Let's take our Bibles now and
turn to Mark chapter two. Lesson this morning is concerning
the Sabbath day. We have a lot of Sabbatarians
in our day who they look at what they called the Sabbath, which
is Sunday, but the original Sabbath was on a Saturday. It wasn't
on Sunday. If you're gonna keep Sabbath
day, you're gonna have to keep Saturday, not Sunday. Sunday's
first day of the week. And I saw billboards. We were over picking up some
things that was shipped in, and I was out on the other end of
Shreveport, And I saw billboards out there talking about the Sabbath
day and keeping the Sabbath day and so on. So that's what our
lesson's about this morning. Now having twice exposed the
ignorance, just the total ignorance of the Pharisees. Now these were
the men who were at the top of the game. These were the men
that people looked to. These were the, Among all the
religions of the world, these Pharisees were supposed to have
known the most about God. If you want to know something
about God, you went to a Pharisee. He knew the scriptures forward
and backward. He knew wherever comma was supposed
to go. He knew wherever question mark
was supposed to go. He knew it, every jot and tell,
he could tell you. He knew the history. They were
his relatives. He could go back and talk about
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all these men in the Bible. They
were thoroughly, from the time they were children, they were
schooled in all the details of these things. And now twice our
Lord has exposed the ignorance of the Pharisees to the law and
the ordinances of God. This was their high point. This
is what they were known for. And they questioned him, and
twice he exposed their ignorance. And so they again approached
him, accusing his disciples of transgressing the law of the
Sabbath. And being led of their Lord through
the cornfields, our Lord's disciples picked some ears of corn, no
doubt under his, because they were raised to be Sabbatarians
also. So it was no doubt under his
instruction that they picked this corn on the Sabbath. As to the Pharisees, there was
more to this than just their pretended loyalty to the law. They were ignorant of who this
man Jesus was. That's what they were ignorant
of. That's what our generation's ignorant of. They're ignorant
as to who this man was, what he was. No other being has ever walked
this planet like the Lord Jesus Christ. He's both God and man
in one person. He's one of a kind. They were
ignorant of that. They were ignorant of who he
was and they were ignorant of what he was and they were ignorant
of why he came forth from the father, came down from heaven
at his own confession. And they were ignorant of what
he was going about to do. Though they were experts on the
scriptures, they were ignorant of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Everything about this man, Jesus,
was contrary to everything that they believed. You think about
that a minute. We're not talking about some
little cult. We're talking about people whose
reputation worldwide was to know who God was. And Jesus was not in any way
their idea of the Messiah. His teaching was contrary to
theirs. His commission excluded their
sanction. He didn't ask them to sanction
him. He didn't go to them to get them to sanction of him. And he never did try in any way
to win their approval. So it had become their chief
goal to expose him as a fraud, But all they ever succeeded to
do was expose themselves and their ignorance as frauds. Actually, entertaining sinners
and fasting and the Sabbath day were never the true issues that
they had against Christ. It was their authority over them
that was the issue. Who gave this man this authority? We didn't give it to him. So let's look first at the issue
they raised against him, and then we'll look at the real issue.
What we call Saturday is the old Sabbath. In Genesis chapter
two, one through three, it says, thus the heavens and the earth
were finished. All creation was done. The heavens,
the earth, all the inhabitants of the earth, all these things
were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day,
God ended his work, which he had made, and he rested on the
seventh day from all his work, which he had made. And God blessed
the seventh day, and he sanctified it because
that in it he had rested from all his work which God created
and made. Now if you will, turn with me
to Hebrews chapter 4. Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 3
it said, for we which have believed Now you can go back and read
Hebrews chapter three if you like. He said, today if you will
hear his voice, harden not your heart as those men did in the
provocation in the wilderness. They heard the gospel time and
time and time again and yet they continued to rebel, they continued
to to set these things, disregard these gifts of God, disregard
his messages, his messengers, and on and on it goes. But then
he gets over here in chapter three, and he said, we which
have believed do enter into rest. As he said, as I've sworn in
my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest. Now, this is, kind
of a line in Old English that's hard to understand. So I recommend
that you go back to Hebrews chapter 3 and also that you continue
reading in chapter 4 because he tells us there in Hebrews
3.18, and to whom swear he that they should not enter into his
wreath. So the point I'm laboring to
make here is in this statement where he said he swore in his
wrath if they shall enter into my rest. He's not making a possibility
for them to enter into his rest. He's simply saying that he swore
in his wrath. Now if he was giving an invitation
or presenting some kind of a promise that they might enter into his
rest, he wouldn't have sworn it in his wrath. He'd have sworn
it in his mercy and grace. But he swore this in his wrath
and they're not gonna enter into his rest. Not gonna happen. Verse four, Hebrews four, verse
four. For he spake in a certain place
of the seventh day on this wise, and this is what I just read
to you in Genesis. And God did rest on the seventh
day from all his works. And then again, if they shall
enter into my rest. Seeing therefore it remaineth
that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first
preached entered not in because of unbelief. Verse seven, again
