Thank you so much for that song. Several years ago, Judy told me something her dad
told her when she was a young lady. Brian Bush, some of you
might remember Brian. He's now in Houston, Texas. He
worshipped with us while I was in college over at Richmond.
He was in the room when she said it. He said, my dad told me,
if I'm going to sing, make sure everybody hears every word I
say when I'm singing. No point in singing otherwise.
When I was in Houston, Brian now has a teenage daughter. Beautiful
voice. And he said, you tell Judy. I just kept hammering that in
her ears. Make sure folks understand every
word you say. No point in singing otherwise.
What a great song. Now for the message. Listen to the words of the Son
of God. You who are weary in your souls, laboring under the
heavy, heavy load of sin and guilt, pressed down, burdened,
you who would rest. Oh, what would you give if in
your heart and in your soul you might rest before God? The Master says, Come unto 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 my yoke is easy, for I am
meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest unto your
souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden
is light." I've been where you are. I know
what it is to toil in my soul. and labor for peace with God
and find none. And I'm telling you, the sweetest
rest imaginable, the only rest there is for your soul, is the
sweet, easy, light yoke of Christ our Lord. The Son of God bids
you come to Him. I beg you, come to him and rest. It is this rest that is promised
in the gospel to all who come to Christ, promised to all who
believe on the Son of God, that was typified and portrayed in
the Old Testament Sabbath. Now, I want you to see something. Turn to Exodus chapter 31 for
just a moment. It was God's intention, it was
God's design, it was God's purpose in giving all the various aspects
of sabbatical law in the Old Testament, that the Sabbaths
of the Old Testament should be a sign of this blessed rest that's
found in Christ alone. like circumcision, like the Passover,
like all other aspects of legal ceremonial car-worship during
the Old Testament. The legal Sabbath day, the seventh-day
Sabbath, the seventh-month Sabbath, the seventh-year Sabbath, all
the laws concerning the Sabbath day in the Old Testament were
established by our God to be a sign and a picture, anticipating
and pointing to the grace of God and salvation in Jesus Christ,
our Redeemer, by the merit of his blood that brings us rest. Now, this is not my thought,
this is not, well, how do you feel about that? As if we interpret
the word of God by how we feel. This is not my feeling, this
is not my interpretation, this is not my belief. This is exactly
what God Almighty says about this thing. Look here in Exodus
chapter 31 and verse 13. Speak thou also unto the children
of Israel, saying, Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep. For it is a sign between me and
you, throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the
Lord that doth sanctify you. I'm giving you the Sabbath day
so that you'll know that I'm the one who sets you apart. I'm
giving you the Sabbath day, and you keep it so that you will
know that I'm the one that has called you, who has redeemed
you, who has made you holy before me. I am the one, the only one,
who gives you everlasting rest. Now that was God's intention
in giving the Sabbath. The first Sabbath day, of course,
was the Sabbath that our God kept himself in the seventh day
after the creation of the world. The Father's rest is his glory. The Lord God looked at everything
he had made. There wasn't one finishing touch
to be put on it. There wasn't one thing yet to
be done. Adam was made in the perfection
of manhood, Eve made in the perfection of womanhood, and man dwelt in
God's holy, happy creation. That which God had made perfect. And he sat down. He said, it's
done. It's done. No evolving of creation. No process by which creation
will finally, at last, be made complete. But rather, the Lord
God, the great creator, rested. He stopped working. How come? Because there was nothing else
to do. There was nothing else to do. That's what it means when scripture
says, the Lord rested on the seventh day. God the Son rests
as well, and His rest is His glory as our Redeemer. The Lord
Jesus Christ entered into His rest, and His rest is glorious
because His work is done. He's finished His work. There's
nothing else to do. Look in Isaiah chapter 11. Isaiah
11. This is a prophecy concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. And we're told in verse 10 concerning
this great Savior whom God Almighty declared must come. And in that
day there shall be a rook of Jesse which shall stand for an
ensign, a banner. Soldiers go to battle, there's
an ensign who carries the flag. And wherever the flag is raised,
the troops rally. This is what it's all about.
