God requires that you keep his
law. He requires that you keep his
law. But if you try to live before God by obeying his law, you'll
perish forever in hell. Because God demands that you
keep his law perfectly. If you try to establish righteousness
by your obedience to the law, you will stumble over the stumbling
stone, Christ Jesus, who is the end of the law for righteousness
and perish with no righteousness. God requires that we keep the
Sabbath day holy. God requires that we keep the
Sabbath day holy, but if you try to keep the Sabbath day. You will perish forever in your
sins and you will go to hell because God requires that you
perfectly keep the Sabbath day, which is just a part of keeping
God's law. What then does God require of
us? How can we possibly meet God's
requirements so that we can have confidence peace and assurance
before God of our acceptance with Him, of our holiness by
His grace, our sanctification in His sight. What does it require? Our subject this evening is the
seventh year Sabbath. Our text will be Leviticus chapter
25, verses 1 through 22, but we're going to look at a number
of scriptures along the way before we get to Leviticus 25. I want
us to begin tonight in Exodus chapter 31. Hard and unbending is the law,
demanding brick withholding straw. Run, don, run, work, the law
demands, but gives me neither feet nor hands. The sweeter news
the gospel brings, it bids me fly and gives me wings. You see, it never was God's intent,
Bill Raleigh, in giving the law that you should live by the law. That was never the reason God
gave the law. It was never God's intent in
giving the Sabbath day that foolish men should presume that by living
24 hours one time a week, by living one day in seven, in severe
austerity, they could make themselves holy and sanctified before God. Nobody but someone blinded by
self-righteous religious foolery would embrace such a notion.
as almost all men do. But why did God give the law
if he didn't expect folks to obey it? Why did he give the
Sabbath day if he didn't expect folks to keep the Sabbath day?
He gave those things to show us the necessity of a substitute,
to drive us to our Redeemer, to force us into the arms of
our Savior that we might walk before him by faith in Christ
Jesus. Look here in Exodus chapter 31
verse 13. Speak thou also unto the children
of Israel saying Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep For it is a sign. Do you see that? It is a sign
between me and you it is a sign It's a type It's a picture. It's a portrayal between me and
you throughout your generations. You, every Saturday now, you
set aside this day and worship me and don't do any work because
this is a sign. This is a type. This is a picture.
This is what I intend for you to understand, that you may know
that I am the Lord that doth sanctify thee. I've given you
this law to teach you one thing. that you may know that sanctification,
the making of men and women holy is my work alone, that you may
know that I am Jehovah who sanctifies you. Turn to Isaiah chapter 11. I want to show you three or four
things concerning this matter of the Sabbath tonight. Isaiah
chapter 11. First, understand this. Great
Savior the Lord Jesus Christ has entered into his rest and
his rest is glorious Because he has finished his work. Look here in Isaiah chapter 11
and verse 10 And in that day there shall be
a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people. This is the banner to which all
my people in the Gentile nations and among the Jewish peoples
shall be gathered together. He shall stand for an ensign,
and to this ensign, to this banner, to this flag shall the Gentiles
seek. And his rest shall be glorious. And do you have a marginal translation
in your Bible? If you do, look at it. A better
translation would be, His rest shall be glory. His rest is His
glory. His rest is His glory. Do you get the message? Our Lord
Jesus Christ finished his work and sat down yonder in heaven
at the right hand of the majesty on high, his work being finished,
and now he rests forever from his work, and his rest is his
glory. The glory of Christ Is the accomplishment
of redemption by the sacrifice of himself the glory of christ
is the saving of his people By his blood atonement that he accomplished
at calvary as the father And the son and the holy spirit rested
from the work of creation on the seventh day because the work
was finished So the lord jesus christ rest today He sets upon
the throne of glory because his work's done There's nothing more
to be done turn to Hebrews chapter 11 now chapter 10. I'm sorry
Hebrews chapter 10. Don't you see this? Everything involved in our Savior
making all things new for his people he's finished Hebrews
chapter 10 in verse 9 he says he takes away the first that
may establish the second and He takes away the first covenant,
the old covenant of law, that he established the second, the
new covenant of grace, coming to do the father's will. Now
