I've entitled the message for
this evening. What about the Sabbath? What
about the Sabbath? Now, the passage of scripture
I just read, this is the fourth of five consecutive confrontations
with the Pharisees. You can see them in order beginning
in Mark chapter two. Their first objection was, who
is this that forgives sins? Only God can do that. And then
their second objection was, what's he doing eating with publicans
and sinners? Their third objection was, why
is it that the disciples of John and the Pharisees fast and pray
and you all don't? Something's wrong with that.
And this objection, Why are you breaking the Sabbath? Why are
your disciples breaking the Sabbath? And if you look at the fifth
one found in the first part of chapter three, it's when he healed
somebody on the Sabbath and they accused him of working. And after
that, they said, we're going to kill him. We're going to destroy
him. They got together to figure out
what they could do about him this early in his public ministry. They hated him. Now, what's interesting
about this event concerning the Sabbath
is if you look in Matthew's account, it's right after Matthew says,
come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest. And that's what the Sabbath is
about, rest. And then we're given this story. He goes directly into a cornfield. Now look in chapter two, verse
23 of Mark chapter two. And it came to pass that he went
through the cornfields on the Sabbath day. And as his disciples
began, as they went to pluck the ears of corn, The Pharisees
said unto him, behold, why do they on the Sabbath day that
which is not lawful? Now, the first thing that I think
about is what were they doing in the cornfield in the first
place? That's kind of strange, isn't it? You know, they were
constantly watching the Lord to find out something they could
disagree with and something they could expose him. So here they
are in the cornfield. They're going to try to find
something against him. verse 24, the Pharisee said unto
him, Behold, why do they on the Sabbath day that which is not
lawful? They were picking wheat, it's
wheat actually, not corn as corn on the cob. It was wheat and
they were taking the shells off and the Pharisees were interpreting
this as work, threshing, and they were saying, you're breaking
the Sabbath. Your disciples are breaking the
Sabbath. Now there's a book called the Talmud, maybe you've heard
of it. And it has 24 chapters on what you can do and cannot
do on the Sabbath day. It's dedicated to all these different
rules. As a matter of fact, it tells
you how many steps you can take. Does anybody here wear a Fitbit? $2,999 was the limit. I've got
a Fitbit, and I always walk more than that. I mean, I always get
real excited when you get the $10,000 and hear the ding, you
know? 2,999 steps. And there are exceptions
if you need to walk more, but they've got all these rules concerning
the Sabbath day. And the Pharisees had all these
manmade rules added to it and really didn't understand what
the Sabbath day was all about. They made a work out of not working
and what a work it was. How difficult this day must have
been. Turn with me to Exodus chapter
20 for a moment. Exodus chapter 20. Here we have
the law concerning the Sabbath day. Verse eight. Now this is in the
Ten Commandments. Remember the Sabbath day to keep
it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, Sunday
through Friday, and do all thy work. But the seventh, Saturday,
is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. 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's within thy gates. For in six days, the Lord made
heaven and earth and the sea and all that in them is, and
rested the seventh day, wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath
day and hallowed it. Now working, was forbidden on
the Sabbath day. Yes, it was a day of rest, a
day off from work. Everyone needs a day off, but
the Pharisees had made such a work of not working, and they'd made
many man-made rules that they attached to the Sabbath, and
it was given to teach us about resting, about not working. about resting in Christ. That's
the purpose of the Sabbath is to teach us something about resting.
Turn with me for a moment to Numbers chapter 15. Numbers chapter 15, verse 32. And while the children of Israel
were in the wilderness, They found a man that gathered sticks
upon the Sabbath day. And they that found him gathering
sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation.
They put him in a ward, put him in jail because it was not declared
yet what should be done to him. And the Lord said unto Moses,
the man shall be surely put to death. All the congregation shall
stone him with stones. without the camp. And all the
congregation brought him without the camp and stoned him with
stones, and he died as the Lord commanded Moses." Now, here's
the point. If you work, you'll be put to
death. That's the point. If you work,
If you believe in salvation by works in any way, you will be
put to death. You have not learned the gospel.
You've not learned anything yet about resting in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now the Sabbath was first mentioned
with regard to creation. Would you turn to Genesis chapter
one? Verse 31, this is at the end
of the creation. And God saw everything that he
had made and behold, it was very good. And the evening and the
morning were the sixth day. Now, this is a powerful gospel
message. Let's go on reading the first
three verses of Genesis chapter two. Now I want you to notice
these words that I emphasize. Thus the heavens and the earth
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. God blessed the seventh
day and sanctified it. because that in it he had rested
from all his work, which God created and made. Now the earth was formed in six
days. Somebody says, does that mean
six 24 hour periods? Well, if that's what it means,
yes. I don't know, because the scripture does say that one day
is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as
a day. If this does mean six 24-hour
periods, fine, great. Yeah, that's exactly what we
believe. If it means something else, well, we believe that.