The Lord Jesus Christ says, I, if I be lifted up from the earth,
will draw all men unto me. I am the banner lifted high in
the heavens, stand for an instant to the people. To it shall the
Gentiles seek. That is, God will gather his
elect from the four corners of the earth. The Gentiles, you
and me, will seek to this banner when the Lord Jesus Christ is
lifted up in our hearts. Now watch this. shall be glorious. Our Savior's
rest in heaven is His glory. Look at the marginal translation
if you have one in your Bible. Verse 10 would be better translated
this way. His rest shall be glory. The Lord's rest is His glory. As God the Father rested the
seventh day after creation because His work of creation was finished,
So God the Son rested in the seventh day of time, and entered
into his rest forever, because he has finished his work of making
all things new for his people." Look at Matthew 28. I've shown
you this before, but I'm going to hammer away at it a little
bit more. Matthew 28. This is a remarkable,
remarkable text. I wish that everybody had a better
translation of this text. Now, please don't misunderstand
me. I don't use the King James Bible
because it is convenient or because it's traditional. I use it because
I believe it to be the best translation there is. But do understand it
is a translation. And it is a translation in God's
providence that has been ordered and set before us with great
clarity in almost all details. But here in Matthew 28.1, the
translation is not really good. I can't help but imagine, I'm
pretty convinced, that the religion of the translators entered in
here sort of like it did when the translators were baptized.
In Matthew 28.1, in the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn
toward the first day of the week, there's absolutely no basis for
that translation. There's absolutely no basis for
it. Quite literally, the passage should read, in the end of the
Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the Sabbath. Oh, what's
he talking about? in the end of the Jewish Sabbath,
in the end of the legal Sabbath, in the end of that Sabbath day
established by God given to Moses on Mount Sinai, when the Lord
Jesus rose from the dead as it dawned toward the Sabbath. This is what is said. when the
Lord Jesus Christ died at Calvary and rose again, the old Sabbath
of the law, the old carnal Sabbath, like all the carnal ordinances
of the Old Testament, like the Passover and circumcision and
all else, now the old Sabbath of the law is ending, and with
the resurrection of Christ, a new Sabbath of grace begins. Behold the Savior exalted. He sits in his absolute, serene
sovereignty, ruling over all things, undisturbed and undisturbable. His rest is his glory. He sits
upon the throne of grace, henceforth expecting to his enemies be made
his footstool, because he has finished all the work of redemption. He's finished his work. Now he
sits down to rest. He has brought in everlasting
righteousness by his obedience to God Almighty as our substitute.
He has put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, enduring all the
wrath of God's holy law and justice, all the horror of God's purity
until there was no purity left in him. He has endured it all
and satisfied it all as our Redeemer. Because Christ has finished his
work, the salvation of his people is a matter of absolute certainty.
with his own blood, he entered in once into the holy place,
having obtained eternal redemption for us. But look at this, Hebrews
6.20. Now the works were finished before
the foundation of the world and God's purpose, I understand that.
The works were finished in time when the God-man took his seat
in heaven as our forerunner. But that's what he says here
in Hebrews 6.20. who is for us entered as a forerunner. You
see that? He's a forerunner. A forerunner. The Lord Jesus, yonder in glory,
that man, that man who is our substitute, our advocate, our
high priest, our mediator, our savior, he took possession of
heaven, took possession of the very throne of God, not for himself,
but as a forerunner. As a forerunner. That means,
well, he went there running in your place, and as the one who
promises you're coming. As the forerunner. The forerunner
is the fellow who goes ahead and says, somebody's coming after
me. He's taken possession then of heaven as our Savior, and
sat down on the throne of glory, and said, my people shall soon
follow, not one shall be missing. Our rest of faith is our glory. The Lord Jesus Christ rests as
our Redeemer because the work is done. God the Father rested
because his work as our Creator was done. And every sinner who
believes on the Lord Jesus Christ keeps the Sabbath of faith, entering
into his rest. We do not keep a literal carnal
Sabbath day of any kind, and we will not be induced to do
so by any amount of religious pressure. Ours is a Sabbath of
faith, a spiritual Sabbath. Folks say, well, Saturday used
to be the Sabbath day, now Sunday is the Sabbath day. No, it's
not. Sunday is Sunday, and Saturday is Saturday, and there ain't
no Sabbath day. No physical Sabbath day. No physical Sabbath day.