watch what it says in verse 11. Every priest standeth daily,
ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can
never take away sins. In the tabernacle, in the temple,
in the holy of holies, there was no place for a chair. There
were no chairs in that place. Why? Because the priest's work
was never finished. He came in every day to the altar,
made the morning and evening sacrifices, but he never sat
down. The high priest went in once a year into the Holy of
Holies and made atonement on the day of Passover, but he never
sat down. Because just as sure as he finished
offering this sacrifice, he knew he must offer another sacrifice
because he, by the sacrifices he offered, could never put away
sin. But here is a priest, a man who
is God, who has offered one sacrifice, and by his one sacrifice has
put away sin forever, and now he's sat down, because his work
is finished. Look at it. This man, after he
had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the
right hand of God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be
made his footstool. For by one offering, watch this,
for by one offering, He hath provided for all His people to
be made perfect. That doesn't quite get it, does
it? For by one offering, He hath made it possible for all His
people to be made perfect. That's not what it says. For
by one offering, He has made it possible for you to make yourself
perfect by your obedience in the leading of God's Spirit and
your gradual work of sanctification so you get holy, holy, holy,
holy. Sing take time to be holy What a foolish piece of idolatry
take time to be holy how you gonna do that you couldn't do
it if it took eternity but he has Perfected forever them that
are holy Then they're sanctified made holy by him. Look in Matthew
chapter 28 Matthew 28 This is a remarkable, remarkable
portion of scripture. I wish every one of you could
read it in the original language. Matthew 28 verse 1. In the end
of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day, or
the first, notice the word days in italics, He began to dawn
toward the first of the week came Mary Magdalene and the other
Mary to see the sepulcher The verse quite literally reads this
way If you haven't already written it out somewhere told you this
before please write this down. So you remember it in the end
of the Sabbath as It began to dawn toward the Sabbath Take the time to look it up for
yourself. In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the
Sabbath. What? How could you come to the end
of the Sabbath, and it began to dawn toward the Sabbath, if
there's only one Sabbath in a week? This is talking about something
beyond a carnal Sabbath. As it began to dawn toward the
Sabbath of God's grace Begun by Christ Jesus our Redeemer
in the finished work of redemption Our Lord Jesus was raised from
the dead When our Lord Jesus died at Calvary He ended the
old laws He abrogated the law by fulfilling the law. He put
aside the law by fulfilling the law. Now, folks, I know some
of you here that say, Fortner says Christ destroyed the law.
No, he fulfilled the law. There's a big difference. He
fulfilled the law. Now the law is done because he
came and made an end of the law. And now he is raised again in
a new day. A day of grace. A day not of
working for righteousness, but of resting for righteousness.
A day not of toiling and plotting, hoping God will accept your works,
but a day of resting and doing nothing, trusting God's Son and
all His work. Behold the exalted Savior, He's
seated on the throne of majesty on high, in glorious, sovereign,
undisturbable serenity, ruling everything in His rest. And His rest is His glory. He's finished His work. He brought
in perfect righteousness. He's made an end of sin. And
because he's finished his work, the salvation of his people is
an absolute certainty. So he rests. He's not even working
to save them. He's finished his work. He's
poured out his spirit to accomplish their salvation. He rests. He rests with ease. He rules
the universe. Everything perfectly performing
His will. Everybody perfectly obeying Him,
like it or not. Like it or not. Everybody's serving
Him. Like it or not. Every demon in
hell, the devil himself, serving His will. Like it or not. Everybody's His servant. Everybody's
His servant. Doing exactly what He ordained
from eternity. And He's seated in rest. He's
resting. He's resting. Oh my God. Teach me so to rest. Teach me
so to rest? Why shouldn't we rest like that
if we just half believed Him? We fret and pace the floor and
wring our hands and bite our nails and worry and toss and
turn and, oh God, forgive my unbelief. We ought to rest as
He rests. His rest is His glory, for He's
finished His work. He has entered into His rest. All right, here's the second
thing. Every sinner, every sinner who
believes on the Son of God, every sinner who trusts the Lord Jesus
Christ, keeps the Sabbath of faith by resting in him. Look at Hebrews chapter 4. I'll
