Deuteronomy chapter 5. We have been looking at the Ten
Commandments here in chapter 5 of Deuteronomy. Last week we
begin here in verse 7, and we saw the first commandment. This
is the first commandment. Thou shalt have no other gods
before me. And the reason for that is He's
God. There is no true and living God,
but this one true and living God. And we preface that commandment
by saying, Dear old Israel, the Lord our God is one God. He's
eternal. He's sovereign. He's independent. He's free. He's merciful. He's gracious. He's perfect in
all His eternal attributes. He's God. Therefore, what an
offense it is, what an awful sin it is to have anything and
anybody else before this one true and living God. He is God
alone. And then we saw here in verse
9 about graven images. You shall not make any graven
image, in verse 9, to bow down thyself to them. And these images
here are made with the intent to worship them and to serve
them or to aid in worship. And most of the time when we
see pictures of Jesus, or we see angels on the walls, or crosses,
or things like that, or in Catholicism, got all of these idols that they
use. And they'll tell you they use
those things to aid them. They don't worship those things,
but they use them for aids to worship God. We don't use images. It's lawful to make images to
worship God, or use them in worship. Now, some of you mentioned the
last time we looked at this that you've got an angel or something
in your little cabinet. We can get over righteous about
these things. When we make these things or
we have these things with the intent of using them to bow to
them or worship God through these things. That's what he's talking
about here. Now, somebody may ask the question,
and I think it's good to look at, what about the ceremonial
law with all its images? You remember the mercy seat that
had the images of the cherubims on each end, overshadowed in
the mercy seat? Many images. The stones that
The high priest wore in his breastplate images that represented heavenly
things. We're told plainly that they're
shadows of heavenly things. And somebody may say, well, isn't
that images? They were made to worship God
through these images. Well, those things were exceptions. And God made the exception. Now, God can make exceptions
to rules, and you and I can't. But those were made They are
exceptions, they were made for a specific time, they were made
for a specific purpose, and that was for Israel to use. And when
the purpose and the time was fulfilled, what happened? God
destroyed them, didn't He? He took them all away. He can
make exceptions to these rules, but you know, even when God does,
People have to be so careful or they'll worship these images
that God Himself has made to picture salvation and redemption
by Christ. I want to show you that. Look
over here in 2 Kings. This is very familiar. You remember
when the Lord told Moses, 2 Kings chapter 18. You remember when
the Lord told Moses to make that brazen serpent and put it on
a pole? Now that was an image, wasn't
it? Image of a serpent. Well, he told us to not make
images. Well, he can make the exception. But even though he
made that exception and put it on a pole, everybody that looked
at that image lived. When they got bit, they looked
and lived. Well, you know what happened
to that serpent? It stayed around for a long, long time. And you
know what people begin to do? They begin to worship that thing.
Look here in 2 Kings. Look in chapter 18. This is speaking
of King Hezekiah. They had a great revival under
King Hezekiah. 2 Kings 18. And Hezekiah did
that which was right in the sight of the Lord. 2 Kings 18. He did that which was right in
the sight of the Lord according to all that David his father
did. He removed the high places and broke the images and cut
down the groves, and break in pieces," that word could mean
crushed, he crushed in pieces, the brazen serpent that Moses
had made. For unto those days the children
of Israel burned incense to it." They worshipped the silly thing.
And he called it a piece of brass. Nahustam, a piece of brass. That's
all it is. It's nothing but a piece of brass.
And what did Paul say an idol was? It's nothing. You make it
out of wood, but it's nothing but a piece of wood. You make
it out of silver, it's nothing but a piece of silver. It's nothing. There's one God, and He only
is to be worshipped and admired. And we saw how we worshipped
Him, didn't we? God is worshipped in spirit, and He's worshipped
in truth, and He served not through some silly idol or image, but
He served in the gospel of His Son. And now back in our text
in chapter 5 of Deuteronomy, in verse 11, we looked at this.