The point is the gospel in this. You know, I think it's interesting.
I had a guy come from the Creation Museum several years ago. And
he was wanting me to get people to come and visit the Creation
Museum, whatever it is, the Ark and all that kind of stuff up
there. And he said, do you hold to literal six literal day creation? I said, well, if that's what
it teaches I do. He said, what do you mean by that? And he said,
well, It could mean something else.
And I quoted the scripture, one day is with the Lord as a thousand
years and a thousand years as a day. I don't know what all
that means. If it means six days, fine, if
it doesn't, he said, well, you're compromising. Well, that got
under my skin when he said that. And I said, do you preach that
God predestinated and elected people, Christ died for the elect
and accomplished their salvation? And he looked at me and said,
well, we don't make an issue of that. Oh. Oh, okay, so who's
compromiser? You know, it just... And then
that's kind of getting off the subject. But look at Genesis 2 verse 1. Thus
the heavens and the earth were finished. Completed. Nothing left to create. 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. Now,
he wasn't tired. He didn't need to take a nap.
He rested because the work was finished. It had ended. There was nothing left to do. And God blessed the seventh day
and sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all
of his work, which God had created and God had made. Now, he finished
the work of creation. What were the words, the Lord's
last words from the cross? It is finished. Now the Lord looked at his work,
it was very good. The Lord's was a lot better than
that. Scripture says by one offering
he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. He completely
saved everybody he died for and he said, it is finished. There is nothing left to do. Do you hear that? There's nothing left for you
to do. It is finished. It is completed. It has been
ended. He made an end. Christ is the
end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Now, this is The Sabbath. And I love the way he says he
blessed the day and sanctified it and made it holy. Remember
the way the Lord says, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy?
You know the way you keep the Sabbath day holy? By resting. By resting. Now the Pharisees had totally
missed all this. They were blind to it. They made
this day one miserable day for everybody. They had so many rules
and regulations and loopholes, things you could do, things you
couldn't do. 24 chapters voted in the Talmud to this. Let's
go back to Mark chapter two. Verse 24, and the Pharisee said
unto him, Behold, why do they on the Sabbath day that which
is not lawful? And there is a rule about threshing, and they could
consider this threshing, taking something off in order to eat
it. They could consider this a rule and think, well, he is
breaking the Sabbath. They're breaking the Sabbath.
And I love the way the Lord answers them. And he said unto them,
have you never read? What a dig. Why, they had read
this hundreds of times. They poured over the Sabbath. How do we keep this? How do we
keep these rules? What do we know? Of course we've read. But
he's saying, you've never understood anything you've read. Have you
never read? And he gives two instances, one
here and two in Matthew's account. We'll look at that. But he says,
have you never read what David did when he had need? and was
unhungered, and they that were with him, how he went into the
house of God in the days of Abiathar, the high priest, and did eat
the showbread, which is not lawful to eat, but for the priests,
and gave also to them which were with him. He didn't break the
Sabbath. You must all have read that. Look in Matthew's account,
Matthew chapter 12. Verse three. And he said unto them, have you
not read what David did when in hunger? He and they that were
with him, how he entered into the house of God and did eat the
shewbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them
which were with him, but only for the priests? Or have you
not read in the law how that on the Sabbath day, the priests
in the temple profaned the Sabbath and are blameless? Now on the
Sabbath day, they had a lot of work to do. They had a lot of
work to do. They had a lot of slaying to
do, skinning to do, cutting up to do, burning to do, offering
sacrifices. I mean, it was a big day of a
whole lot of work. And they were blameless. Those
priests who were operating in the temple. And the Lord says
something that blows them away, verse six, but I say unto you,
that in this place is one greater than the temple. Now what he
means by that is I'm gone. I'm gone. What I say goes. If I say this is okay on the
Sabbath, it's okay because I said it. You know, sometimes it's
a good thing to say to your children if they say, why? Because I said
so. Christ. Whatever he says, because
he said it. That makes it right. And he said, I am greater than
the temple. And to the Jews, the temple was
the center of their worship. When he says I'm greater than
the temple, as marvelous and important as that structure was,
he's infinitely greater because he's God. He is the temple of
God. In him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead. bodily. And you know, this temple
at this time actually was a sham temple. The original temple that
Solomon had built had been ransacked by Nebuchadnezzar hundreds of
years before this. And they had rebuilt the temple,
but one thing, the thing about this original temple, and this
is what makes this one, this one's a sham. When Solomon opened
the temple a thousand years before that, and they offered the first
sacrifice according to the second sacrifice, Chronicles 7.1, you
know what happened? Fire came down from heaven and
devoured the sacrifice. And in the worship of that temple
for hundreds of years, they kept that fire going. It was a divine
fire that came down from God that was used to burn the sacrifices. When Nebuchadnezzar came and
sacked the temple, he leveled it to the ground and that was
gone. So everything that they were doing really was a sham.