get there in just a minute, but you turn over to Hebrews chapter
4. We don't keep a literal Sabbath. We don't keep a carnal Sabbath.
We don't keep a seventh-day Sabbath. We don't make any pretense of
it. We won't allow anyone to bring us into such bondage. Our
Lord forbids it. The scriptures are plain and
clear. The scriptures are explicitly
clear. The word of God tells us plainly, it tells us in no
unmistakable terms in Colossians chapter 2 that we are not to
keep a Sabbath day. That's exactly what it says.
We're not to keep a Sabbath day. Read the book of God for yourself
and pay no attention to folks who speak contrary to it. But
we are Sabbath keepers, real Sabbath keepers. Believers are
real Sabbath keepers. We rest in Christ. We no longer work seeking acceptance
with God by something we do. In the New Testament, The scriptures
are very clear in teaching us this. The fact is that religious
legal works. Religious legal works. I'm saying
exactly what I want to say, and I want you to hear it exactly
as I say it. Religious legal works. All religious legal works. All religious legal works. are but the gratifying, the satisfying
of the lust of the flesh. That's what the book says. Turn to Colossians chapter 2.
That's what the book says. We'll get back to Hebrews 4 in
a minute. If you keep a literal Sabbath
day, I don't care what excuse you give for it, I don't care
what excuse you give for it, If you think somehow or another,
by keeping a Sabbath day, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday, Friday, I don't care which day you choose, if you
keep a Sabbath day, and by this you think you have peace with
God, by this you think you make yourself holy, by this you think
you find acceptance and are pleasing with God, you do not know Christ
and you cannot rest in Him. You can't have two sabbaths.
You've either got a carnal sabbath or a real sabbath. You've either
got a pretend sabbath or a real sabbath. You've either got real
peace with God or just some fake thing that gratifies your flesh
and makes you think you've got peace with God. You can't have
both. The Lord Jesus has entered into his rest and it teaches
us to look here in Colossians 2 and verse 16. Let no man therefore
judge you in meat or in drink are in respect to the holy day
of the new moon. Now, somebody comes along and
sees you sitting at your table and you have a glass of wine
and says, Oh, you can't do that. That's a Christian can't do that. Don't pay any attention to just
smile and drink your wine. Well, we ought not do that. We
ought to have respect for a brother with a weaker conscience. That's
not what it's talking about. That is not what Romans 14 is
talking about. You don't give way to legalism. You don't do
it. You don't do it. I just wouldn't want to offend
my weaker brother. You're going to make him stronger
by acting like it's all right to work your way to glory? Absolutely not. Absolutely not.
Well, don't let somebody put you in bondage and say you've
got to keep a holy day, you've got to keep Passover, you've
got to... Well, keep Passover, you're going to keep Sabbath
day. Well, don't let anybody put you in bondage concerning
the new moon. Oh, it's the new moon. Well,
good. Let's set out late tonight. Or
Sabbath days. Or Sabbath days. The word is
Sabbaths. Any kind of Sabbaths. Which are
a shadow of things to come. But the body is of Christ. So
all carnal Sabbath keeping is forbidden. It's forbidden for
this reason. You're dead to the law. For this
reason, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to
everyone that believeth. But there is a real Sabbath keeping.
Now back here in Hebrews 4, Hebrews chapter 4. We do delight in God's
law. We do. I delight in God's law. I delight in every word of God's
law. I delight in every requirement
God has. I love to read about Sabbath
keeping. One of the most blessed things
there is. If you pick up sticks, if you
pick up sticks, what are they going to do with you? You're
gonna die. You're gonna die. My wife going
home, bless her heart, she just can't stand to see things out
of place. If a twig falls off of that tree out there, she'll
stop and pick it up. On the Sabbath day. On Sunday. Well, brother Don, we wouldn't
take it that far. Well, then you just ignore what
God says. What are you going to do? You're
going to pretend you believe God and ignore what he says?
But you mean we can't do anything? That's how God saves sinners.