he limiteth a certain day, saying, and David, today, after so long
a time, as it is said today, if you'll hear his voice, harden
not your hearts. For if Jesus, that is Joshua,
had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken
of another day. There remaineth therefore rest
to the people of God. For he that is entered into his
rest, he also, that is just like God did, he also has ceased from
his own works as God did from his. Let us labor therefore to
enter into that rest lest any man fall after the same example
of unbelief. Now the Sabbath, here's what
I'm trying to point out to you. The Sabbath, like every other
ordinance of God, is fulfilled in Christ. Christ is our Sabbath. We don't rest on a day, we rest
in a person. The day just spoke of the person. It foreshadowed the person. But
we have the person. And we rest in Him. We rest in
Him. They say, well you dishonor the
Sabbath. No, no I don't. I honor the Sabbath. I honor the Sabbath. So He's
our Sabbath and we rest in His accomplished redemption. Now
listen to these verses. By His own blood He entered in
once into the holy place having obtained eternal redemption for
us. Can you rest in that? Boy, I
can. I can. It's not even in the realm
of possibility for me to accomplish such work, and yet he did it
once for all. I ain't resting in that. Once, the scripture said, in
the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the
sacrifice of himself. Did he put it away? Then rest
in it. Rest in it. He says, by the which
we were sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ once for all. For by one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. He sanctified us through the
offering of Himself once for all. And now He's perfected us
forever. He both sanctified us and then
perfected that which was sanctified all in one offering. And Jesus Christ as the God-man
mediator is the steward into whose hands God first trusted
all things. That gave it to Him. Gave it
to Him. And then Ephesians 1.10, it says,
in the stewardship of the fullness of times, you'll gather together
in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, which
are on earth, even in him. And what I'm laboring to tell
you is there's no rest anywhere else except in Christ. He's the
rest. He's the rest. We rest in his accomplished redemption. We rest in his righteousness. We rest from anxious cares and
concerns, knowing that he worketh all things. Let me tell you something. Jesus Christ is seated at the
right hand of God. He's Lord over everything. He's Lord over the dead and he's
Lord over the living. He's Lord. You can't make him
Lord, he's Lord. Question is, what are you gonna
do about it? See, it ain't in your hands to
make him anything. God hath made him both Lord and
Christ. And he's seated up there and
he's arranging providence He's bringing things to pass. He's
working in men, the preparation of the heart and the answer to
the tongues of the Lord. He's working in men who don't
even know he's working. He's arranging all things, controlling
all things. What have we got to have anxious
cares about? He's in control. He hasn't lost
it. It's still in his hands. And
you know why it was put in his hands? It's directly connected
to his person and work in our salvation. That's right. We know all things
work together for good to them that love God, to them who are
what? The called according to his purpose. That might not seem good at the
time, but it's working together for your good and his glory. We rest in those things. He worketh
all things after the counsel of his own will. And we rest
in the means and power to accomplish our reconciliation. We can rest
in this power because this power is of the Holy Ghost. We're fellow laborers with God,
but we can plant, but we can't, God gives the increase. I go
out and plant my garden every spring. Sometimes it comes up,
sometimes it don't. God gives the increase. We rest in his means and power
to accomplish our reconciliation. And we who are the true circumcision,
we worship the living God in spirit and truth and we rejoice
in Christ Jesus and we have no confidence in the flesh. Christ has fulfilled all these
things and he's our Sabbath. So our Lord said to the Pharisees,
Mark 2 27, now listen to this. Next time one of these Sabbatarians
come talking to you, you can tell him this. The Sabbath was
made for man and not man for the Sabbath. That's what told the Pharisees.
They had it backwards. Christ was made under the law
to redeem us from the curse of the law. And this risk was accomplished
for his elect. And it's for their comfort. It's
to soothe their weariness. And it's for their security.
It was not given to be a burden on them, but a blessing. A blessing,
the Sabbath is a blessing. Because it points us to Christ. The Sabbath was made for man,
and not man for the Sabbath. And then notice this, he cites
a passage out of 1 Samuel 21. You can read this after a while
if you want to. Where David goes to the priest,
he's hungry, he's got men following him. And it's not for David to
go into that tabernacle. But he goes to the priest, and he asks for the shelled bread,
and the priest give him the bread, but the bread that he gave him,
this, I've never read this before. Well, I've read it, I just didn't
see it. And that's the way scriptures
are, aren't they? You read them, and then you read them again,
and then you read them again, and each time you see something. The priest gives him the bread
after it had served its purpose. He didn't give him the fresh
bread, he gave him the bread after it had served its purpose.
And it was being replaced by the new bread. David ate what
was given for the priest by faith, understanding what it represented,
and he also ate the bread, understanding that this bread had already served
its purpose. And that's what the Lord was
doing on the Sabbath day. The Sabbath day was being replaced
by Him. By Him. The Sabbath had served
its purpose, And it was about to be replaced by him who is
the embodiment of all true rest. And so they picked their corn
and they ate it, resting in Christ who was their Sabbath. Now you
think about that. Here's these men, boy, I mean
a Jew. This was severe consequences
if you broke the Sabbath. If you did any of these things. But here they are and they're
eating their corn because the Lord told them to eat their corn.