We looked at not taking the Lord's name in vain. And we saw that
meant three things. Don't swear falsely. Don't profess
the Lord and bring shame on His name. They profess to know God,
but in works they deny Him, being disobedient and abominable to
every good work. And don't use His name in a profane
way by cursing. And then, don't use it in a useless
manner. We saw those three things. Now
we're coming tonight to the fourth commandment. We're going to spend
this evening just for a few minutes on the Sabbath day. And look
at it in verse 12, and let's read down through verse 15. Keep
the Sabbath day to sanctify it, to set it apart, as the Lord
your God hath commanded you. Six days you shall labor, and
do all your work, But the Sabbath day is the Sabbath of the Lord
your God. In it thou shalt not do any work,
thou, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your manservant,
nor your maidservant, nor your ox, nor your ash, nor any of
your cattle, nor your stranger that is within thy gates, that
thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou. And remember that thou wast a
servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought
thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm,
therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day. This time, you remember we looked
at idolatry. That's why the judgment came
upon Egypt. The Lord brought judgment upon
Pharaoh and his idols. It was a sin to commit adultery. It was a sin to steal. It was
a sin to commit murder. All nine of these commandments
are moral, and they've always been around. But the Sabbath
day, it's not always been. You never read that anybody kept
the Sabbath. up until the Lord revealed it
to Moses and the children of Israel. Abraham never kept it.
Isaac or anybody. Moses never, up until this time.
And it was no sin in them not to keep the Sabbath because the
Sabbath was not a moral commandment. And after the Lord Jesus Christ
raised from the dead, they ceased to keep the Sabbath day holy.
It was set aside. They began to meet on the first
day of the week, the Lord's day. Now, why do I say that the keeping
of the Sabbath is not a moral commandment? Well, if it had
been moral, they would have always kept it, wouldn't they? If it was a moral commandment,
it would have been a sin not to keep it always. But they didn't
keep it always. So it's not a moral commandment,
but it's something that typifies something. I have no idea why
the Lord, I'm sure there's a good reason why the Lord put this
Sabbath in all of these commandments. But it's typical. It's typical. It represents something to you
and me. And what is it that it represents?
Well, He tells us here in the text that I just read to you.
It represents a ceasing from work. That's why it's the Sabbath
day. All six days they worked. On the Sabbath day, the work
ceased. They were to do no survived work
on the Sabbath day, but they were to rest. Now, if you don't
have anything to do, if you've worked and you've done all there
is to do, and there's no more work to do, what do you do? You
rest, don't you? You rest. Well, that's what the
Sabbath is about. It's about rest. Now let's look
at it. This is amazing how the Holy
Spirit has been pleased to do this. I want you to take your
Bibles and turn some places with me. I want you to turn back in
Exodus chapter 20, because Moses gave these commandments two times.
He gave them in chapter 20 of Exodus, and he gave them in our
text in the 5th chapter of Deuteronomy. When he gave us this commandment
of keeping the Sabbath, He changes it. He changes it. The first time, He tells us here
in Exodus chapter 20 to keep the Sabbath for a specific reason. But in Deuteronomy chapter 5,
He gives another reason for us keeping the Sabbath. The first
one pertains to God. Look here in Exodus chapter 20,
in verse 8. Remember the Sabbath day to keep
it holy. Six days thou shalt labor and
do all thy work. And then in verse 11, here's
the reason. For in six days the Lord made
heaven and earth a sea, and all that in them is, and rested the
Sabbath day. Wherefore, or therefore, the
Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hollered it. He said, Here
is why I command you to keep the Sabbath. Because God rested
on the Sabbath day from all His creation. Now let's look at that.
Look over Genesis chapter 1 where Moses referred here to the Lord
keeping the Sabbath day. Look in Genesis chapter 1 and
look down in verse 31. Look in verse 31. Genesis chapter
1, look in verse 31. And God saw everything that he
had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and
the morning were the sixth day. 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." Now, why did God rest? Was he tired? Then why did he
rest? There was nothing else to do,
was there? He looked at everything he had made, and he says, it's
finished. Everything he made was good,
and he said, there's nothing else to do, so God rested. He entered unto his rest of the
finished creation. Now, here's why Moses said, you
keep the Sabbath. You keep the Sabbath. Because
God Himself rested from all His works. So it's typical, isn't
it, of God resting. You rest because it's like God
rested. When you rest on the Sabbath
day, it reminds you of God's rest. He rested. Look back over
now again at my text. I'm going to have you to turn
to some Scripture, so keep up with me. Look back at Exodus
chapter 5. Here's the second reason that He gives. But first,
he ties it to God's rest in creation. Now look back here in Deuteronomy
5 and verse 15. Here's another reason. Now look
at this. And remember, you keep the Sabbath
day. Don't do any work on it. All
you do is nothing. Rest. For this reason, verse
15, And remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt,
and that the Lord your God brought thee out thence, through a mighty
hand and by a stretched out arm, wherefore the Lord your God commanded
you to keep the Sabbath day." Now, the Sabbath that they were
to keep signified the rest from the land of slavery and bondage
and labor. When Friday evening comes, before
the sun goes down and you enter into the Sabbath day rest, you
remember that you were a slave down in Egypt. And as you rest
on the Sabbath day, you remember that the Lord hath delivered
you and given you rest." Now, can you imagine a Jew as he enters
the Sabbath day and he lays down on his cot there in his tent?