Now you're doing nothing. Don't you delight in that? Don't you delight in that? What
are you going to do? Nothing. Nothing. How are you
going to find acceptance with God? In a substitute. Look at
this, Hebrews chapter 4 verse 3. For we which have believed
do enter into rest. We which have believed do enter
into Sabbath. That's the word. We which have
believed do enter into Sabbath. As he said, as I swore him my
wrath, if they shall enter into my Sabbath, although the works
were finished from the foundation of the world. Look at verse nine. There remaineth therefore a rest,
a Sabbath to the people of God. There remains now a Sabbath for
God's elect, because he that is entered into his rest, he
that has entered into his rest, he that has entered into his
Sabbath, he also hath ceased from his works, from his own
works, as God did from his. What's the Lord Jesus doing?
Nothing. He's seated. And Bob Estes, if
you and I enter into his rest, that's what we'll do for all
our acceptance with God. Rest in him. There remains a
rest for the people of God because Christ has entered into his rest.
And all you who believe have entered into his rest. We keep
the Sabbath, the faith, a spiritual Sabbath, not a carnal one, trusting
Christ and Christ alone. What our savior says, Matthew
chapter 20, chapter 11. You can probably quote it, but
it'll do good to look at it. Matthew chapter 11. Come unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. I will give you rest. All my life growing up, I created misery for everybody
around me. I made my life miserable and
everyone who loved me made their lives miserable as well. I brought upon myself just devastation
and tried to ruin everything for everybody else, did best
I could to ruin everybody's life. until God stepped in, saved me
by his grace. And after God saved me, I spent
the next 32 years trying my best to do a little something to make
up to one person. I wanted to do everything I could
to make up to my mother for the pain I caused that woman. And
she would have told you. She was mighty proud. She was
happy and everything forgotten. She would have told you that.
And she often did me. But I knew in my conscience when
I stood at her grave and said goodbye to her for the last time
forever, I had not And I could not, Merle, not by anything on
this earth I did make up for it. And my conscience still says,
no, no. But blessed be God. My conscience looks to everything
God requires and knowing my horrid sin before Him, knowing something
of what I am before God by nature, knowing something of the depravity
and the vileness of my heart before God by nature. My conscience is perfectly at
ease with God. I look on Christ. And God says,
that's enough. That's enough. God doesn't require
anything else. And God won't accept anything
less. He accepts his son and accepts
us only in his son. The Savior says, come to me and
I'll give you rest. I'll give you rest. I'll give you rest. I heard the
voice of Jesus say, come to me and rest. Lay down, thou weary
one, lay down thy head upon my breast. I came to Jesus as I
was, weary and worn and sad. I found in him a resting place. And he has made me glad. In Christ, in Christ, I have
complete pardon, complete forgiveness of all my sins. In Christ, I
have complete acceptance with God, perfect righteousness. In Christ, I had the blessed
peace of this confidence. His providence works all things,
performs all things specifically for me. As the ceremonial Sabbath
portrayed a strict universal consecration to God, So this
blessed Sabbath of faith involves a perpetual consecration of ourselves
to our God. Are you still in Matthew 11?
We keep the Sabbath of faith as we willfully, deliberately
take the yoke of Christ, as we bow to his will. You don't keep the Sabbath day
by living one day in seven in religious austerity, but you
keep the Sabbath day by bowing to Christ's dominion, submitting
to Christ's will, trusting the Lord Jesus, taking his yoke upon
you. We have some difficulty come
up, some heartache, some trial. And
we figure out a way to work it out. And we start trying to manipulate
things and we mess up and we buck and fight and just will
not bow. Just will not bow. And can't
find any rest. Can't find any peace. And then When you can't do anything else,
you slip under his yoke. Lord, I'd give up. Do what you
will. And suddenly, everything's all
right. Suddenly, everything's fine!