Ours is a Sabbath of faith, a spiritual Sabbath. De Carl's Sabbath-keeping
was a legal type of salvation by Christ. During the age of
carnal ordinances, like the Passover, like circumcision, like the sacrifices
made in the Old Testament, once Christ came and fulfilled the
tithe, the Sabbath day is forever ended as far as the carnal Sabbath
day is concerned. In the New Testament, in fact,
we are strictly forbidden to observe those things. I know
in this day of political correctness and religious political correctness,
folks get together and they call it the Lord's Table, and they
call it the Passover, and the churches are going to bring in
the Judeo-Christian religion. There's no such thing as a Judeo-Christian
religion. The two things are mutually exclusive.
If you're Christian, you're not under Judaism, and if you're
under Judaism, you're not Christian. Those two things are mutually
exclusive. Our Lord forbids us, plainly, clearly forbids us in
any way to attempt to draw nigh unto him by carnal ordinances
of any kind. Such things are nothing but a
denial of his finished work. Listen to what he says. If you
be circumcised. What on earth does that mean?
Most male babies born in this country have been circumcised
as a matter of medical practice for a long time. The Lord says
if you be circumcised, Christ your prophet, you're nothing.
Does that mean they're all going to hell? No. What's he talking
about? He's saying, David Peterson,
if you attempt to do anything to get God's faith out, to improve
your standing in God's faith, to keep God's faith by your works,
Christ shall profit you nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Whosoever of you are justified
by works, by law, you've fallen from grace, you've missed the
gospel altogether. As Paul puts it in Colossians
2.23, Those who pretend to keep a literal, legal Sabbath day
in this gospel age, no matter what excuse with which they justify
it. Oh, we don't keep the Sabbath
in order to be saved, we keep the Sabbath to show folks we
are. We don't keep the Sabbath in order to be saved, we keep
the Sabbath because we love God. We don't keep the Sabbath day
in order to justify ourselves, we keep the Sabbath day as a
matter of practice and sanctification. Paul says that those who keep
the Sabbath day, no matter what their reason for keeping the
Sabbath day, make an outward show of spirituality. They make
an outward show of religious wisdom. Oh, isn't that impressive? Oh, that's so religious. He sure
devoted. You know, he wanted to let his
wife cook bread on Sunday. Boy, he's devoted to God. You know they want him to go
down to the restaurant, go out to eat on Sunday. And they got what they wanted.
You stood back and tipped your hat and said, hooray for you.
It's a show of spirituality, a show of wisdom, a show of humility. The such pretenses of humility,
Paul says, are nothing but the satisfying of the flesh in the
practice of real worship. That makes this thing a bit serious,
doesn't it? We will either worship God by faith in Christ alone,
trusting Jesus Christ alone as our Savior, or we will be found
at last in hell. That's all. That's all. Not only
that, the whole matter of Sabbath-keeping, Paul strictly 2, 16 and 17, because Christ alone
is our Sabbath. All carnal Sabbath-keeping then,
of any form, is strictly forbidden on the basis of the fact that
Jesus Christ, as it dawned, as the Sabbath day was ending, and
it dawned upon the Sabbath, Jesus Christ arose from the dead, and
now we are fed to the law and free from the law, for Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Let
no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink, or in respect
of unholy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days,
which are a shadow of things to come. But the body, the substance,
the reality, the fulfillment is of Christ. Now look at Hebrews
chapter 4. We do keep a Sabbath, and it
is our soul's delight to do so. Verse 3. For we which have believed
do enter into rest, as he said, as I have sworn in my wrath that
they shall enter into my rest, although the works were finished
from the foundation of the world. There remaineth therefore a rest,
and the word is sabbath, that's the word that's used here, sabbath.