Or he goes outside under the shade of an oak tree, and there
he lays, and he thinks to himself, man, I remember when I was a
slave down in Egypt. Those soldiers, man, they cut
my back with a whip. They screamed at me. And I remember
I groaned under that labor. Man, it was tough. I remember
that. Man, how things have changed. Can you just see? Man, this is nice. All I can
do is nothing. And he just lays there and he
rests for 24 hours. He does nothing. But thanks to
this rest, and he's refreshed. That's what the Sabbath day was.
It was just like when the Lord finished His creation and He
says, there's nothing else to do. Rest. And now they said,
the Lord hath delivered me from my bondage and my labor. Now
I can rest. I can rest. That's what it represents. There's another work that's been
finished, hasn't it? There's another rest that's been
entered into. And let's look at that now, because
the Sabbath represents not only their deliverance from bondage,
it represents not only God's finished work of creation, but
it represents this, the finished work of redemption. Now let's
look at that. Take your Bibles and look at
some places. I'll stay in the book of John so you can follow
easy. Look in John chapter 4 and verse
34. This is where the disciples went
away to get food while the Lord Jesus preached to this Samaritan
woman and saved her. And they come back and he wouldn't
eat any meat. And they said, you know, if somebody
came to you and gave him meat while we was gone, he's not hungry.
And He tells them in verse 32 of John chapter 4, verse 32,
He tells them this, He said unto them, I have meat to eat that
you know not of. Therefore said His disciples
one to another, hath any man brought him something to eat?
They brought him all to eat. Jesus said unto them, My meat,
My strength, My joy, My will is to do the will of Him that
sent Me and to finish His work. Now, here Jesus Christ came out
of heaven, came through the womb of the Virgin, and He says, I'm
working. I've been working ever since
I was born. I've been working to please my
Father, to keep His holy law. Every day, every breath, every
thought, every word, every deed, I'm working. I'm working to do
the will and the work of Him that sent me. Now, look in John
7. John 17. The Lord Jesus was coming here
and His earthly ministry was over. All His miracles, for the
most part, were finished. He had only one more miracle
really to do and that was putting the ear back on that man that
Peter cut off with the sword. But His work, His ministry was
finished. And look what He says here in
verse 4. I have glorified Thee on the earth He was praying to
his Father, I have finished the work which thou gavest me to
do. Now he was either talking about
his earthly ministry, going about doing good and healing all that
was oppressed, or he was speaking as if his death was already accomplished. Any way you want to look at that,
he says it's finished. And look here now in the 19th
chapter when our Lord is hanging on the cross, And he says in
verse 30, this very familiar passage, he hangs here, he suffers,
and he dies, and look what he says just before he breathes
out his final breath. When Jesus therefore had received
the vinegar, he said, It is finished. You know that's the same word
in Genesis 1 where he finished his work and rested. The very
same word. It is finished. Finished. And
he bowed his head and gave up the ghost. A finished work. A finished work. Now I want you
to look at another scripture that is very familiar. Look at
Hebrews chapter 1 and verses 1-3. Hebrews chapter 1. He tells us here what this work
is. Look at Hebrews chapter 1 and verse 1-3. God, who at sundry times, and
different times, and diverse manners, spake in time past and
to the fathers but of prophets, hath in these last days spoken
to us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things,
by whom also he made the worlds, the ages, who be in the brightness
of his glory, and the expressed image of his person. and upholding
all things by the word of His power." Now look at this. When
He had by Himself upon the cross purged our sins, look what He
did. He sat down on the right hand
of God. Now why did He do that? Was He
tired? Well, of course He was tired.
It took all the strength He had as a man to put away sin. to suffer for sin. But he did
not sit down in his rest because he was tired. He sat down and
rested because the work was finished. Sin was punished. The ransom
price was paid. Sin had been purged. And therefore,
the Scripture says, He sat down. Jesus Christ actually entered
into what the Sabbath day only typified. And that was a finished
work. He rested. He rested. Just as the Father rested, just
as God rested in the work of creation because it was finished,
Jesus Christ sat down and rested because redemption had been Accomplished. Ain't that a wonderful thing?
