Turn to Mark chapter 2. There's
been a lot in this chapter. The rich, well, they're all rich. They're all rich. Sometimes we're
able to see more in one area than we are in another, but they
are all rich. I know the message. Jesus Christ. is Lord of the Sabbath, or Lord
of the rest. I like that title. He is Lord
of the rest. Let's look at this. It came to pass that he went
through the cornfield on the Sabbath day, and his disciples
began as they went to pluck the ears of corn. And the Pharisees
said unto him, Behold, why do they on the Sabbath day that
which is not lawful? It seems that the only purpose
the Pharisees served was to point out everyone's faults. Just to point out faults. I tell
you this, if you want to be saved by the law, here's what the law's
going to do. It's going to point out your
sins. It's going to point out your faults, your sins, your
failures. Before this, they said, why do
your disciples not fast? I said, how can they? I'm with
them. If Christ is with me, what do I have to mourn over? Mourning is when you don't have
Christ. That's something to mourn over now. If you don't have Him,
if you don't know Him, you've got something to mourn over.
But if you have Him, They had no reason to fast. They had no
reason to mourn. Rejoice. Rejoice. Those Pharisees, they
had to point out everyone's faults. They were quick to point out
failures and shortcomings, except theirs. They didn't have any.
You notice they didn't point out covetousness. They didn't
point those things out, did they? They'd be shooting herself in
the foot if they did that. A Christless religion only makes people hard,
mean, unmerciful, and graceless. That's what religion without
Christ will do for you. People who have obtained mercy
are merciful. You can't help but be merciful. People who have tasted of the
grace of God are gracious. Grace produces grace. Produces
grace. That which is not a real part
of you will not come out of you. That which is a real part of
you will come out of you. It's who you are. Verse 23, And it came to pass.
I like that. I like that. Everything that
God has purposed in time comes to pass. This is ordained of
God. This is predetermined of God.
This is ordered of God. And it came to pass at this time. It was time for it to come to
pass. And it did. It did. And He went through the
cornfields on the Sabbath day. You think that was accidental?
You notice most of the miracles our Lord performed were on the
Sabbath day? Most of them. If you'll see in the next chapter,
He enters into a synagogue and He heals a man with a withered
hand and He does it on the Sabbath day. This just shouts He's Lord of
the Sabbath. He's the Lord. He's Lord over
all. He's Lord of all. And these laws
are His laws. The law is His. He's the lawgiver.
So He goes through the cornfield on the Sabbath day, and His disciples
began, as they went, to pluck ears of corn. Over Matthew, it
says, they rubbed it in their hands. They were hungry. I thought, what a meager breakfast.
The Pharisees are so upset over them having such a meager breakfast.
doing this on the Sabbath day. I had a good breakfast this morning. They took some grain of corn
and rubbed the husk off from it, and that's what they had
for breakfast. That's what they had. One of the first things
that jumped out at me is the poverty of His disciples. You
think coming to Christ is going to make you healthy, wealthy,
and rich? You better think again. He said,
you better think long and hard before you join this army. It's
got hardships in it. Hardships in it. I'm sure Levi
had more money and made more money sitting at the receipt
of customs than after the Lord called him and said, follow me. You know, our Lord did not perform
a miracle to relieve himself of hunger or anything, and he
didn't perform a miracle to relieve his disciples. of their hunger. He relieved the hunger of a multitude
of 5,000. A couple of times he did that. He took what? Five loaves. Isn't
that interesting? Isn't that what David took? Didn't
he say, give me five loaves so I can feed my men? We'll look
at this in a minute. Our Lord takes five loaves and
He feeds 5,000. But he never performed a miracle
to relieve his hunger or their hunger. They suffered right there
with him. We don't follow Christ just for
benefits. It's not a benefit package. We
follow Christ because we love him. We love him. Peter, lovest thou me more than
this. It was not what you'd get out
of me. The whole world will follow you for that. They'll knock your
door down for that. But for love? That's why we follow
Christ. Paul said the love of Christ
constrains man. It has to do with love. But also notice here as we go
along, their freedom. Their freedom. The freedom they
had with Christ. The liberty. The liberty that
they had with Christ. Why do your disciples not fast? The disciples of John and the
Pharisees, we fast twice a week. We deny ourselves. Why do they
not fast? Well, they don't need to. Like
I said, they have Him. They have Him. And now they're
saying, why? Why are they allowed to do this? Why are they allowed
to pluck corn on the set? They are breaking the law. No,
they're not. They're not breaking the law.