It wasn't divine. It wasn't real. They didn't have
the actual ark. They didn't have the actual,
a lot of the furniture of the temple. And I love to think about
when that rail or that veil was rent, when the Lord died, that
veil was rent. You know what was back there? Nothing. They
didn't have an ark. They didn't have a mercy seat.
It was exposed as nothing. And the Lord says, I am greater
than this temple. He that built the house has more
honor than the house. He is God. There stands one greater
than this temple. Now, go back to Mark 2. Verse
27. He said unto them, the Sabbath
was made for man. Not man for the Sabbath. It was
made for the benefit of man. Both in a literal way, what a
blessing to have a day off. And in the spiritual way, it's
given to teach us to not work, to rest in Christ. He finished the work. It's all
ended. There's nothing to do. I want
you to think about that. There's nothing to do. You're
already complete in Christ. You can't get any more saved,
accepted, righteous, holy, loved than you are in Christ right
now. Verse 28. Therefore, the Son
of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath. Now this was a law that they
thought they could keep, and he is messing up their thinking,
and they're angry. The Son of Man is Lord even of
the Sabbath. Now I love saying this. Jesus Christ is Lord. He's Lord. The word Lord means having power. The Lord is the one whose will
is done. He has all power because he is
Lord of lords and King of kings. God hath made this same Jesus
whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. Preachers say, won't you make
Jesus your Lord? I beg your pardon. He is your
Lord. I love that scripture in Romans
14, nine, for this end Christ both died and revived and rose
again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and the living. Those who are dead in sins, he's
their Lord. Those who are living, oh, he's
their Lord. Thomas said, my Lord and my God,
His Lordship is His will being done. And you think about this.
In creation, what took place? His will was done, wasn't it?
He just willed the universe into existence. In providence, that's
everything that happens in time, everything that's happened since
time began, and everything that will happen until time is over
and time is no more. Everything that happens is His
will being done. Whatever's happening to you right
now is His will being done. That's why Paul said, in everything
give thanks. What are you calling on to give
thanks for? For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning
you. I Thessalonians 5.18 Now, I don't
understand what all he's doing, but he does, and that's all I
care about. He knows exactly what he's doing, and he brings
good out of evil all the time. Everything that takes place is
his will being done. And in salvation, oh, the salvation
of the sinner is his will being done, isn't it? It's him willing
the salvation of the sinner. The leper said, Lord, if you
will, you can make me clean. Jesus moved with compassion and
said, I will be thou clean. Anybody who has ever known the
Lord savingly knows him as Lord. I think the most beautiful illustration
of it's thief. Now he's nailed to a cross in
pain that we don't know anything about. Beside Him is One who's
nailed to a cross. You couldn't even recognize His
face. He has a crown of thorns. He seems so helpless. He seems
forsaken. He heard the Lord say, My God,
My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? He saw this One who seemingly
was so helpless, and He said, Lord, You're the Lord. And you're not
gonna stay on this cross. You're not gonna stay dead. You're
gonna come back as a mighty reigning king. He knew his Lord, didn't
he? Remember me when you come into
your kingdom. Now, he's Lord of the physical
universe. What manner of man is this that
even the winds and the seas obey him? He's Lord of demons. They couldn't make a move without
his permission. He's the devil's Lord. He's God's
devil on God's chain, performing God's will. Devil doesn't know
that, but it's so. You see, he's very powerful,
I know. Satan's very powerful. I don't
have anything to do with it. My Lord is all powerful. And
the devil's no match for him. He is Lord of angels. They do his will. He's Lord of
unbelievers. I love it when that group came
to arrest him. And that's estimated between
anywhere between 500 and 1,000 people that came out with staves
to arrest the Lord Jesus. And he said, whom seek ye? Jesus of Nazareth, I am. And the whole group fell backwards. You know why? He's letting them
know, I'm no victim. I'm Lord. and I'm in control
of everything that takes place. Pilate, that paper ruler, said,
don't you know that I have power to release you and I have power
to crucify you? He said, you have no power at
all over me, except it be given thee from above. He's Lord of
all, but he's most especially Lord of the believer. And Thomas
expressed it best, my Lord and my God. For God hath highly exalted him
and given him a name that's above every name, that at the name
of Jesus, every knee should bow. of things in heaven, things in
earth, and things under the earth. And that every tongue should
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the
Father. And he is Lord of the Sabbath. Not only Lord of the Sabbath
day, You see, what he says goes. If those fellas are plucking
ears of corn, even though the Pharisees say, well, that's breaking
the Sabbath. If he says it's not, it's not. That's his authority. He has no law over his head.