There remaineth therefore a sabbath rest to the people of God. For he, now watch it, he that
is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own
works as God did from his. Let us therefore labor that we
may enter into rest. What? Labor to quit laboring. Strive
to enter into rest. This, my friend, is the most
difficult thing under heaven for any sinner to do. Indeed,
with men, it's impossible. You will not quit working for
God's favor. You will not give up your self-righteousness. You will not give up your goodness. You will not totally, totally,
absolutely, absolutely give up every claim to work. You won't do it. unless God stops
you from your labor and causes you to enter into His rest. Then, then rest you shall. We keep the Sabbath of faith,
a spiritual Sabbath, not a carnal one. We rest in Christ, trusting
His blood, His righteousness, entering into His rest. And we
don't do so perfectly. No, no, no, no. But the believer's
life is a perpetual Sabbath keeping. Our best faith in this world
is all one belief. I know that. But we do keep this blessed Sabbath
rest sincerely. Ever looking to Christ. Ever
coming to Christ. Ever resting in Christ. we enter
into his rest. And his rest, oh, it is delightful
and glorious. The Master says, Come unto me,
all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. The hymn writer said, I heard
the voice of Jesus say, Come unto 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. And now I call the Sabbath a
delight. a delight. I quit working. I quit working. The Lord Jesus
Christ has given and continually gives me rest, the rest of complete
pardon, perfect reconciliation, absolute security, and the rest
of his special providence. this Sabbath-keeping in the Old
Testament was a preeminent display, a preeminent act, whereby the
children of Israel displayed their consecration and faith
toward the Lord God. As the ceremonial Sabbath portrayed
a strict, universal consecration to God, So this blessed Sabbath
of faith involves the perpetual consecration of ourselves to
God, constantly yielding to our Savior and our Lord. We keep the Sabbath of faith
as we willfully, deliberately take the yoke of Christ. If you
would keep the Sabbath, It involves a good bit more than living in
religious austerity one day a week. To keep the Sabbath is to bow
to Christ's dominion. He says, take my yoke upon you
and learn of me. To keep the Sabbath is to learn
of him what to believe, how to live, what to do, how to honor
God. To keep the Sabbath is to bow
to his will. Now we struggle with that, I
know we do. I do. I do. And as long as we struggle, it
doesn't matter, Bobby, where it is, what the difficulty is,
as long as we keep fighting, God will never rest. We'll pace
the floor and bite our nails and shake our fists and beat
our heads against the wall and stomp our feet and never find
rest. Well, I know somehow it's going
to be good. That ain't it. I know the Lord's
going to make good out of this. That ain't it. That ain't it.
You'll find rest for your soul when you slip under His yoke
like an oxen that's accustomed to the yoke. And slipping under
His yoke, say, Lord, Your will be done. Drive me as You will. And then he says, I'll give you
rest. I'll give you rest. How can a troubled, weary, heavy
laden, tempest-tossed sinner obtain this blessed Sabbath rest? Just one way. You just got to
quit working. You just got to quit trying.
I'll preach outside everything. I don't know what to do. Quit
trying. But I've been praying. He didn't say pray, he said believe.
But I've been reading. He didn't say read, he said believe.
But I've been doing better. He didn't say do better, he said
quit doing it! Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of
the earth. For I am God and beside me there
is none else. C. H. Spurgeon. was raised by his grandfather,
who was a congregationalist pastor, faithful man in those days. Many
of the congregationalists were. Don't know if any in those days
who weren't. But his grandmother taught him early
to learn the hymns. And she gave him so much for
every hymn he learned. He about broke her, so she started
cutting it down. But he memorized hymn after hymn
after hymn. This is when he was just a little boy, about the
age of my granddaughter. Before he was six years old,
he had read all six volumes of Matthew Henry's Commentary. Before
he was six. He was raised in religion. Raised in the faith of Christ. The true religion of the gospel,
as far as Ed Knowledge is concerned. And he'd been a good boy all
his life. All his life. When he's sixteen years old,
he's under deep conviction because he knew his goodness was corruption.
And he had no peace with God. And he walked into a primitive
Methodist chapel one Sunday morning because he couldn't get to where
he was supposed to go. The snow was so heavy. Just a
few people there, and the preacher couldn't get there, and an old
deacon who could hardly read, turned to Isaiah 45, 22, and
read the text, and began to expound it. Look unto me, and be ye saved
of all the ends of the earth. And he looked back there at that
16-year-old boy, just like I'm looking at you, Mark, and he
said, look, the young man looks to me like you need to look. And he
said, I looked and looked away my labor. I looked and looked
away my sin. I looked to Christ and quit looking
to myself. How do you find rest? Outside
of you. Outside of you. Totally outside
of you. My preacher, I don't feel. It's
got nothing to do with feeling. My preacher, I don't know. It's
got nothing to do with your learning and your knowledge. My preacher,
I am the problem. Look out of you to Jesus Christ
the Lord. Now, turn with me to Leviticus
chapter 25. I want to show you that there
is a Sabbath that yet remains. A Sabbath that is yet to come. And that Sabbath is the eternal
rest of glory. Here in Leviticus 25, the law of God given at Sinai
by the hand of Moses speaks of that which Paul speaks of in
Hebrews chapter 4, where he says, There remaineth therefore a rest.