I'll show you here in a minute. They're not breaking the law. And they're
not stealing either. They're not stealing. Listen
to Deuteronomy 23, 25. 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. But if you're hungry and you're going through
your neighbor's cornfield, you're allowed. They were allowed to
take enough to eat. They were allowed to do that.
So they were not breaking it. They were not stealing. They
were not breaking a law. They were doing exactly what the Lord
allowed them to do. If they had been breaking the
law, don't you think that the Lord Jesus Christ would have
stopped them? He would have said, don't do that. But it was perfectly
legal and perfectly right for them to do it on the Sabbath
day because the Lord of the Sabbath was with them. He set them free. He set them free from that law. It's His law. Listen, it's his
law. He can alter it or change it
or just do away with it. It's just a ritual. And he did
away with it. He said, done. They're not doing
anything wrong here. Necessity, and I want you to
get this. Necessity takes precedence over
rituals, over ceremonies and rituals. The saving of a life. Preservation of a life takes
precedence over keeping a ritual, or a day, or a month, or a year. You can set that aside. It's
more important. It's more important that a life be saved than that
a day be kept. That's important. Mercy, the
scripture says, rejoices over judgment. Those Pharisees, they
wanted judgment. They wanted the hammer to come
down. And they wanted that hammer to come down and say, guilty,
we got you. The Lord said, no, you don't. No, you don't. I'm
Lord of the Sabbath. They can do this. If I will for
them to do this, they can do it. They can do it. Necessity takes precedence over
rituals. I was thinking of this while
sitting up here, but the scripture says, thou shalt not kill. You
know, the law is to our benefit, right? I mean, the law is to
our benefit. Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not slay. That's a
benefit to us. Thou shalt not kill. But what if somebody attacks
this country? What are we going to do? If a man slapped you on the face,
slapped you on the cheek, you turn to him the other cheek.
What if he breaks into your house and your family's in trouble?
Huh? Oh, you ain't going to turn another
cheek. No. Someone attacks this country,
thou shalt not kill. What are you going to do? I'll tell you what you're going
to do. You're going to kill them. We don't like that, do we? But
that's what you're going to do. I thank God for those men and
women who serve this country and have to do what I don't want
to do. I thank God for them. It's a benefit to us, but I tell
you, sometimes Sometimes, you know, we have to do what we don't
want to do. Sometimes. But here's another thing here.
Sinners have a right to the bread of life out of their necessity
and need of Him. You have come unto me, all ye
that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest." You
have a right to come to Christ. If you're laboring, if you're
heavy laden, you have a right to come to Him and eat of the
bread of life. You have a right to. And the Pharisees said unto Him, Ah, we got you. Behold, we got
you. They thought they had something.
They thought they had something. They thought they had an epiphany. Behold, why do they on the Sabbath
day that which is not lawful? You know, those Pharisees, for
years, they added things. You can only walk so far. If
you go back over and read in Exodus, They were not to work
on the set. Let's go over there. I mean,
let me read it to you. I'll tell you when I get there.
Look in Exodus, Chapter 20. Here's here in Exodus, Chapter
20, verse nine, six days to shout out labor and do all that work
in Exodus 20, verse nine. But the seventh day is the Sabbath,
the rest of the Lord thy God. That's His rest. In it thou shalt
not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant,
nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger, that
is within thy gates. All are supposed to rest. That's
within their gates. For in six days the Lord made
heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is. and rested
the Sabbath day. Wherefore, the Lord blessed the
Sabbath day, and he hallowed it." Then they started adding
to it. They could only walk so far. They started putting a lot of
their traditions, and they started tagging them onto it, onto these
things, onto these laws. They said here, the Pharisees
said, now why do they do that which is not lawful? Well, they
weren't working. They ate, the Pharisees ate that
morning. Didn't they eat? All the disciples did was reach
over and pluck the corn and just rubbing their hands, getting
ready to eat. That's all they were doing was eating. They weren't grieving,
they were getting ready to eat. Oh, you know, our Lord said this
in Matthew 12, 7. If you'd known what this meaneth, I would have
mercy and not sacrifice, and you would not have condemned
the guiltless. They're not breaking the law.