And I believe he told them why. He was their Sabbath. He was
their Sabbath. And now, after telling them this,
he turns to them in verse 28 of Mark chapter two, to these
Pharisees, and he said, therefore the Son of Man is Lord also of
the Sabbath. Now here's the real issue. Who's
Lord? Who's Lord? There's one appointed by God
who is in fact God and man in one person. One who has power over all things. All flesh, all devils, all providence,
all salvation, all creation. All power, he told his disciples,
is given unto me in heaven and earth. That's a lot of power,
isn't it, Russell? Power over everything, power
over angels, devils, men, providence. Paul told the Colossians that
there was one given among men who is the image of the invisible
God, and he's the firstborn of every creature. He established
his sovereignty in creation. He was first, and then creation.
And creation was not only made by him, but Paul goes on to tell
us it was made for him. And he's before all things, and
by him all things consist. In John 17 too, he said God gave
him power over all flesh that he should give eternal life to
as many as the Father had given him. Now certainly he had power
over all things as God. He was in the beginning with
God and was God, and all things were made by him. But in John
17 too, it has to do with a power directly tied to his incarnation
and his person and work. This power has specifically to
do with his elect and with the honor and integrity of God. You can find the same thing in
Mark 28, 18. All power is given unto me. Now
you go preach. You go preach. And what I'm laboring
to show you here is that the mediatorial office and authority
of Christ, everything in the redemptive purpose of God, had
been trusted to the stewardship of his son. It's in his hands. It's not a book that we look
at and say, well, our denomination has things here we have to tithe
and we have to do this and we have to do that. No, it's a person. that's teaching us what we need
to do and how we need to think and how we need to worship. It's
a person. Creation itself finds its purpose
in the salvation of God's elect. Providence is arranged according
to this great redemptive work of Christ and salvation itself
and the calling out of his people runs according to the everlasting
purpose of God. It says in Colossians 1, verse
18, that our Lord is the head of the body of the church, who
is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things
he might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that
in him should all fullness dwell. He Lord of the Sabbath also,
being the one mediator between God and man, His everlasting
name being the word of God and to him give all the prophets
witness and every ordinance was designed with him in mind. And
these ordinances, these holy days were not just given to give
men something to do. And that's how church is projected. But it's to set forth the person
and work of Jesus Christ, the Lord. He's the fulfillment of
all these things, He's the reason behind them, and He's the only
real value to them. The Pharisees viewed the Sabbath
as a statute of law, a cold dead letter of the law. That's it. They were lawyers. It was something
you either obeyed or suffered the consequences for. And the
same thing applied to tithing, the Sabbath, the sacrifices,
the priesthood, circumcision, and on and on it go. So Paul
said, in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily,
and ye are complete in him. Now don't you let any man judge
you. Don't you let any man judge you. in meat, or drink, or in respect
of a holy day, or a new moon, or Sabbath day. These are shadows
of things to come, but Christ is the body. Can't be a shadow
without an object making it. He's the object. And he's come. And now what we
gonna do? We gonna go back and stare at
the shadow, or we gonna look at the person? We're gonna see
the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
When you do that, you'll understand what the shadow represents. The body is of Christ. His disciples were resting in
him and eating this corn with a clear conscience. And really,
all of the unrest was in the Pharisees who disregarded the
true rest. Believers had rest. Christ had
rest. It was the Pharisees that didn't
rest. They didn't rest. Unto us was the gospel preached,
Hebrews 4, 2, as well as unto them, but the word preached did
not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard
it. True rest, eternal rest, soul-soothing
rest, God-honoring rest can only come through faith in Christ. And this faith is the gift of
God. It's not of works, lest any man
should boast. And Jesus Christ, the Son of
Man, is Lord over all things. but he's Lord of the Sabbath
also. He reveals the Sabbath to whom
he will. He enables us to rest according
to his good will. He brings us into submission
according to his will. But some will never enter into
that rest, never see this glorious rest because of unbelief. I spoke to a man on his deathbed.
Last week. And he said, don't worry about
me. He said, I know how I've lived in this world. That I've
been good to everybody that I know. And I've always tried to do the
right thing. And I've got confidence. And
I said, boy, not me. Not me. My only confidence is
in Jesus Christ. If he didn't accomplish this
whole thing for me, then I'm a goner. I know none of you ever watched
poker on TV, but I was watching it one day.
And these two, I mean, they're supposed to be the world's best.
It was coming right down to the end of the thing. And that one
fella just got the whole wad, and he shoved it out, and he
said, I'm all in. That's how I feel about Christ. I'm all in. My whole hope, everything,
rests on Him. Nothing to do with me. Nothing.
All in Him.