What he says is right. He doesn't say because it's right.
It's right because he says it. That's who he is. He's the Lord. Not only is the Lord of the Sabbath
day, He's the Lord of the Sabbath rest. Now turn with me for a
moment to Hebrews chapter four. Somebody may ask, do you believe
that in the perpetuity of the Sabbath, do you believe the Sabbath
is still going on? Yes, I do. Yes, I do. I believe
in Sabbath. Now, I don't believe that foolishness
of being changed from Saturday to Sunday. Now, it's a Christian
Sabbath, that's foolishness. You can't find that in scripture.
Well, it's changed from Saturday to Sunday. Know that? Know that? I haven't got the Hebrews 4. Hebrews chapter 4, verse 1. Let us therefore fear. Don't take this for granted.
Lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest. Any
of you should seem to come short of it. Be afraid of that. For unto us was the gospel preached
as well as unto them, but the word preached did not profit
them. not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. You know
what that means? They didn't rest. They didn't rest. They heard the gospel, but they
never rest. They made a big work out of the
Sabbath day. They had no understanding of
what the Sabbath meant. Rest. Now, let's go on reading
verse three. For we which have believed do
enter into rest. And he's going to use the creation
as an example of what he meant. Why did God rest on the seventh
day? Because the work was finished.
There was nothing to do. The gospel is not due, the gospel
is it's done. Rest. Verse three, for we would
have believed to enter into a rest, as he said, as I've sworn in
my wrath, if they, or they shall not enter into my rest. Although,
and look at this statement, not enough has been said about this,
by me or anybody else. Although the works were finished
from the foundation of the world. Now, how finished is this rest? It was finished before time began.
That's how complete and full this is. It was finished before
time began. Verse four. For he spake in a
certain place of the seventh day on this wise, and God did
rest the seventh day from all his works. And in this place
again, if they, or they shall not enter into my rest is what
that is. I don't know why the translators put it that way,
but it's, they shall not enter into my rest. These people who
didn't believe. Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter
therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not
in because of unbelief. Again, he limits a certain day
saying in David, today, after so long a time as it said today,
if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. For Jesus or
Joshua is who that's talking about. That's not talking about
the Lord Jesus Christ, but the Old Testament Joshua. For if
Joshua had given them rest, they would not have afterwards spoken
of another rest. There remaineth therefore a rest. And my marginal reading says
a keeping of the Sabbath. A Sabbatism. Now here is the
Christian Sabbath. There remaineth therefore a rest. And it's not talking about a
day. As a matter of fact, Paul tells us in Colossians 2, don't
you dare let somebody judge you about days and Sabbath days and
so on. Don't do that. This is the true
Sabbath. They which have believed do enter into rest. The rest of not working because
all the work has already been done. Now look in verse 10. For
he that has entered into his rest, he also hath What do those
next five words say? Ceased. Ceased. That's a strong word.
Ceased from his own works. What do you think about your
own works? Now, come on. What do you think about your
own works? I'm talking about the best of them. What do you
think about your own works? They're no good. Now, I want
to love Christ. I want to follow Him. I want
to take up my cross daily and follow Him. But what do you think
about your own works? You know, somebody thinks that
believers get higher rewards in heaven because of their own
works. Do you really think any of your works deserve a higher reward
in heaven? Is there anybody that thinks that? Well, you're crazy
if you do. He that hath entered into his
rest hath ceased. from his own works. By the grace of God, I'm ceasing. The work's been finished. It's
been completed. Christ said it. It is finished. He that's entered into his rest
has ceased from his own works. Why would you want to hold on
to those things anyway? I love what my little sister said, Cindy. She went to Asbury and the preacher
was saying, won't you give Jesus your heart? And she thought,
what would he want with it? What would he want with it? He'll
give you a new heart. That's what I need. Create in
me a clean heart, oh God. He that's entered into his rest
hath ceased from his own works as God did from his. You know,
God didn't keep creating, did he? He didn't bring new matter
into the universe. That didn't come about until
the Lord Jesus Christ came in and became incarnate. He brought
new matter into the universe, but nothing like that had happened
to then. God had ceased. All works were
finished. Oh may the Lord enable us to
cease from our own works and trust the work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now look what he says in verse
11. Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any
man fall after the same example of unbelief. Do not rest until
you rest. Cease, right now. Right now,
just forget yourself. Forget your works. cease from
your own works and rest in his. Yes, we believe in the Christian
Sabbath, don't we? There remains a Sabbath keeping.
What's the point of Sabbath keeping? Not working. There remaineth a rest for the
people of God. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for that
rest we have in thy son, that we're completely accepted in
him. How we give thanks. Lord, I ask
in Christ's name that you would enable everybody here, by your
grace, to rest in your son. How we thank you for that rest
that remains for thy people. enable us to continue resting. In His name we pray. Amen.