How important is it to rightly divide the word of truth? I cannot
stress this enough to us this morning. How important is it
for me, and Frank as he was standing here this morning, and others
who stand here, how important is it to rightly divide the word
of truth? Don't ever sin. And just, and
I mean, don't just sit and assume that everything's right. Take
the Word of God and follow me. Take the Word of God and follow
me. And I tell you this, the sheep know when the truth's being
preached. You know it. You know it. Sometimes there
can be a little deception in it and take you a little while
to figure it out, but you know it. How important is it to rightly
divide the Word of Truth? Ignorance is bondage. Ignorance
is bondage. We must always make sure that
the person we are listening to, the person we are following in
teaching of God's Word, is rightly dividing the Word of Truth. Check
it out. Search the Scriptures. See whether
those things be so. If we follow somebody that's
wrong, that makes two wrongs, and two wrongs don't make a right.
And it never will. It never will. Those Pharisees,
they were nothing more than zealous, jealous hypocrites. That's all they were. They were
so upset because the disciples of Christ did not have to fast,
deny themselves while they were doing so. And then they were
upset because the disciples had the freedom to pluck corn and
eat on a Sabbath day. And they said, well, you're breaking
the law. We can't do that. Yeah, you can. You just don't
understand what you're reading. You don't understand what you're
reading. Now, verse 25 and 26, we have
an example on how to handle our accusers. The Word of God is
the only warrant for our conduct. It's the only warrant for our
conduct. It's the only warrant for our
doctrine. If we cannot justify our conduct, if we cannot justify
our doctrine by the Word of God, then we drop it. Drop it. I don't care if it is tradition. mom, dad, grandpa, and everybody
else behind you did that for years, let it go. They couldn't
let it go. The Pharisees, they could not
let the tradition of the father, they couldn't let these things
go because that was a family thing, it's what they did. Let it go. And he said unto them, our Lord always used the word
of God. I mean, here is the Word of God
speaking. Christ is the Word of God. Christ is God. Christ
is the Lawgiver. But He always reached back and
took the Old Testament Scriptures, the Word of God, and gave it
to them. And He said unto them, Have you
never read what David did? Oh, they read it many, many times. They read it. It's funny when
you like somebody how you can overlook something, isn't it? They thought highly of David.
King David, the man after God's own heart, they thought highly
of him. They just overlooked that. They couldn't stand Christ. They hated him. They hated the
greater David. They hated his disciples. They
didn't overlook anything. They had nothing but absolute
contempt for them. I tell you, if someone has content
for you, they don't overlook anything. Have you ever read what David
did when he had need and was hungry? He and they that were
with him, how he went into the house of God in the days of Abiaphar,
the high priest, and did eat the shewbread, which is not lawful. It's not lawful to eat, but for
the priest, They're the only ones who were to eat it? And
gave also to them which were with him? Have you never read
that? You think that happened back
then? You know, you look at that incident back then and you realize
that went on for a purpose? With this situation right here? I mean, it's amazing when you
read the Scriptures, you reach back there a thousand years ago
and an event happens And David's going through this, and they're
having this real experience at that time, and it's for a gospel
message that the Lord's going to teach years, years, years
later. And he's going to walk through
a cornfield on a Sabbath day, and he's going to reach back
there and give us the truth, teach us the gospel. Isn't that
something? So turn back to 1 Samuel. Let's read it. Have you never
read what we're going through this morning? 1 Samuel 21. We'll read it. I'm going to read the first seven
verses, or the first six verses, six or seven. Then came David to Nob, and Ahimelech
the priest, and Ahimelech was afraid at the meeting of David.
Now some educated nitwit is going to say, he said, Abiathar, and
he's talking about Ahimelech. Well, Abiathar was the son of
Ahimelech, and they were probably both serving at the same time.
Do you have any problem with that? Do you think there's inconsistency
in the Word of God? There's inconsistency here. There's
inconsistency here in us, in our thinking. The inconsistency's
never in the Word of God. You can be sure of this. If you
don't understand it, it's just your fault. It's not the Word
of God. It's not the Word of God. If
you think there's inconsistency, you're the inconsistency. I'm
the inconsistency. Never the Word of God. But you
know why that's written like that? It's a stumbling stone
to unbelievers. The Word of God is written in
such a way that those who believe not stumble. Somebody will choke on this,
and they'll just use it as a proof of inconsistency in the Word
of God. But you who believe, it's clear
as can be. It's God's Word. And what I don't
understand, it's me. All right. Let me go back here
again. Then came David to Nob, to Ahimelech,
The priest in Himalaya was afraid at the meeting of David, and
he said unto him, Why art thou alone, and no man with thee? And David said unto Himalaya
the priest, The king hath commanded me a business, and hath said
unto me, Let no man know anything of the business, whereabout I
send thee. Well, that's not so. David lied to Himalaya. Aren't you glad God saved sinners?