to the people of God. Here God requires Israel not
to keep a Sabbath every Saturday, not to keep a Sabbath on the
seventh month of every year, not to keep just their ordinary
Sabbath days, but he requires Israel on the seventh year to
keep a year-long Sabbath. A year-long Sabbath. To quit
working, to quit sowing their seed, to quit plowing their fields. Don't even take a hoe out and
hack up the weeds. A year-long Sabbath. And if anything
grows of itself, don't gather that into your barn. Can't reap
it. A year-long Sabbath. Which meant
that they had to trust Him to provide on the sixth year, everything
they would need for the seventh, the eighth, and the ninth year. Now, we're talking about faith. We're talking about faith. Look
here, verse 1. 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 you keep a sabbath unto the Lord. Six years shalt thou
sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard,
and gather 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 the grapes of thy vine undressed. 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, for thy cattle and for the beast
therein thy land, shall all the increase thereof be for meat."
Every seventh day, God required Israel, you keep a Sabbath day. In the seventh month of every
year, God required Israel to keep the sabbatical week. And
then in the seventh year of every seven years, he required them
to keep a year-long Sabbath. Why? God raised his hands and
said, Oh, what austerity, what severity, what gloominess this
is. You misunderstand. That's how
religion looks on God's Word. That's how the Jews looked on
God's Law. The reason they didn't profit
by it. Oh, how anxious our God is for us to be assured that
there is a rest awaiting us. And don't forget, don't forget,
Every Saturday you sit down and remember there's a rest to come. The seventh month of every year
you sit down for a week and remember there's a rest to come. And every
seven years you sit down for a year and meditate on what I've
done for you and remember there is rest to come. Oh how we ought
to long for the day of our God. when we shall rest forever. This is what Paul spoke of in
2 Thessalonians 1, when he said to the Thessalonians, just listen,
you don't need to turn there. He said, you who are troubled,
rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven
with his mighty angels. This chapter here in Leviticus,
chapter 25, verses 1-7, stands like a thief in a lighthouse. Can you imagine what it was like
in those days when ships were guided just by compasses, and
get close to shore by lighthouse, and you're out on a dark, dark
night, there's not a star in the sky, the moon is blacked
out with thick clouds, and the rain is torrential, and the waves
are beating against the ship, and the ship is tossed here and
there, and the mariners, compasses, they've done the best they can,
but they can't find the nose of the star, they don't know
what it's doing, and suddenly, He sees the light on the lighthouse. And it just, oh, there's hope. There's hope! We're headed to
shore, boys. Just follow that light. Just
follow that. And the light draws them. safely to their desired haven. That's what the Sabbath is. It
is a light given by God to inspire and turn our souls toward the
haven that awaits us in heavenly glory. A light given by God,
as it were, to draw our souls with anxious hope unto that blessed
rest. Now let me show you several things
here. I'll just scratch the surface a little bit. You can fill in
the rest of it. In verse 2, this Sabbath year,
Israel was not allowed to keep all the time they were in the
wilderness. God said, keep this when you come into the land that
I'll give you. They couldn't keep it. Not as long as they
were in the wilderness. They kept other Sabbath days.
They kept the weekly Sabbath days, but they couldn't keep
this one. And you and I, we keep the blessed Sabbath of faith.
And we rest in Christ Jesus the Lord. But the Sabbath represented
here is something we cannot experience until we have left this wilderness
of woe, with all the enemies surrounding us, and enter in
at last into rest in the land of promise which the Lord God
has promised us in Jesus Christ before the world began. This
Sabbath year, we are told, like the weekly Sabbath, was a Sabbath
to keep unto the Lord. Keep it to him. It is called
a Sabbath for the Lord. You see the Lord God delighted
in the picture. He said, you keep the Sabbath.