Take my yoke upon me, you, and learn of me, and you shall find
rest unto your souls. And that's the only way you'll
find rest for your soul. You've got to quit working and
trust the Redeemer. Now, let's look back here at
Leviticus 25 for just a minute. I'll just read a few verses along
the way. Learn this third thing. There is a Sabbath yet to come. An eternal rest of glory for
God's sakes. Portrayed here in the seventh
year Sabbath. The Lord spake unto Moses in
Mount Sinai saying, speak unto the children of Israel and say
unto them, when you come into the land which I give you, then
shall the land keep a Sabbath unto the Lord. Six years thou
shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard,
and gather in the fruit thereof. But in the seventh year shall
be a Sabbath of rest unto the land, a Sabbath for the Lord.
Thou shalt neither sow thy field nor prune thy vineyard, that
which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest. Thou shalt not
reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vineyard, for it is a
year of rest unto the land. And the Sabbath of the land shall
be meet for you, for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy
maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth
with thee, and for thy cattle, and for the beasts that are in
thy land shall all the increase thereof be for me. This seventh
year Sabbath, every seventh day, God required him to keep a Sabbath.
Every seventh week, God required him to keep a Sabbath. The seventh
month of every year, God required him to keep a Sabbath. The seventh
year of every seven years, God required him to keep a Sabbath.
Now, imagine that. Imagine that. It looks to me
like every time they turned around, they had to keep a Sabbath. I
mean, they had to keep a Sabbath for everything. Why? How anxious God is for us to
know the blessed rest of His grace. He reminds them. every 7 days,
every 7 weeks, every 7th month, every 7th year, and then every
50th year, He reminds them, there's a rest! There's a rest awaiting
you. A rest for you that you cannot
imagine. This rest certainly portrays
the gospel rest of faith, but it goes beyond that. This was
a rest that he speaks of in a special way. Let me call your attention
to the highlights here. Let me give you just six or seven
things. Number one, this rest, this seventh year Sabbath, they
were not allowed to keep. They were required to keep it,
but they were not allowed to keep it until they entered into
the land of Canaan. They were required to keep it.
The law was given back to Sinai. Now, the other Sabbaths, The
seven-day Sabbath, the seven-week Sabbath, the Sabbath of every
seventh month, they had to keep that all the 40 years of the
wilderness. But this Sabbath, this seven-year Sabbath, they
were not allowed to keep it until they crossed Jordan and entered
into the land of Canaan. You see that in verse 2. So it is the rest that our souls
anticipate. We had begun only to taste in
this blessed rest of grace. Soon, we shall enter into rest. Can you imagine what it should
be like to rest forever with the Redeemer? Number two, this Sabbath year,
This year-long Sabbath, like the weekly Sabbath, was a Sabbath
to keep unto the Lord. The Lord God delighted in the
picture, and he would have us to delight in the prospect. Keep
this Sabbath to me, the Lord says. Do this for me, for my honor. Do this for me. Keep this Sabbath
unto the Lord. in prospect of what I've got
for you. Keep this for me and show your
constant remembrance of this. This world is not my home. I'm
just passing through. We'll rest soon. Number three,
this is a picture of full, complete rest. an utter cessation from
labor and toil. You see that in 3, 4, 5, and
6, those verses, 3, 4, and 5. Six years shalt thou sow thy
field. That's as much a command as in
the seventh year you shall rest. Six years, God's ordained that
you toil and labor. Six years, God's ordained that
you, through much tribulation, shall enter into the kingdom
of God. Six years, you suffer in this world of darkness and
woe. Six years, the age of man. But in the seventh year, you
cease from all the toil and labor of this sin-cursed earth and
enter into rest. Number four, in this year, there
was to be a general release of all debts. You can look at that
in Deuteronomy 15. Moses refers to it there. We
have been released from all our debts. Released from all debts. Isn't
that wonderful? Isn't it wonderful to walk before God knowing that
Jesus paid it all, all the debt I owe? That's wonderful. But
soon, Soon we shall be released from every evil consequence of
sin. These eyes so easily made to
weep now will never find a reason to weep again. Never find a reason! But what
about all the past? God did good, didn't he? I'm
talking about all the evil things you did. Oh, God did good, didn't
he? In everything, in everything,
he's done good. Number five, there was to be
a public reading of the law, we're told, in Deuteronomy 31.
when they kept this one-year Sabbath, this seventh-year Sabbath
for a full year. They would read Genesis, Exodus,
Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. They'd read it throughout the
time. They'd just read it. Read the Word of God and learn. So we shall, in that blessed
Sabbath, learn of God. Learn of God. And we'll know
even as we're known, yet we won't know everything. We won't be
gods. We'll spend eternity learning of God, learning of his ways
and his majesty, his greatness, his glory, his wonders, his wisdom,
his goodness, wondering and learning of our God. Don't you love it
when you read the word of God? Are you
sitting here listening to me or somebody else preaching you?
