
us this morning, that you would bless us with an hour of true
worship. Father, enable us to worship
you in spirit and in truth. Enable us to forget about all
of the cares responsibilities and goings-on of this life and
this world. Father, for just this hour, enable
us to set our affection on things above, to give us a hunger and
a thirst to hear again of Christ our Savior. Father, enable us
to hear. Give us a mind that would retain
the things that you would have us to hear this morning. Give
us a heart that would believe what we hear this morning. Give
us heart that you have made good ground, that your seed might
be planted in our heart, that we not lose it, that it not be
swept away, but seed that you would plant in our heart and
cause to grow the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and bring forth
30, 60, 100 fold according to your will and purpose. Father,
we're thankful for the many blessings of this life. Even at this time
of such trouble and turmoil in our world, Father, You've blessed. You especially blessed Your people,
and we're thankful. We pray Your continued hand of
mercy and grace and leadership be upon us. And Father, we pray
You'd bless Your Word. Oh, how we pray You'd cause Your
Word to go forth in power. There's so much that we do need
in this life, but Father, we need We need Your Word. We need
to be fed in Your Word. We need to be given life from
Your Word. Cause Your Word to go forth in power. Father, reveal
to Your people, reveal to our hearts, reveal to this world
Your glory, the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Reveal Your
glory. Somehow, someway, in these difficult
times, reveal Your glory to us, Father, we pray. And we do pray
for our world. We pray for our country, Father,
you would move in some way to give relief from this awful sickness
that is in the world and suffering of people. And Father, above
all, we pray that you would enable your people to be able to meet
together again to worship thee. Be with our leaders and our medical
people that you enable them to lead us the right way that we
should go and to provide some relief from this suffering. Father,
for those who are hurting and sick and bereaved, Father, we
pray for them. Those who have so recently lost
loved ones, Father, we pray for them. We pray for our brother
Dan, the loss of his mother. We pray for Shelby Fortner and
that whole family and the church there at Danville and the loss
of our brother Fortner, that you would comfort their hearts
and that you would lead and guide and provide there for them. and
others who are sick and hurting. Father, we pray for them. Thou
art the great physician. And we pray that You'd comfort
their hearts and heal their bodies according to Your will and purpose.
In all these things we ask, Father, in that name which is above every
name, the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's for His sake we
pray and give thanks. Amen. Alright, I've titled our
lesson this morning, The Lord of the Sabbath. In verse 8 of
our text here, Matthew 12, Savior tells us that's who He is, the
Lord of the Sabbath. He says, for the Son of Man is
Lord even of the Sabbath day. Now what does that mean? That
the Lord, Lord Jesus Christ, is the Lord of the Sabbath. The
subject of this whole passage that we'll look at this morning
is spiritual rest. That's the subject. Spiritual
rest is believing Christ. It's resting in Christ. Now,
there's no rest for your soul to be found in trying to keep
the law. There's no rest for your soul to be found in trying
to observe the ceremonies of religion and to keep all the
man's religious traditions. There's no rest for your soul
there. Spiritual rest for your soul is only found in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, that is a summary of what
we see in our text this morning. I want us to see about three
things this morning. First is this. I want us to see the wrong
view of rest. I want us to see where rest does
not come from. Rest cannot come from trying
to observe the commandments of the law. Verse 1, Matthew chapter
12, you got it? At that time, Jesus went on the
Sabbath day through the corn and his disciples weren't hungered
and began to pluck the ears of corn and to eat. But when the
Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, behold, thy disciples do
that which is not lawful to do upon the Sabbath day. and no
care that the disciples were hungry, your disciples are doing
what is not lawful to do upon the Sabbath day. Now, the Pharisees
were furious about this. I mean, they were just furious.
You can just see them coming to the Lord just in a frenzy. The Lord's disciples picked these
ears of corn and ate them as they walked through the field
on the Sabbath day. And they said, well, you've broken the
law. You're no religious leader at all. You're a heretic to let
your disciples break the law this way. Now, it's important
for us to understand right off that the disciples did not break
the law of the Sabbath. Acts of necessity, acts of mercy,
and acts of worship were all permitted on the Sabbath day.