That's a wonderful thing. You can go through the book of
Hebrews and look at this passage here he set down, and look at
the different places and how he uses that word, that phrase
in the book of Hebrews. And look here now in chapter
4. Let's take this one more step. Jesus Christ entered into His
rest, and it's called His. Look in Hebrews chapter 4 and
verse 1. It's called His rest. Let us therefore fear lest a
promise been left us of entering into his rest." See whose rest
it is? He finished the work, he entered
into rest. Any of you should seem to come
short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached
as well as unto them, but the word preached did not profit
them." Why? Not being mixed with faith in
them that heard it. "'For we which have believed,
we do enter unto rest.'" His rest. Now look what he says in
verse 9. "'There remaineth therefore a
rest to the people of God, for he that is entered unto his rest
He also has ceased from His own work as God did from His. What does that mean, we've ceased
from our own work? If we've entered into the rest
that Jesus Christ has entered into, we've ceased from self-salvation. We've ceased from self-justification
before God. We're not laboring to have ourselves
accepted before God. We're not laboring to earn and
work out a righteousness for God to accept us in. Boy, that's
a burden, ain't it? That's a grief. That's bondage,
ain't it? If we've entered into His rest, then we cease from
our own work, even as God did from His in creation, and as
Christ did from His upon the cross. And now, you and I enter. We don't do nothing, do we? But
enter into rest. We rest in Him. And look what
he says in verse 11. Let us, therefore, labor. Let
us labor, therefore, to enter unto that rest, lest any man
fall after the same example of unbelief. How do we labor? Isn't
this a strange word? Let us labor to rest. Labor to
enter into that. What does that mean? Did you
ever lay down on your couch to rest? Or you lay down at night
on your bed and your mind is going, as we say, a hundred mile
an hour. And you're laying there, but you're not resting. And what
do you do when that happens? Well, you start talking to yourself,
don't you? You start concentrating. Now Shannon, listen. Listen now. The work is done. You've worked
hard today. It's not time to even think about work. Stop thinking
about what you're going to do. It's time to rest. Mind, listen
to me. Heart, settle down. Settle down. Rest. Don't you ever do that? Do you ever talk to yourself?
David often talked to himself. He often said to my soul, hope
thou in God. He persuaded himself. That's
what it means to labor. It means to focus. It means to
persuade your heart that the work is done. Bring your heart,
bring your soul, bring your spirit to rest in the finished work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. When sin begins to afflict your
conscience, and when Satan uses the knowledge of our sin to oppress
us, and we have a sense of God's displeasure, and we have this
unrest in our souls, we persuade our heart. We say, listen heart,
listen soul, the work is done. It's finished. Rest yourself
in this work that has been finished. There's nothing for you to do.
Quit thinking about doing anything. And rest in Jesus Christ. We can talk about this rest,
but I'm telling you, it's not an easy thing to enter into.
It's not an easy thing to retain. We labor. We labor. We labor
to put away self. We labor to put away self-salvation,
self-justification. And we labor to enter into the
rest that has already been obtained. The rest of the finished work. And when we've done that, we
have fulfilled in Jesus Christ what the Sabbath day typifies.
Cease from your work. Do no work. You look at the Sabbath
through the Old Testament, and one of the things that the Lord
was angry with them and even brought judgment on them. Remember when He sent the Assyrians
and the Babylonians in, and they captured Israel and took them
away into a strange land? Remember one of the reasons that
the Lord did that? Because they did not keep the
Sabbath. He said, I'm going to carry you into a strange land,
and when I do, the land is going to keep her Sabbaths. It's going
to rest. That's how important this Sabbath
day is in what it typifies. It typifies the finished work
that Jesus Christ has accomplished and entered into His rest. Come
unto Me, all you that labor, I'll give you rest. Man, that's
a rest, isn't it? That's a rest. Rest for your
soul. And He that has entered into
this rest The Apostle said, has ceased from his own work, as
God did from his, and as Christ did when he says, it's finished. What was it to keep the Sabbath?
It was to cease from work. It was doing nothing. It was
doing nothing. Ceasing from work and resting. How is the soul saved? How is
it justified? How is it accepted before God?