I'm so glad. I read things like this, I'm
thinking, man, he and I are brothers. I mean, I can identify with David.
After this, David faints like he's a madman. God's king, he's
God's king. God anointed king. This is God's
king. But I tell you what, God's king,
David, is a band of like passion like you and I. And God does
not hide our inconsistencies, does he? He doesn't hide it.
He doesn't hide our sinfulness, because you and I, at the end
of the day, are going to look to Christ and Christ alone. They
were looking. They would look today. We have
Abraham. Will you ever read some of the things Abraham did? You
might not want to. You might not want to think about that.
We have Christ. Christ is our Lord. He's our
Sabbath. He's our rest. He's our Redeemer. And I tell you what, there's
no blemish in Him. He's altogether lovely. But the rest of us, we're just like this. But I have
appointed my service to such and such a place. Now, verse
3. Now therefore, what is under thine hand, give me. You know what he's doing? Now,
does this sound like David is asking Ahimelech to give him
five loaves of bread? He's demanding him to do it.
He says, you give it to me. He didn't say, will you please
give it to me? I'm hungry. I'm so hungry. And the people
I've got out there with me. No, this is the king. Therefore,
what is under thy hand? Give me five loaves of bread
in my hand, or what there is present. And the priest answered
David and said, there's no common bread under my hand. This is
showbread. This is holy. But there is hallowed
bread. If the young men, and he says
here, this is the priest talking to David. I'm just going to give
a little message out of this before we go back. If the young
men have kept themselves at least from women, and David answered the priest
and said unto him, of a truth, women have been kept from us
about these three days since I came out. Now you get that,
our Lord? And the vessels of the young
men are holy. Holy. I can just see this. The Gospels
just drips all over this. Our Lord says, these men have
kept themselves from women. You go back over in the Scriptures
and Revelation, you read the great whore. False religion. They're following me. They're
following me. And since I came out three days
ago, they're holy. They are holy. And the bread
is in a manner common. Was not Christ a man? Was he
not a man? He was a real man. A real man. Yea, though it were sanctified
this day in the vessel. So the priest gave him hallowed
bread. For there was no bread there but the shewbread. that
was taken from before the Lord to put hot bread in the day when
it was taken away." Have you never read this? Our Lord said
to those pharisees, have you never read? And I tell you what,
they couldn't answer him a word. They couldn't answer him. He
shut him up. And he shut him up with the Word of God. Have
you read where David went into the tabernacle and he took the
showbread? And he was guiltless? And he
gave to those who were with him? I tell you, the importance here
is put on life. Life. They kept the Sabbath. They were
trying to be so strict and stuff about that. But I tell you what,
the importance, it's more important to save a life than to keep a
day. Far more important to do that
than to keep a ritual or keep a ceremony. Far more important.
Far more important. What if it's your life? How important
is it? If it's your life. Then he gives here the reason
for this Sabbath. And he said unto them, the Sabbath
was made for man. It was given for man's benefit. And not man for the Sabbath.
Man wasn't made for the Sabbath. The Sabbath was made for man.
The Sabbath was made for the benefit of man. That's what he's
saying. It was given for him to rest
from his labors. You see, sin brought in labor. Sin put labor in work. It put
the sweat in it. Adam, by the sweat of thy brow
thou shalt eat thy bread. And the Lord gave a rest. He said, on the sixth day you'll
work, and then the seventh stop. Why is it so hard for us to rest?
It is, isn't it? It is. It's hard to rest. I mean,
really rest. You can sit down in an easy chair
and not rest. You'd be so restless, you'd feel
like you've got to go do something. Just rest. Just sit down and
let everything go. That's the hardest thing to do.