And the disciples, what they broke was the tradition of the
Jews. They didn't break the Mosaic
law. They broke the tradition of the Jews. The Pharisees, over
the years, have added pages and pages and pages of restrictions,
additions to the law of the Sabbath that God gave to Moses. One writer
I read this week made this statement. He said it was harder to rest
on the Sabbath than it was to work the other six days of the
week because of all these additional restrictions that the Pharisees
had added. And the tradition that they'd
added particularly in what happened on this day was apparently it
was okay to pick corn on the Sabbath day, but you could not
rub the corn on the Sabbath day. What a distinction that they
made. This is what they added. And that is exactly what you
get when you try to follow the traditions of men and not the
gospel. The traditions of men are constantly
changing, constantly being added to the gospel. Never changes. There's no additions, no subtractions
ever to the gospel. Trying to follow the traditions
of men will lead you to this kind of error. See, man's nature
is to restrict, restrict, restrict, and keep restricting what people
do outwardly, and to totally ignore the heart. Man, by nature,
always ignores the spiritual nature of the law. They're very
concerned with the outward, but they ignore the spiritual nature
of the law. Man by nature always ignores
the true meaning of the law. The true meaning of the law is
not in the outward, it's the inner, it's in the heart. Man
by nature always ignores the true meaning of the word of God,
the true meaning of the gospel. Man by nature gets so caught
up in the form and the ceremony of religion that if we're not
careful, we'll miss the purpose of religion altogether. We get
so caught up in the form and the ceremony of religion We miss
the life and the blessing that's found in Christ. We get our mind
and eye off of Christ onto all of our religious traditions and
ceremonies of religion. And this is what the Lord shows
us that happens when we follow man's religion. In verse three,
he says unto these Pharisees, these religious leaders, these
religious scholars, he said unto them, have you not read? Have
you not read? He asked these men, have you
not read God's word? Haven't you understood? He told
them in another place, you do search the scriptures. So haven't
you understood what God's word says when you read it? You don't
understand. Can you imagine what an insult
this was to the Pharisees? Have you not read? The Lord insults
them, doesn't he? He insults what should be insulted. He insults man's pride. He insults
man's arrogance. He insults man's self-righteous
nature. He insults how men try to add
to God's Word. And what the Lord says, this
insult to the Pharisees should be so shocking to us, it should
wake us up and make us listen. He says, have you not read that
acts of necessity are permitted on the Sabbath day. Verse 3,
he says, But he said unto them, Have you not read what David
did when he was in hunger, and they that were with him? How
he entered into the house of God and did eat the showbread,
which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which
were with him, but only for the priests? Have you not read and
understood what that story means? The Lord says. Now, you know
this. The only people who are allowed
to eat those loaves of showbread in the temple were the priest.
That was the law. That showbread was for the priest
and his family to eat. Only the priest and his family
were permitted by the law to eat that showbread. But that
day David and his men, they were on the run from Saul and they
showed up and they ate that showbread. And they could do that and not
be guilty of breaking the law because eating that bread was
an act of necessity. They were starving and they didn't
have anything else to eat. And the law says that was an
act of necessity. So it's not breaking, it's not
a violation of the law. Well, then it was just fine,
the Lord is saying, for his disciples to pick ears of corn and eat
them too. When they were hungry, even though
it was on the Sabbath day, this was an act of necessity. And
there's a warning for us here. I think we ought to be careful.
People can become so rigid. They can become so doctrinally
straight that they become mean to people instead of being merciful,
instead of being helpful. That was what was going on with
the Pharisees at this time. And the Lord had to show them
that acts of necessity are permitted on the Sabbath day. Then he shows
us that work on the Sabbath day, actual work performed on the
Sabbath day, work that was for the worship of God, that was
permitted under the law. Verse five, he says, or have
you not read in the law how that on the Sabbath day, the priest
in the temple profane the Sabbath and are blameless. Now remember,
you know, the law of the Sabbath is you can't work on the Sabbath
day. But the priest on the Sabbath day in the temple, they worked
all day long. They were offering sacrifices,
several sacrifices every Sabbath day. And to offer that sacrifice,
well, they had to take the animal. They had to work and they had
to go get that animal. They had to kill that animal. They had
to cut up that animal, they had to draw a quarter of that sacrifice
up. They had to gather wood and put
the wood on the altar and keep that fire going so they could
have a burnt offering. There's a lot of work involved
in that. They did that all day long. Also on the Sabbath day,
the priest would make the dough and they would knead the dough
to make the showbread to put out on the table of showbread
in the temple. They worked all day long. Yet
they were blameless. They were not guilty of breaking
the law, the law of the Sabbath, because work done in the service
of God, work done in the worship of God was permitted by the law.