How do we obtain the witness of the Holy Spirit? By resting. By resting. When you can rest
your soul in the Lord Jesus Christ and His finished work, that very
rest is a witness of the Holy Spirit. That's the witness of the Holy
Spirit. Because He's the one that has brought you to rest
in Christ. And it's finished work. Look at Isaiah chapter 11. I'll
read a couple of verses here. We'll close with this. Isaiah
chapter 11. He says here in verse 1, Isaiah
chapter 11, Thus shall come forth a root out of the stem of Jesse. That's Christ, isn't it? He's
the root. And a branch shall grow out of
his roots, and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,
the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might,
the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. And he
shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord. He shall
not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after
the hearing of his ear. But with righteousness shall
he judge the poor. and reprove with equity for the
meat of the earth. He shall smite the earth with
the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall
he slay the wicked." Boy, that's Christ ain't it? Ain't no doubt
who that is. "...and righteousness shall be
the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his
reins. The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard
shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion
and the fat one together, and the little child shall lead them."
and the cow and the bear shall feed, the young ones shall lie
down together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and the
suckling child shall play on the hole of the ass, and the
weaned child shall put his hand on the crocodile's den. They
shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, for the
earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover
the sea, and in that day there shall be a root of Jesse." which
shall stand for an end sign of the people, to it, to him, shall
the Gentiles seek, and his rest shall be glorious." Isn't that
wonderful? A glorious rest. Isn't it wonderful
to bring your poor guilty soul, your poor burdened soul, your
restless soul, and find rest in a work that's already been
finished? Now somebody might say, Bruce, I can't do that. I believe I'm going to have to
do something now. My dad told me this one time.
He said, I'm afraid to stand before God without something
of my own. He told me that. And you tell a lot of people
this. You know what they'll tell you?
Oh, I'm afraid. I'm afraid I've got to do something.
Now a man's got to do something. Wouldn't that be like going back
there in Genesis chapter 1 and chapter 2, when God had finished
His creation? And say, now, most of it's done,
but I have found one little star up there that's not shining yet. There's one grain of sand on
the seashore that you've not created yet. You're like one
drop of water to fill the depths. No, it's finished. All the stars have been hung.
All the sand has been laid on the beaches. Every drop of water
to fill the depths, it's finished. If it hadn't been finished, God
would not have rested. Wouldn't it be something to go
to the Lord Jesus Christ, there He sits on the right hand of
the Father, and go up there and say, well, I think there's something
yet to be done. I think there's still just a
little bit of work that needs to be accomplished. I think there's
just a little bit of obedience that needs to be added. I think
there's just a bit of humility that needs to be inserted. I
think a few more tears need to be shed. I think another prayer
needs to be prayed. I think we should add some anxiety
or tears or fears. And I can add the little bit
that's needed. Would anybody be so bold as to
confront the Son of God with such a thing to say it's not
finished? If it's finished, then what's
left to do but to rest in the finished work? And boy, when
we brought that, sometimes the Lord has to put the whip to our
back Sometimes sin, the knowledge of it, has to so afflict our
conscience until we're absolutely wore out before we'll finally
sit down and rest. Ain't that the truth? We'll try
to keep the law. We'll try to save ourselves,
justify ourselves, try to do anything but to rest. That's the last thing we'll do
is rest. Nothing else is to be done. It's
done. And you have people today, we
have a large denomination in our nation, the Sabbath day Adventist. We've got a lot of Jews that
are still trying to keep the Sabbath day Sabbath. The Sabbath
day Adventist, they begin on a Saturday evening and they meet
on a Saturday and they say they're keeping the Jewish Sabbath. Many
of the Orthodox Jews profess today to keep the Sabbath. But
you know what's impossible? God has made it impossible to
keep the Sabbath. Because on the Sabbath day, it
was not only resting, but on the Sabbath day, the priest offered
two lambs in the morning and two lambs in the evening. If
you rested on the Sabbath day and yet the lambs weren't offered,
you've broken the Sabbath. The lambs cannot be offered.
There's no Levitical priesthood left. There's no temple left. The brazen altar is gone. It's
impossible to keep the Sabbath. Only one way to keep it. And
that's typical. To rest in Christ. That's what
it is. Do no work. Rest. Rest. And brothers and
sisters, go home tonight, after a long day in this world, and
you're tired in your body and you're tired in your soul, and
rest again. Rest again in Christ.