I want to see in you, I want to see displayed in you, that
which I will yet perform for you, and I want to see you anticipating
what I will yet perform for you. And he smiles upon them as they
keep the Sabbath day. Oh, how we ought to delight in
it. What a blessed, delightful prospect. What a blessed, delightful hope,
looking unto and hastening unto the coming of our God. Oh, with
this blessed hope set before us, let us hasten to Him. And
here is a picture. A picture of full, complete,
utter, absolute rest. A total cessation from work. The Lord says six years, verse
three, thou shalt sow thy field. Six years, prune thy vineyard. Gather in the fruit thereof.
Let us work. Work in this day God's given
us, for the night cometh when no man shall work. 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 grapes of
thy vine undressed, for it is a year of rest unto the land.
6. Throughout the Bible's number
of These six years are the days
of our labor, the days of our toil, our days in this wilderness. These six years we must constantly
be reminded of the fall and the curse of God upon this earth
and upon all things in this earth. And so we must have a constant
falling of sweat from our brows as we labor in these six years. The sixth year was a time of
great expectation as well. Oh, how those Israelites must
have, those who believed anyway, oh, how they must have anticipated
what God was about to do. Somebody asked me the other day,
as a matter of fact, several folks have complained in the garden,
and this one asked about potatoes, not planting any. Not planting
any. Shelby asked me, he said, are
you going to plant potatoes? Not this year. Not going to plant any potatoes.
How come? Because I've got absolutely no hope of getting my seed back.
The potato bugs, I give them up. They can happen. They can
happen. No potatoes. Not in this garden. No prospect
of getting it. And it became a little abysmal.
We'd collect potatoes year after year after year. The longer we
continued planting them, the less potatoes we got back. But
what if we were going to get the best potatoes this year?
Those Israelites, though, they'd go out and put their potatoes
in the ground. We'd have been accustomed to getting 75 bushels
for every 25 family of plants. We're going to get 225 bushels. We've been accustomed to putting
up 30 quarts of green beans. We're going to put up 90 next
year. We've been accustomed to having this and this and this.
Oh, this sixth year, God's going to command His blessing on the
land. And as we sow our seed and plant
our crops, the Lord God Almighty has promised us. He'll give us
enough to do us this year, and next year, and the next year
too. Oh, what anticipation. Here, in this sixth year, let
us labor and serve our God, till the land, and prune our vineyards,
and sow our seed with Because God Almighty shall give great
harvest according to the blessing he has promised. But in the seventh
year shall be a Sabbath of rest unto the land. A Sabbath for
the Lord. The seventh year rang out glad
tidings, saying there is a day coming. when there will be no
more curse, and no more work to be done,
no seed to be sown, no vines to be pruned, no man shall break
a sweat ever again. Everything involved in this Sabbath
year was a picture of total rest. Walk through the land of Israel. Just walk through the land of
Israel in that seventh year. Every man is sitting under his
own fig tree or under his own vine, with his family gathered
around him, sipping lemonade, talking about how God brought
him out of Egypt. How God, north through the Red
Sea, How God had conquered their enemies, how he preserved them
all the time they were in that waste and howling desert wilderness
and he made a way for them. How God calls their shoes never
to be worn out and God calls their feet, their clothes not
to wear out and God calls them to walk day after day and provide
it for them. And how he brought them across
the Jordan into the land of Canaan and gave them everything. And
they meditated on it and talked about it and sipped their lemonade. There wasn't a yoke on any ox. There wasn't a man in any field. There was no one out pruning
any vines. No one out plowing the ground.
No one out sowing seed. And no one with the slightest
care for any of it. They were resting. They were resting. Yes, in eternity,
his servants shall serve him. They will never cease to serve
him. But in that day, there will be no toil and no
sweat and no labor. Listen to this. They shall have
linen bonnets upon their heads. And they shall have linen britches
upon their loins. They shall not gird themselves
with anything that causes sweat." In the year of the Sabbath, there
was a general release from all that. The children of Israel
were set free. You know, the most glorious thing
I've ever experienced in my life is the pardon of sin. But I can't
imagine what it's going to be like to enter into this release
when Ron, there's no reason to mourn or grieve or weep or sorrow
for anything. That's release. And in that seventh
year, They read the law of God. They read it distinctly. And they read it with understanding.
And in our eternal rest, we shall forever learn of God.