These men had forgotten the whole point of the Sabbath day was
to worship God. They'd forgotten that. So then
work, acts done in the worship of God would be permitted by
the law. That was the whole point of the Sabbath in the first place,
was to worship God. Now the disciples were not priests,
but they were with one a whole lot greater than the temple.
Look here at verse six. But I say unto you that in this
place is one greater than the temple. There's one greater than
the temple. You men respect that temple?
There's one greater than that here. And there's one far greater
than all of your traditions here. The Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation
Himself is here. Righteousness Himself is here.
Salvation is in Him. Righteousness is in Him. Rest
in Him. The whole point of the law is
here. And you're looking at these disciples
eating a handful of corn. not looking at Him who is salvation,
who is righteousness. You're not looking at Him in
whom the whole Godhead rests in a body. You've got your eyes
off the goal, off the main thing. The main thing is Christ and
you've got your eyes on the disciples eating some corn. My goodness.
Well, next the Lord shows us acts of mercy on the Sabbath
day. Work to perform an act of mercy on the Sabbath day was
permitted, verse 11. And he said unto them, what man
shall there be among you that shall have one sheep? And if
it fall into a pit on the Sabbath day, will he not lay hold on
it and lift it out? How much then is a man better
than a sheep? Wherefore, it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath
days. Now here's the one who wrote
the law, says it's good, it's good, it's lawful to do well
on the Sabbath day, to perform an act of mercy. This goes back
to what I said a minute ago. You know, we can get so caught
up in being rigidly straight, rigidly straight in our traditions
and things that we become mean, unloving, and unmerciful. Now,
by no means, by no means am I saying we should compromise the gospel
to get along with people and make people feel good. That's
not what I'm saying. I'm saying that we can get so caught up
in our traditions and the way we want to do things that we
become mean, unloving, and unmerciful. You cannot compromise the gospel
and not be unmerciful and unloving about it. You understand what
I'm saying, right? We're not to compromise the gospel
just to make people feel better. We're not in the feel-good business.
We're not to compromise the gospel ever. But you cannot compromise
and still be loving and caring about folks. And so this is what
the Lord's saying. If you had an animal that fell
into a pit on the Sabbath day, Well, of course you'd lift it
out. You're not going to let the animal suffer down there. Of course
you're going to lift it out. Your animal is your responsibility
to take care of, and the law permitted an act of mercy like
that. The law permitted an act of mercy to relieve an animal
from suffering on the Sabbath day. Then, of course, if the
law permits you to do that for an animal, of course the law
permits you to do an act of mercy. Work that is an act of mercy
for a man, for a person. You know, God is merciful. That's
God's character. He is merciful. So mercy is always
permitted. Mercy is always permitted. Acts
of mercy are permitted because you know what? Mercy is the whole
point of God's law. Now, I promise you the Pharisees
didn't know that. The law was not given so we would
have something to do or not do that would make God happy with
us. The law was written, the law was given to you and me to
show us how much we need mercy because we can't make God happy
with us, because we can't keep the law. So the law was given
to show us our need of mercy. That's the whole point of the
law. We need mercy, we need Christ. That's the whole point of the
law and the Pharisees had no understanding of that. So the
wrong view of Sabbath rest, the wrong way to go about trying
to get rest is the works of the law. You'll never have rest by
what you do or what you don't do trying to obey the law. That's
the wrong view of the law. Well, then what is the right
view of the Sabbath? That's the second thing I want
to look at. What is the right view of the Sabbath? Well, the
right view of the Sabbath law is the same view as all of the
law. The whole point of Sabbath rest,
the law of Sabbath rest, is to point us to Christ. to rest in
Christ, who He is and what He has done for His people. My friend,
don't ever try to rest in how well you've kept the law, how
well you've kept religious ceremonies or the traditions of your fathers.