Sit down and just quit worrying. Try it, try it sometimes. Try
to sit down and not worry about something, not be consumed or,
you know, just let it go. Just let it go. And I'll tell
you this, it's impossible, apart from the Lord's work, apart from
His powerful work, It is impossible to sit down and just rest in
Christ. Just trust Him and rest in Him
for everything you need before God. It takes the work of God to do
that. You just feel like you've got to do something. You've got
to do something to please God. You can't do anything, not by
yourself, not as you are by nature. It's just not possible. It's
not possible. The Sabbath was made for the
benefit, now listen to me, made for the benefit of sinners. Christ, the true bread from heaven,
coming into this world is for the benefit of sinners. He's for sinners. Sinners who
need rest. Sinners who labor and are heavy
laden. There is a rest that remains to the people of God. And that
rest is Jesus Christ. It's Him. The Pharisees took what was to
be a blessing. Now, this Sabbath, this rest
was to be a blessing to the laboring man, to the working man, to those
who labored and heavy-laden was to be a blessing. And they took
it and turned it into a bondage. They turned it into bondage. Natural man, false religion,
will take anything that we have freedom in and turn it into bondage. And he said unto them, The Sabbath
was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Now, here is
the conclusion of the whole matter. Here it is. Therefore, the Son
of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath. The Son of Man, the representative
man, the mediator, is Lord of the rest. If I give you rest, then it's
yours. If the Son sets you free, you
are what? Free indeed. Christ set those
men free. He said, pluck the corn. You hungry? Pluck the corn. Well,
it's the Sabbath day. I'm Lord of the Sabbath. I said,
pluck the corn. It's my Sabbath. If I allow you
to pluck corn on it, if I tell you to pluck corn on it, pluck
corn on it. Nobody's above me. He's the judge. If the judge
says you're free, you're free. And he's telling his Pharisees,
I'm God. I'm Lord of the Sabbath. Well,
who gave the Sabbath? The Lord gave the Sabbath. Back
in Exodus, He gave it, and he's telling them, I'm the Lord, I'm
the one who gave it. Now, if I suspend it, if I do
away with these ceremonies and all these types and these pictures,
I do away with these, they are done away with. They're mine.
I gave them, I take them away. If the Lord does not condemn
me, then no one else can either. Then why are you condemned? Why
would anyone else condemn? If the Lord doesn't condemn me, Then
why would you condemn me? He's Lord. He's Lord over all. I tell you what, Jesus Christ
is Lord over the saved and the lost. He's Lord over both. He's Lord over every day. He's
Lord over every week. He's Lord over every year. He's
Lord over every second. It's His. Time belongs to Him. All things belong to Him. The
law is His law. It's all His. I'm Lord. That's what He's telling His
Pharisees. I have the right. I have the right to suspend this. And He does. He does. In Romans 8. 33 and 34, let me
read it to you and I'll close. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? There's many that try. Satan is called the accuser of
the brethren. There's always a critic, there'll
always be a critic watching. You notice this? They must have
hired, they must have paid these guys just to follow them. This
is early in the morning. They're going to the synagogue
to worship. They must have set up a watch on him
24-7 to catch him in something. Because here he is going, and
as they go through the cornfield, I mean, they're not going through
the middle of town here. They're going through the cornfield in
the Pharisees' seat. They're watching. They're watching. And
they make these accusations against Him or against His disciples.
And I thought of this as I read this. Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justified. It
is God who justified them. Who is he that condemneth? Well,
there's a lot that'll do that. There's a lot that'll condemn
you. It's Christ that died. Yea, rather, that is risen again,
who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession
for this, for them, for us. Oh, he said, the Son of Man is
Lord also of the Sabbath. of the rest. I give them rest. I give them leave to do this. Why are you condemning? Why are you condemning? If you had known what this means,
he said over Matthew 12, you would not have condemned the
guiltless. In Christ, we have rest. We have real rest. We do not
try to keep a day. We don't keep a day. We don't
keep a month, a year. We don't observe holy days. We observe our Holy Lord. We
worship Him. And He's our rest. He's our rest. These Pharisees,
they didn't rest on the Sabbath. They were out there picking on
people. If they had rested, they would have stayed home and took
it easy. They couldn't do that. They couldn't rest. They were
out there on the Sabbath picking on Him. Is that rest? That's not rest. The rest that
God gives, that our Lord gives, is soul rest. Soul quietness. Is there any blessing greater
than a quiet conscience before God? A clean, quiet conscience. You know in Christ your sins
have been put away. As you sit here and listen to
the gospel, are you resting? Have you found rest? Have you
found rest to your soul? As you sit and listen, you just
feel like melting into the chair. It's just so relaxing, isn't
it? When you hear the gospel preached and the power of God's
Spirit, it's just so relaxing, it's so enjoyable, it's so relieving,
isn't it? It is. Jesus Christ is Lord of the rest,
and if he says rest, Rest. He means it. Rest from your labors. He's the Lord of it. He said
so. If you want to condemn me about something, go talk to Him.
He said so. He set me free. Why don't you do this or do that?
Go talk to Him. He's going to set me free from
it. I don't have to. I don't have to. When the Son sets free, He's
free indeed.