Wow! Aha! Did you see that, Pastor? And the scriptures just pop open
to you. Won't it be marvelous to sit
at the throne of God, our Savior, when He opens our eyes to behold
His wonders? Oh, how great to learn of our
God forever. And then, six, this year of the
Sabbath, portrayed a blessed oneness. Look at verse 6, Leviticus
25. A blessed unity and communion
of God's saints when he's made all things new. The Sabbath of
the land shall be meet for you, for thee, for thy servant, and
for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger
that sojourneth with thee. Well, who cares about him? You
do if you care right. and for thy cattle, and for the
beasts that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof
be meet. And thou shalt number seven Sabbaths
of years unto thee, even seven times seven years, and the space
of seven Sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty-nine years."
So Moses is inspired of God to connect this seven-year Sabbath
with that great Jubilee Sabbath. When all men are returned to
their families, all prisoners set free, all debtors set free,
all lost inheritance restored, everything made right. In glory,
blessed be God, we shall be made perfect in one. And we, we shall live in the
blessed harmony of perfect union in Christ our Redeemer with never
a suspicious thought. I wonder what he meant by that. I wonder what he's thinking. Did you see the way he looked
at me? Oh, how vile we are. But we shall have a union we
cannot imagine. No husband, no wife, no father,
no son, no mother, no daughter ever had such union as this.
Perfect union with Christ and with his people. One more thing. In verses 18 through 22, Moses
picks up this matter of the Sabbath year again, showing us God's
gracious, absolute promises concerning it. He said, he said, now you're
going to have to let your land set. for the whole year. That means when you plant your
beans next year, you're going to plant the same seed in the
same lot, in the same field, and you're going to trust me
to give you a three-year supply of beans. And I'll do it. Because next
year you can't plant. And you can't harvest again for
the third year. Well, that's just not reasonable.
God said, I'll do it. Is it reasonable or is it not
to trust him? Is it reasonable or is it not
to trust God entirely? He promises abundance. The Lord God inspired Israel's
faith with this promise. from which we ought to learn
much. Look at verse 20. If you shall say, what shall
we eat in the seventh year? Behold, we sow not nor gather
our increase. Then I will command my blessing
upon you in the sixth year, and he shall bring forth fruit for
three years. Remember his promise in Exodus
34, God commanded every man in Israel to go up to Jerusalem
three times a year to worship him. Well, that doesn't make... That's
just not smart. That's just not smart. I agree. That's not smart. That's not
smart. Any man who'd mark his calendar
and make public notice to all his neighbors every year, every
year, three weeks out of the year, I'm leaving my home. I'll leave my cattle and my wife
and my servants my children. I'm leaving home I'm going up
to Jerusalem and I won't be back for a week You're a fool if you
do that Unless you believe God Unless you believe God What does
that got to do with it God said you come up worship me And I'll fix it so that your
neighbors don't even want your wife, or your cattle, or your
house, or your property, or your gold, or your silver. You just
come worship me. Let me give you our Lord's commentary
on that in Matthew chapter 6. Seek ye first the kingdom of
God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added
unto you. Him that honoreth me, God said, I will honor. Trust in the Lord with all your
heart. In all your ways acknowledge
him and lead not unto your own understanding and he shall direct
thy paths. Oh, I believe smartest thing
on this earth you can possibly do is commit your way to God. Commit your life to God, lock,
stock, and barrel. Obey Him. Serve Him. Honor Him. Without thought of the consequence. And God take care of His own.
He always does. Amen.