The law can't give you rest. The ceremonies can't give you
rest. The law, all it can do is give you more commandments.
It can never give you rest. The ceremonies can't give you
rest because salvation is not in the ceremony. Salvation is
in a person. The law can't give us rest because
we can't obey the law. All the law can do is condemn
us. The law can never give a sinner
rest. So the whole point of the Sabbath
law is to tell us, don't rest in what you do or what you don't
do, but rest in Christ. That's the whole point of the
Sabbath law. Now it is significant to note
this. When did this conversation take
place? It took place right after the
Lord said, come unto me and rest. Look back up in chapter 11, verse
28. Come unto me, me, all ye 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 lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest
for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden
is light. The Savior said, if you want
rest, Come to me. Come to a person. It's all in
me. He tells the weary, if you are weary of trying and failing
to keep the law, come to me and rest. Are you tired? Are you
so just bone tired? Because you cannot keep the law.
No matter how hard you try, you can't do it. Are you weary? He
says, come unto me. Come to Christ and rest. If you're
burdened down with all the commandments of the law, and you're burdened
down with all the added traditions of men, come to Christ. If you can't carry that burden,
come to Christ and rest. Rest in Him. That is the whole
meaning of the Sabbath law. See, the right view of all of
God's law is not our personal obedience to it. The right view
of the law and the right view of the Sabbath is grace and mercy
that's in Christ. Who kept the law for us? And
the Savior said, you'd understood that the whole meaning of this
is grace and mercy. You'd understood that if you'd
heard what I said before. See what he says in verse 7?
But if you had known what this meaneth, I'll have mercy and
not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the guiltless.
Now the Savior, the judge of all the earth said his disciples
are guiltless. This didn't give them guilt. because they took
this corn and ate it on the Sabbath day. They're guiltless. Why are
they guiltless? Because of God's grace and mercy.
The only way God can accept sinners like you and me is if God is
merciful. Our inability to keep the law
ought to make that obvious to us. God can't accept us by how
we keep the law. He can only accept us in mercy. We desperately need God's mercy. And thankfully, God delights
to show mercy to sinners. God will never be pleased with
our motions of religion, but God's pleased with Christ. God
will never be pleased with how well we keep the law, but he's
pleased with Christ. God is pleased to show sinners
mercy for Christ's sake and give them rest in Christ. That's what
the Sabbath law is all about. Now think back to the first Sabbath
day, very first Sabbath day. Who observed? Who kept the first
Sabbath day? God did. The Sabbath day is on
Saturday. Saturday is the seventh day of
the week. The Sabbath day falls on Saturday, the seventh day
of the week, because for six days, the first six days, God
worked in creation. On the seventh day, the Sabbath
day, Saturday, God rested. Now God didn't rest because he
was tired and he needed a day off. God rested from his work
of creation because the work was finished. The work was all
done and the work was done perfectly. At the end of that sixth day
when God had created everything, God looked and he saw everything
he made was very good. It was very good. Everything
was done perfectly. No more work left to do. So God
rested. And many years later, the law
came. God gave the law to Moses. And
the law gives us many, many, many, many, many commandments.
And you and I can't keep one of them. Christ came. When Christ came in the flesh,
he obeyed every commandment of the law. The Lord Jesus did every
thou shalt of the law, and he did it perfectly. The Lord Jesus
did not do one, thou shalt not of the law. He didn't even want
to. He did it perfectly. He kept the law outwardly, but
he also kept it inwardly, in his heart. It was his motive. You and I sometimes, we might
not do something outwardly, but it's our desire to do it inwardly.
Well, that makes us guilty. The Lord Jesus never even desired
to do something sinful inwardly. He kept the law in motive. It
was his delight to keep God's law. He kept the law so perfectly,
He honored it and He magnified it. Now all through His earthly
ministry, our Lord Jesus worked hard at finishing the work that
the Father had given Him to do. And He was a perfect, faithful
servant, wasn't He? And when all of that work was
done, all the work the Father gave Him to do, the work of righteousness
was done. Righteousness had been established
by Christ's obedience to the law. And when His sacrifice had
completely paid for all of the sin of all of God's elect, the
work was done, everything was done. Everything the Father gave
Him to do, He did. What did He say at that moment?
It is finished. All the work is finished. The
work of redemption is finished. And just like creation, God looked
at that finished work and He said, it's very good. It's very good. Everything the
Lord Jesus Christ has done is perfect. It's very good. Now
remember, the Sabbath started when God observed the first Sabbath
and God rested on that Sabbath day because the work was finished.
All right, how can you and I obey the Sabbath law? Look at Hebrews
chapter four. How can you and I obey the Sabbath
law? The answer is very simple. It's
by believing Christ. If you believe Christ, you'll
rest. You'll have your Sabbath rest
in Him. Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 9. There remaineth therefore a rest
to the people of God. Now, the Sabbath rest under the
Old Testament law, that wasn't the rest of the people of God.
Entering into the promised land, the land that God promised to
give Israel, that was not the rest. They had both of those
things. They had the law of the Sabbath. They had entered into the land
of Canaan, the land God promised them, but that wasn't the rest.
There remains, therefore, rest to the people of God. Here it
is, verse 10. He that has entered into his rest, he also has ceased
from his own works, as God did from his. Now, God rested from
all of his work of creation because there was no more work left to
do. That's Sabbath rest. Well, if you and I would believe
Christ, we believe that Christ has finished all the work of
redemption. If we believe Christ, we believe
this. There's no more works left of the law for me to do in order
to be saved. Christ finished it all. He already did it all.
Well, if Christ finished all of the work, what's left for
me to do? To rest. To rest. Because we believe He
is enough. We believe that Christ is enough.
We believe everything that Christ did is enough, is all it takes
to save me. So if we believe Christ, you
know what we'll do? If we truly believe Christ, this is what
we'll do. We'll quit trying to please God by what we do or what
we don't do. And we'll rest in Christ because
He pleased the Father. I can't please the Father, but
Christ did, so I'm gonna rest in Him. What I do and what I
don't do can never please God, but what Christ did pleased the
Father. So if I believe Christ, this is what I'll do. I'll rest
in Christ. I'll quit trying to do things
to make God happy with me and rest in Christ. See, that is
entering into His rest. If you believe Christ, you'll
enter into His rest, into God's rest. God rested because the
work was done. That is entering into the rest
that Christ earned for His people when He obeyed the law for them
and He finished all of the work for them. That is how Christ
is the Lord of the Sabbath. And the writer to the Hebrews
tells us to labor, work, work hard at entering into this rest. See what he says, verse 11 of
Hebrews 4? Let us labor, therefore, to enter into that rest, lest
any man fall after the same example of unbelief. See, not resting
is unbelief, but resting is belief in Christ, believing and resting
in Him. And this is what he tells us,
because we're in the flesh, this is a fact. We have to constantly
work to quit trying to do things to make God happy with us. This
is what the flesh wants to do. The flesh is religious. It just
is self-righteous. It wants to earn. It wants to
earn its religion. It wants to have its religion
be something it can earn from God. That's what the flesh wants.
And you and I, even though we're believers, are still in the flesh.
So we have to constantly work to quit doing what the flesh
tells us to do. We have to constantly work at quit trusting our works
of the flesh. And all that can happen so suddenly.
You know, you ought to do acts of mercy. Acts of mercy were
permitted on the Sabbath day under the law. You ought to do
acts of mercy. You ought to do acts of kindness.
You ought to do acts in the worship of God. But it can be subtle
if you start relying on those things. If you start thinking,
oh, that makes me a better Christian. That makes me higher up on the
food chain, you know. We have to constantly work to
lay that stuff down. We have to constantly work on
trusting in that stuff and to rest in Christ. Now, work to
rest, work to rest. That sounds like a contradiction
in terms, doesn't it? But that is the lesson. that
the Lord is teaching here, to rest in Him. Believe Christ and
rest in Him. That is the true meaning of the
Sabbath law. Alright, now look back in our
text. Here's the third thing I want to show you. Matthew chapter
12. The Savior gives us an example
of what He has been teaching. He gives us an example how He
is the Lord of the Sabbath. Verse 8, Matthew chapter 12.
For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath day, And now he
gives us a stark demonstration that he is the Lord of the Sabbath
day. And when he was departed, thence he went into their synagogue
and behold, there was a man which had his hand withered. And they
asked him saying, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath days?
Asking this, that they might accuse him. And he said unto
them, what man shall there be among you that shall have one
sheep? And if it fall into the pit on
the Sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it and lift it out?
How much then is a man better than a sheep? Wherefore, it is
lawful to do well on the Sabbath days, and here's his example.
Then saith he to the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched
it forth, and it was restored whole, like as the other. Now,
is it right to do an act of mercy on the Sabbath day? You and I
better hope it is. We better hope it is because
that's what we need from God. We need mercy from God. We need
God to do a work of mercy for us. Now, work to rest. That sounds like a contradiction
in terms. That sounds impossible because
working and resting are two opposites. How can I work to rest if working
and rest are two opposite things? It sounds like a contradiction
in terms to tell a man with a withered, paralyzed hand to stretch it
out. That sounds like a contradiction
in terms, doesn't it? This man, the muscles in his
hand and in his arm, they were withered. They were atrophied.
They become smaller and smaller and smaller because of lack of
use. He couldn't use those muscles because they were paralyzed and
they kept getting smaller and smaller and smaller because they
had not been used. That hand could not move. The
muscles in that hand and that arm could not move. It was impossible. But the Lord commanded him to
stretch forth that hand. When the Lord commanded that,
the Lord did an act of mercy. In an act of mercy, He healed
that hand. This was mercy from the Savior.
With the command from the Savior, came the power and the ability
to stretch out that hand. And the Lord healed that hand.
He stretched it out. Now, it sounds like a contradiction
to work to rest. That sounds like a contradiction,
doesn't it? Work to rest in Christ. But with the command from God
comes the ability to obey. God does a work of mercy for
His people and He makes them whole. God does a work of mercy
for His people And he makes them guiltless, blameless. The Lord
here defends. He shows himself here in his
role as advocate for his people. His people are attacked. He acts
as their advocate. He calls them blameless and he
calls them guiltless. Why are they blameless? Why are
they guiltless? Why are they justified? Because
God sees them in Christ. See, God has done a work of mercy
for his people. He's made them guiltless. He
made them blameless, He's justified them, He's done a work of mercy
for them, and He's done a work of mercy in their heart to enable
them to believe Christ and to rest in Him. Now God commands
us, this is His commandment to all men and women. Every son
of Adam is commanded to do what is impossible for the flesh to
do. To quit working, quit trying to please God by what you do,
and to trust Christ, to believe on Him. That's impossible for
the flesh. But with the command from God
comes the ability in His people to believe Christ and to rest
in Him. The ability comes from a work
of mercy that God does in His people, making them whole and
giving them a new heart of faith. The Lord healed this man. He no longer is going to have
to be a beggar. He can go work for himself. He
can provide for himself. Everybody should have been happy
to see this man healed. And you know, some people are
never satisfied. Look at verse 14. Then the Pharisees
went out and held a council against him, how they might destroy him. These men wanted to destroy the
Lord Jesus because he'd healed a man on the Sabbath day. I'm
telling you, that's how far down the rabbit hole we go when we
try to be so rigid and so firm holding to our traditions. You
know why these Pharisees were so mad? Because the Lord attacked
their hope. He attacked their hope in themselves. He attacked their hope in their
traditions. He attacked their hope there
was something other than Christ alone, and they got so mad, they
got so angry, And wannabe theologians do the exact same thing today
when you shut them up to Christ. When you preach and you shut
them up to the Word of God, it doesn't matter what your religious
traditions say, what does God's Word say? Oh, they get so mad
and they attack you, they spend a lifetime attacking you. But you know who was happy? Somebody
was mad and somebody was happy. You know who was happy? The object
of mercy. Can you imagine that man? He's
just walking home, just looking at that hand, stretching that
hand out. He'd reach and pick something up. He was so happy
the Lord had healed him. That's how God's people are,
who rest in Christ. Oh, they're so happy. They're
so happy to rest in Christ. To think that God's Son came
and did for me what I can't do for myself, enabled me to rest
in Him. Oh, that makes me so happy. I
hope and pray that God will enable you to rest in Christ this morning.
I pray that resting in Christ will make us happy this morning,
happy in God's mercy and grace to us. All right. The Lord bless
you.